From the Jill2016 website:
Stein/Baraka statement on the death of Keith Lamont Scott and protests in Charlotte, NC – the demand is simple: stop the killing.
Our hearts are breaking once again. Keith Lamont Scott, a disabled father of seven, was reportedly killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina yesterday while sitting in a car reading a book. This gut-wrenching incident follows the death of Terence Crutcher earlier this week, who was killed by police with his hands up next to his car.
The community response in Charlotte is an understandable expression of anguish and represents the unmet demand for justice.
We stand behind the ongoing call of the Black Lives Matter movement to end the epidemic of police violence that continues to murder thousands of Black men, women and children across this country. This is a human rights crisis, and a moment of reckoning for the soul of our nation.
We must have the courage to face the reality that the exploitation of Black bodies was literally built into the fabric of our nation. The Stein/Baraka campaign calls for the Department of Justice to end the impunity of police officers who violate the most precious human right that all of us have – right to life. The Federal government has an objective requirement to protect and fulfill the fundamental human rights of every person who lives in this country, an obligation that it has consistently failed to meet. We call for the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission so we can publicly confront the living legacy of the criminal institution of slavery and its role in the ongoing culture of violence in America.
We repeat our calls to demilitarize the police, to replace confrontation with de-escalation, and to establish community control over local law enforcement. We call for the urgent implementation of training programs for non-violent approaches to policing. In Richmond, California, incidents of police violence have been greatly reduced by using these simple, common sense approaches.
State-sanctioned violence is endemic in a society that normalizes racialized oppression. A badge should not be a license to kill with impunity. The Stein/Baraka campaign is committed to ending the daily nightmare of police harassment, assaults, and murders of Black people in the United States.
This does not negate the fact that there are others of all demographics being shot or injured unnecessarily by police, but it is the frequency of incidents involving blacks that is ridiculously disproportionate.
So, if the number of black people shot stayed the same, but people of other races were shot at a higher rate, so that the number of blacks shot weren’t so “disproportionate” to the other races, that would be an improvement? Yes or no?
Langa, your hypothetical doesn’t matter because it’s not the case. The shootings of black men by police (whether resulting in death or not) happens at a disgustingly high rate. This does not negate the fact that there are others of all demographics being shot or injured unnecessarily by police, but it is the frequency of incidents involving blacks that is ridiculously disproportionate.
Your previous hypothetical about rape was not only ridiculous, but apples to oranges.
…the number of African Americans murdered by the police is a larger percentage of their percent of the population than the number of white people murdered by the police as compared to their percentage of the population.
Yes, I fully understand that. What I don’t understand is why people fixate on that fact. You already chickened out of answering the first hypothetical I gave you, so let’s see if you duck this one as well: Imagine that the police continued to murder the exact same number of people, or even more people. However, they changed the demographic makeup of the victims to exactly match that of the general population. Do you think this would “solve” the problem? It would eliminate the racism, and according to you, that matters more than the actual murders, right?
langa, you are purposefully obfuscating. Let’s stick to facts. The number of white people is the majority percentage of the population. African Americans are a minority percentage of the population. And the number of African Americans murdered by the police is a larger percentage of their percent of the population than the number of white people murdered by the police as compared to their percentage of the population. Do you acknowledge this?
This fact does not diminish the murders by police of white people. I am saying that as a percentage of the population more African Americans are murdered by the police than white people. Do you see the math?
I’m pretty sure the “murder” by police of gang members by police occurs at a higher rate than their percentage, demographically. Is that a problem that must be corrected? Are police being unfair towards gang members?
It drives me crazy when people when people bring that up, as if those of us concerned about the murder of blacks by police don’t also care about the murder of whites by police, and the murder of blacks by blacks.
It’s kind of like screaming “what about the other countries?” when someone mentions not giving money to Israel anymore. Yeah, let’s not give money to any other country. I don’t stop and give disclaimers when I converse with someone.
“The murder by police of African Americans by police occurs at a higher rate then their percentage, demographically. Simple as that.”
I’m pretty sure the “murder” by police of gang members by police occurs at a higher rate than their percentage, demographically. Is that a problem that must be corrected? Are police being unfair towards gang members?
If a demographic, racial or otherwise, is more likely to commit crimes, then there will be (as a result) correspondingly more people in that demographic killed by police. Simple as that. And, in large part due to the demographic generally being worse off economically, a higher percentage of African Americans commit crimes than whites do (at least of the type that would cause potential police confrontations, i.e. robbery is more likely to result in a police shooting than embezzlement).
And if we want to play the statistics card… have you ever looked at the percentage of police shootings that are of Asians versus their percentage of the population? But no one ever complains that the police are unfairly biased against whites compared to Asians.
I’m not saying there’s never a racial component to cop shootings, but you can’t just throw out the demographic percentage claim and somehow act like that proves anything.
You guys are missing the point. Perhaps an analogy will help. Let’s say there was a town where 95% of the white women had been raped, and 50% of the black women had been raped (or vice versa). Would you say that this town has a “racism problem” or a “rape problem”?
ugh. a socialist saying he is voting for Johnson / Weld . . . . the purist libertarians are going to go crazy . . lets hope Andy doesn’t see that post! His conspiracy tin hat will start to heat up
I don’t post on weekends, so have a great weekend. Nice back and forth
Disarming certain elements of the police, yes. Demilitarizing the police entirely, yes. The state still needs some armed law enforcement capacity. imo
But I think it may be more important to purge the police of racists and those with power/control issues.
I agree w/ Tony that more stringent psychological scrutiny of police recruits is important. I would even say that the fifty states should supervise a federal program that would seek out and scrutinize police recruits. I think the most dangerous situations for police is dealing with armed men in a domestic violence situation. Especially when booze is involved.
I’m against overall disarming of citizens. But I do think people involved in domestic disputes should legally be disarmed of firearms, until that situation is completely resolved. If I’m remembering right, death or injury by firearms in a domestic situation is where most people killed or injured by a discharged firearm occurs.
But this still does not sort out the racial/ethnic problems. As a socialist I see a role for the “state” re funding and directing policies/programs that could level out development and wealth between the white majority and African Americans.
I think it is well worth noting that the predominant users of social services funded by the government are poor and working class white people. So talk of a “welare state” as the root of racial disparities and problems in the US is complete bs.
That said, I am still voting for Johnson/Weld because I think they have the best chance of breakimg the political duopoly in the US.
I agree with just about everything Deran said, but I hope he is not suggesting disarming police. All the regulars on this board know how much I despise guns and that I have a different interpretation of the 2nd amendment (although, if I do say so myself . . its the correct one!) 🙂 However, disarming the police is not the answer.
Better personality analysis and psyche screenings could be a good start. My long time in the criminal justice system taught me that there is a certain mindset and personality type that pervades that profession – it is not ALL of them . . . but a rather large portion.
The problem w/ langa’s analysis is that on one hand yes the role of state armed power is dangerous to us all, but the problem with white men’s “color blindness” is math. The murder by police of African Americans by police occurs at a higher rate then their percentage, demographically. Simple as that.
Consequently, white people being dismissive of the untoward rate of murders by police of African American can be seen as racist.
Of course armed state power is a danger that needs to be reigned in. But the murder by said armed state power of African American men is a singular statistical fact.
It seems toe that the history of our republic makes clear that we have not dealt with our now African American population.
I only agree partially with you Lange. In 2015 there were at least 102 shooting deaths of unarmed black citizens. While it is true that only two were prosecuted and only one was convicted (and served his time on weekends), the fact remains that the percentage of blacks killed by police is so much incredibly higher than the percentage of blacks in the general population.
The Tulsa incident just would not have happened if that man were white. That’s just realism. One cop shot his taser while the other shot a gun at his chest. Even if he was reaching toward his vehicle, the taser was the way to go – and even that was disproportionate to the “danger” of the situation.
You really think that black citizens want to “preserve the status quo?” Really? They are the ones doing the “framing.”
The reason why it has been recently framed as a racial issue is because it usually IS a racial issue! How many videos do we need to see of men doing nothing wrong and often with their hands up before some people finally concede that race just might have something to do with this? The one from a few months ago of the man SITTING ON THE GROUND WITH HIS HANDS UP but still shot – what the hell?? Thankfully he was not killed.
Once that is accepted as PART of the problem (not the entire problem), maybe some progress can be made.
Focusing on the demographic characteristics of the victims blinds us to the root cause of police violence, which is that the police have been given far too much authority, and are virtually never held accountable when they abuse that authority. Unless and until this is acknowledged and corrected, the problem will persist, even if you fire every racist cop in America and replace them with non-racist cops.
Of course, the reason why it is so frequently framed as a racial issue is because the people doing the framing have no interest in solving the problem. On the contrary, their interest is in preserving the status quo, and what better way to do that than to convince people that it’s a simple case of black vs. white, and not a case of the whole system being rotten to the core.
So how should the problem be “framed” if it’s overwhelmingly black citizens being shot and killed by police?
Police violence is indeed a major problem in this country. Unfortunately, framing the problem as primarily racial in nature basically guarantees that it will not be solved. The Establishment knows this, and this is why they insist on treating it as a racial issue. It’s just one more example of the “divide and conquer” strategy that the ruling class employs to keep any opposition to them distracted, and thus, impotent.
This is a very important issue for me also. Having been “involved” in the criminal justice system, there is a certain mindset and personality type that goes into that line of work (NOT ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) that lends itself to an “act first think later” mentality.
It needs to stop. There needs to be better psyche screenings before hiring. There needs to be more sensitivity training. There needs to be more training about how to shoot to incapacitate if necessary.
There also needs to be something done to change the “gun glorification” culture. I am not making my usual gun regulation argument here, so calm down Libertarians. I just mean that in certain segments of our society guns are a status symbol and that needs to change. Cops can be understandably antsy if they think every person they are dealing with could be armed . . .
I don’t understand why everyone in this country isn’t outraged by these shootings. It is NOT okay for cops to just shoot, then ask questions later. This includes the shootings of family pets.
I know police here in Ca re among the worst in the country, but this is just not acceptable.
The fact that Dr. Stein speaks out about this is yet another reason I may vote for her over Johnson.