Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

I heard a story on WBEZ (npr) about how his Jacob Blake's grandfather was the pastor at Ebenezer AME church in Evanston. Also that his family was involved in the civil rights movement in Evanston. What happened to him is so wrong, and I am seeing a lot of social media posts revolving around the idea that a person doesn't need to be a perfect citizen in order to not get shot in the back by the police for "resisting".

Yeah, his grandfather has quite a legacy in Evanston, there were a lot of social media stories about him around here even before that connection started being reported on.

The last time I was up there, a few weeks back, my daughter was totally uneasy, saying, unprompted, "all of these people look like Trump supporters."

Posted by my journalist friend:

Spent 14 hours in Kenosha yesterday. Was teargassed twice. Followed along with looters. Watched probably 12 streetlights crash to the ground. Talked with a militia in camo carrying AR-15s who were hired to protect a gas station. Spoke with an older couple spitting mad the police violence made it their city and said we were in a civil war. Saw people crying over homes and stores burnt to the ground. Saw police do nothing except fire teargas and beanbag bullets at kids. Watched a woman crying in the middle of her street shaming people taking video of her building being burned. Talked to an 84-year-old woman who described seeing Jacob Blake's body on the pavement just steps from her garden. Talked with another woman who lost her job at a Mexican grocery because it was burning across the street. Consoled a couple who helped a 70-year-old store owner after he was beaten trying to save his store. Met a biker who said he remembered his hometown as a peaceful place. Experienced the ghostly silence of dozens of people sitting in the street, leaning against trees, in cars or standing with their dogs on the sidewalk watching everything burn at 1:30 in the morning. Talked with angry people on every part of the spectrum there can possibly be a side on.
The world is in a much more despondent place than most people realize. The GOP is wrong, the darkness they predict with the boogie-man Democrat is already here. And the poor, they always, always lose.

yo wtf is going on

I’ve had people saying, ‘Why don’t you deputize citizens?’” he said. “This is why you don’t deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha.”

the police were literally coordinating with the militia, but okay

Some years back I got in the habit of picking up random wtf Playmobil sets. Cleaning up around the house today I found this truly wtf gem:

https://i.imgur.com/DrU68VW.jpg

Ages 4+!

Weird, I wonder why it cut off? Anyway, it's a cop cuffed to an ... antifa-esque anarchist I guess?

Is this from the Frankie Goes To Hollywood playset?

It's a mock-up from when the Lego Movie guys pitched for the Republican National Convention production gig

This kid was 17! Jesus.

whats happening in Kenosha is awful. since this is my state I'm seeing a lot of predictably bad opinions on Facebook, I hate that shit is getting destroyed but man Wisconsin was due for a reckoning at some point. if you go to the predominantly black neighborhoods in Milwaukee you can see how run down everything is, the roads are crumbling, the schools are underfunded and overattended, every time I went to visit a buddy there I'd see the same pieces of broken glass in the street. and yet you can't go more than 2 blocks without seeing a cop car, almost everyone there seems to have a story about getting harassed. I guess a lot of big cities have those areas but Milwaukee is particularly bad

Not only was the shooter 17, but he crossed state lines with an illegally owned (or stolen? unclear) assault rifle and was coordinating with the police the entire time.

This is Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, an Illinois resident who was just charged with first-degree murder of two people last night in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This teen, whose social media history is full of misogyny and white supremacy, had easy access to an AR-15.
pic.twitter.com/OsfXzSHy5M

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 26, 2020

the kenosha vigilante shooter (a minor, it turns out, which somehow makes all of this even sadder and infuriating) was allowed to walk past the police, even after everyone was yelling that he had shot someone.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Two people were shot to death during another night of Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha in a possible vigilante attack carried out by a young white man who was caught on cellphone video opening fire in the middle of the street with a semi-automatic rifle.

“I just killed somebody,” he could be heard saying at one point Tuesday night.

Sheriff David Beth said that investigators had reviewed footage and that he was confident a suspect would be arrested soon.

The gunfire erupted just before midnight, during the third straight night of unrest in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.

“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, `‘That’s not fireworks,’” 19-year-old protester Devin Scott told the Chicago Tribune. “And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him and then he started shooting again.”

Scott said he cradled a lifeless victim in his arms, and a woman started performing CPR, but “I don’t think he made it.”

One victim was shot in the head and the other in the chest, the sheriff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A third person suffered gunshot wounds not believed to be life-threatening.

According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the young man responsible for the shootings walk past them with a rifle over his shoulder as members of the crowd were yelling for him to be arrested because he had shot people.

The sheriff told the Journal Sentinel that armed people had been patrolling the city’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the gunman was among them.

“They’re a militia,” Beth said. “They’re like a vigilante group.”

The FBI said it is assisting in the case.

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is Black, said in an interview with the news program “Democracy Now!” that the shootings were not surprising and that white militias have been ignored for too long.

“How many times across this country do you see armed gunmen, protesting, walking into state Capitols, and everybody just thinks it’s OK?” Barnes said. “People treat that like it’s some kind of normal activity that people are walking around with assault rifles.”

and then this update:

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Illinois police arrested a juvenile Wednesday after two people were shot to death during another night of Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Commander Norman Johnson of the Antioch Police Department said the suspect — a young man whose name was not released because he is under 18 — was arrested on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide.

“How many times across this country do you see armed gunmen, protesting, walking into state Capitols, and everybody just thinks it’s OK?” Barnes said. “People treat that like it’s some kind of normal activity that people are walking around with assault rifles."

this, exactly. the nightmare is that something similar to last night would happen, only with multiple militia shooters, either in a coordinated attack or a confused overdefensive reaction/firefight

It's particularly frightening to me that had this kid been in school his gun might have allowed him to take out his aggressions in an equally destructive manner. It's the guns.

oh cool they're sending in the national guard I'm sure that'll make things better

cops hanging with their buddy

I’m sorry did I just hear the Kenosha Police telling a white militia that they’re appreciated? This is a nightmare. In case you missed it, the white male walking killed 2 protestors and injured another. His name is Kyle Rittenhouse and he’s 17 years old from IL. https://t.co/noS7Q0v7xi

— Maya Jennings (@_thenamesmaya) August 26, 2020

fuck, this is about to get a lot worse.

Disgusting.

these cops are responsible for this shit from start to finish

fucking god damn pigs

kenosha county sheriff david beth 19 months ago:

During a press conference the day after the theft, Beth made comments about the five suspects, calling them a "cancer to our society" along with other remarks.

"Let's put them in jail. Let's stop them from...at least some of these males, going out and getting ten other women pregnant," the sheriff said.

"I'm tired of being politically correct. I don't think I'm saying anything that most people in society aren't thinking but they are afraid to say it," he continued. "In this country, in this community, in this state, we have to get to the point where we will no longer put up with the garbage people that fill our communities. They are a cancer to our society."

are you fucking kidding me

I agree with the garbage sherif that he is a cancer to society, rare candor

but he apologized for saying that stuff out loud though

Though Beth says did not intend to offend anyone, he realized that his comments might have.

https://www.tmz.com%2F2020%2F08%2F26%2Fvigilante-rifle-owner-cops-kenosha-wisconsin-militia-water-shooting%2F&usg=AOvVaw2LtzHiqjfn9n6Zjn1bDNtS

i fear a coordinated, larger assault during one of these protests also. it's going to happen at least once before the election. i've thought about it every time i've gone marching or been in a crowd with political leanings

I've been worried about that ever since Charlottesville.

we have nobody to fan the flames so gotta stay alive as long as we can. sadly I feel that protesters should have escape routes planned at the protest when possible. sad that it's come to not being able to trust police to actually protect you from armed assailants but.....we just can't.

s/fan/douse

Beth: "They are a cancer to our society."

similar to Michael Flynn: "This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised."

there's banal fascism and there's extremely fucking overt fascism

Avoiding the news today, but has anyone made the extremely obvious but infuriating point that the RNC just gave a national platform to a pair of assholes whose only claim to fame is pointing guns at BLM protestors?

Beth was just on TV and said nothing about the kid killing two people.

is he getting a speaking slot at the RNC or is he too young?

for non-sports knowers the Bucks and magic are in discussions to sit out their game tonite

...game is being sat out by the bucks at least

Raptors and Celtics are discussing the same thing.

Apparently the Bucks still haven't come to the court. Magic were warming up, but then they all returned to their locker room about 4 minutes before the scheduled tip-off.

two more games tonight with Oklahoma City/Houston and Lakers/Portland; i imagine what Lebron chooses tonight to do or not do could potentially shut down the playoffs.

All of today's games have officially been postponed.

that is great.

"Sports are the reward of a functioning society."

-- @janesports

It would seem the Bucks understand that better than many elected officials, if not most of them. https://t.co/3EIGlNXj0i

— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) August 26, 2020

Brewers players are meeting in 10 minutes to discuss the status of their game against the Reds tonight.

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) August 26, 2020

It's hilarious to see all the MAGA chuds (who allegedly already quit watching the NBA at least three times now over their BLM support) flipping the fuck out about their sports going away.

because underneath their bluster, they're weak, powerless fucks who for the last 4 years, have been used to getting their way.

i want to bottle their tears and then wash my asshole with them

they didn't move to Canada either time Obama won, and they create teary-eyed videos when they get fired for posting vids of themselves uttering racial epithets, they're professional victims minus the paycheck.

half expect if the NFL players actually pulled off a coup and held out their season in similar fashion, they'd be picketing outside the empty stadiums for two weeks and be screaming for an executive order that football needs to be played.

they didn't move to Canada Hungary either time Obama won

FTFY