Bad Boys II

[Dill]

(05-31-2020, 05:38 PM)hollodero Wrote: Secondly, in all my ignorance I think riot-like protests are, in a sense at least, way premature. If the officer were to be excused, to walk free, to not face serious consequences, if that were the outcome, then the picture would be totally different. I'd have to at least reconsider. If he is tried and sentenced for murder though, as it should be and in all likelihood will be? Then I actually too lean more towards seeing it a bit more - not totally! - as a singulary incident and a little less as an expression of systemic racism against black people. (By that I'm certainly not saying this systemic racism does not exist, I think it clearly does.) It usually is a better way to go to take that pragmatic view as to overdo an inductive conclusion.

Which should add to thirdly, yeah while I do see the problem of police brutality towards black people, it is honestly hard to overlook, I still think there's no justifiable violent alternative to frustratingly slow incremental steps to better this situation. More power to those that find a non-violent way to display their understandable frustration. But violence as alternative, this one still gets a clear refusal from my side.
And I don't even like relativizations to that at this point. There seems to be a lot of "yeah, violence is bad, but..." going on. Including from the memes. Including from you.

Odd to talk about riot-like protests as "premature." I doubt that responsible protestors (the majority) were planning riots as part of a calculated  time line of incremental pressure when they first went into the streets, though some are now thinking of riots if Chauvin is let off easy. 

It won't be "ok to riot" even if officer Chauvin walks free or gets an 8-month reduced sentence for some umpteenth degree of involuntary manslaughter. But riots might be a likely consequence, and not just in Minneapolis.  My recognizing that possibility isn't "relativizing" anyone's actions.

Things won't be "ok" if Chauvin gets a life sentence, either. Remember that during the protest, we saw police arrest a reporter for CNN, with badge on him and camera crew beside him. The black reporter, not the white ones. We saw police shooting paintballs and rubber bullets at a female journalist and her crew, who were yards away from the protestors and clearly identified.  Stop and think for a moment--in a protest/riot caused by police indifference to life--and the resulting national-level bad PR--some in charge on the ground are wholly oblivious to this, still acting under protection of the law as they continue BEFORE CAMERAS the behavior that brought on the protests/riots. That level of oblivious bad judgment on the ground is indicative of a departmental police culture which also has to be addressed. And it is problem now coming to the fore not only in Minneapolis. (Did you see the Chris Rock meme about "bad apples"?)

I think you hit on the primary difference in our interpretation/perspective. I, and apparently most of the protestors, do not see a singular incident here, "a little less as an expression of systemic racism."  That racism has been the object of black/leftists complaints for years now.

So our calculus is not based on this single incident and what happens to Chauvin; in my case, at least, it is looking for the larger pattern, since understanding that will be necessary for any effective policy consequences.