America

[Puja]

Today, I learned about Elijah McClain. He was killed in Colorado, August 2019, because the police thought he looked suspicious walking down the street. The police wanted to search him, he had a panic attack, so they choked him out (twice), punched and kicked him, then called for backup and were "helped" by a firefighter medic who injected him with 500mg ketamine to sedate him. Mr McClain was an absolute beast of a man at 5ft7, so I can understand why everyone was so terrified. He stopped breathing shortly after that and never regained consciousness.

The police who did that weren't even fired, let alone charged with murder.

His case is no being "re-examined" by the Colorado governor's office, which is something that was patently not going to happen until his name recently became mainstream news and a touchstone for protests that shut down several highways in Colorado.

He was noted for playing the violin at the animal shelter where he volunteered, so there's been a few vigils of violin playing around the country, including this one in Atlanta, which the APD reacted to by bringing in riot-gear equipped police and tear-gassing the crowd.



Puja

[morepork]

Pachabel in D-minor. Can’t get mad at that, Shirley?

[Puja]

Pachabel in D-minor. Can’t get mad at that, Shirley?

Well, that just calls for an internet classic just to lighten the mood:



Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Oh, are we doing levity now?

[Puja]

Today, I learned about Elijah McClain. He was killed in Colorado, August 2019, because the police thought he looked suspicious walking down the street. The police wanted to search him, he had a panic attack, so they choked him out (twice), punched and kicked him, then called for backup and were "helped" by a firefighter medic who injected him with 500mg ketamine to sedate him. Mr McClain was an absolute beast of a man at 5ft7, so I can understand why everyone was so terrified. He stopped breathing shortly after that and never regained consciousness.

The police who did that weren't even fired, let alone charged with murder.

His case is no being "re-examined" by the Colorado governor's office, which is something that was patently not going to happen until his name recently became mainstream news and a touchstone for protests that shut down several highways in Colorado.

He was noted for playing the violin at the animal shelter where he volunteered, so there's been a few vigils of violin playing around the country, including this one in Atlanta, which the APD reacted to by bringing in riot-gear equipped police and tear-gassing the crowd.



Puja

And a view from the other side of the violin vigil where the chemical weaponry was actually being deployed. This is fucking appalling.



Puja

[morepork]

That is totally fucking unacceptable.

[Mikey Brown]

It feels now like a lot of those things that were ‘undermining the cause’ have died down, the violent tagger-onners have reduced, the protests are so well co-ordinated and documented with people going to great lengths to distribute masks, sanitizer etc. Basically a huge number doing what was asked of them by those who “supported them in theory” but couldn’t stomach innocent statues and shop windows taking damage.

What is it they are meant to do now to see action? Is it still just go to the polls?

Is this just incredibly selective news/footage that I am still seeing? The media losing interest? Blaming this COVID uptick entirely on the protests certainly seems popular, as if that was ever going to be in doubt, maybe that is mission accomplished?

[Digby]

It's utterly disgraceful, that's not just failing at being a police officer that's failing at being human

[Digby]

What is it they are meant to do now to see action? Is it still just go to the polls?

Not just go to the polls, but certainly do vote.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Pachabel in D-minor. Can’t get mad at that, Shirley?

Well, that just calls for an internet classic just to lighten the mood:



Puja

Pah. Nowhere near as good as...

[Puja]

Pachabel in D-minor. Can’t get mad at that, Shirley?

Well, that just calls for an internet classic just to lighten the mood:



Puja

Pah. Nowhere near as good as...

That is superb.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Nothing sinister here at all:

tonight in #ColumbusOhio we watched an unmarked black van take an unarmed black man on the sidewalk. Columbus police were driving in front and behind the van. The guy vanished and we don’t know who he was. KEEP YOUR EYES OUT & BE SAFE #columbusprotest

[Digby]

A US woman has been shot while trying to remove a Nazi flag from someone's front yard in the state of Oklahoma.
Garfield County Sheriff's office said the woman had been at a party nearby when she took one of two flags being flown outside Alexander Feaster's home.
Mr Feaster, 44, then reportedly shot her in the back with a semi-automatic rifle as she ran away.
The 26-year-old woman is expected to recover from her injuries and Mr Feaster is being held in custody.
Sherriff Jody Helm said the woman was found lying in a ditch with four gunshot wounds after deputies responded to a call early on Sunday morning.
Sherriff Helm initially suggested the woman had tried to steal the swastika-emblazoned flag for a dare, but in an interview with NBC News she said there was "conflicting information" surrounding the woman's motive.
An affidavit seen by NBC News says "several" cameras at Mr Feaster's home show he fired on the woman "without warning". A neighbour then moved a red pickup truck near the home to serve as a barricade, and a witness trained a rifle on the property as a precaution while waiting for deputies to arrive.
Mr Feaster was later taken into custody without incident. He has been charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and shooting with intent to kill, and is due to appear in court on 9 July.
A neighbour told local radio KFOR that he had been flying the flags for around a year, and they had been snatched from his home a few times in the past. They added that he would occasionally dress up in black uniform with a red swastika armband - an outfit reminiscent of Nazi SS uniforms. But he was said to mostly keep to himself.
Another woman and friend of the victim said there had been "no problems" with Mr Feaster before, but that his flags were a cause for concern.
"I feel like these flags are a disaster waiting to happen," she told the Enid News and Eagle.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53247757


Very fine people, the best

[Mikey Brown]

Well, if those weren't cheery enough for you.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/tearful-plea- ... itter_abcn

Rolfe's defense attorneys expressed appreciation in a message to the Georgia Law Enforcement Organization, a statewide nonprofit law enforcement support group, for "collecting thousands of donations" to help Rolfe mount of defense against "these wrongful allegations and to cover his personal expenses," according to the group's website. So many donations were collected that Rolfe's attorneys asked the group to pause the fundraiser "in order to support other officers in need."

Who are the people that are so desperate to donate to this guy? I just don't get it.

[morepork]

So much wrong with so many people. A (white) community initiative to promote qualified immunity for an organization that deems it reasonable that death be an appropriate outcome in an interaction with authority and someone passed out outside of a fast food facility. But how about those poor statues?

[Puja]

Not really a good place to put this, but it's statue-based so it's here:



And doubling down on the lies:

FB_IMG_1593629129677.jpg

Our press is the worst.

Puja

[morepork]

Seriously, fuck statues. Total distraction.

[Puja]

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/34 ... wners-clay

Lolwut

Puja

[morepork]

Yeah, a law enforcement official using public office to promote a narrative that can politely defined as inflammatory. No systematic problem here, move along. Stand your ground Florida, you be ‘aiight. If it wasn’t for the Cubans , the Everglades and the fantastic scuba diving in the Keys, it would be fuck Florida through and through.

#fuck statues

[Mikey Brown]

Damn. I’d read about this part but actually seeing it is something else.



What is it about this system that breeds/nurtures sociopaths in this way? Is it just the size of the country and the extent of the media coverage that makes the number of incidents like this stand out? Is this just what happens to normal when given this kind of power?

This demented obsession with guns, the military, a notion of patriotism/justice/honour that exists purely to justify lethal force, seems to run so deep in so many.

I certainly don’t think this sort of thing is unique to America, not even close, but it still feels like the US view themselves as the standard bearers of modern, civilised, free society.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I certainly don’t think this sort of thing is unique to America, not even close, but it still feels like the US view themselves as the standard bearers of modern, civilised, free society.

There's a strong correlation between thinking you're the best and behaving like an arsehole.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Damn. I’d read about this part but actually seeing it is something else.



What is it about this system that breeds/nurtures sociopaths in this way? Is it just the size of the country and the extent of the media coverage that makes the number of incidents like this stand out? Is this just what happens to normal when given this kind of power?

This demented obsession with guns, the military, a notion of patriotism/justice/honour that exists purely to justify lethal force, seems to run so deep in so many.

I certainly don’t think this sort of thing is unique to America, not even close, but it still feels like the US view themselves as the standard bearers of modern, civilised, free society.

It's a complete lack of accountability. That's why the policing discussion here and in the States should be absolutely poles apart. Our system of accountability is pretty sophisticated. There's is non-existent.

[morepork]

[Mikey Brown]

Umm...



Seen enough of these now to think it isn’t just some freak of occurrence.

[morepork]

Are these surfacing on social media only?