Monday, August 31, 2020

Kenosha


The whole thing is exhausting, it really is. It just keeps happening again and again.

No matter how much protest, no matter how many op-eds are written or condemnations received, police continue to shoot or otherwise kill unarmed Black men. Used to be they only had to claim they “feared for their lives” in order to justify a shooting.

Now they’re shooting guys in the back at point-blank range in broad daylight, in front of multiple witnesses and video cameras. A guy, who wasn’t a suspect or involved with the police call in any way but as a bystander and/or commenter, turns away from police and casually walks back to his car, containing his children. Where’s the fuckin’ threat? Besides the notion that “he’s a Black guy, therefore he must have a weapon that he’s about to use.”

And he doesn’t just get shot once… the cop shoots, again, IN THE BACK, seven times! Did he think this guy was the Terminator or something?

And then, in the inevitable wake of protesting this cowardly shooting, some white kid comes in from 30 miles away with a semi-automatic rifle strapped on shoots a guy and has a casual stroll past the cops.

So, the Black guy gets shot because he “might” have a weapon in his car, the white guy gets to stroll down the street wearing an AR-15. And people wonder why there are protests. It boggles the mind.

And it especially boggles me about the lengths people are going to defend the white kid and condemn the Black guy. “Hey, they found a knife in the car!

Big freakin' deal! I have a knife in my car, does that mean that every time I get pulled over, the cops have the right to shoot me in the back too? Jacob Blake was not about to go pull a knife out of his glove box to take on a cop armed with a gun. He wasn’t drunk or high, just a father on duty. The fact that this guy was so scary that he “earned” 7 shots in the back tells you all you need to know about the Kenosha PD.

And the kid, he’s a hero now to the Right, because he took it upon himself to go to a town in which he doesn’t live, and point his gun at people who are exercising their constitutional right to assemble. And that tells you all you need to know about The Right… applauding the white guy for shooting some protesters.

Yes, these “great patriots,” who claim to revere the Constitution, are just fine with vigilante justice and civilian executions.*

*As long as none of “their” people are the ones getting killed.

Here’s a news flash: Talking back to a cop is not a death penalty offense. Neither is disobeying or disagreeing with one. Nor are traffic citations, counterfeit money-passing, unlicensed vending, carrying a knife, looting a store, or throwing a rock. I’m not saying they may not be crimes or violations, but there is a standard for punishment set up in this country and neither cops nor random incel kids looking to feel better about themselves get to decide otherwise.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if any of these “good, white, Christian, conservatives” ever had to live for a week as a Black person does every day, they’d be burning shit down by Thursday. Hell, all a Black family has to do is barbeque in the wrong place or sell lemonade on the sidewalk, and some white woman is calling 911. What happens when they come face to face with actual persecution?

I don’t see how this problem with the police ever gets solved. I know that there are good cops out there but their noble actions are getting over-shadowed. At the moment, the police unions, backed by the conservative, law-and-order, man-in-uniform fetishists, think they’re totally in the right in that every confrontation an “Us or Them” situation that warrants lethal force.

They are not going to go along with any reforms until that mindset changes. And for such a change to take hold, they’ll have to get rid of the die-hard racists, white-supremacists, and sadists who revel in kicking ass.

Or, the penalties for unwarranted violence upon detainees become life-changing enough that they become a disincentive to shoot first and ask questions later.

Good luck waiting for either of those things to happen.

Until then, Wisconsin might as well follow in Georgia’s footsteps, (as reported years ago in The Onion) and update their flag:

5 comments:

Mary said...

Spot on post. I agree completely. All this is only going to get worse. We have reached the point of no return and all because of ignorance, racism and religious nuttery

Anonymous said...

So, the Black guy gets shot because he “might” have a weapon in his car, the white guy gets to stroll down the street wearing an AR-15.

I know you're not very good with facts, being a liberal and all, but allow me to help you out.

1. Court records show Jacob Blake had a confrontation at a Racine County, Wisconsin bar that led to a combative traffic stop and a total of five criminal charges in September 2015, including resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and three gun-related ones.

2. Jacob Blake blatantly disregarded police officer instructions and instead walked away from the officers and reached into his car, where the officers were unable to see his hands or what he was grabbing for. Because of this, he was shot. Police officers don't take chances when their lives are on the line, especially with someone who has a history of resisting arrest and gun charges.

3. Kyle Rittenhouse is actually hispanic, not white. Sorry he can't play into your far-left narrative that white people are bad (it's okay to be white, by the way).

4. Yes, it's legal for a 16 or 17 year old to carry a rifle in Kenosha, thus Kyle was legally able to carry this weapon.

And the kid, he’s a hero now to the Right, because he took it upon himself to go to a town in which he doesn’t live, and point his gun at people who are exercising their constitutional right to assemble.

5. Even though Kyle didn't live in Kenosha, he actually works there, and he took part in this after getting off of work. A friend called him and asked him to help protect his business from looters.

6. Kyle was never filmed pointing his gun at anyone unprovoked.

7. Joseph Rosenbaum, the first person shot, was filmed screaming at Kyle, unprovoked, "Shoot me, n***a!" Shortly after this, he rushed Kyle and tried to take Kyle's gun away from him. This is why Joseph was shot and killed. This is called self defense.

8. At this point, Kyle fled to go flag down police and report what happened. The mob was chasing him, and Anthony Huber, the second person shot, took it upon himself to try to bash Kyle over the head with a skateboard when Kyle tripped. Kyle shot him as a result. This is also called self defense.

9. Gaige Grosskreutz, the third person shot, was shot in the bicep after approaching Kyle with a pistol in his hand. Kyle shot him, fearing that Gaige would use the pistol on him. This is also known as self defense.

10. Jacob Marshall, a friend of Grosskreutz, posted a picture with Gaige from the hospital and said that Gaige told him his only regret was not shooting and killing Kyle and "emptying the entire mag into him." Gaige was not just walking up to Kyle to have a friendly chat.

Now perhaps you can see that you've been comparing apples to oranges, and that in both cases, justice was clearly served. A person who is in the town he works at protecting a local business does not have to submit to the mob and risk his own life by not defending himself, just because it hurts your feelings, just like a man who's being ordered by the police to stop does not have the right to turn his back on them and reach for a mystery object in his car and endanger the lives of those officers, just because the officers defending themselves hurts your feelings. Race is irrelevant to all of this. Facts are your friends.

Remember, I'm not going to be here next time to do the research for you. You should do this for yourself. Read something that isn't far-left propaganda. You're smarter than this.

bluzdude said...

1) The cop didn’t know any of that yet, he just decided to jam up the black guy, while on a call about two white women fighting. And having priors does not make you eligible for street-side execution. If I was a Black man in Kenosha, I wouldn’t want to hang around cops either.

2) He wasn’t “grabbing” for anything, he was getting in his car. The cop had no right to detain this guy. Zero probable cause, just being there and being black. “Blatantly disregarded the cop’s order?” Ooh, scary. Or how about, “walked away.”

3) I have no narrative about white people being bad, just cops who shoot unarmed people in the back. And regardless of bloodline that kid is very white… sparkling white, ghostly Irish white. The other cops weren’t seeing anything in him but just another white kid on their side. And with racists, looks are everything.

4) No, it’s not legal for anyone under 18 to carry in Wisconsin. You’re probably referring to the hunting loophole that one anti-gun law attorney thinks can be bent around to this situation. Which may be correct… the kid was totally out hunting… protesters. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2020/08/26/wisconsin-open-carry-law-kyle-rittenhouse-legally-have-gun-kenosha-protest-shooting-17-year-old/3444231001/

5) There’s no data I could find, reputable or otherwise, that suggests he worked in Kenosha. I presume your alternate fact comes from an interview he gave The Guardian news website while standing in front of a damaged storefront, saying it was his job to protect retail establishments. As usual, we have a modern Republican taking a piece of information and turning it inside out to misdirect toward a more favorable narrative.

6) His being there with a semi-automatic weapon is the initial provocation. And what the videos show are people trying to disarm a killer who’s just shot someone.

7) Why would one white guy scream “shoot me n***a” at another white guy? Sounds like bullshit to me. Sounds like by trying to disarm the guy with the rifle, he was acting to save lives. Self-defense my eye. Wisconsin doesn’t have a “stand your ground” law. Shooting someone who isn’t threatening your life is still murder.

8) Huber took it upon himself to try to get the gun away from Rittenhouse, who had already killed someone, like a hero. He should have used anything he could get his hands on.

9-10) By this time, Rittenhouse had killed 2 people in full view of a crowd. All claims of self-defense are off. If there’s a classroom shooting going on and some people rush the shooter, is he now allowed to claim self-defense? People were trying to get this guy on the ground… We know that the police were no help.

The facts clearly show that white guys get to walk around Kenosha sporting high-caliber firepower and the police wave and throw them water. But a black guy, with a car full of kids, trying to break up a fight, is automatically a threat, subject to specious “orders” from a twitchy cop, and shot seven goddamn times in the back.

Nothing in your holier-than-thou screed changes that fact. Go back to Breitbart and peddle your Proud Boyz bullshit there.

RO said...

I've looked at this from pretty much every angle, and in each scenario I can find no justification for being shot in the back or even shot at 7 times, possibly paralyzed for life. There are just some things in life that should never happen. Hugs, RO

bluzdude said...

That's because there isn't any. No offense brought up by the police apologists warrant the death penalty. The only thing threatening about this guy was that he was Black.

Stay safe, RO.