Sorry for linking such a bad website, but in this instance they are the story, not covering it, so I guess it's okay.
I don't really know what to make of all this.
It's fucking incredible and ridiculous. Apparently it's a no fly zone. A NO FLY ZONE. RUSSIA IS FUCKING NO FLY ZONE. All the US news stations are reporting on the looting and rioting, but not the fact that police militarization is a real fucking thing. I don't even know what to say.
This is the worst case of... fuck, I don't even know, police state? Fascism? in the country's history at this point. You know what... I can't even make that statement in confidence, and that scares the shit out of me. I am fully terrified of this country and government now.
This incident has shown me that I have several idiotic Facebook now-un-friends. I actually can't even begin to encapsulate the conversation I had earlier today with someone, and I won't, but let it be known that a gay man basically said that gays were better than other minorities because they "wouldn't riot" in similar circumstances, and then another one said that even if they did riot it would be okay because they haven't had the same rights as the rest of America for the past 40 years, legally speaking.
Yeah I asked about the rationale but clearly there wasn't one. I actually asked because I think we are on double discrimination duty here; I think it's discriminatory to raise the gays up as somehow "better," but I also suspect that they said gays wouldn't riot because gay men are perceived as effeminate and women are, well, women, right? I did do my duty and point out stonewall but of course if you're not arguing with intelligent people intelligent points don't hit any target any way.
Reporters being arrested and hit with tear gas is horrible, to be sure - and it will help to spark more international attention to this incident - but what shouldn't be forgotten are all of the folks who have been beaten, detained, harassed, and oppressed before, during, and after this incident in situations which do not garner the same kind of attention - such as poor people of colour.
I don't think so, not this time. There's been simmering resentment about police brutality ever since Occupy Wall Street. There's been racial tensions ever since Trayvon Martin. And it's the mid-term elections so everyone's looking for a wedge issue. The tremendous overreach by the StLPD is pretty indefensible and the solution involves "taking guns of the streets" (even if they are police weapons and even if those weapons are military surplus). Meanwhile, training up police forces and drawing down SWAT is a jobs program. This is the sort of critical mass the militarization of police problem has been needing for a while now. I suspect we'll be hearing the name "Ferguson" for the rest of the year in some context or another. The Alamo it ain't, but it has all the markings of My Lai.
I find your faith in the institutions of this nation reassuring. It's always been tempting for me to join the disasterbating doomsayers and declare for the 19th time that I'll be moving to Europe ASAP, but if my wiser kin think things are weatherable, I'll stick around. Thanks for your logic and shit, bro.
Just so you know - it's not faith, it's reading the tea leaves. "Politics is dominated by the extremes because the moderates have better shit to do." - Jon Stewart, loosely quoted OWS failed because they weren't asking for anything. They were just mad. Nobody could really elucidate any sort of course of action that would make things better, so they seemed like a bunch of dirty hippies who just wanted to crank. So when you see a cop walking down a line spraying them in the face, you feel disquieted but they're just dirty hippies. Then you've got Trayvon Martin and here's a poor black kid being shot by some "stand your ground" vigilante and nobody wants that - but there's this big ugly 2nd amendment thing that only the most bleeding heart liberals want to mess with but still, it's uncomfortable. You've got babies with tear gas canisters launched into their cribs and you go "well their parents shouldn't have been doing something that causes SWAT to storm into their house." Then you read that they weren't, and all of a sudden "militarization of police" becomes a trending item. Right into the middle of that you've got what appears to be pure, inexcusable police brutality that ties in with all of it - racial tensions, militarization, brutality, inequality, economic downturns, the whole nine yards. Now all of a sudden everyone starts to say "enough." It isn't "faith in the institutions of this nation" it's an estimate that we've gone from "I feel uneasy about this but there's nothing to be done" to "I want something to be done about this." Really, I'm saying that the level of discomfort for Americans is 2 dead black kids, riots and journalists being teargassed. 'cuz a feature film about one dead kid just isn't enough, apparently.
Your skill in expressing yourself is such that me formulating a reply is often futile, as you've usually encompassed the issue thoroughly. Just thought I'd express that once, so that you know I appreciate your responses... perhaps especially when I don't have anything else to add.