
Nation's Cops Seem Determined To Demonstrate Why People Are Protesting Them - miles
https://reason.com/2020/05/31/nations-cops-seem-determined-to-demonstrate-why-people-are-protesting-them-in-the-first-place/
======
cmurf
Peaceful protest does not work. That is the legacy of the last 50 years since
the civil rights movement. Not a lot has changed. Black men are still being
lynched. What would the conversation be if it weren't for video? Even with
video, the conflicting autopsy from the county makes it sound like Floyd had
either a pre-existing condition or drugs in his body.

I'm pretty irritated with the media, allowing various leaders to claim that
they support peaceful protests. No they do not. Not Republican leaders, who
consistently impugned the peaceful protests of Colin Kaepernick. They demanded
these were vile, unpatriotic, and un-American. These are not mere talking
heads, but the V-POTUS, and the POTUS, among others. They do not support
peaceful protest, they hate it. They hate all criticism and all protests.

America is getting exactly what it deserves. It claims a contract of freedom
and equality of all before the law. And this is provably, deterministically
not true. And if it is not true, then why listen to any of it? The social
contract is dust. If it is not wrong to lynch black men, then it is not wrong
to loot, and burn, and pillage, and create widespread chaos. That is the
central problem with loss of trust of the social contract, it begs the end to
civil society, when we blatantly for all to see do not have a civil society
for all. The deck is stacked in favor of some, and against others. Plainly.
Clearly.

The contract we really have is Amy Cooper contract. The one where a black man
asks her to put her dog on a leash per the law, and then she uses her
whiteness as a weapon, and his blackness as a deficit, with the threat to call
the police to get her way and her revenge and assert her white superiority.
And knows the force of the police will make sure only one of them has a bad
day. And then demand she's not a racist, right after having perfectly
demonstrated racism. Hers and the system. That is the hallmark of
institutional racism.

------
jaredcwhite
Excuses for bad actors on American's police forces must end. Not tomorrow, not
next week, not next year.

Today.

As Chris Rock put it in his widely shared comedy bit, we don't tolerate bad
actors in industries such as airlines when it's a matter of life and death. We
don't excuse pilots who just so happen to crash planes into mountains.
Furthermore, we don't excuse surgeons who get upset during a procedure and sew
the wrong body part back on out of spite.

Some professions just require zero tolerance for poor behavior. ZERO. Police
officers fall under that category.

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mydongle
My question is how is destroying small businesses and disrupting the lives of
innocent people in your own community protesting cops? If anything, they
created jobs for the police. And they've caused people that otherwise would
support them to not support them (except out of fear for their lives).

~~~
basch
In situations of institutional inequality, the bottom row considers everything
above it complicit.
[https://i.imgur.com/vpv5anc.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/vpv5anc.jpg)

It's a have vs have not, opportunity vs not. A business owner is a have. It's
a form of leveling a playing field by destroying what others have. Similar to
the intention of the terrorists in Fight Club or Goldeneye, a reset to blow up
banks and financial institutions.

I don't think the rioting mob necessary has thought it out that well, but the
anger causing it, and targeting business moreso than residential is an attack
on the benefactors of protection rackets, whether they be law enforcement,
banks, anyone who gives some a different opportunity than others. In this case
business and land owners. It's a belief that "fixing the system from the
inside" has failed.

Attack's on the media are similar, because they are intrinsically linked.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico-
media_complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico-media_complex)

The message of Fight Club was NOT to blow everything up, and that it can be
fixed from the inside, but not everyone agrees.

------
bradknowles
Not all police forces are bad. And the ones that do have a higher percentage
of bad apples aren’t all this bad.

But yes, there are some out there that seem bound and determined to exhibit
the exact behavior that people are demonstrating against. Contrary to all
logic, there it is.

~~~
tinus_hn
If the police defends, supports or ignores unacceptable action they are just
as bad themselves. One bad apple spoils the bunch.

~~~
yosito
Blaming the problem on the individual morality of police officers feels good.
But the real problem, why police are getting away with crimes like murder, is
something called "qualified immunity" and police unions. Until those are
reformed, judging the individual morality of police officers isn't going to be
enough to solve the problem.

~~~
jgwil2
Yes. Change incentives and behavior will change.

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gedy
The "groupism" of lumping "white", "black", "cops", "Republicans", etc is just
not useful. Just distracting old tribalism instincts. Take personal
responsibility and expect it from others.

~~~
aoeusnth1
So social systems and institutions have no effect on the human condition, got
it.

~~~
dang
Would you mind reviewing the site guidelines and following them when posting
here? We'd be grateful. They include:

" _Don 't be snarky._"

" _Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone
says, not a weaker one that 's easier to criticize. Assume good faith._"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

Note that they don't require you to change your views, just express them
thoughtfully.

------
mjfl
I’d say they’re in a pretty tough spot. I certainly wouldn’t have the patience
to be the punching bag of a bunch of assholes who are so sure that if they
were in charge, things would be better... I guess that’s why I’m not a cop.

~~~
woah
It takes a pretty serious lack of patience to drive a truck into a crowd

~~~
mjfl
Not if they’re banging on the windows, pulling on the doors and trying to drag
you out of it.

~~~
kettro
The video showing that is pretty clear that none of that happened. They drove
around a corner and into the crowd.

~~~
masonic
Maybe multiple cases are being conflated here. In the case of the cab hauling
the FedEx trailers where one attacker got caught in a rear wheel, the truck
_had_ stopped, but multiple people climbed onto the cab and tried to break in
while members of the crowd shouted, _" set it on fire!"_.

------
muzika
Yeah, sucks for them because they seem to be blamed for a crime that they had
nothing to do with.

