Is America attempting to stop the killing? I must have missed a chapter. Last time I've checked Obama was mourning the police officers who were killed and no national mourning was declared for the 500-600 corpses left by the police. And last time I've checked there is also still no trial for which Arabs get to die in Middle East under drone strikes. And 95% inmates in USA have used a plea bargain, which means no trial has occurd to prove whether they were guilty or not. Did I mention the Civil Asset Forfeiture program? Did I mention that even if we right the 3 examples above, the financial imbalance means that the poorer people are not properly representated in legal situations, in votes, and in the economy?
I'm flummoxed the we, in the age of the full information, still take USA as a mere candidate when we talk about human rights. We can't compare USA to anything, their track record is too low.
1. 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed [1].
2. In the current example, the black victim didn't resist arrest.
3. Those 500-600 weren't criminals, because you can only say they're "criminal" after a fair trial (oh, sorry, that's something to do with "human rights", if only you could understand what that means).
4. "Not mourning criminals" or not treating them as humans is the primary reason why USA is not compliant with human rights. The reason why it is important to treat assumed criminals as humans is in my point #5.
5. The reason why people resist arrests is because they have absolutely no trust that the judiciary system will judge them fairly. Today, an innocent would rather die than enter the judiciary system [2].
[1] http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/
[2] Innocents are cornered into plea bargain, which is 90% of the criminal cases in USA - It means for 90% criminal cases, there was no formal proof that the accused was guilty. I know, they're black, male, muscular and poor, right!? But that doesn't mean they're guilty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain
So, once again, you "don't mourn criminals, thugs and people who reach for guns when confronted by police", except you ought to mourn the innocent, the weak and the people who are mugged by police, and you should do that because the police also does it to white people, and you have even fewer organizations to defend against that.
No, not really. I'm black so I know they're are 2 justice systems in the US.
You have expectations of police as a black man, why wouldn't they have expectations of every person they stop, based on color, shoes, accent, everything. That's part of their job. You're basically saying you're justified in having a preconceived notion of how police will treat you based on your color and theirs, yet they shouldn't? When it could save their lives? Maybe some black people (i.e. the black people who don't live in the neighborhoods where these shootings go down, but spend all their time writing posts about it on Medium), should try a different approach when they've done nothing wrong and are talking to an officer: be kind and respectful and helpful. Don't be defensive and argumentative and offended. Black people who have their shit together and got out of bad neighborhoods are not getting regularly killed by police. Come on.
I know a couple of very kind, respectful and helpful people who have been stop-and-frisked for being black and in public. They stopped visiting a mutual friend because it happened regularly traveling in his neighborhood.
They are treated differently for no fault of their own, despite being kind, respectful and helpful. There is a reason people are angry about the difference in treatment.
To give an example: When I traveled to visit a friend, I chose to stay at cheap hotel in a not so well to do area of town. I can carry my own and never felt unsafe. Apparently, the cops stake out that hotel regularly for drug deals and prostitution. I was stopped for an hour and interrogated because "Why would a white boy from out of state be staying at a place like this? Tell me about your history with prostitution. Are you _sure_ there are no drugs in your vehicle?" I was let go after my story checked out.
I felt targeted and no longer safe, because the cops had already painted a mental image of me as someone who dealt/used drugs or was involved with prostitutes and were looking for evidence to back up their presumption. I didn't feel safe leaving at night, because what if I was stopped and arrested for something I didn't do? "Why would a white boy be out at these hours in this neighborhood if he wasn't up to no good?" Those false charges would stick with me forever and I could lose my job.
I can only begin to imagine what it must feel like to be the target of actual racism with the implied assumption of being guilty until proven innocent.
> You do a great disservice to all the (and there are so many) black people out there who got educated, got good jobs, built families, and realized that most people honestly don't care what color they are, when you say that you're treated so poorly everywhere in the country. I'm sorry but it's nonsense. We have a black president for god's sake.
> Black people who have their shit together and got out of bad neighborhoods are not getting regularly killed by police. Come on.
You'll still encounter racism as a black person in America, even in the race blind techno-optimist meritocracy that is the technology sector. [0]
[0] "What interviewing for jobs feels like when you’re a black software engineer in Silicon Valley" http://qz.com/696562/what-interviewing-for-jobs-feels-like-w...
Actually, I think you understand perfectly. You gave a great example of how the way you looked and where you were and when you were there raised suspicions in people who have to be suspicious as part of their job. Why wouldn't it?! The cops were at that hotel, for a reason, and you looked out of place there. To me, it's totally reasonable. And why would you feel unsafe after that? They are trying to find the bad guys and get them off the street. You were in a bad area at a bad hotel. If someone would have tried something, they'd have been there to help you.
I was reading a Medium article by a black tech guy who was complaining about "every day I get on the metro and I'm the last one anyone wants to sit by, I'm always worried about what I'm wearing, I feel uncomfortable" -- yeah, welcome to my world, I'm white and neurotic and often I'm the last one anyone sits by too. I wonder why, is it the beard? Do I look grumpy? I'm always thinking people are looking at me, judging me. That I look weird in my clothes or something. This is totally normal. Everyone experiences these kinds of things and thoughts. I've been stopped by police too. The difference is that many black people are raised believing the police are their enemy and want to hurt them and that white people are racist. It's like Christians reading in the bible that people will mock them for their beliefs and when they're mocked they see that as proof that Christianity is true. It's confirmation bias. The way it seems to me, a police officer can't even speak to a black person these days without people assuming he's racist. So black people can assume about police, but police can't assume about black people. When I think about all the times I've been pulled over, stopped, talked to, I just think, wow, if I was black I could totally just say it was racism. I wasn't driving poorly -- he's racist!
Of course you'll encounter racism in America, no matter what color you are. Hard to believe, a lot of people hate whites! To imagine that all the police get together like mustache-twirling villains to plot ways to ruin the afternoons of normal black people walking somewhere is just preposterous. And if black people do get stopped more, then you have to wonder if it's because the cops are just totally racist or because of their experiences in the line of duty. But let's not wonder that. It's probably racism. Otherwise it would require black people and black communities having to change -- and that would be horrible and racist to even suggest.
I've already seen three or four black men killed by other black men just this morning on the Boston news, and that's just since yesterday. Nobody is out in the streets over that.
Note: I'm not American and don't live in the US.
African Americans have been killed by police, imprisoned as almost a racial policy (often resulting from petty drug offenses). So let's say there are an equal number of people killed on each side. 30 African American's in the past week (not true, but let's just make it simple) and 30 Philippine Drug Dealers.
Two wrongs. Why is America better? It is attempting to face the tragedy and stop the killing.
In the Phillipines, what is preventing somebody from killing their neighbor, and saying "he was a drug addict" with no evidence?
What 'radical progress' are you expecting from the killing of drug addicts? Unless, you consider a pile of dead bodies 'progress'. If the Phillipines were 'drug free', would that be 'radical progress'? If so, how? How would it change the rest of the country? The lives of the people?