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>"White America welcome to black America."

Pretty much.

I was honestly dumbstruck by the naiveté expressed as soon as the action starts.

"She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. I told her we were headed home, just across the way, when my friend and I encountered the accident; and that I’d recently broken my elbow in a similar bike accident here and deeply cared about the outcome."

It's an odd mixture of feelings to read about someone who lives in the same country I do who was able to grow into adulthood without having to learn the basic rules some of us had to learn by 4th grade.



Basic rules like "have no compassion" and "respect people with guns?"


Respect != fear.

Watching your mouth because you fear the authorities with guns is quite the opposite of respect.


Basic rules like "don't argue with cops".

They tell you to leave, you can either comply without saying a word, or start an argument knowing where it will take you. Both attitudes are fine.

But starting an argument and then be shocked, shocked! that it lands you in trouble? That's just stupid.


No...more like "leave when the cops show up". What is some drunk yahoo gonna do to help after the call has been made?

I'm sure the cops have all kinds of anecdotes about how helpful the drunks loitering around a scene at 1AM are!


I don't believe the police have any right to give a lawful order to compel a citizen from leaving a public area unless there is a public disturbance or danger. The samaritan, according to her own story, was not creating a problem. 3 drinks in 3 hours makes few people intoxicated. The people have a right, nay, an obligation, to resist unlawful orders. If her story is true and accurate, that law enforcement officer and the jailors with poor behaviors need to be fired, arrested, and prosecuted. I don't care what bad examples "cop logic" can use to justify their immoral and prejudicial thoughts. This story is a travesty and LE's actions reprehensible.


There's a difference between what the cops have a right to do and what they will, in practice, do to you if you don't give them the respect they have come to expect. E.g. this story.

Nobody, least of all the black community, are saying it's right, they're just saying it's naive to think the world works any other way.


I'm conflicted. I agree avoiding law enforcement is a good idea, and I'm pretty straight and narrow. Too many stories like this and shooting dogs. But I feel like a coward absenting myself from the tyranny. Like someone else said, we the people are starting to get more and more fed up.


If you're in that situation you have a choice.

Comply with what you're told and complain later or take a stand and face the consequences. They have tasers and guns and handcuffs and colleagues who will arrive on scene later and assume that you're guilty. Death is a real possibility.

http://www.popehat.com/2014/01/20/kelly-thomas/




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