[Tiste Simeon]

Chauvin convicted on all counts! Reason to hope for long lasting change?

[Malankazooie]

Chauvin still has to be sentenced, but that's a relief. Hopefully it will stay calm (or calmer) in the state of many lakes.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Malankazooie, on 20 April 2021 - 09:23 PM, said:

Chauvin still has to be sentenced, but that's a relief. Hopefully it will stay calm (or calmer) in the state of many lakes.

Bear in mind... 'The judge presiding over Derek Chauvin’s murder trial suggested [...] Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) call for protesters to “get more confrontational” if the former cop is let off the hook could lead to the verdict being overturned.

“Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” [...] The shocking comment came after [the judge] denied Nelson’s motion for a mistrial, in which the defense attorney cited the lawmaker’s comments over the weekend.'


https://www.thedaily...=cheats&via=rss

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Tiste Simeon, on 20 April 2021 - 09:19 PM, said:

Chauvin convicted on all counts! Reason to hope for long lasting change?

I'm not holding my breath. 538 has a reasonable article on that possibility.

https://fivethirtyei...olice-violence/

[Cause]

Not sure where to post this. Here seems closest

So best director went to Chloe zhao, only the second women in Oscar history and Asian American too which the headlines I first saw all made a point to mention. With protests in pst years, the introduction of diversity quotas (though I don’t think they are in effect yet) I have to admit the very first thought that crossed my mind was did the oscars do this for politics?

Just curious to hear you’re thoughts. I’ll be upfront and admit I haven’t seen the movie so I can’t comment on it’s worth. I also know that the Oscar have always had an element of behind the sacenes dealing, propaganda campaigns backing movies etc.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 26 April 2021 - 11:04 PM, said:

Not sure where to post this. Here seems closest

So best director went to Chloe zhao, only the second women in Oscar history and Asian American too which the headlines I first saw all made a point to mention. With protests in pst years, the introduction of diversity quotas (though I don't think they are in effect yet) I have to admit the very first thought that crossed my mind was did the oscars do this for politics?

Just curious to hear you're thoughts. I'll be upfront and admit I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on it's worth. I also know that the Oscar have always had an element of behind the sacenes dealing, propaganda campaigns backing movies etc.

Probably not. Nomadland is critically acclaimed, and Chadwick Boseman didn't win best actor....

[Malankazooie]

ooof, that decision to announce the Best Actor award last blew up in their faces. The Best Movie is always the last category. Has it ever been different in past Academy Award presentations?

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 27 April 2021 - 05:40 AM

[Malankazooie]

1A recently had a show about the medieval period in relation to racists and Marjorie Taylor Green's Anglo-Saxon political traditions outlined in her America First caucus. Interesting listen if you have some time.

https://the1a.org/se...dieval-history/

https://open.spotify...N8ZmfKrjjTvATeK

[Malankazooie]

One year since George Floyd. Where do you think we're at?

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Support for BLM peaked last summer, and is back down close to where it was prior to Floyd's death. Few reforms have been implemented, and nobody knows if the ones implemented will have a positive effect, so not much has really changed.

FiveThirtyEight has a decent article on this. https://fivethirtyei...d-was-murdered/

Most surprising to me was the comment that there have only been six days this year were a civilian wasn't killed by a police officer.

[amphibian]

Black Lives Matter has at its general core a pursuit of justice, a pursuit of true equality, and of getting cities and towns to move away from "enable the police" to "find social workers, mental health support, programs to assist people etc".

Some progress has been made, but it is incredibly hard and grinding work to convince city councils and mayors to shift funding away from the police. I know this intimately because I've been trying to do this with a good group of people since about August last year.

One of the challenges is that there's a media narrative that is bolstered by Republicans and the police that "crime drives elections". If a council member or mayor goes against the police, crime numbers will rise and the narrative gets activated for someone who will happily feed the police more money and more power. I've been accumulating lengthy studies and stories of cities that funded social workers instead of police and how that turned out to be wildly successful where implemented.

In terms of justice, I think Chauvin's conviction was a big thing. Yet... it's not enough and several dozen other horrible deaths and injuries happened since then and it's enraging people in a way that is burning them out and/or pulling them into community action or other things.

One thing that I keep running into is just how bad the American police are at solving murders, at solving property crimes, or at solving sexual assault crimes. The rates are extremely low for wealthy nations and we keep giving them more money, more lethal equipment, and often let them get away with maiming and murdering the people they're sworn to protect.

The struggle goes on...

[Maark Abbott]

amphibian, on 26 May 2021 - 02:01 AM, said:

One thing that I keep running into is just how bad the American police are at solving murders, at solving property crimes, or at solving sexual assault crimes. The rates are extremely low for wealthy nations and we keep giving them more money, more lethal equipment, and often let them get away with maiming and murdering the people they're sworn to protect.

The struggle goes on...

I'm minded more and more that what they're sworn to protect is only the interests of the wealthy / ruling class, and everyone else can get to hell. The little people, the workers, they don't matter.

[amphibian]

I don't think the police actively go into the academy wanting to protect the interests of the wealthy. It just ends up that way for so many officers because doing that is the easiest course of action - to act as a deterrent to people attempting to harm the property of the wealthy doesn't require much paperwork or investigation or dealing with complex human dynamics/emotions/systems.


The attitude of American police has diverged massively from police in many other places. One thing that continually shines through Tiste Simeon's posts is just how human he is, how much he cares about other people, and that while he has rough times on the job or in his life, there's an attitude that it'll be ok. I see people who I know that are family of police go on sharing memes that genuinely position the people as war-time enemies of police or as batshit insane, violent people that the police grudgingly deal with as martyrs. The headline grabbing thing from last summer where the NYPD union message board was actively inciting people to go harm Mayor deBlasio's daughter is not an aberration.

That attitude and constant meme-making/attitude-cementing is really messed up. It has taken over the culture of policing at the same time as guns became an essential part of people's identity while also being a ubiquitous thing to fear and somehow a ticket to hurting or killing people with white or white passing people getting less criminal and/or financial/social consequences.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'the deterioration in support is noteworthy because we do not merely observe a return to pre-Floyd opinion levels. Rather, since last summer, Republicans and white people have actually become less supportive of Black Lives Matter than they were before the death of George Floyd — a trend that seems unlikely to reverse anytime soon.

[...] if high levels of support for B.L.M. following George Floyd’s death were surprising, the quick about-face was anything but. The precipitous decline in support, especially among Republicans and white Americans, mirrors the increased politicization of the issue by elites. In the days and weeks following Floyd’s death, Republican politicians quickly turned attention away from the actions of a murderous police officer to those individuals protesting the injustice. As just one salient example, three days after Floyd’s death, as protesters took to the streets in Minneapolis, Mr. Trump declared, in memorable rhyme, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

[...] nonwhite racial groups all display sustained higher net support for the movement. [...]If a broad “people of color” identity is becoming politically potent, we may see more instances of cross-racial coalition building, such as when Latinx activists participated in last summer’s protests, and more recently, when Black activists spoke out against anti-Asian hate crimes.'


https://www.nytimes....ts-support.html

A friend of my mother's is the daughter of a (now deceased) Philadelphia police officer... and even though she has a PhD from an Ivy League school, she believes bizarre conspiracy theories about Black Lives Matter that she saw on the internet.

[Malankazooie]

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years. Not familiar with the criminal justice system but my reaction is that it sounds in line to what was expected. Not sure though. What is the max he could have been given? Life? What is the eligibility for parole attached to this sentence?

I'm guessing they will have him, at the beginning, separated from the general prison population? Not sure how long they can continue that. I won't be surprised, like say 8 years from now, if a routine news release comes out reporting the death of Chauvin in prison.

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 25 June 2021 - 08:13 PM

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Max sentence was 40 years. Parole eligibility looks to be two thirds of the sentence served. With credit given for time served, he would be up for parole in a bit under 15 years.

This post has been edited by Gwynn ap Nudd: 26 June 2021 - 12:57 AM

[Cause]

Malankazooie, on 25 June 2021 - 08:12 PM, said:

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years. Not familiar with the criminal justice system but my reaction is that it sounds in line to what was expected. Not sure though. What is the max he could have been given? Life? What is the eligibility for parole attached to this sentence?

I'm guessing they will have him, at the beginning, separated from the general prison population? Not sure how long they can continue that. I won't be surprised, like say 8 years from now, if a routine news release comes out reporting the death of Chauvin in prison.

He will be separated from general population for the entirety of his sentence. As a former police officer, and a famous/infamous one. Death would probably certain otherwise.he will be placed in a special wing of the prison. My understanding is that he will be safer in such a wing but that he might as a result get less time out of his cell etc as a way to ensure that safety.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 26 June 2021 - 04:34 PM, said:

Malankazooie, on 25 June 2021 - 08:12 PM, said:

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years. Not familiar with the criminal justice system but my reaction is that it sounds in line to what was expected. Not sure though. What is the max he could have been given? Life? What is the eligibility for parole attached to this sentence?

I'm guessing they will have him, at the beginning, separated from the general prison population? Not sure how long they can continue that. I won't be surprised, like say 8 years from now, if a routine news release comes out reporting the death of Chauvin in prison.

He will be separated from general population for the entirety of his sentence. As a former police officer, and a famous/infamous one. Death would probably certain otherwise.he will be placed in a special wing of the prison. My understanding is that he will be safer in such a wing but that he might as a result get less time out of his cell etc as a way to ensure that safety.

If he were in gen pop the Neo-Nazi / white supremacist prison gangs might try to protect him. Now I'm imagining a prison war bloodbath....

[Edit: or a game of American football, where a shank is the football and his vital regions are the goal line... with lots of active footballs.]

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 26 June 2021 - 06:16 PM

[Malankazooie]

Have any of you guys heard or read about this? -

Police now have at the ready, popular hit songs to play when a crowd starts capturing video of their actions on their phones. That way when the video goes up on YouTube (or some similar social media), the algorithm that searches for copyright infringement will automatically block the video.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah I saw a video of an officer somewhere putting Taylor Swift on his phone and playing it quite he was talking to people.