You are completely right that Bev’s secrecy was the problem, and her posts after that revealed exactly the arrogance and anti-blackness that you described when she wrote words to the effect of “you can leave if you don’t like it.” It was almost unbelievable, the bullying.

I live in Portland and have worked for many years in organizations that work to abolish the structures that protect police from accountability (Unite Oregon, which is black-led and Portland Copwatch). I go to the protests. The Wall of Mom’s was / is a great concept in the effort to confront police brutality—i.e., white…

i like your ideas, esp #2. in fact, I copied that para. to my calendar so i could read it again. :)

That stupid woman does not seem to realize she is painting the yellow letter black? She doesn’t realize that it will still read BLACK LIVES MATTER after she’s done? I guess she’ll step back at some point and go, “DOH!

Yeah. A show, “You about to lose yo job” would be an excellent replacement for the racist “Cops.” Using similar pace and production values, it would be parody, reality, and righteous revenge.

Stephen, i seriously cannot fathom how you can conflate Van Jones with f*ck*ng Candace Owens, or anyone else, TBH.  She is off the scale.  You normalize her if you compare her with nearly any other human.

“Makes it unlawful for a federal law enforcement officer to engage in a sexual act while arresting or detaining people...”

It’s whole different thing—this “bad apples’ metaphor. False equivalence. The police are an entrenched SYSTEM, connected to multiple overlapping systems within the criminal justice and legislative systems that span decades of policy policy and culture. When critics scoff at the theory that there are “merely” a few bad…

Nice try, authoritarian apologist.  This is a video from nine years ago. 

I need a tee shirt with this whole quote on it...

nah. i don’t think you are off base at all. This was the Black Panther’s vision. In my ideal fantasy, a small urban community takes this on and demonstrates that it can be done.

Excellent explanation.  Thank you

and sadly, we find out today that not only Candace Owen, but other media are reporting that it was really his poor health that caused his death. It was NOT “strangulation or asphyxiation.” When I first wrote the above, I wondered if maybe I was being too cynical. No. No way.

Exactly. The fact that George Floyd cried out his distress explicitly several times should have signaled that the officers were to switch to rendering aid But as you noted, they’re cops, so the fact they should have noticed his distress no matter what the cause (“underlying” or not), won’t really matter in the end.…

When two days ago i predicted on my comment on another Root article that “they” would say the “real” cause of death was “an underlying condition,” I thought maybe I was being too cynical. But sadly, this is exactly what they are doing to exonerate the murderer who put his full shin and at least half of his weight for…

Yep.  The real looting by Wall Street and by the politicians they own goes not only unpunished, but unrecognized for the brutality that it is.

yes, and I think we can be sure they will come up with some “underlying condition” that was the “real” cause of death

Yeah, perhaps they’ll reevaluate their corporate name choices.  lol

...”for dick...”

I tell the Democratic Party to go fuck themselves each time they send me a letter asking for contributions. I write on the payment coupon, “Not giving you shit. You don’t represent me. Take me off your mailing list.” And naturally, I get to vent regularly (that’s fun) and uselessly (no surprise)—because they just keep…