6 ms·

We have a systemic problem in this country when it comes to policing, and it’s not about racism - it’s far worse than that, if there even is such a thing. It’s

by rcurry 6y ago

We have a systemic problem in this country when it comes to policing, and it’s not about racism - it’s far worse than that, if there even is such a thing. It’s called “qualified immunity” and it’s NOT in our country’s constitution. It’s a fabrication, a lie, a horrifying farce that allows our cops and DAs to operate with near total impunity for any malicious activity they choose to engage in. Our “system” is hopelessly broken and we have an obligation to rectify it. I don’t want us to engage in more “dialogue” with law enforcement, I don’t want more “transparency”, I don’t want more “synergy” with “the community”, I just want this shit to STOP. There is no excuse and I’m sick of it.

raincom 6y ago
I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Leaving everything to the Supreme Court does not help, as it takes 100 years for SCOTUS to make a change, as Justices take baby steps. Politicians can take a faster route, yet they don't. For instance, the State of Minnesota can get rid of "qualified immunity", and that state is not in the hands of Republicans.
- Craighead 6y ago
  Whataboutism as a propaganda technique at it's core is leading a reader to believe in a false reality of the world. Shame on you.
- vsskanth 6y ago
  Police Unions
- rcurry 6y ago
  If you’re not part of the solution there’s good money in prolonging the problem.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  They do... Some things are hard to change, even when you control all the branches of government.
- ThAw0 6y ago
  >I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? Do what? Make violent crimes legal? >It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Those damn Republicans and enforcing rule of law! Police brutality aside (there needs to be State-level inspectors general), African Americans need to stop commiting crimes at orders of magnitude higher levels than other minority groups.
  - brendoelfrendo 6y ago
    Ok, rectify generations of slavery, followed by segregation, followed by institutionalized racism, and that will happen. Crime is linked with poverty, and racism and racist policies are a major driver of poverty in African American communities.
    - drunkpotato 6y ago
      It's best not to respond to a troll arguing in bad faith. I just flagged their comment and recommend you do the same. It's not worth wasting the time and emotional energy.
      - ThAw0 6y ago
        >It's best not to respond to a troll arguing in bad faith. Bad faith? I'm arguing with facts, and logic. Just because it goes against the narrative and triggers you doesn't mean it's "bad faith".
      - TA0X4 6y ago
        Why was what he said bad faith? He posted sources to back up he points. You can't just claim "bad faith" because what he said triggers you.
    - ThAw0 6y ago
      >Ok, rectify generations of slavery, followed by segregation, followed by institutionalized racism, and that will happen. Already done, it's 2020. Crime is much more linked with ethnicity than it is with poverty. The poorest ethnic group in NYC (where I live) are Asians (https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6). They still commit orders of magnitude less crimes than blacks (https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-police-closer-look-7832.html https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-poli...).
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  The first step to understanding would be to question your implicit framing. Is it really true that Democrats are uniformly trying to help black people and Republicans uniformly want to prevent that?
- erentz 6y ago
  They have half of Congress at the moment, holding a majority in the House by the way. They could pass a bill right now addressing anything (pick your favorite issue that is broadly supported by the Democrat voter base) and send it to the Senate to be debated. Yet they don't. People need to wrap their head around the possibility that Democrat party leadership doesn't actually agree with their "base" on the issues, they just pretend to. The evidence is there in the record.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > They could pass a bill right now addressing anything (pick your favorite issue that is broadly supported by the Democrat voter base) and send it to the Senate to be debated. The word you are looking for is “ignored without hearings, debate, or votes”, not “debated”. > People need to wrap their head around the possibility that Democrat party leadership doesn't actually agree with their "base" on the issues, they just pretend to. The Democratic Party leadership agrees almost entirely with the base of the faction that has dominated the Party for the past ~25 years, the center-right neoliberal faction whose powerbase was in the conservative (compared to the party mainstream) Democratic Leadership Council — openly founded in the 1980s to reverse the progressive direction of the Democratic Party — before it took over the party apparatus rendering the DLC itself superfluous. It's not a secret to anyone in the party, whether in the progressive or neoliberal faction, that those two factions have a deep and abiding conflict of values and are only, when their relationship is at its strongest, in an uneasy alliance of necessity against the Republican Party and the far right.
- ThAw0 6y ago
  >I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? Do what? Make violent crimes legal? >It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Those damn Republicans and enforcing rule of law! Police brutality aside (there needs to be State-level inspectors general), African Americans need to stop commiting crimes at orders of magnitude higher levels than other minority groups. The poorest ethnic group in NYC (where I live) are Asians (https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6). They still commit orders of magnitude less crimes than blacks (https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-police-closer-look-7832.html https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-poli...).
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? They have, especially when the progressive wing of the Party was more dominant, but even some since. The Obama DoJ was no slouch on police accountability, something Trump and incoming AG Sessions were positively giddy about ending in 2017. It's a long list of problems, though, and the US system is deliberately designed with a large number of veto points to prevent lasting radical course corrections from being easy to implement even with a transitory majority.
  - raincom 6y ago
    Executive discretion doesn't work, as another administration comes along and changes rules. Legislative fix works better than executive fixes in the long run.

by rcurry 6y ago

raincom 6y ago

I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Leaving everything to the Supreme Court does not help, as it takes 100 years for SCOTUS to make a change, as Justices take baby steps. Politicians can take a faster route, yet they don't. For instance, the State of Minnesota can get rid of "qualified immunity", and that state is not in the hands of Republicans.

Craighead 6y ago
Whataboutism as a propaganda technique at it's core is leading a reader to believe in a false reality of the world. Shame on you.
vsskanth 6y ago
Police Unions
rcurry 6y ago
If you’re not part of the solution there’s good money in prolonging the problem.
gamblor956 6y ago
They do... Some things are hard to change, even when you control all the branches of government.
ThAw0 6y ago
>I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? Do what? Make violent crimes legal? >It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Those damn Republicans and enforcing rule of law! Police brutality aside (there needs to be State-level inspectors general), African Americans need to stop commiting crimes at orders of magnitude higher levels than other minority groups.
- brendoelfrendo 6y ago
  Ok, rectify generations of slavery, followed by segregation, followed by institutionalized racism, and that will happen. Crime is linked with poverty, and racism and racist policies are a major driver of poverty in African American communities.
  - drunkpotato 6y ago
    It's best not to respond to a troll arguing in bad faith. I just flagged their comment and recommend you do the same. It's not worth wasting the time and emotional energy.
    - ThAw0 6y ago
      >It's best not to respond to a troll arguing in bad faith. Bad faith? I'm arguing with facts, and logic. Just because it goes against the narrative and triggers you doesn't mean it's "bad faith".
    - TA0X4 6y ago
      Why was what he said bad faith? He posted sources to back up he points. You can't just claim "bad faith" because what he said triggers you.
  - ThAw0 6y ago
    >Ok, rectify generations of slavery, followed by segregation, followed by institutionalized racism, and that will happen. Already done, it's 2020. Crime is much more linked with ethnicity than it is with poverty. The poorest ethnic group in NYC (where I live) are Asians (https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6). They still commit orders of magnitude less crimes than blacks (https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-police-closer-look-7832.html https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-poli...).
SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
The first step to understanding would be to question your implicit framing. Is it really true that Democrats are uniformly trying to help black people and Republicans uniformly want to prevent that?
erentz 6y ago
They have half of Congress at the moment, holding a majority in the House by the way. They could pass a bill right now addressing anything (pick your favorite issue that is broadly supported by the Democrat voter base) and send it to the Senate to be debated. Yet they don't. People need to wrap their head around the possibility that Democrat party leadership doesn't actually agree with their "base" on the issues, they just pretend to. The evidence is there in the record.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > They could pass a bill right now addressing anything (pick your favorite issue that is broadly supported by the Democrat voter base) and send it to the Senate to be debated. The word you are looking for is “ignored without hearings, debate, or votes”, not “debated”. > People need to wrap their head around the possibility that Democrat party leadership doesn't actually agree with their "base" on the issues, they just pretend to. The Democratic Party leadership agrees almost entirely with the base of the faction that has dominated the Party for the past ~25 years, the center-right neoliberal faction whose powerbase was in the conservative (compared to the party mainstream) Democratic Leadership Council — openly founded in the 1980s to reverse the progressive direction of the Democratic Party — before it took over the party apparatus rendering the DLC itself superfluous. It's not a secret to anyone in the party, whether in the progressive or neoliberal faction, that those two factions have a deep and abiding conflict of values and are only, when their relationship is at its strongest, in an uneasy alliance of necessity against the Republican Party and the far right.
ThAw0 6y ago
>I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? Do what? Make violent crimes legal? >It is okay to accuse Republicans for blocking some reforms. Why can't Democrats address systemic injustices when they had numbers? Those damn Republicans and enforcing rule of law! Police brutality aside (there needs to be State-level inspectors general), African Americans need to stop commiting crimes at orders of magnitude higher levels than other minority groups. The poorest ethnic group in NYC (where I live) are Asians (https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6). They still commit orders of magnitude less crimes than blacks (https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-police-closer-look-7832.html https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/race-crime-and-poli...).
dragonwriter 6y ago
> I always wonder why Democrats, while in power, don't something about this and other problems that African Americans face? They have, especially when the progressive wing of the Party was more dominant, but even some since. The Obama DoJ was no slouch on police accountability, something Trump and incoming AG Sessions were positively giddy about ending in 2017. It's a long list of problems, though, and the US system is deliberately designed with a large number of veto points to prevent lasting radical course corrections from being easy to implement even with a transitory majority.
- raincom 6y ago
  Executive discretion doesn't work, as another administration comes along and changes rules. Legislative fix works better than executive fixes in the long run.