>>>No, Obama siding with protesters didn't create "Black Lives Matter." Police shooting black people unnecessarily and rarely, if ever, being punished for it did. Look at this week and the fact that the cop who shot Walter Scott in the back while he was running away and then put his own taser next to him to imply he (the cop) had been threatened was not convicted despite the thing being caught on tape. My black friends weren't surprised; this is their experience of the US justice system.
>>>
>>>Tamar
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>>Agreed about police impunity.
>>DWB is a real thing.
>>Grand Juries indict everybody - except cops.
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>>"Black Lives Matter" is pointing out a real problem, with the wrong solution.
>>Cops standing down during riots and looting won't fix anything.
>
>The Blank Lives movement is not about rioting or looting - and if you read their website and listen to their leaders speak you will know this. I'ts not an anti-police movement either - it's about bringing communities together with the police in an attempt to eliminate the mistrust many of these communities have in their police for the justified reasons mentioned here. There are things like what the Las Vegas police department thas done that can help too http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/federal-report-las-vegas-police-shootings-down-department-reforms and it works. Sadly there are still police unions who resist any oversight, transparency, accountability, body cams, etc that can help this situation, and will stand behind a cop who is bad. ,
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>>Cops getting less aggressive in high crime neighborhoods won't fix anything - more lives get lost to black on black violence.
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>Correct - but how they handle themselves and the type of training they've had does make a difference in these neighborhoods - and addressing the problems that have caused these neighborhoods to become high crime rate areas is a good idea too.
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>>Killing cops for revenge won't fix anything.
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>Right - talk about making matters worse - this is the biggest step backwards that can happen. One thing to keep in mind here is the need to separate the one-crazy-idiot-guy events from the systemic bias and corruption events. In other words when something like this happens it tends to get used as an excuse to justify all the repression that's been going on for decades.
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>>Long ago, when I was young, I was pulled over for the simple crime of being a young man driving a ratty car.
>>It was not unreasonable - I resembled a group that causes trouble.
>>I obeyed commands and was treated with respect.
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>>Every black man I know has received DWB and worse, and not always treated with respect.
>>And unlike being young, they don't outgrow being black.
>>
>>I do understand the frustration but there must be better approaches than a war between police and our black friends and neighbors.
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>Agreed. Note that the police now look more like a group going to war than a local police department. They got mega swat teams, tanks, huge guns, etc etc etc. Frankly I do not feel safe or protected seeing anyone walking down the street with grenade launchers and body armor - and of course these leads to tragedies like 80 year old grandmothers being shot in her own home or live grenades being tossed into a baby crib (both true stores). This is where groups like BLM can help by bringing the police together with these communities - if they know each other personally then there is a better chance for the people to trust the police - and the police need the help of the people in these places to help with investigations. If nobody is willing to talk to the police because they don't trust them, it makes it pretty hard for them to solve a crime.

It seems I am not the only who finds militarized police scary.

BLM is encouraging violence against police, even if not quite explicitly.

Hold your nose and open your mind - read this if you really have an interest in the subject: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437677/black-lives-matter-radical-divisive?target=topic&tid=3457