Motorin'

Ok, allow me to rephrase.

This video is difficult to watch, but appears to show police department coverup of the murder of a black man. I'd love to hear @billsfan1959 point of view as a LEO. Is this justified? If so, how? If not, can you see how this type of coverup makes is indicative of systemic problems in law enforcement that lend credence to the conception that the system protects officers how commit unjust killings?

Except the groups advocating "defund the police" are not formally asking for no police. They are asking for 45 million out of a 200 million budget to be reallocated to community mental health and community crisis services. They'll probably get 50%-75% of their ask. Despite what some people yelled into microphones, what they are asking for are community resources to handle non-criminal crisis instead of using the police as community managers.

The way Cheney made high level decisions without consulting or informing W was complete and utter bull####. Biden's going to delegate authority, and hopefully won't surround himself with anyone as vile Cheney.

I don't see anyone anywhere abolishing the police. So the call to defund can only reasonably be viewed as partial, not whole. Similar to deinstitutionalization, not all of the pysch hospitals were closed, and some of the budget from the closed institutions were reinvested in community mental health centers. I know there are people that want abolishment of the police just like there are people who want abolishment of all psychiatric hospitals. What is going to happen, in some localities, is a shift in police budget into the community... As far as No Chance Joe, you might have a point had Dick Cheney not established the VP role as defacto president. Biden's VP and cabinet will basically going to run the show, and everyone knows that... And yes, when it came down to Biden v Sanders the party elites threw their weight behind a life long insider who is committed to neo-liberal economics. No surprise there, that's who they are.

The mayor of Minneapolis ***** his pants in that moment. He also interpreted the request to defund as a request to abolish. He could have said he would commit to reinvest a portion of the police budget into the black community, and offer to sit down with the community to listen to their funding priorities... As far as Sleepy Joe, I had zero excitement or faith in his candidacy. Don't get me started... After the past week, I think most Americans would prefer Biden take a nap in the Oval Office for the next four years. I'd vote for Mr. Potato Head at this point. How's this -- Sleepy Joe, because America needs a nap... Sleepy Joe-- because we're ***** exhausted...

The NYPD's budget is $6 billon per year. Could they do their job with $5 billion per year? Probably.

No, it's racist to bring up gang and criminal violence in the black community to excuse unjust violence and murder of black men by police. Yes, both forms of violence are wrong. Forgive me if this doesn't apply to you, but I hear "what about black on black crime, what about murders in Chicago" so often from white dudes who don't live in a black community or anywhere near Chicago that it makes me wonder if they really give a flying f about violence there. Similarly with the argument: how come nobody ever talks about black on black crime? That's usually another sign that the person doesn't live anywhere near or talk regularly with people who live and work in black communities. You probably have no idea how much it is talked about and how much effort is put into dealing with it if you don't live there or work there. Police brutality and inner city violence are both plagues in the black community. Both are wrong. The last time I checked, street gangs and drug cartels that operate through our nation's cities don't abide by the Constitutional requirement to offer a redress of grievances. Forgive me again if this is not you, but it seems like people often use the existence of gang violence in the black community as an argument against there being substance to the redress of grievance as it pertains to police violence. So yes, those folks are part of the problem. One part...

The Chicago PD budget is 1.6 billion per year.

It's a local issue for local communities to decide. A case can be made for shifting budgets to address non-criminal community issues that too often police are called to resolve. Abolish the police? No. Stop asking police to do the jobs of social workers? Maybe. The devil's on the details.

Good! The majority of cops won't resign, and will continue to do their jobs of protecting and serving. You know who will resign? The proverbial bad apples who are going ape ***** over police accountability. They are the minority in law enforcement who abhor the idea of police accountability. Good riddance!

Mob violence to rip down statues isn't the way to deal with it. But let's be clear, many of these Confederate statues were erected by Segregationist states during Jim Crow as a symbol of white rule. Placed in the center of town squares and at capital buildings during Segregation, they were symbols of power. White power over black lives. That's the history of many of these statues.

I don't think Brees would have angered anyone if he had said, "I can never see myself taking a knee... This is what the anthem means to me, and it will always mean that... But I respect that other people see it differently than I do." What seems to have made people angry was to suggest that taking a knee dishonors his grandfathers and the men who fought in WWII.

I don't agree with any of the destructiveness that has been happening. I think the whole phrase is, "a few bad apples spoil the bunch." I think all cops have a tough job, and most of them want to protect and serve. But I think the laws and culture of policing are setup to protect, intentionally or not, to protect the bad cops. And I've seen enough retaliation and punishment against the preverbal good cop for speaking out against the actions of the bad cop to believe that the system needs to be reformed.

It's just a few bad apples.

The people working for these legal reforms are not the same individuals asking for to defund the police. Also many cities around the country are taking down Confederate statues.

There are two main asks. Federal Legislation that sets a minimum standard for the use of lethal force and lifting removing qualified immunity, and an the establishment of an outside review board to investigate police criminality in order to remove the inherent conflict of interest within the DA's office. Of course defunding the police will never happen. It's like asking for a million when WGA minimum would be a win.

Black Lives Matter doesn't exist to win popularity contests. It has actually policy goals, and those goals are being taken up around the county.

The part where white people deny that black people have legitimate pain and legitimate grievances. Pretty much every black person in America watched the George Floyd murder and said "that could have been me. And I could be the next George Floyd." I can not fathom how Obama saying, "if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin" would anger you. Unless you thought that black people have no legitimate pain and grievance with the way they are treated and perceived in society.

The fact that you think that means you just might be part of the problem.

It's going to get better.

The very concept of race is the problem. The idea of "Whiteness" didn't come into existence as a category until the 17th century, and it was used to justify hierarchy as aristocracies began colonizing the "non-white" and therefore "inferior" world. The very idea of a "white people" is racist. Not one of us are from the nation of Whiteness, speaks the language of Whiteness. We celebrate our varied heritages. St. Patties day, Italian Festivals, Greek Festivals ect ect ect.... And we should celebrate our many heritages. But show me one celebration of "white pride" that isn't about white supremacy?

I agree with the first statement. I think at every increment forward there's been push back, including now. First it was the idea that it was just one bad officer that killed George Floyd but not indicative of any systemic issue within the structure of policing. It has now expanded to 'it was four bad police officers,' but four bad cops aren't indicative of a problem with the system itself. What then of the county Medical Examiner finding "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation...?” At the very least there is a perception of systemic bias. If in fact the Medical Examiner overlooked evidence of asphyxia to save Chauvin from 1st degree murder charges was it just one bad ME? As far as your criticism of critical theory, much longer conversation needed. I think it's pretty clear that there is a major anti-capitalist ideology at the heart of the riots. I don't agree with any of the looting and destruction. These people are not going to get the ideological endgame they want even if they cause maximum carnage. That doesn't mean that their aren't legitimate criticisms of capitalism that have positive solutions working within a framework of laws rather than anarchistic lawlessness.

I thought that too at first. As sick and inhuman as that video was to see, those guys were wearing the uniforms worn by Hennepin EMS https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/hennepinems/

Structural racism doesn't have anything to do you you an as individual, it's about policy structures. As it pertains to wealth in present day America, the most egregious form of structural racism occurred after WWII and lasted for about 50 years. Access to low interest, federally insured home mortgages allowed tens of millions of working class white families to own homes, accrue equity in those homes and pass that on to the next generation. This program literally generated 10's of billions dollars of wealth for mostly white families. Maybe your grandparents or parents didn't benefit from home ownership and build modest wealth. But most white families were able to, and there was nothing they did that was wrong! But access to the same low interest federal mortgage programs were denied to working black families. The polices were racist, and persisted into the 90's.