“Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop”:
“Objectively reasonable”—what could be wrong with that? But in actual courtroom practice, “objective reasonableness” has become nearly impossible to tell apart from the subjective snap judgments of panic-fueled police officers. American courts universally defer to the law enforcement officer’s own personal assessment of the threat at the time.
The Graham analysis essentially prohibits any second-guessing of the officer’s decision to use deadly force: no hindsight is permitted, and wide latitude is granted to the officer’s account of the situation, even if scientific evidence proves it to be mistaken. Such was the case of Berkeley, Missouri, police officers Robert Piekutowski and Keith Kierzkowski, who in 2000 fatally shot Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley out of fear that the victims’ car was rolling towards them. Forensic investigations established that the car had not in fact lurched towards the officers at the time of the shooting—but this was still not enough for the St. Louis County grand jury to indict the two cops of anything.
“I’m Sorry About Your Thanksgiving”:
I’m sorry about your Thanksgiving! I’m sorry you’re going to have to have tense conversations about politics and race when you see your family. I’m sorry that you need to make the choice between two paths of mild discomfort: engaging or not. I’m sorry that nobody can stop this, but I’m glad that when you tweet that you are “preparing yourself for battle” with your family, whom you love but apparently do not respect, your sentiments are quickly mirrored, and empathy seems to find you instantly.
We should have a trial to figure it out. Wait. RT @kod478: @elonjames so you don’t think he tried to grab the gun? It’s possible, isn’t it?
— Elon James White (@elonjames) November 25, 2014
Public Enemy, a retrospective:
The strife that birthed Nation of Millions and Black Planet is mirrored in some of the upheaval of 2014. The business of hip-hop has changed, as free mixtapes have supplanted retail albums as the chief method of kicking off a rap career. Artistic freedom can evaporate at the drop of a gavel. (see: Lord Finesse’s pursuit of Mac Miller for borrowing a beat on a free release.) Hip-hop has again had its political mettle tested by social injustices too systemic to deny. Returning to It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet for these just-released reissues is an encouraging reminder of what a hip-hop album can be to the world, a peek back at that one time a rap act pissed square into the mouth of adversity and came away unscathed. Hear the drummer get wicked.
Ghomeshi withdrew his stupid lawsuit.
reading Darren Wilson’s testimony of how he shot some animal that kept charging at him while he shot it. — Mychal Denzel Smith (@mychalsmith) November 25, 2014
Rudy Giuliani is a racist idiot, and TNC took some time out of his day to troll him, and it was time well-spent:
Why are our politicians ignoring this plague of American-on-American crime? Why are American leaders not protesting the cult of death that fills the graveyards of America? Who will bravely challenge the culture of failure that says that Americans should only be outraged when Muslims kill Americans? Who will challenge the American pathology that says that a boy who walks unarmed is acting French? I demand a TSA checkpoint at every shopping mall to shield Americans against Americans. I demand drones to kill Americans before they kill other Americans. I demand that American leaders stop pretending that American morgues and American cemeteries are full of young men because of jihadis. The evidence is clear—American-on-American violence is a silent killer that only Americans can stop. American criminality is now so rampant that it must always be the only topic of any conversation. Let us not speak of any act of international terrorism until American terrorism has been wholly vanquished.
“It looks like a demon.” This is how Wilson saw an 18yr old he SHOT. “It” and “demon.” When I say dehumanization, it’s not hyperbole.
— Trudy (@thetrudz) November 25, 2014
An interview with Jacqueline Woodson.
The only people questioning the grand jury process are crazy radicals. Oh, and the National Bar Association pic.twitter.com/0wgC1LtbDF
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 25, 2014
We ran this lovely piece yesterday about being sad at Disney World, and I hope you get a chance to read it.
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
A few weeks ago we all discussed that story about rent-to-own processes, and today the CBC ran a story about how some states in the US are ahead of Canada in banning rent-to-own scams or capping them. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rent-to-ow…
CBC went shopping at some rent-to-own outlets and found an Acer Aspire laptop at a Winnipeg Easyhome store.
The store offered to sell it outright for $499.
At the advertised sale price of $19 per week for a two-year term, a customer would end up paying $1,976. The store says that’s a bargain — the regular price is $25 per week.
Sigh.
On a related note, I was unpleasantly surprised when I moved to Ottawa to see how many damn payday loan places are operating here. I grew up in Quebec where those places are prohibited by law, but in some parts of town it seems they’re more common than Tim Hortons’, Second Cup and Starbucks combined
The UK has just capped the interest rates they’re allowed to charge which is a massive positive move; there were interest rates well into the range of over 100%.
Ugh — I used to work reception at a mimimum wage call centre — so many employees put our phone number on their payday loans and their rent-to-own outlets, and I had to field calls from these companies all the time, looking to collect, telling them that they couldn’t be transferred to the employee.
The best part of the Ghomeshi thing? Under the terms of the court settlement, he must pay CBC’s legal fees.
Mics were dropping all throughout my head from reading that Awl “I’m sorry about your Thanksgiving” piece.
(ETA: the twitter feed about this topic had this gem from @SigmaScholar: “This Thanksgiving, there will be one black man at the table. Me. How do I discuss ferguson this holiday with my white woman relatives?” – and while I have tremendous sympathy and hope it goes well for him…. what the holy heck is a “white woman relative”???)
Women in your family who are white.
um, yeah – I read it as “relatives of my white woman” because I’m assuming that he isn’t actually only concerned with how to discuss this with the white women in the family, not the men.
I read it pretty clearly as relatives who are white women too. And I am really not sure that criticizing his syntax at this moment is tremendously sympathetic.
ok. I hear you.
for some reason, that tweet seemed weird towards women, and I can’t put my finger on it… just explaining this because I want to clarify that I wasn’t sitting here snorting into my coffee about shitty syntax. But without fully understanding why the statement bothered me, I should have just kept my mouth shut, and I apologize for that.
It is possible that it is the women in his family who are the ones most likely to bring this topic up, or to not listen to him, or to treat him as a threat. The men may be fewer in number, or more taciturn (or both). I understand why it seems like he’s calling out the women specifically, but remember that twitter doesn’t leave a lot of room for nuance and that every family’s demographics and drama are different.
As a demographic example: if it weren’t for my stepfather, my mom’s place would be full of 7 chicks of various ages and generations.
There’s a commenter in today’s AAM column going by the name of Kimothy… which one of you is that?
I tried to say something about Ferguson on twitter but it came out as white handwringing so I shut up. But I am paying attention, and thank you for including such useful links in your roundups.
Same. I want to show support, but yesterday seemed like a good day for me to be silent, and amplify other voices where I could.
Coming from another white person, this seems to me to be the right way to go about it; I don’t want to co-opt Black anger or sorrow for myself. Like Sara Davis said, amplifying other voices may just be the best course of action.
Yes. I don’t have anything to say that can’t be said more eloquently, powerfully, or meaningfully by others–others who are more directly offended, involved, affected, aware. My role here is to sit down and shut up–not to co-opt the conversation in any direction. But just to listen to other voices.
I don’t know, “I’m Sorry About Your Thanksgiving” gives me the same eye-rolly feeling as loud proclamations from white people on social media exhorting other white people to pipe down. I mean, I agree, but you could also just … not say anything.
I have to disagree with you there, unless I’m totally misreading your comment. By not saying anything I am complicit. But I think that yeah, a lot of white people DO need to be told that this isn’t really about them and they need to not make it about them.
I think it’s pretty legit to fire some sarcasm at people who are hashtagging tweets about an awkward mealtime as #Ferguson
God forbid someone inject their petty personal insecurities and gripes into the unified revolutionary command-chain of Twitter.
I think it is pretty important for white voices to be speaking up, especially if they are amplifying voices of color. Absence of commentary can be a statement of its own.
That’s what I meant, thank you.
Well, at least he didn’t say “white females at the table”.
Baby steps.
ETA: Meant as a reply to noodge4lyfe.
Jian Ghomeshi has been charged with 4 counts of sexual assault: http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/national/deta…
I was just coming over here to celebrate.
YESSSSSS.
“I want to show support, but yesterday seemed like a good day for me to be silent, and amplify other voices where I could.”
I think the last bit of this sentence is like the #1 solution to any and all situations re racism and other -isms when you’re a member of the privileged group.
I think it should even become one of those Keep Calm & …………….. posters
Keep Calm, Be Quiet & Amplify Other Voices Where You Can
*off for some cross-stitching*
just said the same above, before reading what you wrote here, and you wrote it much better.
I’ve been trying to do just this, retweeting and sharing on Facebook many links and sentiments from other voices who have more of a stake in this than I do, and it’s been rubbing some people the wrong way, which is demoralizing and saddening. I feel so helpless and frustrated by it all, and amplifying those other voices feels like one small way in which I contribute, so it’s disheartening to be unfriended on Facebook over it.
Well Poop to them en Go You to you (not discounting that it still hurts to be unfriended)
Jian Gomeshi was taken into custody
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/30572
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/11/26/ghomeshi-cha…
an avid reader/lover/sharer of articles on this site, i finally logged in to say thank you for this roundup, because it comforts me slightly tok know that there are so many other communities who can care about nothing else right now.
secondly, just wanted to leave this here: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/07/25/st-louis-c…
my last remaining coping mechanism/rationalization (“it’s impossible to indict a cop”) has been stripped from me while our injust systems laugh in our faces. ughhhh.
UGHHHH indeed. 🙁
Toasties, here’s some good news: New Brunswick is scraping the legal barriers to abortion in the province as of January 1st! Currently, abortions must be done by a specialist, and require two doctors to certify that it’s medically necessary — both of those regulations are being scrapped, and abortions will be covered by provincial insurance. http://globalnews.ca/news/1693164/new-brunswick-t…
Oops, I missed your comment – I’m just so excited about this news!
It is exciting! Especially given how ridiculous the discussion around abortion is in the US, it’s great to see a government thoroughly scrap restrictions and explicitly say “this will be covered by Medicaid, like any other procedure.” Good on them, and good for the women who have been agitating for this!
Absolutely! I actually breathed a giant sigh of relief when I saw the news this morning. I’m so glad New Brunswickers won’t have to travel to different provinces or even to Maine to get what clearly should be a very basic procedure.
Oh, that’s excellent news! I wonder if the Morgenthaler clinic will reopen. We just need PEI next! (Although, this will make it more accessible for Islanders)
On a side note: did you know that it’s next-to-impossible to get an abortion after 22 weeks in Canada due to medical regulations? I was astonished, because this comes up so little in our abortion wars (because the antis focus on the tax-payer funded/no regulation and the pros focus on access) … but I guess if elective abortion is free and accessible prior to 22 weeks, it becomes much less of an issue?
On another note:
Technically the law doesn’t prohibit abortions at any time, but yeah, it’s at the discretion of providers– most of whom don’t have the facilities or training to do abortions later in pregnancy. In most provinces you can’t even really get an abortion after 16 weeks (here is a handy chart on access by province & territory that I made, which is a few years out of date now: http://www.morgentaler25years.ca/the-struggle-for….
Speaking as someone from BC, I think there really needs to be better access to medication-induced abortion, since it’s so difficult for women from rural and remote regions to access care, no matter how good their province’s laws are.
I read that they will require abortions to be done in hospital – so not in free standing clinics like Morgentaler’s – which is hugely problematic in my eyes.
Here is some good news from my backwards province – New Brunswick women will be able to get abortions WITHOUT the permission of two doctors starting January 1, and they won’t need to be performed by a specialist! It’s only taken 26 years for us to catch up with the rest of Canada (except for poor Prince Edward Island, where the lack of access is a complete disgrace).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-b…
I used to volunteer at the Morgentaler clinic, and what an outstanding bunch of people. I desperately hope they can now reopen, because they’re really doing amazing work.
I hope so too! The Morgentaler Clinic has done SO MUCH incredible work in this province, and it would be amazing if they can find a way to get back up and running.
There was a kickstarter or something for that! I donated. Hm. I wonder where they money went.
I did too, but I haven’t heard any updates in a while. I know they had been trying to surpass the original goal so they could both secure the building and continue to operate.
Looks like they’re making it a hospital only procedure (though any doctor with training can perform the abortion): https://twitter.com/poitrasCBC/status/53760571285…
But not every MD has admitting privileges to every (or any) hospital, so still restrictive. But a good start?
Oh! Just saw this comments! That’s excellent news!
Canadian Toasties, did you read the thing about how protest organizers at the US embassy in Ottawa and consulate in Toronto asked white people to stay in the background and not talk to the media because it’s not about them and then some white people got really offended and decided not to show up anyway and the media called it a “controversy” and a “debate”? Ugh. I hate everything.
GROSS. Way to make everything about us, white people. That protest is probably better off without you there.
I got so angry at our local news programme for mainly interviewing white protestors and giving the Wilson interview more time than the statements of Michael Brown supporters.
I’m mad but also pleased when I request Jacqueline Woodson’s books for review and hear there was a stampede for them above everything else on the list, so sorry, maybe next time. As soon as I’m securely housed again I want to buy every single one of them.
I'm mad but also pleased when I request Jacqueline Woodson's books for review and hear there was a stampede for them above everything else on the list, so sorry, maybe next time. As soon as I'm securely housed again I want to buy every single one of them.
Oh, that's excellent news! I wonder if the Morgenthaler clinic will reopen. We just need PEI next! (Although, this will make it more accessible for Islanders)
On a side note: did you know that it's next-to-impossible to get an abortion after 22 weeks in Canada due to medical regulations? I was astonished, because this comes up so little in our abortion wars (because the antis focus on the tax-payer funded/no regulation and the pros focus on access) … but I guess if elective abortion is free and accessible prior to 22 weeks, it becomes much less of an issue?
On another note:
Oh! Just saw this comments! That's excellent news!
Ugh — I used to work reception at a mimimum wage call centre — so many employees put our phone number on their payday loans and their rent-to-own outlets, and I had to field calls from these companies all the time, looking to collect, telling them that they couldn't be transferred to the employee.
GROSS. Way to make everything about us, white people. That protest is probably better off without you there.