A Navy Veteran’s perspective on racism

[VikingsGuy]

If BLM really cared about black lives or all lives wouldn’t they be burning down Planned Parenthood buildings? The PP Corp murdered and profited off of some 630,000.00 black babies last year alone.

 

[JohnCushman]

As for my views on racism....everyone is an asshole in their own right, some more than others. So, I hate everyone

 

[Cheater]

Thanks for all of the comments. I keep coming back because there is beneficial perspective to be gained here.

 

[azelkhntr]

Or we could have a nursey rhyme that tells us to treat one another with respect. I am no snowflake, but seriously, can we move past the phony machoisms of the past yet?

That was the Maypole dance right? What’s a phony machoism? Is that a thing you just made up?

 

[FI460]

I'll also share, this is not a race issue, imo. This is a concern about a very select minor few officers who either fail to understand the significance of less lethal uses of force and/or a select few who are racist. We have over a million sworn law enforcement people ready to give our lives in the protection of our laws. To protect our innocent from the criminals.
Training that is beat over and over into us holding someone on their belly handcuffed needs to be done within a reasonable amount of time due to minimizing the effects of asphyxiation.

The rarity of these situations is proof within the mass amount of arrest s and detentions made every single day!

This is a refusal to acknowledge the systemic issue though. Of course there are many good people that are cops. Of course most people aren't racist. The egregious acts that our society fixates on are mostly carried out by "bad apples." All that said, the system itself is built on racism.

The criminal justice system in America was designed to incarcerate black people after civil war. Has it improved? Absolutely. But we need to reevaluate how we police here.

We'll still need cops with guns, but we also need to revamp the system. It's 2020, we don't have to keep doing things they way we've always done them just because that's the way they've always been done. We can do better. That's what this is about.

 

[Trial153]

This is a refusal to acknowledge the systemic issue though. Of course there are many good people that are cops. Of course most people aren't racist. The egregious acts that our society fixates on are mostly carried out by "bad apples." All that said, the system itself is built on racism.

The criminal justice system in America was designed to incarcerate black people after civil war. Has it improved? Absolutely. But we need to reevaluate how we police here.

We'll still need cops with guns, but we also need to revamp the system. It's 2020, we don't have to keep doing things they way we've always done them just because that's the way they've always been done. We can do better. That's what this is about.

This in a nutshell ^

 

[Irrelevant]

I don't think BLM has a marketing problem it has a legitimate communication problem. If I have to add words to your mantra to get the actual meaning, you're not doing it right or effectively. I think that last bit is where a lot of the future friction will be. All these protests and they didn't get the public support they'd hoped for because they explicitly left people out and opened it up to be interpreted as adversarial. And while I understand and support the actual meaning of BLM, I can assure you most of my neighbors in rural white eastern WA see BLM as anti-white lives.

 

[BigHornRam]

This outspoken lady points out what systemic racism looks like in 2:00 minutes.
And touches on the woke hijacking of BLM as well.

 

[TOGIE]

I'll also share, this is not a race issue, imo. This is a concern about a very select minor few officers who either fail to understand the significance of less lethal uses of force and/or a select few who are racist. We have over a million sworn law enforcement people ready to give our lives in the protection of our laws. To protect our innocent from the criminals.
Training that is beat over and over into us holding someone on their belly handcuffed needs to be done within a reasonable amount of time due to minimizing the effects of asphyxiation.

The rarity of these situations is proof within the mass amount of arrest s and detentions made every single day!

FI460 already touched on it

but here's a way i've started think about, or should i say what i've started to realize

i should say, i'm young, 28 years old. i say that not to say that i'm a woke millenial, i say that to try and add context.

i for the longest time couldn't comprehend how racism is still a thing. grew up in a white suburban denver neighborhood. white white white, lemme tell ya. schools taught us about the civil war and the civil rights act.... what more did we need to know? lincoln said all men are created equally. end of story. so my mindset is and has been until that last few months, what the hell is all the fuss about? why is this such a hot topic? "the dude resisted arrest!" "the dude pointed a gun at them!" etc etc etc we all know the stories

i had black youth pastor in middle and high school, one of the single most influential men in my life. thinking back it's almost as if he wasn't black, simply because my young mind didn't even know enough about the world to realize that people could think differently about black people.

so with my mind that has been, throughout my young adult life, somewhat virgin and ignorant to the world BUT especially it didn't live through the historical events that built this nation it would appear to me that yeah, racism doesn't really exist. that is largely just because i literally don't know better. i have not witnessed nor actually really heard about actual racism in my life other than in the past. so it's easy to fall into the trap....

that trap to me, as i've realized, is thinking racism is over, because i don't know any better. and that's the exact trap that i think most of america has been in. i've now decided to argue that thinking racism is over (and for whatever reason, mine being simple, honest, innocent, ignorance) is a passive submission to racism. because what does that mindset do? if you think racism is over, you look at black crime statistics in low income neighborhoods and think "good grief, why can't those communities get it together, why can't those fathers stay with their families and why don't those kids stay in school and not join gangs?" without realizing the policies, events, mindsets, and passivity of this nation that has quite literally over decades and decades and decades put the black community in those situations to no fault of their own. now that is where there would be a healthy debate on those problems from Nixon to the present, but i'm sold at this point.

i don't think there are many racist cops in this country, but there are many cops are just like me, who think racism is over, and don't look at a black community that's been neglected, subdued, and abused for hundreds of years, in overt and passive ways. rather they look at a black community as a crime statistics that won't make an effort to get itself together. that will radically change how the cop treats black people regardless of how he feels about black people - it becomes racist

the crime statistics about black communities can be debated, but they are red herring to me now (it's taken 28 years for me to realize that), the question that i think we all know the answer to, whether we want to admit it or not, is why do black communities have so many issues with crime? and i think what we're all scared to admit, is that hundreds of years of being subdued, abused, and frankly kept out of the winners circle, has produced just that. being ignorant to that is one thing that our education system and our society as a whole needs to be better about, but being aware AND passive, at this point, borders on racism, dare i say

let me make something clear, up until the past 3-4 weeks my mindset has not been that, what i just said. it's been abrupt turnaround that i'm still trying to wrap my head around. i said earlier in the thread i've been meditating on all this and haven't had much to say. my brain is still digesting and there's still a lot my brain is sturggling with based on how it's operated for the last 28 years.

listening and learning more is something else though

 

[Sytes]

It's 2020, we don't have to keep doing things they way we've always done them just because that's the way they've always been done. We can do better. That's what this is about.

Super, SUPER slippery slope there...

Graham v Connor is one of the very few saving graces LEO's hold onto, to effectively do the job that's presented with protections for doing the job we're sworn to uphold.

The emotions over the extremely rare exceptions follow the knee jerk reactions of ill-informed or intentional disregard for the vast modifications LEO's conform to regularly. To remotely suggest LEO's manage Lethal & Less Lethal actions, arrests, detentions, FI's, etc in a mind frame of, "doing things the way we've always done" is absolutely false.
Metro, State, and FLETC setting have and continue to adopt modified methods on the common day to day activity. From U.S. Circuit Court decisions to SCOTUS decisions... such as Graham vs Conner.

1. Officers want to return home to his/her family each day. See his/her children for the 20-30+ years on and off duty... 10,000 days sworn to protect the innocent from the evils in this world. Jury's second guessing w/ hindsight 20/20 over decisions LEO's make will break the enforcement of laws. This is not a computer desk job of 000's and 111's...
LEO's deal with an ever evolving setting - each and every situation faced each and every day. A computer programmer makes an error, it an, "oh, crap" moment and a fix. LEO's have to be right every single time w/o error or the ill informed mob would tear an Officer to pieces.

I am 100% supportive of ever changing methods to secure a subject. Always supportive of better methods to safeguard our 10,000 days as a LEO, Not to mention LEOSA retired activity. Want Officers to have discretion so as to not arrest a juvi because s/he had a camping pocket knife on school premises? A few people crap themselves over tasers... Whatever, it's never ending. in a country of over 320,000,000 w/ over 1,000,000 sworn LEO's, crap's going to happen. It's a matter of statistics.

Thanks for your opinion. It's respected. This is my personal opinion as well.

 

[JLS]

I can assure you most of my neighbors in rural white eastern WA see BLM as anti-white lives.

I believe you are very correct in this assessment, which is sad. For me to simply acknowledge "black lives DO matter" is in no way an indictment on the value of anyone else's life. However, to respond with "ALL lives matter" is really dismissive of what they want us to acknowledge.

 

[azelkhntr]

This outspoken lady points out what systemic racism looks like in 2:00 minutes.
And touches on the woke hijacking of BLM as well.

She is spot on the money. Thx for that. Thought about this for a bit then watched it again. The women in greys body language is very defensive; almost as if she's saying how dare this person talk to me like this! I came here to support, not be lectured to. The message is clear and the D's are in big Trouble come November and they must know it. There's no action they wont instigate now to sway the vote. President Trump by a landslide come November! KAG!

 

[BigHornRam]

The complete failure of our educational system in many large urban cities is priority #1 IMO. There is no excuse for this.

Baltimore City is failing its children

In a recent front page article, The Sun reported that Baltimore school students scored near the bottom in reading and math compared to children in other cities and large urban areas on an important…

www.baltimoresun.com

 

[Sytes]

Anyone want to make a poll as to who and what posts have been ridiculously "reported" as off topic? Likely by those posting off topic themselves... OR those giving thumbs up to off topic posts?

Bah...

Maybe this thread has run it's course. However, I've personally valued reading the various opinions shared. Whether I agree or disagree. Thumbs up for simply sharing an effective post worth the read.

I'm far from tribal in my thumbs up. Some here on the other hand... As for myself, I may read on. Don't quote me or counter my comments... and I'll not reply.

May we all wet a line and enjoy the outdoors. I think pike, bass and some mountain trout are calling.

 

[mtmuley]

Anyone want to make a poll as to who and what posts have been ridiculously "reported" as off topic? Likely by those posting off topic themselves... OR those giving thumbs up to off topic posts?

Bah...

Maybe this thread has run it's course. However, I've personally valued reading the various opinions shared. Whether I agree or disagree. Thumbs up for simply sharing an effective post worth the read.

I'm far from tribal in my thumbs up. Some here on the other hand... As for myself, I may read on. Don't quote me or counter my comments... and I'll not reply.

May we all wet a line and enjoy the outdoors. I think pike, bass and some mountain trout are calling.

Non- tribal thumbs up Sytes. mtmuley

 

[JLS]

From a non-tribal perspective, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about with respect to posts being reported.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Anyone want to make a poll as to who and what posts have been ridiculously "reported" as off topic? Likely by those posting off topic themselves... OR those giving thumbs up to off topic posts?

What? And here I thought we were just getting back to some semblance of an actual discussion. Now I’m confused...

Appreciate the way you shared your perspective Sytes.

 

[Doublecluck]

Eta 45 mins from the peck, probably no service soon.. thank god.. good weekend all..

Anyone want to make a poll as to who and what posts have been ridiculously "reported" as off topic? Likely by those posting off topic themselves... OR those giving thumbs up to off topic posts?

Bah...

Maybe this thread has run it's course. However, I've personally valued reading the various opinions shared. Whether I agree or disagree. Thumbs up for simply sharing an effective post worth the read.

I'm far from tribal in my thumbs up. Some here on the other hand... As for myself, I may read on. Don't quote me or counter my comments... and I'll not reply.

May we all wet a line and enjoy the outdoors. I think pike, bass and some mountain trout are calling.

 

[3855WIN]

The complete failure of our educational system in many large urban cities is priority #1 IMO. There is no excuse for this.

Baltimore City is failing its children

In a recent front page article, The Sun reported that Baltimore school students scored near the bottom in reading and math compared to children in other cities and large urban areas on an important…

www.baltimoresun.com

Education systems fail when parents fail to support the student and school.

 

[406dn]

Education systems fail when parents fail to support the student and school.

This is a very crucial aspect to student success. A parent can hold a child accountable and tutor their child in ways a teacher can't. Sadly, it is a touch cycle to break.