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Friday, August 22, 2014

Police violence cuts across racial lines .....


and the sooner we agree on that, the sooner the changes can be brought about.

I agree with the writer, Nat Parry who says,  in connection to the Ferguson issue: "..... the epidemic of police violence cuts across racial lines....."  and that   "... the police are generally out of control across the country and the victims of their brutishness are not just African-Americans – but in fact, Latinos, Asians, and yes, even white people."

Most everybody seem to be focusing on the race issue and hardly anybody is talking about how the police force, they, who are supposed to serve and protect us, are in fact the force we have to fear and avoid. It's not just the Black community, but EVERYBODY. Although, yes, I will admit that the Black community gets the short end of their stick more often than anybody else.

We all know that the Black community has plenty of faults....what with single mothers, numerous kids fathered by several men, neglect of children, kids running wild, dropping out of school, getting into trouble, robberies, prison terms, large percentage just not happy with whatever Uncle Sam doles out to them on a regular basis and whining for more, more, more.... yes, we all know that.  However, instead of faulting the community, we need to focus on the militarization of the police force and the bully power that they use on citizens of all colors. Changing the police force's attitude to the citizens is needed more than either criticism of or coddling to the Black community.

Nat Parry writing at ConsortiumNews:
A survey released this week by the Pew Research Center has revealed glaring differences of views among blacks and whites when it comes to the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American youth killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, and the protests that have followed.

Unfortunately though, the wording of the survey leaves some pertinent questions unaddressed, focusing on the racial aspect of the controversy while overlooking the public’s general perception about the problem of police brutality in America.

Nevertheless, the survey significantly found that blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that Brown’s shooting “raises important issues about race that need to be discussed,” with about 80 percent of African-Americans agreeing with that statement and whites saying by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin that the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.

Although the Pew survey neglected to ask, it’s possible that at least some of the white respondents objected to the focus on race because they feel that the epidemic of police violence cuts across racial lines. As anyone who regularly follows news pertaining to police brutality knows, the police are generally out of control across the country and the victims of their brutishness are not just African-Americans – but in fact, Latinos, Asians, and yes, even white people.

In one recent case that received some national attention, police shot and killed a homeless white man in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sparking a wave of demonstrations in the city. Police officers gunned down 38-year-old James Boyd on March 16 in the Sandia foothills following a standoff and after he allegedly brandished a small knife, authorities said. But a helmet-camera video showed Boyd agreeing to walk down the mountain, gathering his things and taking a step toward officers just before they opened fire.

Amid the popular uproar that ensued, the U.S. Justice Department issued a report on April 10 documenting that the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) has for years engaged in a pattern of excessive force that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

The investigation, launched in November 2012, specifically..........

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