4 ms·

If you've lived in an almost all-white part of the United States in the past, it's pretty obvious that this is a result of legal impunity and the drug war and n

by Torgo 11y ago

If you've lived in an almost all-white part of the United States in the past, it's pretty obvious that this is a result of legal impunity and the drug war and not "institutional racism". Somehow we weren't spared the harassing, beating, and killing just because we were white. We grew up knowing which cops to stay far, far away from, and to never let yourself get into police custody. You just didn't hear about it then because people didn't have cameraphones and the Internet. A friend of a friend was pulled through a screen door and beaten until she miscarried by her ex-boyfriend cop, he was moved to the nex town over. An artist college student was shot dead by a cop who saw the building door open and went inside and just executed him (he was literally on the phone when it happened so we know it was unprovoked.) A person in my church was arrested for domestic abuse, his family had a fire sale in the family business to get the money to bail him out, and the police STOLE 10,000 dollars from them in a civil forfeiture when they pulled over his brother on the way to the jail with the cash, so he stayed in jail and their business went under. They were all white. This shit has been happening for DECADES and the irony of people whining that this happens because nobody cares about blacks is that NOBODY IN THE MEDIA GAVE A SHIT until recently when it could be framed as a racial issue.

coldtea 11y ago
>Somehow we weren't spared the harassing, beating, and killing just because we were white. Being white poor (and especially homeless) is not very different from being black, from the "institutional racism" standpoint. But even in that case, whites are usually spared more than blacks, including in the courts. The incarceration rates speak for themselves. That said, police over-reaching authority and institutional impunity goes a long way even for middle class clean cut white families. If you have a $2000 suit and a Tesla, on the other hand, not so much.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
You're right to bring up the other ways cops get "permission" to abuse people. But just because there are other excuses for abuse doesn't mean race isn't one of them.

by Torgo 11y ago

coldtea 11y ago

>Somehow we weren't spared the harassing, beating, and killing just because we were white. Being white poor (and especially homeless) is not very different from being black, from the "institutional racism" standpoint. But even in that case, whites are usually spared more than blacks, including in the courts. The incarceration rates speak for themselves. That said, police over-reaching authority and institutional impunity goes a long way even for middle class clean cut white families. If you have a $2000 suit and a Tesla, on the other hand, not so much.

erikpukinskis 11y ago

You're right to bring up the other ways cops get "permission" to abuse people. But just because there are other excuses for abuse doesn't mean race isn't one of them.