Brown and Garner
Violence is a natural impulse when confronted with stories of injustice like those of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. This is not to excuse violence, but to point out only that it's the instinct and to understand that not everyone has the power to control it. Further, to act out against a business is really a political act when it's done in a country that has always valued property rights above human rights. I feel like I've got a lot of innocent dead kids I need to cry for before I cry for the temporary closing of somebody's business.
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Cheers to the pro athletes that have publicly stood up for justice in these cases-- LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Reggie Bush, Derrick Rose, and your St. Louis Rams-- Jared Cook, Tavon Austin, Kenny Britt, Stedman Bailey, and Chris Givens. (Now it's time to see some support from white guys.) Saying that there's no room for political expression in sports ignores the fact that most of these events-- in person and often on television-- are a relentless display of nationalism and militarism.
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Slate's William Saletan suggests that white people view the Brown and Garner cases differently because "evidence, not race," separates them. I call BS. Both men were unarmed, non-threatening victims of badly-trained, bullying cops. They are only viewed differently by white people because we've been sold a very specific image of Darren Wilson, and the name of the man who murdered Eric Garner, Daniel Pantaleo, is largely and surprisingly unknown. The Ferguson and St. Louis County police departments, as well as the St. Louis County prosecutor, also engaged in a targeted assassination of Brown's character in the aftermath of the shooting while Staten Island cops didn't go to the same extreme. There's plenty of racism to cover both cases. According to the article, nearly a third of whites in the poll thought race was either just a small factor or a non-factor in the Garner case, and that was the one of the two that carried video evidence.
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After the release of this terrorism report, it's easy to see where our local police departments get their inspiration. In an authoritarian state, justice-- or the lack of it-- comes from the top down. In a democratic one, it's bottom-up.
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If I hear one more of these CIA assholes mouth off on the news about the "mood of the country" after 9-11, and using that alleged atmosphere of fear as an excuse for their violent terrorism against the United States Constitution, I'm going to scream. Plenty of us have been harping about civil liberties since the very beginning.
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A fourth black teen has been arrested in the death by hammer of a Bosnian immigrant in South St. Louis on November 30th. Dozens will take the opportunity to go to social media tonight and attempt to draw a parallel between this case and the Michael Brown one. See how dangerous young black men are? Where are the protests over this death? Here's the difference: these assailants were not public employees sworn to protect and defend... and also, they were arrested!
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Let me get this right. You're Mr. and Ms. Voter. It's your patriotic duty-- and mine-- to go to the polls and elect these representatives, but you don't care that the CIA lied to your elected representatives in Congress and to the president?
posted by CM @ 6:54 PM
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