It’s not enough that they be watched at all times because even in the Brown case there are a ton of eye witnesses and the cops are still fighting and saying their side of the story was different. What needs to be done (among a ton of other things) is cops HAVE to start losing their jobs first and foremost. As with the Eric Garner situation in NYC if a cop gets found doing wrong all they give them is a desk job. Two of the hardest jobs to lose no matter how bad of a job you do is a teacher and a cop. That has to stop.
By the way, I have heard people complain about the looting on the news. What do you expect people to do? You target a community, you kill an unarmed person and you don’t expect anything to happen? It’s not like they can expect help from the justice system so what do you do with all that built up anger and aggression?
Looting and vandalizing after an incident like this is equal to that of a child throwing things after not getting their way, except in this case, we’re dealing with adults who should know better. You want to rage and loot something. Go down to the local court house and raid that bitch, while also still stupid and pointless, at least there is some message there against the judicial system that can be made.
Someone smart in their community needs to get them together for weekly community meetings, and discuss how they can better protect themselves from police abuse for starts. Do not be a victim anymore. Make sure everyone knows how to use their cellphones properly to record audio and video. Suggest walking in pairs as often as you can, and that if anything ever goes down that is unjust, remember while you both should keep a level head on yourself, at least one of you has to, because you might be the only one to tell the story in court so justice can prevail. Address other problems in the community that brings others outside of the black community (and within also) to fear and criticize us. We need to work on ourselves, so we can work on our image, and that isnt about selling out so that white people do not fear you, but about finally playing the game properly. The day i see a majority of black americans be well educated and succesful while also not having diluted our culture down to some “quiet” pussy shit, i will be so happy.
There are no leaders outside of our politicians anymore, and there damn sure are no black leaders. The blind are leading the blind, regardless of color, and the result is supreme stagnation in cultural development. We could really use an intelligent voice for all communities right now to help lead those who cant lead themselves. Some may argue the internet has replaced the necessity for those leaders, but i completely disagree with that, considering a majority of people do nothing even remotely productive on the internet, and rarely challenge their minds past sharing memes and tweets.
You are always going to get a group of people who do stuff that are counterproductive to what needs to be done in a given situation such as this riot. However, at this point and time, what is the alternative? The justice system will likely not help them get justice in this situation and at this point I have heard of no discipline for the officers involved.
What many black people will say is there needs to be a protest and likely some march, but that is bs and never solves the long term problem. You are basically telling a likely economically depressed community that cops can come into that community, gun an unarmed kid down and all that built up anger is just supposed to go away while the cops take their sweet ass time investigating? What do you expect people to do especially in a situtaion like this that has happened time and again in places like Los Angeles?
Cops where i live are pretty cool. The problem is cops who have never been in a fight or tried to calm somebody down. You have people who think their gun is the go to. My friend has been on swat and patrol, but never pulled a trigger while out on patrol. Too much paperwork and your mouth is your weapon. You have a bunch of people who abuse their authority and think they are above us normal citizens. In short. You are dealing with 10 year olds playing cops and robbers and being trigger happy.
This I can agree with a lot more. My only issue with your statement is “we’re dealing with adults who should know better”. We are talking, in general, about neighborhoods where poverty is higher and funds for education are lower. I think too much emphasis is being put on the looters. Forget the looters. The issue here is and always has been law enforcement. If black people destroy their own neighborhoods or not by looting the problem remains that law enforcement continually overstep their bounds.
The kid got gunned down being unarmed so playing the game properly won’t work because the system will continue the way it has proven for decades. What black people need to do (myself included) is start creating an independent economic base. No more marches, no more speeches. Money talks and that is the only way to really change the situation in many of these black neigborhoods. It changes the politicians they get, it changes the police force, it changes the justice system and it is a benefit for all blacks in the community.
There doesn’t need to be any black leaders. Black people just need to be understanding about having a collective mindset about handling our business. Other races do it all the time. You want to stop cultural stagnation then people, blacks particularly, need to be about creating and developing our own businesses. It’s a sad fact but no matter what politicans are in or what leaders blacks have the unemployment has been double that for blacks for at least 30 years.
I say that because of the culture that exists within the police community.
thr fact that there isnt a internal struggle to call out cops who do things like that makes all of them bad. you cant be a good cop on the merit that you are “protecting” or staying “quiet” about bad cops while you’re on the job. police must be even more diligent against their own members, otherwise you gwt what happened.
a regular citizen, if he did this would be jailed. this dude is still getting paid. that’s just disgusting in a country where the authority shouldn’t be above the law it administers.
While im usually one to be the first to defend how poverty and education affect my people, looting is a pretty common sense thing to not do. You dont have to be rich, with a decent suburban high school education, or college degree to understand that fucking up someone elses shit, and stealing from them is nonsense. Thats as simple to put together as 1+1=2. I know you were speaking in general, but i personally dont give a shit about the looting. Its a small group of people doing it, and people are only distracted by it if they want to be. I just wanted to address it since it was being brought up, but its not of any real concern or interest of mine really. Im more curious of the case at hand.
Education talks over money. Money doesnt mean shit if the gate keepers do not want you in. I think many millionaire black men can tell you their stories of still not being allowed in certain country clubs, or in certain places, not being able to build the same connects as their white counterparts, regardless of their money and fame. Money only talks for american “white” owned corporations that will never get in trouble, no matter what they do. 50 cent isnt buying out any political power, or police influence in NYC even if he wanted to. He would be first in prison for doing that shit. They would be so excited to finally put a rich black man behind bars, where they could give two fucks for the white people that insist on the destruction of society and certain people (the poor, and poor minorities). Education trumps money 10 out of 10 times. I’d rather have the poor equally as smart as the average male/female coming from an upper middleclass neighborhood, then for them to just simply be stupid with money. Hell, not that i condone it, but being smarter would even better your illegal hustle game too. lol
Knowledge is power is no cliche, its a universal truth, and its why black americans for so long were not allowed to learn to read or write. Why politicians will continue to waste, as long as less money can be funded to the poor. In a day and age where access to knowledge is a click away, and smart phones that are 20 times faster then computers from just 7 years ago or so, its saddening to see a new generation coming up that are just dumb as a box of rocks.
I’m not saying money can do nothing, because poverty is a motherfucker to deal with, and is guaranteed to break your average person. I was just having a conversation of the complexities of poverty that are never talked about with my girl last night. The amount of money it would take to fix many of these areas is just never going to be seen, EVER. So the minimal that all people, especially people in lower income neighborhoods can start doing, is educating themselves. Stop your obsession on the paper chase, that leads many of you to end up in prison or dead, degenerating your morals over time. Focus more on being smart, and bringing more value to your communities, rich or poor.
Being poor is not a free pass for being stupid anymore. There were times in this country where it was understandable, and there were times where the ghettos were no where near as bad as they have become, and many that have actually been reformed the past decade plus. I say this is a time to start spreading more messages about educating yourself, even if you only work at walmart right now, with no college vision in your near future, i want you reading more, off social media, and on wikipedia, watching more documentaries, etc…
If at the very least we can build quality in low income neighborhoods through self education, and community education, that would be excellent. Its hard to do stupid shit when youre smart, when you fully understand the cycle you are in, how youre contributing to it, and its destruction of yourself, and your community. I’m a bit of an idealist, but i find my ideals to usually be more spot on then the quick fixes many want, and the giving up that many do.
Dmx said “shorty cant eat no books” in Belly, and i think that statement is pretty much the general sentiment for many living in poverty, but thats stupid, and its usually followed by a dellusion that money is everything. That they can achieve the highest status in society if they can just get ahead somehow, and maybe so, but there needs to have a reality set in, that in this world, sometimes people are just gonna be poor for generations, and some are going to be rich, but being poor shouldnt be a sentence to low morals and stupidity. Why can we not, over a decade into the 21st century, just be poor and educated. Why must we self impose doom on ourselves because we are impoverished. Its the stupidest shit ever, and its only due to an obsession with financial gain that has plagued the poor in this country that this is even happening.
I was ranting a bit there, and in know way is stupidity or low morals a discussion in this case, but coming together as a community after an incident like this, seeking knowledge, and educating ourselves more is what i would like to see happen while this case gets worked out. Blowing things up, and burning things down (while still a minority doing this currently) didnt change shit in the rodney king riots, and while the watts riots were considered a key turning point in the civil rights movement, violence and vandalism is no way to properly get your point across, especially when its not even directed at the fucking people wronging you. Especially now in 2014, with how much the culture has changed in the usa, and globally for that matter, even compared to the 90s, there are better ways to address problems and frustration then to act out like a child, or wild beast.
Unemployment is double for black americans for MANY reasons, from run of the mill racism and prejudice, to plans to consistently ignore issues in low poverty neighborhoods and schools. People develop and create their own businesses all the time. The fact of the matter is, corporations that have had those lanes for decades or centuries now, arent just letting anyone in to come take over. Most of the major financial benefits for black americans has come in the form of entertainment. For whatever reason, people cannot get enough of black culture, black style, black attitude, and black history. I would definitely like to see more rich black americans come together to create more. Oh hollywood is stagnating the development of minority actors, and predominately black tv shows? Then lets pay out of our pocket, make great blockbusters, and do something about it. Not enough young non white minorities are into science, politics, math, etc… in school, lets set out every chance we can get to promote expanding your interest. Oh, rich racist white europeans do not want to let me into their world and contacts in the fashion industry? Then lemme flip the script, get with like minded people, and do what they did even better. The list goes on.
But truthfully, of course wealthy and rich blacks are doing things for their communities, starting businesses to employee more black and latino americans, but we dont always hear about it. Newsflash, you dont hear about it from any other group either. Everyone just kinda hears about how the jewish stick together through word of mouth, and jokes, but its not like billionaire jewish men take the time out every month to let the world know how much they do for the jewish community, and quite frankly, its not like all other races are doing things for each other as much as we like to think they are. Not in the romanticized way that we like to think.
Your average white person in america isnt a part of some local group of whites only, that are dedicated to the betterment of whites. White people just benefit in society because of institutionalized racism that doesnt affect them. The same way women benefit from just being women, for no reason whatsoever. I’m not saying groups in america havent come together in some ways stronger then black americans, BUT, NO ONE in this country has a harsher history then the one african slaves, now black americans had/have. Not women, not the irish, not the italians, not mexicans, not the asians, not latinos in general, not the handicap, NO ONE. So with that said, our struggle takes more time and effort then your run of the mill well off jewish family. Ive stated this a million times on here before, but you know what a jewish man or woman could do that a black man never could in this country post slavery (at the very least), that is change their name and fit in to being white. You know who never benefited from the racist rhetoric in this country that slowly got european imigrants to become racist through racial propaganda against the black americans, by no longer being at the end of the stick for prejudice and hatred against them being irish, italian, etc…, but now its, hey, we’re all white, lets ban together against these lesser blacks, BLACK PEOPLE. Hell, the asian immigrants who came here had no concept of racism towards africans, now black americans, but they developed it, because they got a bit of a pass from their “white overlords” at the time to do things, and educate themselves how we could not, eventually as time passes, buying into the racist propaganda against blacks in america. Even latinos and mexicans think themselves higher in social hierarchy then blacks, and anyone who has been around a latino family, has definitely heard some racist shit. My ex’s mother who is puerto rican, only said i was cool because i was at least half rican, even though ricans are just mutts with african in them, and ive never met a single rican family member in my life, but her racist, non english speaking ass was still racist towards blacks, and for what. The white mans plan was so good HE TURNED ALL MINORITIES AGAINST THE BLACK MAN. But funny, as times change and people change, now white people are the biggest subscribers and consumers to hip hop, and black culture, also to mention the millions of asians and latinos who have jumped on the black train also, when just a generation or two ago, their parents and grand parents were likely not even trying to be associated with such people, and such culture.
(Also, many european and asian immigrants came here as skilled workers, and weren’t just morons who came to try a new life. Skills that the african american was not allowed to develop or have. Small things like that are what also contributes to the exceptional leap many immigrants could take in reference to being doctors, teachers, accountants, etc…, and passing on that money and legacy for generations to come. A lot of people never bring that up, or know about it, but you can find good articles and books out there on it, and its common sense too.)
So while it is easy for people to be like, we need more money, and more black owned busineses, as if that isnt something that black americans havent been striving for for over a century now. The reality is that this country, its people, our federal government, has gone out of its way to prevent that from happening, putting even the rich and wealthy blacks of america far behind all other rich and wealthy races, and all we can do is play catch up, since those other corporations, still headed by old racist motherfuckers, are essentially the gate keepers to blacks getting too high up on the food chain.
What we can do while we still strive for stronger unity in our communities, more money, and more black owned businesses that do not discriminate on employees based on race, but seek to hire more qualified black and latino men and women then most other companies, is to start putting a heavy emphasis on education. I’m not just talking about finishing high school and going to college, i mean just fucking reading to read, learning to learn, and not for any other purpose then to just not be fucking stupid, and not be taken advantage of.
I hope for a future where even the worst parts of compton, the average person even with maybe only a high school degree, is damn near college educated in their knowledge. People deem education a waste in low income areas, because whats the point of being smart if it aint bringing me no money. If i can be dumb and still get a job, or get money hustling, then fuck it. There is no value to knowledge with the poor, because the reality of poverty, and the obsession with material things has warped their minds. But the truth is, black americans are in the position they are in because for generations we were not allowed that knowledge, we couldnt even drink from the same fountains as whites in vast areas of this country up until the federal government said, eh, i guess this is a problem now, lets do something about it. So with that said, we should cherish the current state of the country, where we basically no filters on our internet, a constitution backing us that no longer just applies to whites, and take this opportunity to not just strive for material gain, but knowledge and unity in our communities. Unity that has been strategically broken by devilish men in this countries history.
With all this said, i’m not arguing with you. I’m mostly expanding on your thoughts with a bit more detail, because i feel your heart is in the right place, but you have over simplified the complexity of racism, prejudice, poverty, and money in this country when it comes to the black american. I personally would rather see knowledge obsessed black americans, and all americans in general, especially those in poverty, then material driven sheep, just baaaahing their way to their ultimate demise based off of false hope. Plus, whats the point of having money and businesses, if youre too stupid to run them, and too dumb to not get fucked when you pay someone else to run them.
Basically some white guy was getting belligerent with protesters. Black guy is just walking by. White guy starts to square up on black dude, decides he doesn’t want any. Mall cop sprays black dude.
Cops failing at their job again but good god. Tree hugging hippy in the background… Shut the fuck up lol i cant believe i listened to all 3 minutes of that video. Protestors trying to get a point across by yelling is the equivalent of a soccer player trying to dispute a red card. Shit never happens the ref never changes his mind. True the dude probably didnt do anything but yelling like that dont get you shit.
