stilldropin20 wrote:let me quickly say this as a quick thought in regard to police brutality.
i recently lived in the Beverly neighborhood of chicago and grew up in pullman. Both are surrounded by chicago's toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods. Blocks away!! And one of my dental practices is on the southside near both. These are south side chicago neighborhoods. The north end of beverly is like 8 blocks away from the south end of west englewood. Englewood is where a lot of the shootings and murder occur in chicago. Obama's neighborhood (hyde park) is directly to the northeast is to the East of englewood. Beverly itself is safe. very safe. great schools. All the "higher up" police and firefighter live there. As well as city judges and officials. Same for Hyde Park. So people "with money" live right next to englewood. yet we have virtually no crime. and kids are killing each other blocks away?? How does this happen!? In practically Obama's back yard!!?? No seriosuly, literally his back yard.
At my office, I accept the city of chicago and state of illinois medical and dental insurance so I see about 4,000 police officers and their families. 90% or more of which are african american. And we talk about these issues every day. they mostly talk i listen. and I get involved and help where I can-which is often. this is my neighborhood, my home, my friends, and what I consider my people, despite differences in race. I grew up here.
For starters, the police officers all nearly all support trump. to a man. to a wife. They dont like his optics just like I dont. But they believe in law and order. And when we have a problem, we call the police and ask them to put their lives on the line for us. Let me say that again: They put their lives on the line for the rest of us and they nearly all support trump. Again, high 90 percentile are african american. In fact, only one police officer opposes trump at my office-and he is white!!! out of nearly 4,000!!! Its not a small sample. And these guys ahve been around. 30 years or more on the force. Have worked the mayors detail and even the presidents detail. for years. not just the rank and file here. This is beverly I'm talking about.
In a nut shell, here's what they tell me about chicago's murder problem and how it relates to "police brutality."
1. In the 1990's there was a case where a police officer was within her(female) right to protect herself while responding to a "shots fired" call. but was thrown under the bus by a far left DA trying to make a political career for himself (wont mention any names here)-but yeah, he's a politician now. go figure. CPD (and therefore the city)had a large payout. and mayor Daley had enough. he threw his hands up and said(in so many words), "if you dont want us to police, we wont police." That message worked its way down the line to the officer on the street. basically, the overall message to police officers (in chicago) is that we dont want police (to police) anymore. we want referees. Dont touch. dont impede cuz that requires touching. dont really get involved. and definitely dont arrest cuz again they might include some uncomfortable touching.
So the police officers just dont "take the calls." or they dont "arrive quickly" while the perpetrators on are still at the scene. and why on earth would they? they are not allowed to protect themselves when they arrive on scene. not really allowed to arrest. not really allowed to find the "bad guys." again, these are african american police officers responding to calls in african american neighborhoods. Not only is their life at major risk but if they manage to survive a shift with their life, a massive amount of paperwork remains if they engage the public. This paperwork and their careers are now under tremendous scrutiny. They can get fired at any point. Or completely embarrassed. Video's are edited to tell a story supporting a narrative instead of telling the truth.
so the perpetrators on the streets understand that they kind of have free reign. and they are fighting over drug turf with each other. we got kids(11-16 years old) on the streets fighting over $50 per day drug turf. as I said multiple times. We are literally fighting over "scraps." an din englewood, chicago, killing each other over it. While large "corporate" international Drug cartels are raking in hundreds of millions, though. its a travesty. We can't police it on out streets. and our "corporate owned ruling class controlled" politicians wont stop the drugs from coming in the country...even though we declared "war" in drugs in the 80's. Which gave congress full use of the military to fight international drug traffickers. Why cant out military stop this? combined with the DEA, et al? Dont forget, I'm former Navy. and held a TS SI SCI clearence. the answer here is we can easily stop the drugs, but it is expensive.
So there is a flip side here to this issue of police brutality.
and once again it ignored the real issue.
The real issue is that institutional slavery and then racism destroyed the african american family in a lot of inner cities. remember way back when 2 pages ago when i said 2 things matter? tAgain, hose 2 things are generational wealth and generational knowledge. Slavery and racism has robbed the african american community from a lot of their generational knowledge that gets passed down from gen. to gen. the kind of knowledge a father and mother learns from their father and mother and passes on. not some spun up narrative on TV to make you think and feel a certain way. The kind of knowledge that helps you not only survive but thrive. And thats the real issue. that is where we need to start. Thats what the US government and all us need to repair and rebuild. rebuild the african american family and the community. Provide real opportunity, security, let the imagination grow. teach self love, self respect. so that we can all love and respect each other. thats how we fix relationships with the police. Not by taking away the police's ability to "police."
when a police officer leaves his/her house for work. he/she has one job first and forement. and that is to come home to his/her wife and children to provide the security and generational knowledge to his/her own children. we must understand the mind of the police officer.
now i'm not talking about nor addressing any bad apple racists jackass cops that make up less than .01% of any given police force that makes the other 99.99% look really bad. Those jerks can rot in jail and then be killed in a barbaric way.
Here's a question: you far-left-liberals dont think these african american police officers dont want to get these kids off of a life of crime???? Make their own streets safer? help these kids that live 4 blocks away or on the same damn block sometimes? help them to a better life? These police officers grew up on these city blocks. Just like I did.
let me assure you that they are heart broken over this. Like me, they dont like supporting donald effin trump, even just the optics of if it. But they understand that law and order is a necessary beginning to fix and repair our poorest communities. and they need a guy that supports them. we might know more about this than what you've been misinformed by CNN to know.
And these police officers on the streets of englewood and the wild 100's know far more about these complex issues than Colin kaepernick will ever know.
You seem to be a nice guy in a lot of ways, & I think your heart is in the right place. & of course there is a place for your experience & for your expression of what you think it means.
But to be honest you don't seem to know a single thing outside the inevitably narrow circle of what you've experienced. As well, you seem either incapable of, or (more likely) uninterested in, doing the investigation and reading and more that would be required to put yourself in a position to say something that takes what you experience and contextualizes it, along with other facts & other people's experience, in a way that would makes it cogent or even useful.
For that reason, even when you point out an obvious truth (e.g. your observation on "slavery & institutional racism") you can't marshall it to contribute to any logical or otherwise sensible argument. Instead, you just yell one contradictory thing after another -- a great example would be your saying on the one hand that you support Trump, we need someone like him, & on the other hand proposing that we enact stringent taxes on the rich. Do you think that's what Trump wants or intends to do? Obviously not.
That's just a single example, one that jumps to mind, out of dozens -- they fill your posts. Alas, they make it impossible to take what you write seriously.
&, of course, they simply make you look like a dope when you write with utter certainty about matters of which you know nothing at all -- e.g. what Colin Kaepernick does or doesn't understand about racism or the black experience. If you want to read someone who knows what to do with his lack of understanding, just read the long piece a teammate wrote Kaepernick, the one Zonk quotes.
Finally, everyone here has the right to their opinion & to express it. But, man, you have really been going on. Dominating the proceedings. It's not my place to tell you to back off, but I will say that it would be a relief.
