Who makes the decisions about what the media covers? Old white men. Leaders of the black community literally held a press conference, what more are you asking for? Is it their fault that people like Bill O'Reilly and Fox don't report it because it doesn't fit their agenda? She pulled a blatantly wrong race card, and the black community stood up and said 'um no'. Isn't that literally what you asked for when you said "It would be rather refreshing for the black community to speak up and call bullshit, loudly, with the same volume that "racist" is called"? This is part of the broader point.. even when things like this happen and the community makes a real effort to do the right thing, it's somehow not sufficient. ETA: http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2014/0 ... ck-leaders
Looking through Google just now, I just found TMZ, ABC, CBS, NBC, the Hollywood Reporter, the Wrap, the LA Times, the LA Weekly, CNN, and Fox News articles all covering exactly that. Seems like a pretty broad swath of LA and national news to me.
I didn't blame the black community for not saying anything, I said I wished it was said/broadcast with the same volume, and yeah, that falls squarely on the mainstream media. I blame people in general for allowing themselves to be manipulated by the media... where "news" standards are dropping so fast that BuzzFeed and Gawker are considered sources. Yes, but they weren't featured at the time in the same "breaking news" fashion and with the same moral outrage and fervour as the initial story. Their reports were almost all buried like most retractions. I remember being inundated by the initial news, and having to almost go looking for the follow-up. The level of reporting was definitely skewed.
Emphasis mine. In both the Garner and Brown cases, the officer was brought in to testify in front of the grand jury. It is my understanding that it is exceedingly rare that the defendant is brought in front of the grand jury. I don't have a good answer for the larger racial issue at hand, but in cases of police brutality/excessive force, maybe we shouldn't have the cop's drinking buddy DA be the one trying to convince the grand jury whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.
Or perhaps force a prosecutor to sit it out when his dad was s cop killed by a black suspect and every single member of his family is a fucking cop. Sorry kids, the Michael Brown grand jury was a fucking farce. Grand juries involving officers as suspects are a FARCE. Look at the statistics of grand jury indictments when you compare citizen suspects to police suspects. They're disgusting. And also look at how long a typical grand jury takes: hours, maybe a day or two max. Brown's took months, McCulloch refused to step down even when told to by the Senator of his own state, and people STILL preach it was a fair and sound final decision. Bull. Shit. Prosecutors and cops both walk the same Thin Blue Line that assures that no LEO will ever turn on another no matter how bad the atrocity they committed is. They are always right because they investigated themselves and determined they did nothing wrong.
Jane Elliot, a former school teacher and god damned genius, came up with an exercise in the late 60's where she segregated her 3rd grade class based on eye color. She found that when people are treated as inferior based on an irrelevant physical trait, they act out the exact same way that minorities in America do. She has been conducting this exercise ever since, and the same thing happens every time. This is long, but definitely worth watching.
Well after seeing that, I have no idea what to do if I get pulled over. If I'm asked for my license and then I reach to get it, are they justified in shooting me because I reached for something? Am I missing something?
You didn't miss anything, because seeing is believing. And that's why when it comes to this entire shit storm you should be watching live feeds instead of shitty TV news. Live feeds show you what actually happen. Kubla, I love ya, you were the hardest hit I ever took in high school football, but I'm not pulling this stuff out of my ass.
He might not have been justified in shooting but you can bet that officer has seen this video on police confrontations and what time is appropriate in escalation of force: It's a pretty standard video I hear in police training as it illustrates about the worst case of an officer waiting to escalate force. It was obviously warranted in this video, the policeman hesitated and paid with his life. It is situations like this that are drilled into cops heads to escalate force before the situation turns on them.
No. But at least, as one South Carolinian said earlier, they seem to have their house in order. As followup: Article from 10/28/14
Also important to mention that he flat-out lied about his version of the events. Too many people with authority only give a shit about the self. That guy coming home from a date who was killed in Brooklyn? According to today's press releases after he was shot the two cops involved spent the next 6.5 minutes on their personal cellphones with their union reps. No paramedics were called in this period nor were they reporting it to command. If this is true, does it get more black-hearted than that? That you can take someone's life and then only be concerned whether or not you'll be suspended with pay? Just so we're on topic: black victim, white cop. Again.
What the hell? Every traffic stop a cop makes could be his/her last. You never know the intentions of a person, that's why they approach from the blind spot on your car. If you're going to do something the cop didn't specifically tell you to do, fucking TELL THEM you're going to do it! In that clip, the cop said "get your license." What the guy should have said was "ok Officer, my license is in my car and is it ok if I go and get it?" Instead, what he did was go into his car without asking. A taser gun would probably have been the better choice, if the cop had one on him, but for the millionth time I feel like I'm saying: Do what the police ask you and nothing else. If you want to do more, tell them first. They're here to protect you, and no right-minded officer wants to get caught up in the shit storm of excessive use of force. They don't go out searching for this. Shit, people, if you truly have nothing to hide just shut up, listen, let them do their jobs and it'll all be peachy.
Yeah you're right. He deserved to get shot for not narrating every movement he was making. He was asked for his license, he reached for his license and he shot him for it. There's no other version to this story. READ THE ARTICLE. He flat-out lied through his teeth to get out of his fuck-up. I'd love to see you run that same line of bullshit on the victim in that video or any other person who gets blasted by these fools.
Are you a law enforcement officer? You're speaking with quite a lot of authority here on proper behavior in a traffic stop and what is reasonable behavior by both officers and citizens. I guess we know what South Carolina police officers think. "South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which acts as an investigative unit, stated that Groubert 'did without justification unlawfully shoot Levar Jones.'”
Not law enforcement. Preschool administration, through that I have had the privilege of meeting and getting to know a large number of officers, those who are on the streets, the PO in the admin level, and even the UC guys... We share a mutual interest in helping the public (for me, educating their children; for them, assisting and protecting citizens). You hear a lot of stories from those guys -- they put up with more abuse without retaliation on a daily basis than anyone outside of maybe telemarketers. While I don't consider myself an "authority" as you claimed, I do consider myself who knows the day-to-day goings of a typical PO. Racism isn't the issue in the most recent cases -- not cooperating with their instructions is the issue. There's a reason they issue those warnings, and there's a reason you should comply. Who's to say the next traffic stop an officer makes doesn't kill them? In many cases, it has. That's their reality. If you sign up to be a police officer, you don't just sign up to have a gun (as others have claimed), you also sign up to die at another's hands some day. If you make it to retirement, that means you didn't do your job well enough. Yet we don't see any rioting about "Hands on the steering wheel!!"
It's incredibly unrealistic to expect people to have that frame of mind when approached in that kind of a situation. They are usually scared, freaked out, and when the cop tells them to do something, if they're going to do it, they'll just do it without thinking because that's what they were told to do. They weren't asked "where is your license", they were told "give me your license". The cop should be the one trained to use the appropriate phrasing. The sad part is that cops seem to be trained more and more to expect the worst-case scenario, and deal with every situation like it's the worst-case scenario. It's really interesting to watch COPS (the US TV show) and similar shows from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Funnily enough, all but the US cops treat people with respect, and that respect is returned, for the most part. No throwing people to the ground, handcuffing, or escalating the situation... just talking to them like people who have made a mistake.