Gleaning Facebook: We Need Comprehensive Police Reform

Sheila and I reminding folks on Turner McCall Boulevard of the
names of some of the recent victims of racism.

I know this is just a minor part of my neighbor Russell's excellent post, but it is a long time firm belief of mine so just a note of emphasis: There should be NO PRIVATE PRISONS EVER!!!! Making it PROFITABLE to lock someone up in a republic is obscene. There are politicians who get campaign donations from prison companies--- [https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php...] --- VOMIT!!!! The stupidity and immorality of Capital-R-Republican fondness for privatizing basic governmental functions is plain.

 From Russell Cook's Facebook:

Alright y’all. I haven’t been on social media much lately, and certainly haven’t thought that my voice was the one thing missing from a national conversation on race and police violence. However, judging from what’s coming out of the keyboards of some folks I see on here, there might be a use in hearing it from as many people as possible, as often as possible. After all of the upheaval of the past couple of weeks, a police officer in Atlanta saw fit, in the moment, to shoot a man twice in the back as he ran away. Shooting someone in the back is murder, no matter how you try to justify it. They knew who he was. They had his car. They had run his ID and talked to him for half an hour. Whatever happened, he was no mortal danger to the officer or to anyone else, even if he did grab and discharge a non-lethal taser in his struggle to get away.

But police work is dangerous, right? Every car pulled over is a potential cop killer, right? But how many actually are? It’s easy to find out. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, police work is in the top 20 or so for dangerous jobs in the U.S., at 108 fatalities last year. That’s 6 or 7 fatalities per 100,000 officers. But that’s a fraction of the fatalities of another public servant: Sanitation Workers have 35 or so fatalities per 100,000. Read that again. You are three or four times as likely to be killed in the line of duty as a Garbageman than as a Cop. Farmers, Truck Drivers, even Landscapers are much more likely to die in the line of duty than the Police. And roughly half of those on-the-job police deaths come from traffic accidents, not from a bad guy with a gun.

There is a significant danger associated with police work though: Police violence, that is, violence by the police, is a leading cause of death of young American men, and black men are roughly twice as likely as white men to be killed by the police. Over the course of a lifetime, roughly 1 in 1000 black men can expect to be killed by law enforcement. This data comes from the National Academy of Sciences. 1 in 1000 is 100 in 100,000, which is a higher rate of death than the most dangerous occupations, Logging and Commercial Fishing. So, if being a black man in the United States were a chosen occupation, it would be among the most dangerous occupations one could choose, with this danger solely based on your chance of being killed by law enforcement. Think about that. When a policeman shoots to kill, (and they are not trained to shoot in any other way) is that fear reasonable and justified? Oftentimes not, based on the numbers. If you are a black man, do you have reason to fear for your life when the police show up, no matter your situation? Absolutely.

None of this is opinion. This is all fact, easily found in govt. data. So, here's the opinion: does the police force as we know it really protect and serve? If so, what are they protecting? Who are they serving? In my very limited, and mostly benign experience with law enforcement, there seems to be too much emphasis on enforcement, with not enough emphasis on the actual law. The assumption seems to be that if the officer is wrong, it’ll come out in court…months later, after thousands spent on legal fees, assuming you can afford it, and many cannot. That may have something to do with the fact that we have only 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of the world’s prison population. California is doing the right thing by ending for-profit prisons. We need comprehensive police reform to go with it.

Comment

Keith M. Padgett
When I was doing my MS in Florida, we toured GEO Groups headquarters. Just being in that building made me sick to my stomach and so angry. And the dismissive answers they gave to questions just infuriated me. 

Gleaning Facebook: Saying Their Names

 From Bonny Askew's Facebook--

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From my Facebook:

An evening to speak these names and others and to rededicate ourselves in their memory to our never fully realized but noble founding goals... liberty and justice for all.

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From Ellen Thompson's Facebook:

This evening in Rome... #SayTheirNames #SpeakTheirNames #voicesthatmatter #signsofthetimesekt #icantbreathe2020 #WeAreRome

From my Facebook: Thanks, Ellen K. Thompson for snapping a picture. Sheila and I were so inspired by the many friends, acquaintances, and newly met friends, who -- with physical distancing -- helped us remember the victims of racism and also by the wonderful support from the many folks who drove by along Rome's busiest street shouting encouragement or tooting their horns or waving or giving thumbs-up. One even drove away and came back with bottled water for all of us.

Pictures from Joan Ledbetter's Facebook (with my comments):

I am so in love with the woman in the dark glasses. Sheila does not like the spotlight (I know what you are thinking; how in the world did she produce our two diva-daughters?!) She hates controversy. But she also has principles and the strength of steel. Holding a controversial sign on Turner McCall Boulevard goes against her nature, but so does the evil of racism. She will not be silent in the face of evil.

Melanie Spivey and Ellen K. Thompson

I was so pleased to see my sister Debi and her husband here today.

Joan Ledbetter

Gleaning Facebook: Stop. Regroup. Organize. Strategize. Mobilize.

Yes. After witnessing the meltdown of the little man in the White House tonight we must Stop. Regroup. Organize. Strategize. Mobilize.

This wonderful former student of mine is brilliant, and successful, and a loving husband and father, and has always been just a really nice guy. It breaks my heart that he has had to face stupid blatant racism as well as the every day ignorance of folks like me enjoying our casual white privilege mostly blind to the daily challenges of our friends of color.

Please try to read, and think about these words dispassionately and with a determination to really see through his eyes for a bit.

Black lives matter.

We MUST at least obliterate the current racism at the polls in November. So, yes, vote, donate, work for candidates who will seek reconciliation and peace and brotherhood.

From Marshall Jones' Facebook:

My heart hurts due to the damage that this administration is causing. It will be awhile before our youth recover and hearts & minds are changed.

I can't count how many times I have been stopped for Driving While Black. I have taken clients to dinner and have been stopped because I was in the wrong area, the car was too nice, we want to make sure you (the client) is ok; or cause it was Tuesday. I have missed opportunities, been passed over and even ignored. over the years. I have had to fight, I have been hit by drivers in their car as a pedestrian, handcuffed, spit on and shot at by racist, All because of my skin color. I refuse to let all of this negativity change my positive and hopeful view on what could be for us.

Most have tried to take the high road and keep our heads up. But AmeriKKKa, doesn't seem to want to listen. We tried peaceful marches, prayer and kneeling. Nothing has changed! What will it take? #LISTEN #DOSOMETHING

NOTE: Sllavery was not just physical; it was mental, emotional and financial. What we are witnessing now is nothing but this same mentality. Only it isn't just directed toward african americans solely. If people do not wake up amidst this they will awaken to find many freedoms GONE! Laws are being passed, appointees placed into top positions while we fight EACH other!! STOP, REGROUP, ORGANIZE, STRATEGIZE and MOBILIZE!! We owe it to our ancestors to not allow this to become more than a moment in our History. Do NOT allow this to become our FUTURE!

VOTE< VOTE < VOTE!

You all are seeing firsthand what one mistake has cost us!

PS. Don't forget about our Latino/Latina family that is locked up in cages, right now too! They should be freed as well! Tear down that F'n Wall before its finished!

 

The Talk (by Artagus Newell)

This year — in 2020! — in my home state, an unarmed young black man, peacefully jogging, was stopped and shot and killed. I cannot imagine that this would have happened had Ahmaud Arbery had fair skin. He died because of the attitude of the shooters toward people of color. This was a lynching.

I want to weep when I think of my wonderful minority students of the last fifty years who could find themselves confronted by similar unreasoning prejudice, and who DO daily meet less violent but just as unreasoning racism.

Today I read Artagus Newell's heartfelt post. Artagus invites the reader to see this horror through his eyes. I ask my white friends to open your hearts and minds to Artagus's words.

From Artagus's Facebook:

Artagus Newell

Ahmaud Arbery was lynched. The year is 2020. The place, Brunswick, Georgia, United States of America. Now, read that first line again. There’s so much I want and need to say in this post, but I will miss something.

All Black Kids at around age 10 or so, start to be given “the talk”. This is not the discussion about the “birds and bees”, this how you are perceived, will be/have been treated, how to/not act, stand, do, walk, carry yourself, and so on. This is not just be polite and respectful, it is to help ensure your safety- your life. Our parents were preparing us to be marginalized, and how to deal with it. We were warned, and rightly so, that we would not be seen as equals, that you’ll have to twice as good, to even be considered as a potential equal. Our parents told us this, not because of irrational fear, not because of one incident they heard of back in the day, but because they knew, that it would always be the subtle jabs about our hair, our “unusual names”, our manner of speech, what we eat, etc., but more importantly, when we started driving, when were at the mall, when were walking to our friends’ house several blocks away from where they knew we had no protective watchful eyes of our parents or others who knew us and looked after us. They knew that once we were elsewhere, we needed to aware of what situations may arise. They knew, that there would be white people would would like, trust, or give us the same respect, grace, and basic human dignity afforded to our whites friends.

We have all been followed in stores - not because of an over eager salesperson trying to make top seller, been called n......, been shamed in various ways, spoken to in a condescending manner, all of it, and you know what we do, we take it. Not because we’re okay with it, but because we know that by internalizing it, letting it roll off our backs, not saying or doing anything other than a forced smile or chuckle, will be perceived as being aggressive, uppity, out of place, and to some, gives them a cause to react. So, we simmer with constant anxiety coupled with rage, because these are things projected onto us so constantly by others, that they either don’t even know they’re doing or they do and simply don’t care and are completely okay with continuing to do so. Again, we still calm, because any form of what might be seen as “aggression” can quickly escalate to “I was in fear for my life” while our lifeless one is sprawled on the ground. But don’t worry, the receipt gathering will commence. Oh, that’s when our life is vetted after the fact of “ why were they there? What’s their criminal history? What are all the facts? Let’s not jump to conclusions!” You know the drill. Meanwhile, our parents are making funeral arrangements while having to defend their dead child’s name from others who again and still, don’t value our lives on par with their own. A friend of a friend literally stated and owned the receipt gathering mentality about Ahmaud. I can’t say I was surprised, he at least admitted where others think it, but aren’t willing to publicly admit it. This. This is the what we live through and try to survive EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES!

I’ve gotten the nasty, piercing glares, as I took a stroll, in walking in my own neighborhood, not just in Rome, but Carrollton, as well. It’s a sad thing, when you have anxiety about going for a walk, because you don’t wanna have to deal with the potential of dealing with folks who don’t think you belong, or worse , an escalation. So, if you go, you don’t walk too fast, that’s aggressive, you don’t walk too slow, that’s suspicious- what’s he casing?, you wear your UWG hat and souvenir shirts and brightest colors, doing your best to “fit in” and be “okay’d” to continue on, and hopefully safely back home.

Even with all the decades of warnings and girding yourself, the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery happened.

To my white friends, you need to listen to your friends who are people of color, when they do try and explain their feelings or experiences, and not be dismissive of or try to explain away what happened or why they feel a certain way. We aren’t being dramatic or extra, we are being truthful, and honestly, if we confide these feelings to you, that means you’re someone we feel comfortable enough as a friend to do so- it’s not something we take lightly so please don’t brush it or us off.

This lynching, again, what this is, is just the latest in a string of occurrences that has left POC dead, their names and reputations sullied, while others try to find some justification as to why they’re dead. The culmination has me absolutely crestfallen.

I implore my white friends, especially those who have children and family members who are POC, to know and empathize, that they will not be seen through the same lens as you are. Their experiences WILL be different, and oftentimes difficult. And for the love of God, the “I have a black friend” or posting something from the likes of Candace Owens, or that ex-officer Brandon from YouTube is about the worst you can give to us, as that’s a hollow retort, and they and their ilk, while certainly entitled to their opinions, are NOT representative of the vast majority of black and brown people.

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading. More importantly, if it made you uncomfortable, then good, maybe it will be lead to some introspective thoughts you maybe hadn’t had before. I needed to say this. I needed to get this off my chest, and anxiety and blood pressure, while still up, are a bit better than it’s been.

Stay well.

Artagus.

Gleaning Facebook: White Privilege (Three Posts)

The inequities in sentencing in America are nauseating. We lock up more people than China but give a traitor 47 months? Someone resurrect Charles Dickens, we need some stories told. What if Manafort had been poor or black or an immigrant

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Comment:

Cece Baker

It's not racism, there are PLENTY of Caucasians that are treated unfairly by the justice system as well. With judges investing in the construction of prisons and receiving financial returns based on occupancy rates, reported increase of crime within the African American race, and law enforcement's maltreatment of EVERYONE, THIS is what you get - a broken justice system.  https://www.aclu.org/ Not every injustice in this world is about race, and it appears that there is plenty of "reverse racism" to go around.

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This enrages me. This despicable criminal, and really a traitor, put his own greed, his own financial gain above his loyalty to America. Meanwhile poor, or black, or immigrant defendants are incarcerated at rates much greater than people in China or other nations and for longer terms for lesser crimes than Manafort.. Our republic is very damaged right now. We have much work to do if we are to re-establish it.

Comments:

Katie S. Kimbrough
I feel like it isn't the right punishment.

Jim Curry
What you bet Trump called the judge.

Terrell Shaw
Three years ago I would have considered your suggestion conspiratorial insanity. Now it has to be considered seriously. No evil can be dismissed as too absurd to be real in the age of Trump. Still I suspect this meme has it right: this judge perceives Manafort as part of his tribe. A poor, black, or immigrant criminal would have been seen as the scary "other" in his eyes.

Jim Curry
Yep, I can hear it now. “Please go easy on this guy. He’s a good man (white, rich, Republican).”

Sandra Pride
This judge is not a patriot. I'm betting Republican,maybe knows manafort or got paid off,

CeCe Baker
With judges nominated by political parties in the Northeast, and sitting on the bench for life, you can bet that there was outside influence on the judge's decision.

Gleaning Facebook: Redemption

Photos fro the Rome News-Tribune. Click on pictures to read the RNT article.

One Community United's fourth annual HUG event featured an address by Peggy Wallace Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy read an eloquent, heart-rending, and inspiring address. I am only three years older than she and she lived inside the camp I considered my enemies for all my teen and early adulthood years. Her father, George Wallace, was the racist governor of Alabama and leader of the segregationist forces in American politics during the sixties and into the seventies. Her story of discovering her own voice, her own foundation of principle, was fascinating and at times so touching it brought tears to my eyes, and I suspect every eye in the diverse audience of several hundred Romans. I remember well my own heartbreak of loving people who -- then and some even now -- held hateful beliefs.

I wish everyone could have heard her message.

Comments

Jim Watkins I had to wipe some tears from my eyes, too.

Rita Lawler I was sick, otherwise would have been there. I believe her father did sincerely recant in his later years.

Terrell Shaw Yes, she talked about his change of heart.

Jim Watkins I'm a sucker for redemption narratives.

Anne Lewinson Hey, they're FAR better than cynical 'people never change' stories!

Benjamin Amis I wasn't sure what to expect walking in tonight. I don't think I could've expected what I got, though. Profound and moving.

Sunny Shropshire Knauss I am sorry to have had to miss it...

John McClellan I really wanted to be there tonight but couldn’t attend due to a prior commitment. As someone who was in fourth grade in Enterprise, Alabama when George Wallace was inaugurated as Governor and who watched that ceremony on television with my classmates, I know the message was worth hearing.

Tony Pope I've heard how good it was.

T Aylor Ritchie I was definitely holding back tears... And I probably let a few all the way out

Laura L Adams There are some Facebook Live video clips @BridgingTheDivides

Anita Stewart Excellent program!

Hilda Atkins Moore IT WAS INDEED AN AWESOME UNVEILING OF MISERY AND AN UNDAUNTED ATTEMPT TO RECTIFY BY AN AWESOME DAUGHTER. I LOVED IT.

Gleaning Facebook: Turn Your Back On Hate

 

from Katherine Price's Facebook

Turning our backs on hate, Rome's beautiful downtown on a gorgeous Saturday! Comments:

David Matheny

Prayers for Safety and for Love and Peace to drown out Hatred.

Abeed Bawa
Hope you will all be at Ridge ferry park at 3pm

Hilda Atkins Moore
I join your group in spirit..........Be blessed!

Bill Candler
Have'n fun being good and Hate'n No One. Check my new card for Mothers day @ rockfenceart.com

Jim Howell
Thank you for standing up for peace and tolerance

Howard Smith
proud of you guys

Susan Hughes
Just saw more photos that showed what this was about! Brave and good work!

Buddy Childers
Beautiful family my friend/

Juanita Mull
So proud of you!!!

From Terri Morgan's Facebook:

From Chris Ozment:

Extremely proud of Rome! Please feel free to tag anyone I missed! Becky Dawson: The law says you must let people protest......but you can protest against what they protest.....well done
Howard Smith: Bravo!

From Stacy Cates's Facebook:

Joyce Mink: It was a great experience! Ty for posting!

From Joshua Thomas's Facebook: 

Gleaning Facebook: Free-loading Criminal

 What a slimy bigot. This self-satisfied "patriot" grazing his cattle on OUR land without paying fees, drives past crowded open-doored homes and judges folks whose circumstances he knows NOTHING about. Clive is no patriot. He is a free-loading criminal.

From David Marlin Rains:

"Iconic RW Patriot. Do love the part on "they're living off government subsidies." LOL Dude hasn't paid his Land Management fees in 16 years while selling his grazed cattle for profit. Called 'make your own government subsidies,' I guess. "

From Steve Marmel's Facebook:

You may find this surprising, but Cliven Bundy has some particularly horrible things to say about race.

Via Steve Marmel <-- click to like page.

"I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?"

- Cliven Bundy, Patriot, on "The Negro"

New York Times, 4/24

I knew it. I just knew it.

To every one of you who defended him - now is the time for you to go "oops!" Start deleting those "Cliven Bundy, hero" posts because...

...AS WE'VE BEEN SAYING...

...He's everything we knew him to be.

Moocher? Yep. Deadbeat? You bet. Domestic Terrorist? Uh huh. And now you can add bigot to the pile.

So today is going to be a day of people back-pedaling - hell, Rand Paul's office is already "unavailable for comment."

Today they're going to try to make #BundyRanch about the issue, about how it's bigger than one man.

NOPE.

Today is going to be a day of pointing out - the man and the issue are inexorably linked. That little thing inside your head that said it felt a little bit like the Klan marshaling an army? You weren't wrong.

Your hero is terrible, "patriots." He always was. So today, as you have a sad face over him revealing who we knew he was all long...

...As you desperately go digging through your timelines and your twitter feed to delete those words of praise about what a great American this guy is...

...I have no sympathy for you.

You chose this monster. You picked him. You wrapped him in the flag and in doing so, soiled it.

Apologize. Turn your back on this creep.

And next time, do better.

- Steve

From the NY Times:

A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Cliven Bundy stood by the Virgin River up the road from the armed checkpoint at the driveway of his ranch, signing autographs and posing for pictures. For 55 minutes, Mr. Bundy held forth to a clutch of supporters about his views on the troubled state of America — the overreaching federal government, the harassment of Western ranchers, the societal upheaval caused by abortion, even musing about whether slavery was so bad.

Most of all, Mr. Bundy, 67, who was wearing a broad-brimmed white cowboy hat against the hot afternoon sun, recounted the success of “we the people” — gesturing to the 50 supporters, some armed with handguns and rifles, standing in a semicircle before him — at chasing away Bureau of Land Management rangers who, acting on a court order, tried to confiscate 500 cattle owned by Mr. Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his herd on public land since 1993.

“They don’t have the guts enough to try to start that again for a few years,” Mr. Bundy said in an interview.

Mr. Bundy’s standoff with federal rangers — propelled into the national spotlight in part by steady coverage by Fox News — has highlighted sharp divisions over the power of the federal government and the rights of landowners in places like this desert stretch of Nevada, where resentment of Washington and its sprawling ownership of Western land has long run deep.

His cause has won support from Senator Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican from Kentucky who is likely to run for president. Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, referred to Mr. Bundy’s supporters as “patriots.” Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the Senate majority leader and has a long history of pushing for protection of public lands, denounced the rancher’s supporters as “domestic terrorists.”

The dispute spilled over this week into Texas, where Greg Abbott, the attorney general and a Republican running for governor, challenged the Bureau of Land Management on reports that it was looking to claim thousands of acres along the Red River.

For now, Mr. Bundy appears to have won, forcing the government to back down after its rangers were met with armed Bundy supporters this month.

“The gather is now over,” said Craig Leff, a deputy assistant director with the Bureau of Land Management. “Our focus is pursuing this matter administratively and judicially.”

His sympathizers include dozens of militia members, many carrying weapons. Credit Jim Urquhart/Reuters

But if the federal government has moved on, Mr. Bundy — a father of 14 and a registered Republican — has not.

He said he would continue holding a daily news conference; on Saturday, it drew one reporter and one photographer, so Mr. Bundy used the time to officiate at what was in effect a town meeting with supporters, discussing, in a long, loping discourse, the prevalence of abortion, the abuses of welfare and his views on race.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

A spokesman for Mr. Paul, informed of Mr. Bundy’s remarks, said the senator was not available for immediate comment. Chandler Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Heller, said that the senator “completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Abbott, Laura Bean, said that the letter he wrote “was regarding a dispute in Texas and is in no way related to the dispute in Nevada`.”

Paula Graves I saw this post this morning. How can people keep reading articles like this about him and still support him? It just makes me so sad that people still think this way.

Betty Smith Franklin Jesus.

Raymond Atkins Every time the RWNJs find a new hero, he or she talks and spoils the whole thing. Which leads me to my million-dollar idea. Gags.