News Jul 27, 2016 at 4:00 am

The Head of Portland’s Black Riders Liberation Party on His Group, the Police, and His Mission

Comments

1
"That means you were only afraid of your infrastructure being torn down, and your lineage not being generationally passed down wealth"

This has truth, but I’m not sure it is entirely all about wealth. Hundreds of millions of years evolving through group selectivity tells us to identify in groups (EO Wilson). Thus birds and flock fly together, but any environmentalist will tell you that genetic conservation is best achieved by protecting the habitat they were apart of from the beginning rather than trying to piece back together what nature made.
What I am getting at is that

1) racism is not a matter of accepting another into your flock, were this the case then civil rights, anti-slavery, affirmative action, and minority scholarships would solve racism. Racism is instead a matter of whether or not you and your flocks culture and habitat are allowed to grow and thrive next to and/ or within another’s.

2) Culture is inextricably tied to habitat. Can there truly be Native American culture without teepees? You decide.
This makes it ironic that in one line of a rap song you hear racism and “white man’s world”, yet in the next line you hear boasting about achieving a bigger version of the same infrastructural styled home which was brought here by white Europeans. He’s probably onto something about “People like to think slavery was so long ago, but we’re just a couple of generations from being bit by dogs” and, “we should know how to survive off the grid. I think everybody should. It’s been denied from us.”. Four hundred years will make you forget your roots, and questioning blindly submitting to cookie cutter infrastructure laid out by cities is a good start. Group identity is inextricably tied to habitat. Don’t take my word for it, take it from Marwa Al-Sabouni

https://www.ted.com/talks/marwa_al_sabou…
2
Although were we to put our minds to it I'm sure we could find ways in which social capitol becomes real capitol, so in that respect it ultimately is about wealth too. And social capitol is exactly what we're talking about here; trust for one another and leadership, a sense of belonging, camaraderie, and social/ political congruence. But group and individual behavior is a two way street. Intrinsic motivation and well-being of the individual increases or decreases with relatedness, autonomy, and a sense of competence.
4
This guy has an absolutley incoherent message. Does he support targeting police or not? "...So yeah, I’m mad, and I’m saying grab your gun and pistol." Umm, that sounds lot like, "yeah, go ahead and kill police."

5
Lastly (I swear I am done), there is a difference between a command and a request. Does not matter what tone of voice you use, many conflicts escalate based on the way people choose their words. Some cops know this instinctively , other don't, but in either case many conflicts involving people who did petty things or nothing at all are actually instigated by the fact that cops don't even question their right to TELL people what to do. Even in emergency situations it is still entirely possible to state ones words in the form of a request and let them know whats going to happen if they do not comply. I'll say it again, cops INSTIGATE conflict, then when they get a kid to give them a reason to shoot they are trigger happy.

If people don't get a second at life after being shot, and if carry permit holders go to prison upon misusing their weapon, then why shouldn't cops be held accountable as well? Cops not holding one another accountable is why they are getting shot, i.e. they are not getting shot because they shot someone innocent, rather they are getting shot because their chief in every case without hesitation comes out on their side. That is not objectivity. Certainly not justice.

Sure cops are product of their environment as well. The best example of this I can think of is a cop patrolling a neighborhood and group of people he has no connection and understanding of. If you would not be somewhere when off duty, then it is questionable how effective your going to be patrolling the place acting like you got a right to patrol people, especially when you start shooting their kids. 12 year old in Cleveland stands out to me; kid was bum-rushed by cops which would cause a reaction in anyone, especially a 12 year old eager to show them it was just a pellet gun. How many of you played with a pellet gun when you were a kid? Where those cops today? Not behind bars, but that kid is in the casket.

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