The president should hold a BLM -police town hall

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. +1 (nt)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Talking to one another instead of at one another would be a good start.

Maybe I am a hopeless dreamer but I believe most folks want the same thing; to be treated with respect and no better or worse than anybody else.

[LongtimeAZDem]

4. Absolutely right. The internet has made is very easy to wrap ourselves in a blanket of groupthink

and thus our first response is to point a finger, rather than to extend a hand.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Everybody wants to feel safe; safe from the bad citizens and safe from bad cops.

[LongtimeAZDem]

11. And eveyone instantly has a theory about what happened, long before facts are known (nt)

[iandhr]

25. Indeed

[cilla4progress]

3. I have asked President Obama

to lead a Truth and Reconciliation Commission here, similar to the one in S. Africa led by Bishop Desmond Tutu and others. A nationally prominent Republican (dare I suggest, W? he seems to have a lot of time on his hands), should be selected to co-lead it with him.

This would be a years-long process, like, a town hall for a decade.

[bdwker]

6. Its unfair but...they should have PSA's

showing how to act when you are pulled over.

YES, it shouldn't be needed but it will decrease tension among drivers and police.

And no I'm taking up for police...but if everyone knows what to do, hopefully it will decrease any misunderstanding.

My 2 cents

[jtuck004]

13. Please read this to understand how wrong and overpriced such advice is.

 Respectability Politics Won’t Save Us: On the Death of Jonathan Ferrell
You can do everything “right” in America, but if you’re black, racism will always pose a threat to your life.
 By Mychal Denzel SmithTwitterSEPTEMBER 16, 2013


 Jonathan Ferrell is seen in an undated photo provided by Florida A&M University. Ferrell, 24, was shot and killed Saturday, September 14, 2013 by North Carolina police officer Randall Kerrick after a wreck in Charolette. Ferral was unarmed. (AP Photo/Florida A&M University).

When they went on the air this weekend, CNN anchor Don Lemon and comedy legend Bill Cosby, known not only for their day jobs but also for their unrelenting critiques of black culture, may not have been aware of the killing of Jonathan Ferrell. The 24 year-old former football player at Florida A&M University was shot and killed by Officer Randall Kerrick of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police in Charlotte, North Carolina, this past Saturday. Ferrell had been a car crash and then ran to the nearest house to find help. The woman inside answered the door, believing it to be her husband on the other side. When she realized it wasn’t, she immediately closed the door, hit her panic alarm and callled 911. She reported a man attempting to break into her home. When the police arrived, Ferrell approached them, presumably still trying to get help, at which point one of the officers fired his stun gun, which was “unsuccessful.” That’s when Kerrick fired his weapon, hitting Ferrell multiple times, and killed him.

Having a stranger knock on your door in the early morning hours is surely frightening. And Ferrell did fit the description of a man reported to the police as attempting a burglary. But did it ever cross the mind of anybody involved that he might not have been a burglar—that he might have been an innocent bystander, needing some help?

The tragic aspect of this is, as a young black man in America, Ferrell probably knew in that moment he couldn’t expect anyone to help him. He was likely very aware that knocking on a stranger’s door might backfire. But he took the risk anyway because he needed help. For that, he was killed.

Which brings me back to Don Lemon and Bill Cosby. Lemon and Cosby are not pioneers in the field of respectability politics—the idea that one can overcome racism (or any other form of oppression) by way of your personal actions, presenting one’s self as a citizen worthy of respect as defined by the dominant cultural norms and standards. They stand in a long tradition that includes Booker T. Washington and Elijah Muhammad, while also sitting alongside contemporaries such as Condoleezza Rice and President Barack Obama. But they cause a stir every time they say things like“…the reason why I’m giving you this information is because I was living in the projects. I was not taking care of myself in terms of managing my education, and once the door opened and I saw quote, unquote, the light, I started to become very successful,” as Cosby did over the weekend. When someone of his stature says,“It is not what they weren’t doing to me, it’s what I wasn’t doing. It’s a very simple thing,” he does more harm than the good he thinks his “empowering” words do. The problem with these comments is not that they don’t reflect his truth, but because they erase an even larger truth about racism.
...

https://www.thenation.com/article/respectability-politics-wont-save-us-death-jonathan-ferrell/


You say you don't support racists, but you should know this is their number one excuse, that someone ELSE should have acted differently.

I don't know about anyone else, but if the Barneys with the guns could have acted differently we wouldn't be having these conversations.

[CanSocDem]

7. I can't help but think...

...of the episode of The Sopranos when they decided they had to do an Intervention on one of them. Didn't turn out that well.




.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. I have seen every episode, some multiple times.

Which episode are you referring to?

There was no BLM when the series was made.

[CanSocDem]

9. In the episode I'm referring to...

...the whole family got together to talk 'Christopher?' out of drinking and doing drugs. What was at the same time funny and sad, was that everybody there had a drug and alcohol problem and Christopher knew it. It didn't take long for some to start throwing punches....which is the exact opposite of what Intervention is supposed to do.

Getting BLM and police forces together to discuss why they hate each other would, in my humble opinion, end up the same way. That's all...



.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. I remember that episode

[Bluenorthwest]

12. So if we are comparing that episode with the OP's suggestion, which of the Sopranos

would be the Barack Obama counterpart? Answer: They lacked such a person, which is why their intervention lacked authority.
I think the OP's suggestion is not exactly analogous.

[treestar]

14. I think he did say as former POTUS

he is going to contribute in such a fashion.

[jtuck004]

15. Who will you get for security that everyone trusts? n/t

[ancianita]

16. The high optics reconciliation effort is good, but locally, off-cam, the same KKK crap will

continue until all 3,143 counties have a

1. majority lawyer-led civilian police review board with power to hire/suspend/monitor internal affairs depts./fire police who fail #2 below.

2. background checks; mandatory certified completion with grade B or better of college re-education for every cop with 3+ civilian complaints, at each cop's personal expense;

2. working, unremovable video cams on every cop who leaves the station for duty.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

17. #2 would thrown out immediately

as it should be, with regards to the mandatory college at the expense of the police officer.

[ancianita]

18. Why. It can be a non-negotiable with police unions as a condition of hiring. The public's

overriding interest in quality professional policing calls for at at least two years of college education as it stands now.

And private security firms should be subject to the same civilian oversight and stipulations.

Or don't apply for a public protection job. Because that's who police work for. The public.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

20. No union worth a damn would go for that

And what kind of complaints? Abuse of power? Sure. The cop wasn't friendly enough? Who determines what is friendly enough?

Who is going to determine if the complaints are valid? What will be the standard?

Way too much subjectivity, IMO.

[ancianita]

21. Obviously you niggle. Professional standards already exist for complaints' validity.

What makes you think people got time for creating false complaints anyway.

That's a presumption of bad faith toward the public which, in itself, is highly subjective.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

22. No

It's the presumption that there are people out there who would, under this kind of policy, file numerous frivolous complaints against police officers in attempt to financially punish them.

[ancianita]

23. You think a civilian review board of lawyers can't sort out the frivolous? Puh-lease.

Don't even go down the road that unarmed civilians should be abused, killed because cops can't handle an occasional bullshit complaint.

If I as a teacher used your logic about getting yearly evaluations I'd be laughed out of my profession.

Any review board can see through through frivolous charges and throw them out as materially baseless. Presume that people know how to do their jobs well -- cops and review boards, and let the KKK reveal themselves as their hate inevitably drives them to.

[seabeyond]

19. That would be interesting. Very good idea. Across the nation, too. Nt

[sangfroid]

24. Here's something to consider

This type implies we need to reach a peace agreement between BLM and the cops. In fact, there seems to be a false equivalency here; the Dallas shootings had nothing to do with BLM.

What we really need is a society wide discussion why we need armed police.

[Exilednight]

26. I would find any group working on the same cause, but I

Wouldn't invite BLM.

They've become a joke to the general public. After attempting to invade and replace the message of the Orlando vigil, no on with a brain will take them seriously.

Their are groups out there with better bonafides on the issue, BLM is just a bunch of noise makers trying to stay in the news.

Something needs to be done, and the adults of this country need to take charge. Hold rallies is great for awareness, but it's doing nothing to solve the problem.

[ecstatic]

27. Stop killing citizens! It's not rocket science and shouldn't require a town hall.

And when cops break the law, they need to be punished. Harshly.

If "the powers that be" aren't willing to punish their blue warriors, then at least stop having them accost us over minor traffic infractions. Maybe split apart the duties--cops can continue to be warriors in situations that actually require it, and traffic and other petty issues will be dealt with by unarmed peace offers.

Without agreement on those basic ideas, there's really nothing to discuss.