A black man named Rayshard Brooks was recently killed by an Atlanta police officer who shot him in the back while he was attempting to run away.
Video footage from the police bodycam and a nearby witness makes it clear that Brooks resisted arrest after failing a breathalyzer test when police approached him sleeping in his car at a Wendy’s parking lot, punching an officer and taking a taser the police had attempted to use on him before trying to flee the scene. Video footage from the parking lot makes it clear that Brooks was running away, and, without ceasing to run, pointed the taser at police behind him, at which point he was shot twice in the back by an officer named Garrett Rolfe.
New video released by the GBI shows the moment #Atlanta police shot and killed #RayshardBrooks in the parking lot of a Wendy’s. Police say Rayshard Brooks grabbed a taser and pointed it at police before an officer fired shots. pic.twitter.com/8DEeOdtyqF
— Courtney Bryant (@CourtneyDBryant) June 13, 2020
There is no rational defense of this shooting. If someone is running away from you with a short-range weapon, it is literally impossible for them to pose an imminent threat to you. Just allowing Brooks to run out of the range of the taser, as he was already trying to do, would have nullified any potential threat to either of the two officers on the scene, because it would have been literally impossible for Brooks to tase them while continuing to run in the direction he was running.
This indisputable and self-evident fact hasn’t stopped people from bleating moronic police apologia in my social media notifications since the shooting occurred.
- They claim Brooks could have tased an officer and taken his gun (again, let Brooks take himself out of taser range and there’s exactly zero risk of this happening).
- They claim they couldn’t just let a “dangerous” criminal run around with a police weapon (it’s a taser; you can buy them at Walmart. What’s he going to do? Go on a mass tasing rampage?).
- They claim the cop had to execute Brooks because he posed a “danger to society” (it is not a cop’s job to act as judge, jury and executioner in determining whether someone poses a general threat to society; that’s what the courts are for).
- They claim if you punch a cop you deserve whatever you get (believing, because they are authority-worshipping bootlickers, that a cop being punched is worse than a civilian being killed by gunfire).
- They claim if you don’t follow police instructions then of course you’re at risk of being killed (yes, police doing inexcusably brutal things is the problem that people are trying to address here).
Even leaving aside any debate about policing as it exists in America today, there was absolutely no excuse for Rolfe’s behavior. They had all of Brooks’ information. They had his car. They knew where he lives. They could have followed him in their car and called for backup. They could have gone in with backup to arrest him later.
But Rolfe decided to kill. After watching all these protests against police brutality raging throughout his country since the murder of George Floyd, after being confronted with with all the public outrage about police killing black men day after day in news headline after news headline, after his society forced him to contemplate police violence and his role in it, Garrett Rolfe still decided to kill. After all that, he watched a black man running away from him, posing no threat to him whatsoever, and he decided to kill.
The fact that cops are so thoroughly inoculated against public demand that they change their behavior makes a complete farce of the decoy police “reform” agenda that establishment narrative managers have been actively trying to corral the current protest movement into to kill their support for police abolishment.
Let me pick up on what @staceyabrams just said. #DefundThePolice slogan is being used to divide us. She called for transformation of police, that's much stronger than just reform but not distracting like defunding. #TransformThePolice is appealing to most people & sounds strong.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) June 14, 2020
There’s a feud going on in America’s new protest movement right now between those who wish to abolish, defund, dismantle, and/or disarm the police, and those who want to “reform” or “transform” the police. The former are actually pushing for a revolutionary change which actually pushes back against abusive power structures and calls for the creation of a radically different social paradigm, while the latter wants to keep policing institutions in their irredeemably corrupt state and add more funding for “de-escalation” training seminars where grown adults are told not to commit gratuitous acts of violence.
Training seminars which, it turns out, Officer Garrett Rolfe had just completed.
“According to the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, Rolfe had recently received use of force training,” reports Atlanta news outlet AJC. “On April 24, he took a nine-hour course on de-escalation options, his record shows. And on Jan. 9, Rolfe was trained on the use of deadly force at the DeKalb County police academy.”
And yet you’ve got fauxgressive establishment narrative managers like Cenk Uygur promoting the reform agenda and calling calls to defund the police “distracting”.
I wrote the other day that “if these protests end it won’t be because tyrants in the Republican Party like Donald Trump and Tom Cotton succeeded in making the case for beating them into silence with the US military. It will be because liberal manipulators succeeded in co-opting and stagnating its momentum.” This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about.
.@NYGovCuomo suggests protesters pack it up, in light of new reforms: "People are still out protesting. You don’t need to protest. You won. You won. You accomplished your goal. Society says, you’re right. The police need systemic reform.”
— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) June 13, 2020
People who claim these protests are the result of some kind of psyop often cite the fact that they’re being supported by establishment liberals, mainstream media, and giant corporations, but this misses a very important distinction in the dynamic that is at play here. While it is true that these institutions have been expressing general support for the demonstrations and the idea that black lives matter, what absolutely none of them have been doing is supporting the defunding or abolishment of America’s police force. None of the empire’s ruling elites support this.
The reason you are seeing manipulation and attempts at co-option in this new movement is because that is exactly what’s happening. But it isn’t what’s driving the enthusiasm behind the demonstrations. Rather, you are seeing an attempted hijacking of an actual revolutionary agenda that actually challenges actual power institutions (including increasingly common attempts to manipulate the narrative by claiming demands to defund and abolish are actually just calls for reform).
The widespread call to abolish America’s police state, an integral part of the glue which holds the US-centralized empire together, is revolutionary. It is not an exaggeration to say it’s as interesting and exciting as seeing a mainstream call to end US imperialism, and it is just as threatening to establishment power structures. The call for “reform”, in contrast, is just more milquetoast, Obamaesque fauxgressive verbiage designed to stagnate a real revolutionary change movement. It is as interesting and as threatening to establishment power structures as saying the US should push regime change in Syria rather than Iran.
Police abolishment advocates are pushing for something which would require the complete reconfiguration of power in society to accomplish, where the prison industrial complex and the war on drugs are ended and what we think of as policing can for example be mostly replaced by something more akin to social work. Police “reform” proponents are advancing a decoy agenda which people have been distracted by for generations while the police force has become increasingly militarized behind a veil of meaningless verbiage about community outreach and training programs.
It's not just that Biden doesn't want to defund the police, per his spox, its that he believes cops just don't have enough resources for reform. Would be laughable if it wasn't so dire. https://t.co/3lbnjQOBML pic.twitter.com/yCKf2iwQP9
— austin walker (@austin_walker) June 8, 2020
This is where the real revolutionary energy is at in America right now, so it’s no wonder establishment manipulators are doing everything they can to co-opt it into something innocuous which won’t disturb actual power structures in the slightest. Obama made a whole political career out of telling leftwardly inclined Americans that they’re getting what they want without actually giving it to them, and now we’ve got Democratic Party princeling Andrew Cuomo telling New York protesters “You don’t need to protest. You won. You won. You accomplished your goal. Society says, you’re right. The police need systemic reform.”
It’s textbook liberal manipulation used to steer the revolutionary zeitgeist into an impotent conceptual tar pit for another few years while the prison bars are reinforced.
As I explained a while back in my article “How To Tell Real News From Useless Narrative Fluff“, you can tell what’s really going on by watching where the money is going, where the weapons are going, where the resources are going and where the people are going. You can see in these demands for dismantling the police state a bunch of people moving around demanding to drastically change all four of these things, and you can see from the liberal narrative managers an agenda to prevent any of those four things from actually changing. And if they win out, you will be able to watch the people, police, weapons and resources continue moving in more or less the exact same way they’ve been moving.
They’re trying to replace a real revolutionary impulse with useless narrative fluff. They have learned that it is much easier to neuter such impulses with empty agreement and a bunch of insubstantial words than to tell them no and stomp them down. Hopefully, the people have learned this too.
____________________________
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100 responses to “The Killing Of Rayshard Brooks Shows How Police “Reform” Is A Joke”
If the murderer tries to defend himself by claiming he followed his special training in “use of force” and “de-escalation”, the family of the victim should add those training businesses to their lawsuit. Not to mention the training businesses should be prosecuted if they instructed the murderer in what he did. That would look interesting in court, especially if the parent company is Israel.
I’m not sure which is true – the more recent report that Brooks just grabbed the taser, or the original report that said he grabbed it and started running, after he was tased. I’m also trying to see what crime he committed that called for arrest or extreme behavior by police. Caity is absolutely correct. Rolfe is not judge, jury and executioner – and that far too many police that they are truly is a systemic (there’s that word again) problem in policing.
Many argue that if you reduce the number of police – or their power – it will make criminals more brazen and increase the number of crimes committed. Of course, that has been disproved in virtually every place it has bee tried. On the flip side, I am left to wonder if the presence of police is responsible for the high number of crimes. After all, just like any government agency avoids budget cuts by spending everything they get each year, would not the number of crimes be a creation, by police, to justify their existence. The number of people freed from prison, when DNA analysis proves them innocent of the crime of which they were found guilty, would seem to support the latter view and the act of over-policing.
Some years ago I was assaulted by an Australia Police Officer in Ballina, NSW. I was the 60yrs old, It was requested I provide my drivers license to the officer. Upon this request I asked the Police Officer, in a polite enough manner why he pulled me over. It was Sunday morn at 8am, I needed bread for toast, so had to drive approx 3klm from my residence.
The Officer ignored my question, and abruptly spat out his second request for my drivers license. I then reprimanded the officer for refusing to answer my question, and thus refused to get my drivers license until he told me why he pulled me over.
The Officer then threatened to arrest me, and I told him to go right ahead, I have a right to know why I am being apprehended. Three times I was threatened with arrest by this Officer, and three times I told him to go ahead, arrest me, I will argue to point in Court. The Officer never responded, again, so I told the Officer if he was not going to arrest me, then I would be getting into my car and drive away. The Officer said nothing and remained stationary, until I got into my car, he then reached into the ignition and turned off the car, taking the keys. As I got out of the car, the officer grabbed me and turned me head down legs up, trying to dump me head first into the bitumen! Luckily, I grabbed hold of his trousers and holster, for which I could have quite easily taken his gun, but my interest was in not going headfirst into the bitumen, and we both ended up on the roadway, with the Officer eventually handcuffing me (I submitted), then the Officer deliberately reefed the handcuffs down my wrists, deliberately tearing skin away right to the bone, thumping me in the ribs twice, and breaking two of my ribs just for good measure.
The Officer then rolled me face down, sitting on top of me, whilst he phoned for support (I was already totally im-mobile), so along came the Officers support, for this handcuffed, bleeding, with broken ribs, an officer of approx 27yrs atop, and another 3 Officers and paddy wagon now present.
Sadly, I found out by the bitch Magistrate, that I DON’T HAVE ANY RIGHTS, she claimed, as I told my Legal Aid, that was a fascist policy statement. Of course Legal Aid did a shit job, and it was later obvious they are all in cahoots with Police anyway. Our legal system is as corrupt as the US I believe.
JUSTICE is served only when the Law allows both equal attention and honesty is served, both for Prosecutor and Defendant! This is NOT being practiced in Australian Courts, it has become a biased, deceitful, and may I dare say, criminal system from within. International Law supersedes Domestic Laws, and clearly states under the Section Human Rights, that in fact I DO HAVE RIGHTS, but Australia, the UK, France, Israel and the USA, use International Law like toilet paper! It matters not to them.
Today, there is news of Australia using CHILD SLAVE LABOR in Papua mining precious metals for the PERTH MINT! Here is the link: https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/revealed-perth-mint-and-the-convicted-killer-20200609-p550ta
You are Incorrect at the point he is running away he is a fleeing felon
He could use the “short range “ weapon against someone else. No I believe this will be a horrendous but Justifiable homicide
Miserere mei, Deus – Allegri – Tenebrae Have mercy Lord Jesus in our darkness
7,779,600 views https://youtu.be/H3v9unphfi0
@BryanDBender
SCOOP: Senate panel sets aside $10 million to accelerate preparations to resume explosive nuclear tests, which the U.S. hasn’t done in nearly 30 years.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2020/06/senate-panel-backs-funding-for-preparations-to-resume-nuclear-testing-1951844?source=email…
2:14 PM · Jun 15, 2020·Flint still doesnt have clean water
David Sirota 8 hrs
https://sirota.substack.com/p/news-trump-just-fulfilled-his-billionaire
NEWS: Trump aides just quietly issued a directive allowing corporations to transfer 100 million workers’ retirement savings to private equity moguls.
The move came just after a private equity billionaire gave $3 million to a Trump-boosting super PAC.
https://sirota.substack.com/p/republicans-defunded-the-police-we
I watched the video of the incident. I dont think it was excusable for the officer to shoot Rayshard; but given the reality of US policing Mr Rayshard behaved really stupid. Any American adult should know by now you cannot resist arrest and punch police officers in the US. If you do you are almost certainly going to be killed or at least seriously hurt.
The problem of American policing is almost intractable since it is a manifestation of an entire system and society that is profoundly dysfunctional. I really dont know what can be done about America. The only people who can change it are Americans; but Americans are the problem. Their education and the Media and political circus sees to that.
Amen, David, Amen! Mr. Rayshard was not ” sober ” and thinking rationally about his situation and it cost him his life. The owners and the masters of the United States have their ” rules ” written and unwritten that you disregard at your own peril.
“The call for “reform”, in contrast, is just more milquetoast, Obamaesque fauxgressive verbiage designed to stagnate a real revolutionary change movement.”
Caitlin is 100% right.
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I’ve been following Alec Karakatsanis recently, a lawyer specializing in the cash bail system, the modern word for debtors prisons, which are illegal. He’s had some really interesting thoughts about how we fix systemic problems, and he gave a number of examples of failed incremental change attempts and fake reform promises in a talk he did on C-SPAN recently. https://www.c-span.org/video/?466766-1/the-complicity-lawyers-criminal-injustice-system
In this Twitter thread from a few days ago, he describes how Cuomo used fake reforms to appease people who were angry about the horrific Kalief Browder case, and how the fake reforms escalated the suffering and injustices even more.
“Invoking Kalief and standing next to Kalief’s brother as he announced “Kalief’s Law,” @NYGovCuomo used lofty language to announce what bureaucrats called major “reforms,” including raising the age of prosecution in some cases and barring children from being caged with adults.”
“But after that announcement, those “reforms” reinforced the punishment bureaucracy. MORE money was spent by New York to cage children in SEPARATE locations, leading to a boom in the construction of child prisons and an more prison guards.”
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1270709117494181888
This is America where any excuse to kill someone will do. A ” title ” or a badge entitles the killing of peons anywhere inside this country. It has always been that way; and it will stay that way because that is what the owners and the masters have ordered. Not following orders is not allowed, period.
There are good cops and bad cops, good doctors and bad doctors, good politicians and bad politicians. Good people think they can defeat bad people through their votes, protests and lawyers but that is a waste of their time and energy trying to fight evil and correct the harm which evil people cause. Wise people don’t waste time in a rigged fight which we cannot win when evil people fight dirty, have superior weapons and do not follow the rules. This is because good people fight and play by the rules which these evil people enforce but do not follow themselves. Wise people get out of the way, leave good people to waste their time, money and energy fighting evil people and after the battle is over and both good and evil people have finished fighting and both have lost their lives and everything they were fighting over, wise people will come out of their corners and hideouts and build a new and glorious civilization without hindrance from evil people. I believe in evolution of species through survival of the fittest, meaning those with wisdom beyond their years. But not until they realize that dissent, protest, rebellion and anarchy are not enough to precipitate conflict and crisis which will select only the best quality of humanity for the next age of justice, peace, wisdom, prosperity and good health for all survivors. The techno-military-industrial-complex must go through conflict, crisis and collapses so that only the wise among us will survive.
Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf
Caitlin – I like a lot of your work and am one of your Patreon supporters (sometimes grudgingly). I’m not a cop, but I realize they have an extremely difficult job. I know there are definitely some bad ones, but I also know that the great majority are not. I think you should do some time riding along with inner-city cops to see how difficult their job really is before you get up on your soap box to condemn them so roundly. There are people out there just looking for trouble. These people need to be policed. Some of them have a natural need to escalate a minor situation to a point where violence needs to be met with violence. Police are not super-humans with perfect lightning-fast reflexes and perfect decision-making skills at all times. They’re human beings, not Robo-Cops and bad things are going to happen occasionally – period. Have you ever called the police for assistance or to report a crime? If so, I think you should consider backing off.
I lived in NYC, Chuck, and watched the NYPD at work. They were not impressive. And this was before Bloomberg and his stop-and-frisk policy whereby children were stopped on their way to school and frisked, a nice safe way to spend your day rather than possibly confronting someone intent on violent crime. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn they spent their time harassing people walking their dogs — carefully avoiding the dude in leather and chains walking his dog off-leash — while on the other side of the park women were being raped. Many of these police do not even live in the city, but live out on Long Island in all-white enclaves where my foreman lived (horrible, creepy, lazy racist — he should have been a cop).
What we have needed during my entire lifetime and before is CIVILIAN control of the police. No more quasi-military, no more oversight by politicians beholden to the police, no more protection rackets called police unions, no more GANGSTERISM.
Caitlin, I like your work. I contribute to your Patreon account. For balance I suggest you watch this video.
How to minimize your chances of being killed by the police.
1. Do not go into public high on drugs or drunk. Includes driving drunk or high.
2. Ensure your vehicle is road worthy, lights work, license plate attached etc. These are type cars often pulled over.
3. When interacting with cops do what they tell you.
4. Do not get belligerant with cops.
5. Do everything to be non threatening to cops just like you would with anyone carrying a gun.
6. Take some personal responsibilty to keep yourself safe. Dont assume anything when interacting with the cops or military.
7. If you think all cops are racist including black and hispanic cops then take whatever added appropriate measures to stay alive.
8. Last but not least obey the laws of human decency. Dont steal, kill, assult. Vandalize etc.
So I am sure so many of you will say you shouldnt have to do many of these things. The list is not what we would like the world to be but how it is. The vast majority but not all violated these reality rules and died. The others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time or killed by police incompetence.
No I am not excusing the police merely pointing out what it takes to minimizing being killed by the police.
cops create infractions, just making them up out of whole cloth, if they want to stop somebody. they also ticket blacks for minor infractions much more often than whites–it is a money raising scheme that was a large part of the problem in ferguson. floyd wasn’t threatening, he got choked to death.
also, people are killed by police malice. the whole focus on the victims rather the perps is disturbing. i don’t see people admonished stores that they are to be blamed for being looted.
Floyd violated the rules i listed above increasing his chances of dying to the point of death. Did he deserve it, no. Simply violated reality safety. I agree cops increase city revenue with tickets. It is mandated by city administration. Lastly cops cannot be racist because a higher priorty takes prescedent. They are a tribe. The tribe sticks tigether right or wrong. The tribe fight among themselves but keeps it in the tribe. The tribe moves with one purpose like a military unit. The tribe fulfills its mission. If you think cops are racist blame those at the top of the tribe training them and defining their mission.
Cops can’t be racist? You have to be joking. Your whole comment about “the tribe” sounds like something out of a military recruitment commercial.
Explain why cops stick together and support each other above all else. Tribe instincts and loyalties. Yea it does sound like a recruitment ad because that is how they are trained. Cops profile becsuse that is how they are trained.
It’s called a GANG.
No, you ARE excusing the police. You sound just like Barak Obama or Joe Biden, or sadly, Bernie Sanders.
No. I am not excusing them. I am putting the blame at thr top where it belongs. I blame those who train and define their mission.
You forgot to include don’t look at a cop cross-eyed, don’t reach for your ID too quickly, don’t scratch an itch, don’t move a muscle. In other words, sit there in silent terror, hoping the cop won’t take it the wrong way. Allow him or her to have this obscene power over you and enjoy the hell out of it.
yep. Good rules. Be afraid. Will keep you alive. Didnt say it was right just the way it is.
But shouldn’t “the way it is” be right or a hell of a lot better? Hasn’t the time suddenly come, almost providentially, to do all in our power to make it so? “We may never pass this way again,” at least in our lifetimes. How the future will think of us, if there is one, will IMHO turn on our action or inaction “in the flash of this moment.”
Such as…..
Very true. Every single person should be taught how to deal with the police.
1.) Keep your hands in their view at all times.
2.) Do not make any sudden or unpredicatble moves.
3.) Do not assault or reach toward a cop.
4.) Be respectful and polite, and they will likely return the favor.
5.) Save the fights/arguments for when you’re at the police station and ask to speak with the shift supervisor if you think the cops did something wrong. The street is NOT the place where you want to get into it with the cops.
———————
If people did the above, the number of people shot by cops would drop by over 95%. Cops have a very valid reason for being hyper-vigilant and quick to act. For them, it really is a matter of life or death. They have an absolute right to defend themselves against threats.
“How to minimize your chances of being killed by the police.” … in the U.S.A that is.
You don’t need to follow these “rules” in most of the rest of the world, even when you’re high and belligerent, places like Idlib and parts of Afghanistan being the exception … oh wait, those are U.S. territories.
and …
Rules, schmules …
lol. You think only american cops are dangerous. Act aggrssive toward most cops in the world and get your teeth knocked in. Do you know when people in other countries obey cops without question. When they are terriffied of having their name taken and visited at their home when no one is around.
Reform or revolution?
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First American Revolution: Independence, 18th century.
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Second American Revolution: Emancipation, 19th century.
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Third American Revolution: Civil Rights, 20th century.
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Fourth American Revolution: And the Truth Shall Set You Free, 21st century?
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From secrecy and propaganda to truth? From deep state tyranny to freedom?
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Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
> America’s new protest movement . . . actually pushing for a revolutionary change which actually pushes back against abusive power structures and calls for the creation of a radically different social paradigm . . .
> The widespread call to abolish America’s police state, an integral part of the glue which holds the US-centralized empire together, is revolutionary. . . .
> Police “reform” proponents are advancing a decoy agenda which people have been distracted by for generations while the police force has become increasingly militarized behind a veil of meaningless verbiage about community outreach and training programs. . . .
> This is where the real revolutionary energy is at in America right now . . .
.
More:
.
Revolution — Caitlin Johnstone
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/tag/revolution/
Revolutions tend to be messy, and seldom come out the way the original revolutionaries intended. This is especially true when the revolutions involve state power and the use of force. Often, they lead to ruinous civil wars, as in France, Russia, and China, The results of those wars often result in precisely what the original revolutionaries were fighting against — in the three cases mentioned, severe dictatorship and quests for empire, since the most efficient social organization for making war is an authoritarian state.
Even people who don’t read a lot of history seem to understand this. Hence revolutions become actually popular only when the people are driven to extremes. Have we reached that point yet in the US? I’m not sure about that. It’s true the state and its ruling class are degenerating, but on the other hand most of us are still eating and have a roof our head, however crappy it may be.
There is another kind of revolution where people change their minds about the kind of society they want to live in. The procedures for bringing that kind of revolution about are constructive and require thought and labor and sometimes even study, so they are even less popular than the usual hysteria, terror, and violence. As yet they can be practiced only on a small scale. But at least they sometimes work, other than to restore the status quo ante squared.
But rage on, as one of my colleagues of long ago used to say.
Anarcissie wrote:
> There is another kind of revolution where people change their minds about the kind of society they want to live in.
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Yes, all true American Revolutions have been about “We the People”.
Anarcissie wrote:
> Revolutions tend to be messy, and seldom come out the way the original revolutionaries intended. This is especially true when the revolutions involve state power and the use of force.
.
True revolutions, such as 1960s Civil Rights and Peace Movements, mean a fundamental change. Any violence, even when contemporary, is not the real revolution, but the same old story. For example, that the US government stopped attacking other countries would really be revolutionary, a fundamental transformation.
There is a fundamental problem with the very activity of policing. They are often engaged in violent situations. In such situations, one can easily degenerate into the fight or flight level of consciousness. If you have never experienced that, let me enlighten you. At that point, you are no longer thinking with the front half of your brain. You are in fact not thinking at all. If the primordial lizard brain you are using decides to fight, there is NOTHING YOU WILL NOT DO to win. I don’t think there is such a thing as a good cop. They all have agreed to enforce a mountain of “laws”, the vast majority of which are not enacted to prevent or punish crime, but to manipulate behavior. And there are true monsters among them, just like the rest of the population. Those that aren’t monsters, may act like one because their consciousness has degenerated to that fight or flight mode. Unless you are willing to take responsibility for your own security, I doubt the majority of you would like the result of abolishing the police. So I have no solution. Violent confrontations can and often do result in lizard brain action. Your reasonable and rational hindsight not with standing.
If Black Lives Matter, why do they continue killing each other at a far higher rate than any other entity? Life matters, period.
Why do they continue their loyalty to a political party that is in near total control of every hell hole for black people? The same party that fails to educate their children? The same party that has made them dependent on the state? The same party that tells them no matter how you have screwed up your life, its someone else’s fault? There is no agent more responsible for the plight of blacks in the US than the Democratic party.
except for the republican party, which has successfully played the bad cop to the democratic party’s good cop. in your whole post, you ascribe this to cops reacting instinctively, when it has become clear that the problem is cops reacting on the basis of the cop culture they have learned. black lives matter was formed in response to this, not in order to somehow prioritize black lives over white lives.
Cops are trained. I know a cop that had a perp pull a gun at him and shoot at point blank range. He said afterward his training saved him. He collapsed to one knee pulled his gun and fired seven times stitching up his body as he was kneeling. That is why police are trained. Firing seven times was instinct and adreneline. Police work is dangerous. Just because it is messy doesnt mean we abolish it. As for militarizing the police when inner city gangs use uzis ak47 on the cops they respond in kind. I think the cops are scary just like the military but I consider them a necessary evil for complex societies of 7 billion people.
The man who was driving drunk, and who then assaulted a cop, stole his weapon and fired it at him is the one who turned a non-lethal situation into a lethal situation. He is responsible for his own actions. You should not be able to assault a police officer, steal his taser and fire it at him without getting shot. Yet many people are taking incredible position, which again underlines how the world has lost its collective mind.
uh the cop was trying to use the taser on him. if the taser is a deadly weapon, which you imply, then the cop had tried to kill him and he was defending himself. if the taser is not a deadly weapon, then the cop murdered him.
Touche. Amazing how many people can’t grasp these simple concepts.
Shooting somone in the back who is not firing a weapon at you is murder. Period.
You’re not getting what Digby was saying. The perp made it a lethal situation by fighting with the cop. At that point, the cop had to go on the defensive, which means that the risk of them using deadly force increases dramatically.
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The taser is deadly when used on a cop because the perp can incapacitate the cop and then grab his/her firearm, which would put the cop’s life in grave danger.
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FWIW, while the taser is considered non-lethal, there have been multiple people who’ve died as a result of being tasered.
Definitely … If the cop had let the dude get away (with a taser no less), an Atlanta lynch mob would have been assembled as soon as the news got out.
That would have been a lot, lot uglier.
If a suspect physicallyl fights with a cop, steals his taser, then runs…there’s a good chance that the perp is wanted for something more serious than sleeping or being drunk behind the wheel. That **might**not be the case here (we don’t know anything at this point), but is is a pretty good guess when this happens in most cases.
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Do you think that this is a game where the criminal who is able to overpower cops and run away faster “wins the game”? Do you realize that many people who would go this far with the cops are likely to present a very real threat to innocent civilians? Why do you think that criminals should be able to remain on the loose just because they are stronger/faster/better armed than the cops?
Some relevant questions are brought up by “reallygraceful” in her YouTube video investigating the motives of the “Defund thePolice” movement:
defund the police? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlBvSKtFtCI&list=PLRQ5OGvf-BUFbpB-crAtWwEh5mj3nnK6Z&index=6&t=432s
Thank you for sharing this source to educate us on what’s going on behind the curtain. I viewed it and now I am going to view her other YouTubes.
Yes, her questions are worth pondering, but her basic ideology slips through loud and clear: “reallygraceful” is hardcore rightwing with an agenda. So listen with caution.
I am not a police officer and after my service I decided not to be one. Watching the videos and the interaction between the two men and the circumstances surrounding the incident, I am brought to wonder how this could have been handled differently. First, the officer directed him to park the car out of the way. So, now it is just the two. The officer established the man’s identity and possessed his credentials. Why didn’t Training protocols allow for the officer to be more free thinking in His approach? For instance, the officer had his credentials all he had to do was take the keys and the car is going nowhere. Call for a boot to be placed on the vehicle and given the man a summons to report the following day to retrieve his car and credentials. Protocol could have even asked if there was someone that could come and get him. When the man ran, let him run, you know who he is. You know where he lives. You have his car and his credentials. Clearly the training he received for use of deadly force was inadequate to the circumstances. I often wondered why they haven’t developed a device that shoots a net over a person, sort of like Spider-Man.
One would have to ask the police officer involved. Regardless of the training, shooting at and often killing fleeing suspects seems to be almost default procedure.
I can’t wait to read your report on Peter Dutton’s proposal for ASIO to be able to interrogate 14 year olds.
Actually, having read this https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/asio-powers-to-question-children-a-difficult-balancing-act/, it must be time to lower the voting age to 14 as well.
Just reading some of these comments here it becomes rather obvious that the so-called good people in America are the problem. My good neighbor the other day came over and told me that the reason he had my 97-year-old mother killed was because I had an outstanding unpaid parking ticket. That is basically what America is all about.
America is a Free Country. Every American has the Right to kill themselves before the State, Doctor, or Lawyer does it for them.
To Save them from themselves of course.
Police in the United States kill 1 to three sometimes four or more black people per day. Aware that they are under scrutiny by an enraged population they will try to taper off but of course will fail because they just cant help themselbes.
So each murder will be followed by protest and riot.
Politicians will put up with this state of affairs until they may lose their jobs. Then they will tell the cops to stop.
Of course the cops wont be able to stop so then they will be fired.
How many black unborn children are killed each day by abortiion. Abortion clinics are targeted to the poor black neighborhoods. Planned parenthood is not about womens rights but reducing the polulations of the poor worldwide. BLM is a farce shifting attention while
Millions of unborn black children over the last decades die. Also research the initiative Bill Gates is funding to render women unable to reproduce for 5 years with a single shot which imo will be administered under a coronovirus vaccine. This has been implemented in poor countries already of course. Not a theory but fact.
In the late 1970’s I worked for several years as a psychiatric attendant in a locked mental health facility in a large urban area in Michigan. Day after day police brought in patients against their will who were either completely obliterated on any number of drugs, were floridly psychotic, or were suicidal or violent.
I read each police report as part of the admission procedure. The police took knives, baseball bats, screw drivers, you name it, away from these people, who were by definition so intoxicated or acutely psychotic that there ‘couldn’t’ really comply with police commands and didn’t. Our patients were white, black and hispanic primarily and they were poor for the most part. They were not shot down like dogs by the police in those days for the “crime” of being mentally ill or on drugs like they are today.
There is simply no excuse for our police practices to have deteriorated to the point that police simply execute people on the street for selling cigarettes or falling asleep in their car while intoxicated. Or shoot mentally ill or suicdal people on their own front porch because they won’t put the screwdriver down when the police order them to.
Defending these completely unnecessary police murders is as immoral and self-deluded as the murders themselves. The many apologists for this mayhem unintentionally speak volumes about the deeply rooted inherently amoral violence and racism at the very root of our American society.
Beautifully said, Gary Weglarz. Thank you.
This is the problem. It’s not about whiteness, or flags with blue stripes, it’s about black person after black person consistently facing the worst possible consequences for stuff that weak humans do sometimes. It happens too often to be a coincidence.
Have you bothered to look up the statistics? The reality doesn’t comport with the false narrative that white police officers are going around killing black men. There will always be accidents whenever law enforcement is dealing with criminals (or non-criminals, like Sandra Bland, or Breonna Taylor). But in the vast majority if the cases where black (or white or brown) men were killed by police, it’s because the suspects were resisting arrest or fighting the police. If we make it legal to fight the police, then we will have no more police left to fight.
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After the Rodney King riots, the LAPD had such a difficult time recruiting and retaining cops that they had to change their standards to allow ex-convicts and gang members to join the force. We are about to see an exodus from police departments across the country — especially if some of the reforms go through. We cannot expect police officers to take all of the risks while criminals are allowed to assault the only people who stand between us and genuinely evil psychopaths. That is not the kind of world that the vast majority of people want to live in.
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Some of us lived through the bleak, gritty 70s and 80s in large U.S. cities when crime was rampant and the Democrats were pushing for the soft-on-crime agenda. Those were the days that saw movies like Escape from New York and Death Wish. I lived though that, and was victimized on multiple occasions. I will never stop fighting for the rights of law-abiding people to live in safe communities. Because of this, I will always favor the life of a cop over the life of a criminal. If a criminal doesn’t want to be beaten or killed by a cop, then listen to what he or she says and ask for a supervisor if the officer gets too rough.
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It appears that we are going to fracture into different zones. I cannot see any other way. It won’t be by race, though. The divisions will be between those who want to live in clean, safe neighborhoods with polite, law-abiding neighbors, and those who want to live in graffiti-filled, dystopian hellholes with criminals who will rob them, assault them, rape them, and then come back for more (no prison for criminals because criminals are people, too!).
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Again, it’s easy to prance around demanding the defunding/abolishment of police departments…until the criminals are at your own door. Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.
“If we make it legal to fight the police, then we will have no more police left to fight.”
Did you get that one from Goebbels? Give credit please.
These rants always get around to rape sooner or later.
You approve of rape? Do you have **any** idea how many women (and girls…lots and lots of young girls) are victimized by rapists and child molesters? The vast, vast majority of these crimes are never reported. Often, they aren’t even told to close friends or family members.
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Yes, it gets back to rape because rape is real and nearly every woman knows what it’s like to always have to be watching her back. Rape/sexual assault is one of the most heinous crimes committed by humans.
It’s an old argument from slavery that blacks can’t be free because they will rape whitey until there is no whiteness left. It’s a Freudian delusion kept alive by mentally ill cowards who lack the courage to face reality.
Bringing up individual cases of police brutality means nothing. For every brutal act by the police in America there are a 1000 legitinate acts of decent men and women trying to properly do their job. What these riots and demonstrations will bring is not justice but maximum force. Yes it is wrong what some police officers do but dismantling the entire system is not the answer. I have no idea where we go from here.
The first step would to abolish the Police Unions. Union contracts protect the bad cops. The Democrats and the Unions protect each other. Follow the money.
Good point.
the problem with the good apples argument is that so many cops ignore crimes up to and including murder by their colleagues. those aren’t good apples.
Tribe first. Always tribe first.
Ah, a Good Apple argument! Can we stop spreading this falsehood? Where are these decent men and women in uniform? They just don’t exist, or, if a few do, they don’t last, cause they are not part of what you yourself called “the tribe.”
The US police force is a racist institution. It is also trigger happy. Shooting someone in the back like Rayshard Brooks is cowardly. Nobody running away from you is posing a threat to you. You should either chase or catch him smoother time, if he was committing a serious crime, which as far as I am concerned taking drugs or being intoxicated is not.
I have thought much about this recently. I would say that I am not racist, but I am not so sure. When you join an organisation, you take up its values. During the period 1985 to 2005 I maybe hired 25-30 BAME MBA people perhaps out of 140 or so. But all but one of the hires were Asian, Arabs, or non-American blacks ie Caribbean.
All but the African-American were internally promoted, and although he was certainly competent at his job. Other departments didn’t want him because of his “attitude” or chip on his shoulder”. Other executives were quite open about saying this to me. It was an unspoken ‘value’ of the corporation that basically everyone complied with.
When I look at who I did hire, I now wonder if there was an ‘unconscious’ bias, not so much against the colour of the skin, but against the ‘attitude’ that African American candidates
please explain how the police are racist when they arrest and kill more white people each year than black people. Also how are police racist when many are black and hispanic. Ate you saying black people can be racist too.
If they also kill that many white people then let’s demilitarize and greatly reduce police funding for another reason – to keep them from brutalizing white people also.
There were at least two black cops in one of the Atlanta Wendy’s videos. Both of the black cops were concerned with their co-worker…the white cop’s well being after he shot Brooks. Note, there are at least 5 different videos posted from 5 different angles.
so I ask again. Are cops racist and are black cops racist.
How quickly you forget that old NWA song, about how when a black person is being arrested, the worst scenario is for two officers to arrive, including “a black cop showing for the white cop.”
All cops are Authoritarians. Therefore, all cops are racist, sexist, homophobic, and encouraged to inflict maximum violence. That is what Authority wants, so that is what Authoritarians do. Are you an Authoritarian as well? All the arguments you pose would point in that direction…
No just a realist. It is how they are trained. I point out why they are the way they are not that it is acceptable. I am against war and violence but believe we should have armies and police. Unfortunately in America both are excessive.
“I am against war and violence but believe we should have armies and police.”
As peacekeepers and referees, I presume. Hmmm …
To protect agsinst aggressors. Not to be used to become the aggressors.
> When I look at who I did hire, I now wonder if there was an ‘unconscious’ bias, not so much against the color of the skin, but against the ‘attitude’ that African American candidates
Do you also look away from the beggar on the street? Subconscious guilt is the disease, not the cure! If you feel guilty about someones situation, subconsciously shutting them out of existence is the easiest way to avoid the pain of that trigger. “Attitude” is your subconscious’ excuse, not its reason, not least because it knows you would have that attitude if everyone treated you the same way.
Who here wants to be a Police Officer?!
Anyone?? Wanna get that call from dispatch – no warning – and deal with unknown risk over & over, day after day?!
BLM = ANTIFA = HATE
ALL FUNDED BY SOROS
7500+ people die every day in the USA…
Per the photos, it appears that an ANTIFA woman started the Wendy’s on fire. Now all the employees are out of work and the neighborhood lost a quality restaurant. I also blame the Democrats who control the city since shortly after the Civil War. Democrats have controlled Atlanta since the 1870s! The party of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation…..still, for 150 years, the Dems remain in control of Atlanta.
Yes, the Soros funded Antifa. Whatever are fucknuts like you two doing on this site? Shouldn’t you be rah rahing with the mindless rodents on the Fox Nooz board?
Wendy’s is a ‘quality restaurant’ eh?
Are you denying that Antifa (and their master, Soros) is eyeball-deep in all of this shit? They are the ones doing most of the damage. They are the ones who are framing the black people who have deeply-felt grievances. Thankfully, much of the rioting, assaulting, looting, and arson was caught on video, and it’s very clear that white Antifa thugs are behind most of the lawlessness. If not for the videos, people would be blaming all the mayhem on black people. That’s a shitty thing for Antifa to do.
Please keep an open mind and let us learn from one another on this wonderful opportunity/website that Caitlin has provided for us. Name calling happens from some who don’t agree with facts…let’s not do that here. I do not watch TV, except for PBS on weekends and a couple church services on Saturdays; do not assume I watch FOX-TV. In fact, I posted a sign on my refrigerator 20 years ago referring it as FAUX-Network and that sign is still there. It is not right to blame the Wendy’s staff for the drive-up line being held at a stand still by Mr Brooks….please rethink that. Here is the Georgia Wendy’s webpage. If you have a problem with them promoting quality, please let them know if you have concerns and provide details. https://wendys.ge/en/about/quality-is-our-recipe Going forward, I look forward to exchanging ideas with you and others.
It’s mostly Covid19. You can relax as long as you wear a masque to bed and are under 80 …
Forced integration has been an utter
catastrophe for whites, particularly
for white women subjected to rape
and robbery by black males (not to
mention the many cases of gang rape
and torture by black men, all of which
have been covered up by protect-
blacks-at-any-cost liberal news media).
Read this anonymous article about the hidden statistics on black-on-white crime in America (( mainstream media refuse to report the awful impact that black men have had on white civil society in the U.S. )):
“Paul Sheehan, an Australian reporter, dug out the following Information for an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, May 2, 1995.
“Sheehan based his statistics on crime data compiled by the FBI and partially reported each year in The FBI Uniform Crime Report . These reports can be
researched at the FBI’s website, http://www.fbi.gov.
“Since the FBI doesn’t distinguish between Hispanics and whites, Sheehan’s statistics don’t adequately reflect the black-on-white crime situation.
“Only about 10-15% of Hispanics are white, with the rest being Indian or a mixture of white, American Indian, and blacks.
“Hispanic crime rates are almost as high as black crime rates. This means that the data Sheehan compiled on inter-racial crime is probably grossly understated since a considerable portion of the “white against black” crime actually is Hispanic-against-black crime. (Information about this aspect of inter-racial crime will be presented in a related article.)
“Here is the information Sheehan uncovered in his analysis of the FBI’s crime reports:
-“Blacks murder more than 1,600 whites each year.
-“Blacks murder whites at 18 times the rate whites murder blacks.
-“Blacks murdered, raped, robbed, or assaulted about one million whites In 1992.
-“In the last 30 years, blacks committed 170 million violent and non-violent crimes against whites.
-“Blacks under 18 are more than 12 times more likely to be arrested for murder than whites under 18.
-“About 90% of the victims of interracial crimes are white.
-“Blacks commit 7.5 times more violent interracial crimes than whites, although whites outnumber blacks by 7 to 1.
-“On a per capita basis, blacks commit 50 times more violent crime than whites.
-“Black neighborhoods are 35 times more violent than white neighborhoods.
-“Of the 27 million nonviolent robberies in 1992, 31% (8.4 million) were committed by blacks against whites. Less than 2% were committed by whites against blacks.
-“Of the 6.6 million violent crimes, 20% (1.3 million) were interracial.
-“Of the 1.3 million interracial violent crimes, 90% (1.17 million) are black against white.
-“In the past 20 years, violent crime increased four times faster than the population.
-“In the last 30 years (1964-94), more than 45,000 people were killed in interracial murders compared to 38,000 killed in Korea and 58,000 in Vietnam.
-“Sheehan commented that the contents of his article could not possibly be published or discussed in the U.S. mainstream media.
-“In the last 50 years, the white part of the American population has declined from 90% to 72%.
“The U.S. now has about 33 million blacks and 25 million Hispanics (legal and illegal). By the year 2050, American whites will be a minority, just 49%. By 2100, whites will be 25% of the population.
-“What will life for whites be like in the future?”
-end of report
-Rick
BIG Business controls lame duck Donald Trump and BIG Business wants cheap illegal foreign labor. BIG Business cares more about their profits than the lives of ordinary US citizens.
I would bet that the ‘officer’ involved is ex-military, trained to kill and perhaps having enjoyed some rampaging in Afghanistan or Iraq shooting someone who disrespected him is just something he was trained to do. First step to correct the police is to retire all ex-military and no longer hire any. And while we are at it, how about defunding the military.
Officer Garret Rolfe is age 27 and has been a police officer since age 20. I encourage you to take time to watch all 5 videos from different cameras.
So, it would appear, in the land of “exceptional people” it’s ILLEGAL to sleep it off in your car, instead you should try to drive it home under the influence, and possibly kill a few pedestrians on the way. The question arises, why would the Police even target an individual for such an event as sleeping off their alcohol stupor in their car whilst parked with the engine off ????
How is that a crime requiring the immediate attention and roughing up by Police ????
On the other hand, I do need to question the rationality of the individual concerned, may he rest in peace. Given the behaviour of Police in America, especially to people of color, why he would place himself in such a vulnerable position in the first place smacks to me of no self preservation instincts at all.
In case you missed it, customers at Wendy’s were upset that he was in line for the drive-up window and fell asleep while in line (in the driver’s seat of his car.) Wendy’s staff could not get him to wake up, so they phoned 911. Another officer came, woke Brooks up. Brooks drove his car out of the drive-up line and up over a curb and backed up to park in the parking place, to finally speak to the officer. That first officer then called for back-up, as Brooks was driving while drunk. I have seen 5 videos of this from different cameras, different angles. I suggest that others watch the 5, so they understand all the facts. Atlanta has been a city under Democratic mayor control since 1872 ! It is hard to get the police forces to change when the unions are strong and supported by Democrats and the Democrats have been in control for over a century!
Don’t you think Wendy’s staff should be a little more snappy delivering their quality food? How come that’s not mentioned? The poor man may have been loaded but he probably fell asleep because the process was taking too long. Don’t tell me you’ve never snoozed in a line at the DMV …
Oh yeah, go Atlanta Repugnicants!
He was drunk. People who get drunk do not have terribly good preservation instincts. To do that you must have your wits about you.
Don’t get caught up in any side of a “race war”, as it is in the interest of some elite manipulators.
The goal seems to be a socialist-economy with social fascist enforcement, perhaps not too fr from Naziism, “National Socialism”, with ANTIFA starring as the Communist threat that had to be defended against by fascist mobilization.
Alexander Korybko: Antifa and its institutional allies are encouraging the aforementioned crime wave and urban terrorism in order to provoke a lethal response from the security services that could then increase the likelihood of a “race war” breaking out so as to destabilize the US government. The envisioned end game is to replace the country’s current capitalist system with an economic leftist one, even if the social fascists and many of their allies aren’t aware of it. https://orientalreview.org/2020/06/13/the-syncretism-of-economic-leftism-social-fascism-is-the-worlds-newest-danger/
This from Daisy Luther’s “Organic Prepper” site : An Eye-Witness’s Shocking Account of What’s REALLY Happening During the Seattle Riots https://www.theorganicprepper.com/truth-seattle-riot/
“Antifa” seems to be behind the current mayhem to about the same degree that “Al Quaida” was behind the mayhem of 9/11.
Yep. I agree Newton.
Spot on, John. There is a much larger agenda behind all of this. It’s not about George Floyd (a convenient trigger event) or even black lives. The authoritarian globalist socialists/communists (who seek to concentrate power even more, as they are “the state”) are 100% behind this, and it goes all the way to the top.
They don’t even try to hide it anymore:
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset
I happen to like socialists. My grandfather was a huge Eugene V. Debs supporter and and avowed socialist. Socialists are responsible for a lot of good in society. For instance, if you are a factory worker and agree with the 40 hour work week, no child labor, the 8 hour work day, Social Security, and women’s suffrage, not to mention Medicare and Medicaid, thank a leftist or a socialist. It’s not a bad word. It’s a very good word indeed!
I’ve long advocated for many socialist policies over the years. My mother was a card-carrying communist who toned it down over the years and landed on just being a socialist. I’ve never bought the American narrative that socialists were evil. For decades, I’ve been debating with conservative capitalists about the merits of socialism, and how it need not be authoritarian (one of their main arguments against socialism). I was very involved in Bernie’s campaign in 2016. And I will ALWAYS favor labor over capital for as long as I live, as this is what drew me to socialism.
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Sadly, my long-held beliefs have been seriously challenged during the past few months. I’m not the only one who’s been feeling this way, either. Many of us who come from the labor side of socialism have watched as radical authoritarian cultural extremists have taken over the momentum that was started by the labor/class-based socialists. They have quickly and efficiently worked to censor anyone who disagrees with them in any way, even threatening them physically (physically confronting them, often in their own homes), and financially (threatening their employers and causing them to fire the non-compliant parties). I’ve watched as these extremists demand that people kneel or prostrate themselves at their feet — again, with threats if people refuse to comply. These radical extremists then beat people in the streets, burn down buildings, and riot if they don’t get their way. They advocate for the rights of criminals over the rights of crime victims and those who protect these victims.
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I cannot support any kind of movement that seeks to impose a tyrannical, authoritarian regime on other people. It is with a heavy heart that I watch everything I’ve ever believed in fall to chaos, anarchy, violence, and destruction. I hate capitalism, but I hate authoritarianism and violence even more. I wish things could have turned out differently.
“The envisioned end game is to replace the country’s current capitalist system … ”
Say it’s not true, John. Who would be left to adore and emulate if the billionaires are deposed? Can a party bureaucrat no matter how high ranking match an Elon Musk for pzazz? Can anybody who’s simply doing the right thing match a Jeff Bezos who’s doing the rich thing.
What could possibly replace a system in which anyone can aspire to become a capitalist as long as they have some loose change to buy a lottery ticket?
Go Status Quo! (the band too).