Enforcers category archive

Back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, segregationists would always claim that civil rights demonstrations were the work of “outside agitators” because, according to them, “our darkies are happy darkies.”

I guess it’s comforting that some things haven’t changed.

Jodi Melamed writes in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel specifically about recent events in Milwaukee, but her column speak of any U. S. jurisdiction. A nugget:

As a white resident of Milwaukee for 12 years and a professor who teaches about race and ethnicity at Marquette University, I have witnessed time and again the tendency of white Milwaukeeans to treat the city’s crisis of race and impoverishment as a natural occurrence. In my classes, white students are quick to recognize racial profiling, the school-to-prison pipeline, and food deserts as hallmarks of oppression, but slow to note that where there is oppression, there are oppressors, or at least complacency with an oppressive status quo.

Why is it so hard for white Milwaukeeans (and white people in general) to recognize segregation, mass incarceration, failing schools and joblessness as the inevitable outcome of our decisions? How can we fail to see that such “problems” will inevitably come to pass when we remove ourselves and our tax dollars to white enclaves, decide to foster a prison industry rather than demand government responsibility for job creation, and stop caring about “other” people’s children?

Shorter Leonard Pitts, Jr:

When everyone’s at fault, no one’s at fault. It’s the dialectic of impunity.

Clarence Page recounts one man’s story (the man, by the by, is a Republican U. S. Senator from North Carolina). Here’s a bit:

“Please remember that, in the course of one year, I’ve been stopped seven times by law enforcement officers,” Scott declared in the widely covered and retweeted speech. “Not four, not five, not six, but seven times in one year as an elected official.

“Was I speeding sometimes? Sure. But the vast majority of the time, I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or some other reason just as trivial.

“I do not know many African-American men who do not have a very similar story to tell, no matter the profession, no matter their income, no matter their disposition in life.”

Via Job’s Anger.

In the Guardian. Ieshia Evans, who gained fame for fearlessly standing as she was arrested by a crew of robocops on a Baton Rouge street, tells her story. Here’s a bit:

It was 1am in Queens, New York. I was 18 years old. My roommate and I just wanted to buy some juice on our journey home from working night shifts in Manhattan. But as we came up to the busy corner store, a white police officer stopped me. He searched me and asked for my identification. I didn’t understand why.

“I just need to make sure that you’re not a prostitute,” he said, projecting his voice so that all the customers in the store could hear. Their jaws dropped. I was so embarrassed. We went home without the juice.

Would this have happened if I were a white woman? I don’t think so. I wasn’t dressed in a provocative way.

Do please read the rest.

At the Portland Press-Herald, Alan Caron takes on those who would defend the police against any charges of misconduct, regardless of how blatant and egregious and deadly–and of how captured in video–that misconduct may have been. A snippet:

Some continue to do that (defend the police–ed.) today, even in the face of overwhelming video evidence. As exhibit A, I refer you to a column on Friday by Portland Press Herald columnist M.D. Harmon, who asserted that the conflicts between police and black communities are really little more than a myth created by interest groups and liberals.

Harmon did a good job representing the conservative ideologue’s response to race problems in America, which seems to mirror its response to climate change and income inequality. Dig a small hole. Put your head into the hole, and bury your eyes and ears. There, in the silence, racism will not exist. Climate change will be a myth. Income equally will not matter.

Here’s a link to Harmon’s column cited by Mr. Caron. (I glanced at it when it first appeared and decided it was the usual right-wing claptrap.)

One person’s story.

You don’t have to make this stuff up.

It happens every day.

Jonathan Capehart fills in the blanks for persons, such as Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump, too stupid or too intentionally blind or too deeply invested in racism to get it. A snippet:

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said , “When you say black lives matter, that’s inherently racist.” Asked whether he agreed with Giuliani, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said, “A lot of people agree with that. A lot of people feel that it is inherently racist. And it’s a very divisive term. Because all lives matter. It’s a very, very divisive term.”

Folks, I’ve run out of things to say. The ignorance flowing out of the mouths of politicians has me reaching for words I’ve already written. So, let me restate some of them. The best way to understand the meaning of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is to think of it as an incomplete sentence. To those African-Americans and other Americans marching to protest lives extinguished by law enforcement, the unspoken finish to the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is “as much as anyone else’s.”

Read the rest.

In related news, Kevin Riordan has an eye-opening moment.

Ron Sims, who has served as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as King County (Seattle) Executive, tells his story to the Seattle Times. Here’s a bit of it:

We (he and a Seattle Times columnist–ed.) talked about a broad range of things, including my various traffic stops by the Seattle Police Department. I wasn’t speeding nor did I have an issue with my car.

Four stops occurred in my neighborhood, two on Beacon Hill, and one near the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I was never ticketed but was always asked, “Do you live in this neighborhood?” or “Where are you going?”

More tales of even-handed law enforcement at the link.

One more time: It’s not the deed. It’s the light shining upon the deed.