Why Are We Repeating History?

Why Are We Repeating History?  

by C. A. Matthews 

 

Happy Black History Month!

Last year, we spent several weeks in the month of February discussing various topics that are of particular interest to African-Americans—reparations, critical race theory, and what it must be like to be considered only 3/5 of a human being (according to the US Constitution). We were still reeling from the deaths of George Floyd and many others. The Afghan War was winding down about that same time, but the upcoming proxy war in Ukraine was winding up. I held out still some hope the war hawk rhetoric would die down and the Minsk Agreements would keep things peaceful.

One year later, we find ourselves in a world of déjà vu. Critical race theory is under violent attack by right-wing pundits, reparations are still seen as an impossible (or at least a far-off) goal, and the police are killing an average of three ordinary Americans every day, many of them persons of color. (See last week’s blog about some of the latest police caused deaths, Targets On Our Backs.) Hundred of thousands have been left homeless or slaughtered in grueling, needless warfare in Ukraine thanks to a determined lack of diplomacy and billions of dollars of American military-industrial complex weaponry.

The rich got richer. The poor and POC got shot at and beaten up by thugs wearing cop uniforms. Endless warfare for control of fossil fuels continues. The more things change... 

It is said, “History repeats itself,” but that statement isn’t an imperative. We don’t have to keep repeating ourselves, especially when the event is destructive and immoral. So much of American history is just that—destructive and immoral. I don’t pull punches anymore. There’s no use lying about the filthy propaganda US government officials spew forth from their mouths like volcanoes full of molten shit. There’s no use lying about our blood-soaked history of killing our own and others across the globe simply for the sake of lining the pockets of capitalists who desire ever more blood money.

We don’t need militarized police forces or killer cops—we need social services and Medicare for All. We don’t need to pretend any longer we’re doing anything except money laundering for Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, etc., in a provoked proxy war in Ukraine to knock out Russia’s economy. And we certainly don’t need to pretend that we’re not gunning for another chance at starting World War III by antagonizing China this week over a lost weather balloon.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings.

I read a couple of articles this past week that opened my eyes and made me think of how history and the present are intertwined. The first article ran in the New Yorker online in July 2020. The Invention of the Police tells the story of what we understand as “police” from ancient times to the present day. We learn how the American system of policing is based upon military practices. The article is well worth the few minutes it takes to read (or listen to) to see how the destructive, immoral patterns we witness in our world today have their roots in a history not worth repeating. 

My argument in Targets On Our Backs about how the police in the US are based on the slave patrols is further buttressed with some interesting facts:

In eighteenth-century New York, a person held as a slave could not gather in a group of more than three; could not ride a horse; could not hold a funeral at night; could not be out an hour after sunset without a lantern; and could not sell “Indian corn, peaches, or any other fruit” in any street or market in the city. Stop and frisk, stop and whip, shoot to kill.

Then there were the slave patrols. Armed Spanish bands called hermandades had hunted runaways in Cuba beginning in the fifteen-thirties, a practice that was adopted by the English in Barbados a century later. It had a lot in common with England’s posse comitatus, a band of stout men that a county sheriff could summon to chase down an escaped criminal. South Carolina, founded by slave owners from Barbados, authorized its first slave patrol in 1702; Virginia followed in 1726, North Carolina in 1753. Slave patrols married the watch to the militia: serving on patrol was required of all able-bodied men (often, the patrol was mustered from the militia), and patrollers used the hue and cry to call for anyone within hearing distance to join the chase. Neither the watch nor the militia nor the patrols were “police,” who were French, and considered despotic. In North America, the French city of New Orleans was distinctive in having la police: armed City Guards, who wore military-style uniforms and received wages, an urban slave patrol. (…)

It is also often said that modern American urban policing began in 1838, when the Massachusetts legislature authorized the hiring of police officers in Boston. This, too, ignores the role of slavery in the history of the police. In 1829, a Black abolitionist in Boston named David Walker published “An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” calling for violent rebellion: “One good black man can put to death six white men.” Walker was found dead within the year, and Boston thereafter had a series of mob attacks against abolitionists, including an attempt to lynch William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of The Liberator, in 1835. Walker’s words terrified Southern slave owners. The governor of North Carolina wrote to his state’s senators, “I beg you will lay this matter before the police of your town and invite their prompt attention to the necessity of arresting the circulation of the book.” By “police,” he meant slave patrols: in response to Walker’s “Appeal,” North Carolina formed a statewide “patrol committee.” —Jill Lepore, The Invention of the Police

Eye-opening and thought provoking, isn’t it? What we’ve tricked ourselves into believing—that all police officers are the handsome cops on Law and Order or diligent Detective Joe Friday in the TV series Dragnet—is completely false. We do have an excuse. We’ve been taught to believe these lies all our lives through the clever use of novels and television/movie dramas which paint the police in strictly heroic and positive terms. If there’s ever a racist cop or a crooked cop or a super-violent cop portrayed in fiction, they’re almost always seen as the exception, never the rule.

Jill Lepore’s article demonstrates how destructive this “copaganda” (cop propaganda) truly is. When an organization is based upon protecting the property (that is, enslaved persons) and tasked with maintaining the safety of the ruling elites (that is, to prevent slave uprisings), it will always be a corrupt and violent organization. Poor and powerless persons will undoubtedly suffer and die from this organization’s practices. It’s what our true masters—the super-rich oligarchs—demand of their policing agencies.

A corrupt, violent organization must hire and train only those who are willing to do the job they’ve been tasked with, which is to keep us the poor and struggling workers, persons of color, and unwanted immigrants in their proper place, planted firmly beneath the heels of the ruling capitalist elite.

Are you starting to see why history should never be allowed to repeat itself in regards to the police? The time of rounding up “property” in order to keep the capitalist class safe and wealthy is over. At least, it should be.

Even very recent history should never be repeated. This is noted well in Caitlin Johnstone’s article US Surrounds China With War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons:

So everyone's losing their minds over a balloon that in all probability would be mostly worthless for spying, even while everyone knows the US spies on China at every possible opportunity. US officials have complained to the press that American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them, and in 2001 a US spy plane caused a major international incident when it collided with a Chinese military jet on China's coastline, killing the pilot.

The US considers it its sovereign right to spy on any nation it chooses, and the average American tends more or less to see it the same way. This is highlighted in controversies around domestic versus foreign surveillance, for example; Americans were outraged over the Edward Snowden revelations not because spy agencies were conducting surveillance, but because they were conducting surveillance on American citizens. It's just taken as a given that spying on foreigners is fine, so it's a bit silly to react melodramatically when foreigners return the favor.

But, of course, the US is acting melodramatically over a lost weather balloon. They are attempting to provoke the Chinese into a “shoot first” situation, such as they did to Russia in February 2022 when, under the auspices of the NATO, they completely forgot about the Minsk Agreements and armed Ukraine to fight a proxy war. Yet again we are all living under the imminent threat of nuclear war.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for anybody.

Why are we repeating history like this on a yearly basis? Isn’t the military-industrial complex making enough money from armaments sales? Arms manufacturers' stock prices have skyrocketed on Wall Street. The idea that the US/NATO bloc can take on two nuclear powers at the same time is utterly insane. But here we are again, repeating history, attempting to provoke another super-power, while simultaneously riling up the American public’s emotions with over-the-top propaganda about a lost weather balloon. 

For example, my husband turned on ABC News Friday night. We rarely, if ever, watch mainstream media outlets, and he’d turned off the sound, but I noticed the first story was about the lost weather balloon. I went into the kitchen and a few minutes later I came back and noticed that the same video clip of the weather balloon was still plastered on the screen. I turned on the sound and heard nothing but hysterical “The Chinese are invading!” commentary. I promptly hit the mute button. Five minutes later, the weather balloon was still on the screen and “experts” were all screaming about how this lost weather balloon means war. ABC spent the entirety of its half hour newscast spewing inflammatory nonsense, probably at the behest of the Biden Administration. War propaganda bears repeating, apparently.

All Americans can learn something from celebrating Black History Month. That feeling of “We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings,” is real. It proves that our gut feeling is correct. The ruling elite will do whatever it takes to get the results they want. 

If the elite want to keep their enslaved workers from running away, they’ll equip and arm a slave patrol. If they want to corner the LNG market in Europe, make huge profits from selling arms, and destroy Russia’s and possibly China’s economies, they’ll rev up the propaganda machine of the mainstream media (90% of which are owned by just six corporations) to create the necessity for a war in order to do so.  

The US is still the only industrialized country on Earth without a single-payer (Medicare For All) health care system, free education pre-K through college, and a Universal Basic Income because these programs have been deemed unnecessary by our masters. We breath polluted air, drink water full of plastic particles, and eat cheap processed food infused with high fructose corn syrup because its all we can afford. If we should ever act out because of these injustices and protest, the elite's "slave patrols" stand ready to put us back into our place, swiftly and violently, if they deem necessary. 

Whatever the ruling capitalist elite want they will have it. They will have their way, and they won’t lose any sleep over how many are starved, killed, or maimed in the process. You can be sure about that, as history repeats itself.

Happy Black History Month, America. Our sordid history doesn't need to keep repeating itself. Abolitionist David Walker had the right idea for a rebellion, don’t you think? Watch out for those slave patrols.

 

Related Links:

Teach Black History--Don't Ban It https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/teach-black-history-dont-ban-it/ 

New Advanced Placement African American Studies Course is Watered Down Version of Itself  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/new-advanced-placement-african-american-studies-course-is-watered-down-version-of-itself/

The Invention of the Police https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police

US Surrounds China with War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/caitlin-johnstone-us-surrounds-china-with-war-machinery-while-freaking-out-about-balloons/ 

The Pentagon's Balloon Floats On  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/05/patrick-lawrence-the-pentagons-balloon-floats-on/

Chris Hedges: WikiLeaks Exposed the Extent of US Meddling Abroad and Corruption at Home. Why Have We Forgotten It? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/chris-hedges-wikileaks-exposed-the-extent-of-us-meddling-abroad-and-corruption-at-home-why-have-we-forgotten-it/ 

 

Nuclear War Imminent? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/nuclear-war-imminent/ 

 

More Evidence That The West Sabotaged Peace In Ukraine

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-west-sabotaged 

 

How the US Instigated the Ukraine Crisis https://popularresistance.org/how-the-us-instigated-the-ukraine-crisis/

 

Uncomfortable Truths: Critical Race Theory https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/uncomfortable-truths-critical-race.html

Why Not Reparations? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/why-not-reparations.html

 

What's It Like to Be 3/5 of a Person? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/whats-it-like-to-be-35-of-person.html

 

Targets On Our Backs https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/01/targets-on-our-backs.html

 

Do the Police Have an Obligation to Protect You? https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/do-the-police-have-an-obligation-to-protect-you/

 

Quote of the week:

Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they'll start babbling about TikTok and balloons. --Caitlin Johnstone

 

 

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Thank you. Power to the People!

Everybody's Got A Right To Live!

Join us on June 20 for the biggest digital event of the century! The Poor Peoples' Campaign--A National Call for Moral Revival will gather folks from all over to proclaim this is the year we will not forget those who are oppressed, those who are imprisoned unjustly, those who are struggling to simply survive in America 2020. Be there!  june2020.org

What "Kneeling" Offends You More?

Words fail at a time like this. How can one possibly write anything uplifting about another sadistic white cop killing a defenseless black man? So, this week we're sharing a variety of voices, memes and photos taken at a local police accountability rally to highlight the zeitgeist of America 2020. They say a picture paints a thousand words, but can a photo ever provide an adequate explanation of why We the People are being terrorized by overly militarized local police departments? Possibly nothing can, but the wealthiest classes seem to weaponize the cops as fast as they can get their failed banks bailed out by the government. 

For until we scrap the immoral system that helped create these monsters in uniform who murder their fellow citizens in cold blood, we can expect a lot more protests. We can expect more rioting. And scapegoating. And bloodshed. As the song says, it's going to be "a cruel, cruel summer."  And a long one at that.

Warning: If you're easily offended by Colin Kaepernick taking a knee at a football game to protest police brutality, it's guaranteed that you will be offended by some of the following words and images. If you scream "All Lives Matter!" but still don't give a shit about the plight of your brothers and sisters of color, then you're going to be highly offended by the following, because we're fixing to rain on your little racist parade. 

You know what? It's high time you were told to shove your "offense" up the back passage where your head currently resides. You're a part of the problem and not the solution. It's time you woke up to the harsh reality that is America for the majority of its inhabitants. Because any country that has the money and where-with-all to provide numerous armored Humvees and rubber bullets and tear gas to dozens of cities to shoot at peaceful protesters, but somehow doesn't have enough money to provide enough coronavirus testing and establish free health care during a pandemic, isn't "great" by any stretch of the imagination. It's time to burn those MAGAt caps and start working in harmony with your fellow human beings to build a better world.

This peaceful police accountability rally in Toledo, Ohio, would later turn into a short march through downtown streets where riot cops appeared out of nowhere to shoot tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and wooden plugs at protesters. Several were taken to local hospitals for head injuries, cuts and bruises. (first six photos by Adrian M.)

Police watched the proceedings from the top of surrounding buildings while drones buzzed the crowd while they were listening to area BLM activists. Witnesses said snipers were positioned atop the Lucas County courthouse opposite the "Safety Department" (a.k.a. Cop Shop) building as well.

After the rally speeches were over, the crowd started its march around the block, only to be confronted by riot police who tossed tear gas canisters into the marchers to disperse them.

Police drove into the crowd and divided them into smaller groups, scattering the marchers through nearby areas, mostly African-American neighborhoods.

Here's a protester's story about their photo (above):
"That's some serious gear for people marching through a neighborhood. I don't recall this being the standard gear when a bunch of white people showed up fully armed at the Statehouse, do you? And btw, this was taken as they started tear gassing and shooting pellets at everyone, AGAIN. I went to take video right after this photo and they threw tear gas directly at us. Needless to say I didn't get my video."

Protester Josh W. states:

"I began filming right after they were shooting randomly into the crowd. The abrupt end was when my hand holding my phone in front of my face was shot by the officers not even ten feet away. If you’re upset that I was yelling, pleading with the cops to stop, keep in mind I had just been shot three times with wooden/rubber bullets. I had been watching them shoot at people for no reason. I had just watched them shoot my friend in the back of the head with a rubber bullet while she was giving someone first aid and she had to go to the hospital to get ten staples!

I saw one cop car being vandalized by a white guy. Multiple black people stepped in to stop him. Every time anyone got really angry and picked something up to throw because they were being tear gassed and shot at, people stepped in to stop them. The police overreacted and escalated. They shot into the crowd. They shot at children. They shot people with their hands up, shot people in the back at point blank range. They were fully armored and I did not see one cop get hit with anything. None of us were armed or had armor on. They just opened fire with wooden and rubber bullets. They shot tear gas canisters at people. They hit my fiancé in the back with one. They shot people as they ran away."

Protester Sierra W. shares her story:

"I want to bring to light a few things that most likely none of you who just watched the live videos saw. Even if you did, I need to explain the unknown context. Things I experienced with my own eyes about the peaceful protest yesterday here in Toledo.

Around 4pm, the beginning of our March and Protest. We're chanting and walking. The first round of tear gas was thrown. I was far away from it, but people began running. In front of me were two women with their children, one in a stroller. They began running and I ran behind them, we were all just taking precaution and weren't hurt. We come up to the first police officers I had seen, standing their ground. Shields on, behind or near their vehicles, guns drawn. One of the women and I looked at each other with confusion and fear. People behind us are chanting, " HANDS UP, DON'T SHOOT". I immediately put my hands out to cover their babies and stand in front of their stroller. "PLEASE DON'T SHOOT US. We are leaving," the woman said. The cop turns to us, gun still drawn. I yell, "They have children!" One of the four officers laugh and say. "Don't worry, I wasn't gonna shoot," as we pass by. That family was Black and we were running. We all worried... the tear gas was unprovoked.

As I make my way around the block to join the rest at the safety building, I notice above the line of officers, on top of the safety building, and behind us, on top of the jail, were 4 snipers- two on each building. At least one, gun drawn, ready to shoot. They had drones flying above us. As the protest went on, we Marched through the streets. We came up to the next blocking of officers. Some people threw water bottles. At this point, I only saw white individuals throwing them. POC immediately bombarded them. "STOP. THIS IS A PEACEFUL PROTEST". Followed immediately by "HANDS UP, DON'T SHOOT." The first few police did nothing and let us pass. They looked away as I stared at them and passed with my sign and hands up. Within a mile of that walk tear gas was thrown again. Because we were going to close to their barrier and they wanted us dispersed and in a certain area. Our March split up at this point.

We come around eventually to a halt. Something clearly happened up the street after we split, which was later reported to be vandalism, again by a white individual, to a cop car. They got away as far as I know. Our crowd stopped in front of the waiting officers. We were across the street from them. Probably 40 to 50 feet away. A water bottle was thrown. Protesters yell, again, "STOP. THIS IS A PEACEFUL PROTEST". Followed immediately by "HANDS UP, DON'T SHOOT." The police did nothing. We stood there and kept chanting, trying to keep the peace. SWAT pulls around and we begin to disperse afraid of getting tear gassed. The front line protestors stayed, unafraid. Within minutes as SWAT was driving by, they threw off 3-5 rounds of tear gas and multiple wooden bullets. We dispersed and those of us who were far enough away to be unaffected began first aid to help relieve the burn of the tear gas on others. In this same moment a woman, who was peacefully holding her sign across the street, was shot by what was confirmed to be a wooden bullet at her leg. She needed immediate medical attention and couldn't walk. She did absolutely nothing. A group of protesters covered her as she began trying to crawl her way to safety. She got far enough away to meet a fireman who took her to get medical attention. She's okay now but is clearly shaken and didn't understand what she did wrong to get shot.

We began making our way back to the safety building. I was mainly lost from the crowd just finding protesters who might need water or help with relief from tear gas. A few things happen in the duration of this time, but I cannot speak on them as I was not there. At least two more incidents of tear gas. I don't know why. At least one time was reported by other protesters as unprovoked. Eventually the majority of us make our way back to the safety building. The first thing we do is reconvene and let the First Aid stand know what happened so they can begin making runs towards people who need more milk to relieve the tear gas. They also had free snacks and water. The people who didn't break took a knee in front of the line of police officers in front of the safety building. They were also protected by their gear, behind their cop cars, guns ready. We waited for the rest of the protesters to make their way to this spot and we cheered as they arrived.

It was peaceful. The worst that I experienced happen is a few water bottles were thrown and those people were yelled at to stop.

I witnessed it with my own eyes. I don't care what ANYONE says. We were ultimately peaceful. We had the support of our Mayor, Governor and other prominent community leaders to protest. Nothing we did, in my experience with the majority of the crowd deserved for anyone to be tear gassed or shot with rubber and wooden bullets. They feared us, and didn't even try communicating with us. I must ask: what might have happened if they joined us, asked what we wanted from them or took a knee with us. WHY did they tear gas and shoot when we were PEACEFUL.

I can admit some officers did absolutely nothing when this happened. And some of them reacted just from us marching forward past their boundary.

(This is before any rioting began and I left, so I cannot speak to that. But from what others have told me, the riot was induced by a firecracker being set off. At this point some military vehicles of some sort showed up. DeWine stated he would send the National Guard to help support the people. They stood against us. Just for some clarification.) I've never experienced anything like this in my life. I'm disappointed and outraged. If my experience alone doesn't explain why we protest, I don't know what much more can.

Let's not forget the fact that we were there to speak of Justice in the name of our Brother, George Floyd- MURDERED by a police officer. The police believe they have the control. They are taking our tax dollars and using it to tear gas and shoot us for demanding justice for our Black community.

That's all I have to say. PLEASE unfriend me if you cannot understand this. I don't want to argue anymore. My Black Brothers and Sisters are TIRED of explaining themselves. TIRED of living in fear. TIRED of losing their loved ones. I am TIRED of trying to understand and convince those who are ignorant to these facts. We might get tired, but we will still show up and do this work that so clearly needs to be done.

We were peaceful.
It was our constitutional right.
We were peaceful.
We were peaceful.
And WE still were attacked.
We still did not have the support of our police officers.
This is NOT power to the people.
We were peaceful."

Toledo Fire Chief Brian Byrd wrote this touching poem and posted it on Facebook, summing up his feelings as an African-American father:

Last night....
Last night my soul was torn....
Last night, as I do EVERY night, I faced the fact that I was a black man BEFORE becoming a civil servant.
Last night, as I do EVERY night, I faced the fact that I AM a black man WHILE I work as a civil servant.
Last night, as I do EVERY night, I had to face the fact that I WILL BE a black man AFTER I am a civil servant.
Last night...
Last night, I felt the same anger and rage over the very issues being protested...because those same recurring issues affect me, my sons, my family...
Last night, while trying to manage the chaos sparked by the same anger that I FEEL, I have to beg my son to not take part because I see the potential consequences of not only his actions, but the actions of others...as I watched the night unfold.
Last night, I had to balance the responsibility of my duty with praying that I don't see the face of my son looking at me in disappointment because I asked him not to participate...when he knows that I really want to stand beside him with my fist raised...because he knows that I know his pain.

And now a meme for those who are offended by those who shout "Black Lives Matters!"

 

From R.P.: "Anyone who continually tries to cover for the police's racist behavior is pretty much of the same mindset. They believe there are two levels of justice--one for white entitled people and one for everyone else. You can't win arguments with anyone who can't see their white privilege because they are steeped in the systemic racism of the predominant culture that glorifies white oligarchs and demonizes poor people of color."

From an anonymous Facebook post making the rounds:

"Imagine being pressed down onto concrete with a solid 200 lbs sitting directly on your neck. This man begged for his life. This grown man asked for his mom, for water, for mercy once he realized he was slowly being killed. His nose bled and he lost control of his bladder. Yet he remained trapped under the weight of the officer’s knee. In handcuffs crying because he could not breathe. Onlookers tried to intervene only to be threatened with pepper spray. Then he lost consciousness. 

 The weight of that knee stayed firm while a first responder demanded they check for a pulse. They refused. The weight stayed on his neck. Off duty medical personnel begged for the officer to get up. We watched a man being killed. For 10 agonizing minutes. 

Imagine dying that way.

His name is George Floyd. I understand people will dig through everything he’s done wrong in his life. I understand that people will roll their eyes at this. We will see his mug shot and he will become a villain. There is no crime that justifies this punishment. Whether he has a criminal history or mental health issues, there is no justification for this death.

The cop should be charged with murder."

The following is an eye-opening video. It's perfect for refuting the idea that it's only a handful of "bad apple" cops escalating the violence, because in reality there's an orchard full of rotten apples out there.
https://youtu.be/j3DX3SLGB34 

This short video will give you some hope: Flint, Michigan cops laid down their gear and started marching with protesters-- https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/gttn56/cops_in_flint_laid_down_all_their_gear_and_start/

Related articles:

Colin Kaepernick is Paying the Legal Fees for  Protesters in Minneapolis
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/colin-kaepernick-is-paying-the-legal-fees-for-protestors-in-minneapolis/ar-BB14OnN0

Top 6 Reasons Authorities Are Cracking Down Hard on Black Protesters While Treating White Supremacist Reopeners with Kid Gloves
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63181-top-6-reasons-authorities-are-cracking-down-hard-on-black-protesters-while-treating-white-supremacist-reopeners-with-kid-gloves

Trump's "When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts" Is Classic Fascism, Classic Racism
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63220-trumps-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts-is-classic-fascism-classic-racism 

A Journalist Blinded, A Child Maced and a Congresswoman Pepper Sprayed: Police Violence Explodes Across the Country
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63221-a-journalist-blinded-a-child-maced-and-a-congresswoman-pepper-sprayed-police-violence-explodes-across-the-country 

Police Violence in America: Six Years After Ferguson, George Floyd's Killing Shows Little Has Changed
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/63197-police-violence-in-america-six-years-after-ferguson-george-floyds-killing-shows-little-has-changed

***

From Color of Change:

Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman announced that Officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged for the murder of George Floyd.¹ This is why folks protest. Because even when a violent murder of a Black person is captured on video by an officer with a long history of misconduct, public officials drag their feet in securing justice for our communities. 

Without the brave people of Minneapolis putting their lives on the line by hitting the pavement and protesting every single night, Derek Chauvin may have NEVER been arrested. Still, this announcement hardly goes far enough. The other three officers involved in the murder need to be held accountable as well.

This is why we are calling on County Attorney Freeman to hold ALL four officers, Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng accountable for the murder of George Floyd. They ALL have a hand in George’s tragic death. 

Our communities are tired, outraged, and fatigued over police officers murdering Black people with impunity. This is why over 2 MILLION people have signed our petition demanding justice for George Floyd. The protesting and anger you see on TV is a direct response to the systemic failures that have plagued Black communities for decades. We did not create this problem. The police officers who abuse our communities and prosecutors who fail to hold them accountable created this problem. Time and again, justice is denied when killer cops are not charged, or even arrested for their misconduct.

It's time for a change. We can't give up. Let’s keep fighting.

Sign the petition demanding County Attorney Freeman to do more than just the bare minimum. All four officers must be charged NOW.

Until justice is real, 

-- Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Erika, Malachi, Marybeth, Leonard, Madison, Cheryl and the rest of the Color Of Change team

Reference:
1. "Former MPD Officer Derek Chauvin In Custody, Charged With Murder In George Floyd’s Death." CBS Minnesota News.

The Children of Flint -- Uniting Against Divide and Conquer

The Children of Flint

by Cindy A. Matthews

The children of Flint--they haven't gone away. They still need clean water to grow and thrive. Why didn't the mainstream media ask Trump or Clinton in the recent debate about how they'd clean up the toxic water in Flint and elsewhere in our country? Why didn't they ask about how the candidates would help the children of Flint who have been permanently crippled by the lead they consumed in their "safe water supply"? Why isn't the mainstream media and the establishment candidates insisting Michigan Governor Rick Snyder be sent to jail for crimes against humanity or at least recalled?

Simple answer--there's no money in cleaning up a dying city's water supply. Flint doesn't have enough rich donors to make any difference in the odds of the Donald or Queen Shillery winning the White House.  I mean, really. Have you ever heard of a super PAC called "Poisoned People for the Establishment Candidates"? The citizens of Flint don't buy enough luxury cars or consider fracking waste water or dumping an overload of pesticides onto our fields to run off into our streams, rivers and lakes a good thing, so the corporate sponsors of the mainstream media news outlets don't care what happens to the good people of Flint, Michigan (or the thousands of other towns in America in similar straits). 

Update: Flint now faces a Shigellosis epidemic as well:  http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-6

Face it--the rich and powerful one-percenters of 21st century America don't give a rat's ass for a city effectively killed off by NAFTA that is altogether too poor, too black, too old, too young or too infirm to even register on their social radar, let alone their consciences. What they don't know can't hurt them, right?

So, why do the rest of us, who have more in common with the children of Flint than the children of the corporate oligarchy, allow this travesty to continue? Many Americans simply don't understand how the class system works in our country and how these differences in class have caused--and continue to cause--environmental crises such as lead and other toxins in our water supply. The following short video explains how the class structure in the U.S. operates and how we've become blind to the fact that not every American belongs to the "middle class" in the year 2016. Watch and learn:

 

Can you see how the dots are connected? How keeping ordinary Americans in perpetual debt is all a part of the one-percent's plan to make even more money off us? How they don't want college students to be able to pay off all their student loan debt?  We are their cash cows, and they don't want us talking to each other and comparing notes and injustices. 

No, an educated and informed populace is a very dangerous thing. (The major reason they couldn't allow Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination. He opened far too many voters' eyes to the reality of their situation. How dare he!) The 99% of ordinary Americans must be divided and kept apart so we can't come together and take on the 1% and create a more just society. We must be kept desperate and divided and constantly in debt. We are easily conquered and controlled that way. 

And so the super-wealthy establishment continually promotes the ancient divisions of race, gender, and religion to keep us poor working slobs squabbling among ourselves. Because if we're fighting each other, they can easily draft us into fighting more endless wars for them. Their military-industrial complex can continue to bring in more and more profits for them, not us, of course. (We're just good for cannon fodder.)

It's not a vast tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy. It's just the way things are. The way things have been allowed to progress in the United States of America--but it doesn't have to remain this way.  

We the people, the "Children of Flint" can rise up and fight back. We can unite against the elite's policy of divide and conquer. But first, we have to recognize how the system itself has been set up; how it is exploiting those we're supposed to respect in authority, and how under the illusion of  "keeping order" the system is being used against us and not for us. 

The following insights from Bern Notice give us the details.

Dividing the Working Class
by Bern Notice

We have seen many deadly tragedies recently that have involved the police. In the unlikely event that you aren't aware, there were two deaths of American citizens (Alton Sterling and Philando Castile) and the death of five police officers in Dallas, Texas. As one would expect, it garnered heavy coverage on the major media networks and is the subject of conversation nationwide.

References: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/06/us/baton-rouge-shooting-alton-sterling/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/falcon-heights-shooting-minnesota/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/dallas-police-shooting.html?_r=0

This piece is not intended to cover that which has been said on every news network or by most social media commentators. This piece is to note what is missing from the conversation. The problem with police shootings is not the sole problem, but a symptom of a bigger problem. That problem is deliberate and systematic division of the average working class citizens in America.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here."

If you stop and think about it for a moment, this is exactly what has happened. People group together and hate each other over religion, race, or sexual preference. We fight over political affiliation as though that is more important than addressing the lack of remediation of our infrastructure, education system, the environment, the economy (as it affects career prospects for working class citizens) and government corruption.

Corporations, politicians and multimillionaires grant themselves pay hikes, tax breaks and exemptions from laws that they either lobby for or pass into law. On the other side of that coin, our wages stagnate or plummet, our tax rates increase, and we are subject to more vague laws where you can be detained indefinitely without due process.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.or /wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012

 

The Department of Defense had protesters listed as a low level terrorist threat until challenged by the ACLU.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speakeasy/dod-aclu-we-surrender

So, as our schools are dilapidated and woefully inadequate, the quality of education suffers. This makes the next generation of citizenry easier to control and potentially less likely to question the status quo.

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoFkabTbthM

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-breslin/why-public-schools-dont-t_b_7956518.html

As a result, instead of recognizing the real problem and uniting to force reform, we either stay on the sidelines out of frustration or are blissfully unaware of how we and our progeny are being screwed--some because they are too wrapped up in their own personal fiefdoms and subgroups to realize that we have more in common with the people in other groups than we do with those in power.

Some stay on the sidelines because they are too busy working two jobs to feed a family with wages that were below the poverty line years ago. As a result they are disconnected from politics and get their information from the other arm of the oligarchs--the corporate media.

The corporate media is driven to make a profit, not to educate and inform. Therefore, it is in their best interest to entertain you with "reality TV" as opposed to informing you on how your rights and freedoms are being chipped away piece by piece.

Even if it was profitable, it would not be in their interest to truly inform you. The corporations that own these networks (Universal, Viacom, Time Warner, Disney, etc.) are also major campaign contributors and make a killing off of advertisements during political elections. They also can use their campaign contribution to lobby for special favors from the candidates they helped get into office.

These same politicians will use the tax code to lobby for votes but won't implement common sense measures to rectify issues like what has happened. They could have made body cameras mandatory in all states after the Trayvon Brown incident, which would make it clear what happens during an arrest.

State and federal politicians could have ensured that police officers who have conducted themselves improperly would answer to a separate court system outside of the judiciaries that they interact with on a daily basis. That would ensure oversight and impartiality.

These are a couple of relatively easy and reasonable solutions to at least start with to remedy the issues involving police, but those in power don't enact them. Why? Maybe because it's easier to control a population that is fighting each other than it is to actually bring about real reform and curtail the corruption that is plain for all of us to see. 

It's not just a police problem. It's systemic.

Bio: Bern Notice is active in the political revolution, fighting against the corrupt system with his words. You can find him on Google+.

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Is there a political party that genuinely wants to help ordinary Americans take on our corrupt system of government by the oligarchs? Does anybody running for the presidency in 2016 really care about our children's future? Stop and listen to Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka of the Green Party at their Green Party Forum and see if you don't agree there are still champions fighting for ordinary Americans...

 

Other video interviews with Jill Stein and town halls with the Green Party are available all on one web site:  www.whoisjillstein.com 

You can learn more about Jill Stein's run for the White House at her web site www.jill2016.com and  more about the Greens at www.greenpartyusa.com

  
Think outside the box. Unite with others against the corrupt system of divide and conquer. You want a future to believe in--not just suffer through--right?