Why are people burning their city to the ground in Baltimore? How doe Looting and Mob Violence Help?

by PokerPlayerPhil 184 Replies latest social current

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  Simon

  It's definitely a city in crisis

  I expect it will get much worse but lets hope for a different outcome.

  I think you'd have to be insane right now to want to be a police officer in certain cities because they do a thankless task often in no-win situations and the personal risk and liability just can't be worth the reward.

  Will things like this make good people leave? Who knows ... if they do then policing is only likely to get worse and more areas policed less.

  I'm sure that would suit some elements of society just fine but I doubt it would be good for the majority of decent folk.
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  adjusted knowledge

  Online court records list the race of three of the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case as black and list the three others in the broad category of "white, Caucasian, Asiatic Indian, Arab" without specifying.

  The above I was not aware of. So basically 3 black cops, 2 other minority cops, and 1 white cop.
  
• 

  PokerPlayerPhil

  I don't think violent protest will solve anything either, fear never producing the outcome we all desire because one group will suffer. I am speaking about a protest, a grassroots movement coordinated by people who are trust worthy because these bums in office need a tossing out the door. Have your grandpa give you his signs from his teenage years that read "Throw All the Bums Out of Office!", they had those signs and stood out in front of their Reps offices and things got done. Something broke back when Rodney King was beaten to a pulp, it's been building like a slow growing cancer that's fully metastasized and now we noticed the symptoms finally. The Media helps by bringing it to our attention, it's not like they really care or want change, Fox News sure don't care how African Americans are. Fox News only cares how their Rich Patrons are, not the poor members struggling to make a living.

  Simon you post about this being a issue of "rich vs poor" and not "black vs white" is so correct and people with run in's with the law since childhood nailed it! What can we do to change people who might get voted in under the promise of "Change" and nothing happens because their happy to wine and dine on the tax-payer's cash while being suited by Corporate America? What can we do besides feel powerless, if numbers from the WSJ and Bloomberg are true, the average household in the United States has less than $8000 in assets that can be readily turn to cash.

  On another thread it's time to share another problem impacting the poor community being screwed out of their hard earned cash. Their parasites taking advantage of people who can't afford the costs yet have no choice but use their services.
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  recovering

  6 hours ago

  Online court records list the race of three of the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case as black and list the three others in the broad category of "white, Caucasian, Asiatic Indian, Arab" without specifying.

  The above I was not aware of. So basically 3 black cops, 2 other minority cops, and 1 white cop.

  I was aware and again I say this was not a racial incident. This was another example of the police attitude towards the citizenry in the US. They have an us against them mentality . To the police every citizen is a potential felon and as such are treated with disrespect.
• 

  Simon

  I was aware and again I say this was not a racial incident. This was another example of the police attitude towards the citizenry in the US. They have an us against them mentality . To the police every citizen is a potential felon and as such are treated with disrespect.

  So if a black cop is involved "it isn't about race" but if it's a white cop then it is?

  That seems to be the sum of it and I think it shows up how claims of racial motivation that are typically made and claimed in previous incidents should not be tolerated.

  It's racism if there is evidence of racism. If there isn't then it shouldn't be suggested.

  You know what is racist? Rioters and looters bypassing black owned businesses and targeting non-black owned ones or people in power claiming that they will get justice because of their color. Can you imagine the outcry if a white claimed such things?!
• 

  Billyblobber

  Yes, race becomes a quick and convenient proxy to judge class and affluence which can easily be confused with racism when it isn't even though the bias appears to be against a race.
  
  But...that is racism. Stereotyping someone because of their race/ethnicity is racism. If a cop sees a black or hispanic person and makes a default gut assumption that they're more dangerous, and/or treats them differently because of race based assumptions, it's racism, because they're stereotyping based on skin color. That's one of the big problems with police in America (regardless of the race of the officer in question).

  People often conflate things like racism and sexism with assumptions that it's calling someone a "bad person" by doing so. This is not true at all, in fact, almost everyone probably has aspects of racial or sexual bias somewhere, it's almost unavoidable because of humans evolving to classify things by gut, based on what they see and experienced previously.

  The problem, and what people try to fight, is when this happens in a way that widely negatively affects people. When you have an institution like the police , making snap gut decisions based on what someone looks like, it can unfairly screw over people, and results in skewed treatment among large groups of people. That is what needs to be fixed.
  
  This individual case in Baltimore has nothing in it where there can be a clear "they did this because of him being black" issue though. Him being black led to the position in which he was in (given the history of Baltimore and why so many black people are the underclass there), which can segue into the larger narrative, but this is not something that I would place more on a horribly run and managed police department as opposed to racial lines.
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  Unions have been the entity protesting against economic injustice and they have done it for the last 100 years. Yet, now due to a smear campaign from the right and a historic distaste in the south, people have just been willing to let their voice go unheard in the legally protected avenue that they do have.

  In response to union members fighting for better wages, people complain that union members are overpaid! Can you imagine the amount of propaganda that allows people who make less be angry towards people who have fought, often at risk of their own livlihood to get a fair share of the pie? It boggles the mind.

  Folks don't realize that wages have been stagnant for years and now due to inflation, people are actually making less in inflation injusted wages than they were a few years ago.

  Right wing propaganda has done a pretty good job of convincing some folks to not bite the hand that feeds you. If they have to raise wages, they will have to lay others off. This is flatly Bullshit. There are plenty of business models around that, unsurprisingly, manage to turn a profit while paying decent wages. When your company profits are in the high millions or billions, I'm simply calling Bullshit.

  The biggest piece of propaganda, though, is the pulling of the wool over the eyes of workers by convincing them they are part of the middle class when they are not. If you make 25k, you are not middle class. You may have been 15 years ago, but if your wages haven't risen and inflation had, you're poor, folks! And to add insult to injury, your CEO has made even more in relation to inflation.

  This is the widening gap between rich and poor, right here! You are getting less of the pie and your boss is getting more. No amount of protesting that if you want better wages then get a better job will change the fact that this is happening across all strata of jobs and industries.

  So, yes, American worker, you are getting screwed, but people who stand up for themselves peaceably are reviled and are the target of much vitriol from their fellow Americans who are also getting screwed!
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  GrreatTeacher

  I don't know how I managed to highlight the last part of my comment, but it is not a quote. Those are my words. The most important ones, actually.
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  adjusted knowledge

  " If you make 25k, you are not middle class. You may have been 15 years ago, but if your wages haven't risen and inflation had, you're poor, folks! And to add insult to injury, your CEO has made even more in relation to inflation."

  When I was 18 yrs old my goal was to make 50k and thought I would be set. I'm sure plenty of people can budget better than me but I make quite a bit more than 50k, and I have difficulty thinking I'm middle class at times. I've worked in retail my entire career, and cognitive of prices. Food prices have double and triple in the last twenty years, and wages have not. In addition to food prices doubling in price, the actual size of the containers have shrunk. I had so much difficulty at 18 trying to survive at $9 an hour. That was twenty years ago. It is impossible to do it now without government assistance, or roommates/family.
  
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  GrreatTeacher

  Yes, $25K is about $12.50 an hour. This is waay above minimum wage. And, it's enough to make you what? Poor. Yes, folks, poor.