Race relations, How far have we come?

[Radagast]

There is a even a private security force patrolling the streets of the white area. It's quite clear what is being communicated here, the white people are to be protected, the black people are not.

I see that you are accusing the police of both over-policing and under-policing.

 

[Radagast]

The simple solution -- which should have been implement ages ago -- was to have actively sought out and recruited blacks to become police officers and police their own communities in every city. Then the issue of racism would not exist, and the criminals would be dealt with on the basis of their crimes.

By and large this did happen long ago. African-Americans make up 13% of the US population, and they make up 13% of the police force.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I would say it means how different races interact with each other.

That makes no sense to me. People interact. Races do not interact.

 

[PeachyKeane]

You know if you're doing 70 in a 55. He deserves a ticket.

 

[RDKirk]

I always wondered if perhaps Abraham's concubine Keturah may have been black? Just thinking out loud here, But what is everyone else's theory?

Can the Ethiopian [Cushite] change his skin, or the leopard his spots? (Jeremiah 13:22-23, KJV)

This is the only direct reference in scripture to what we today regard as "race." It appears that Cushites had a skin color clearly and permanently different from Semites. Notice that the "dark" skin of the woman in Song of Solomon was explicitly described as a farmer's tan--she was not a Cushite.

I presume that wherever "Cushite" is used in scripture, it's referring to the same people of a clearly different skin color, and since Semites can range from relatively dark to pretty pale, it's likely that Cushites were the black-skinned people of the Nile headwaters and further south.

By that token, I presume Keturah was black. That also indicates that beyond noting skin color aesthetically, scripture does not otherwise ascribe any other characteristics across the board to Cushites, nor denotes them across the board as being subject to any curses of the Lord.

 

[PeachyKeane]

Well, to be honest with you, here in St. Petersburg, the Whites try to help the police, and the Blacks seem to go out of their way to defy and obstruct them. We report drug dealers immediately, and the Blacks refuse to even admit there are any in their neighborhoods. I would go so far as to say they protect them.

That's some impressive right there. Just a whole ton of impressive.

 

[Willie T]

That's some impressive right there. Just a whole ton of impressive.

Perhaps it is understandable. The Blacks live in fear of the hoods and gangs. Black lives don't matter to them, they will slaughter their own people in an instant. And they do.

The same Liberals who have broken the will of the Black Community and made them dependent upon them.... defend and protect these criminals that intimidate the rest of the good Blacks who might try to resist by calling the police. They have free lawyers almost thrown at them, and they are hardly ever convicted. They just get turned right back out on the streets where they go kill some more of their own people as retaliation for having been turned in.

 

[Southernscotty]

Do the crime do the time, Don't care what color or nationality you are. If you scare a cop, You are putting yourself in danger "duh" and I do NOT blame them for wanting to go home to their families after their shift is over.
Look brothers and sisters these cops now days are scared for a reason. Meth and bath salts is rampant and people are nuts when they are on it.
One small seemingly innocent traffic stop can turn deadly in seconds.
For people to judge the actions of another "when" they themselves have never been in a active shooter scenario is wrong.
"If you can imagine your fight or flight syndrome pumped up x 10 and the impeding feeling of doom overpowering you and the desire to run like heck, But can't...tell me you wouldn't be on edge"? Many of these men and women have faced their partners and best friends gunned down by drug addicts and gang members and are scared for their lives. I do not blame them.
So how about just stop provoking them??
I mean you can poke a bear with a stick only so many times before it bites you, So stop.

I know that there are episodes of racism and prejudice sure.
But let's stop taking "every" incident and turning it into something it isn't.

[There the forum hillbilly has spoken his two cents, Now I'm going fishing.]

 

[PeachyKeane]

Perhaps it is understandable. The Blacks live in fear of the hoods and gangs. Black lives don't matter to them, they will slaughter their own people in an instant. And they do.

The same Liberals who have broken the will of the Black Community and made them dependent upon them.... defend and protect these criminals that intimidate the rest of the good Blacks who might try to resist by calling the police. They have free lawyers almost thrown at them, and they are hardly ever convicted. They just get turned right back out on the streets where they go kill some more of their own people as retaliation for having been turned in.

You're Christian?

 

[Willie T]

Do the crime do the time, Don't care what color or nationality you are. If you scare a cop, You are putting yourself in danger "duh" and I do NOT blame them for wanting to go home to their families after their shift is over.
Look brothers and sisters these cops now days are scared for a reason. Meth and bath salts is rampant and people are nuts when they are on it.
One small seemingly innocent traffic stop can turn deadly in seconds.
For people to judge the actions of another "when" they themselves have never been in a active shooter scenario is wrong.
"If you can imagine your fight or flight syndrome pumped up x 10 and the impeding feeling of doom overpowering you and the desire to run like heck, But can't...tell me you wouldn't be on edge"? Many of these men and women have faced their partners and best friends gunned down by drug addicts and gang members and are scared for their lives. I do not blame them.
So how about just stop provoking them??
I mean you can poke a bear with a stick only so many times before it bites you, So stop.

I know that there are episodes of racism and prejudice sure.
But let's stop taking "every" incident and turning it into something it isn't.

[There the forum hillbilly has spoken his two cents, Now I'm going fishing.]

The biggest obstacle to the common sense of what you just wrote is that too many young black men are raised to only believe that "attitude" and "perceived appearance" are important, and those aggressive traits constitute what makes a man. They honestly have few "values" much beyond the scope of "he who woofs the loudest is feared the most", and thus is seen as a man.

To them, they "have to" bluster and defy authority, or they lose face. And that is, unfortunately, going to continue to get hundreds of them killed every year. It isn't just the police, either. This attitude prevails all through their everyday lives.... and you see the results in the media all the time. Young Black men are killing other young Black men at an alarming rate. They honestly don't seem to have the social skills or rationalism to react any other way.

The law of the jungle is instinctive, and it takes serious effort to teach civilized behavior. Even half of White kids grow up the same way these days. Parents just aren't being parents in a lot of cases anymore.

 

[Willie T]

You're Christian?

Was there one word of that post that isn't true? Just turn on your TV.

 

[PeachyKeane]

Was there one word of that post that isn't true? Just turn on your TV.

You are a Christian?

 

[Willie T]

You are a Christian?

Well, you seem to think "being a Christian" means you are blind.

 

[RDKirk]

I honestly don't know. I'd say from my own observations, we were improving for a while and now we're regressing back to where we started.

Do the crime do the time, Don't care what color or nationality you are. If you scare a cop, You are putting yourself in danger "duh" and I do NOT blame them for wanting to go home to their families after their shift is over.
Look brothers and sisters these cops now days are scared for a reason. Meth and bath salts is rampant and people are nuts when they are on it.

Police fear of blacks is normally as unwarranted as people in this thread think black fear of police should be.

No.

First, meth and bath salts are more commonly used by whites, so that has nothing to do with police fearing blacks.

Second, no, meth and bath salt use is not "rampant," and neither one is likely to result in a traffic stop going bad unexpectedly. If someone is intoxicated by either bath salts or meth and is behind the wheel of an automobile, it will be obvious long before the officer leaves his own vehicle.

A year or so ago, the Plano, TX, chief of police was on the air talking about a "war on police" in the most fear-inducing rhetoric possible, and that his force would be responding accordingly.

At the same time, the Plano, TX, young black teen boys I worked with at church were terrified of driving because they were convinced the police would kill them.

Now, Plano, TX, has been listed several times as the best place in the US to live. Nothing bad is happening in Plano, TX. There isn't even a bad part of town in Plano, TX. What Plano, TX, residence call "bad" is merely "old but well-kept" anywhere else.

There is no "war on police" in Plano, TX. There are no police killing blacks in Plano, TX.

But there certainly is a lot of fear-inducing rhetoric from both directions without anyone actually examining the ground-truth, and that is critically dangerous.

And, oh, yeah, the chief of police in Plano, TX, is black.

 

[RDKirk]

Well, to be honest with you, here in St. Petersburg, the Whites try to help the police, and the Blacks seem to go out of their way to defy and obstruct them. We report drug dealers immediately, and the Blacks refuse to even admit there are any in their neighborhoods. I would go so far as to say they protect them.

The big problem all of us black people have is the justifiable fear that police can't (or won't bother to) discern the difference between a member of the Chamber of Commerce or a member of the Crips, if the skin is black.

Back when I first joined the Air Force, my mother warned me that whenever I was driving across country, always have my uniform hanging in the back window of the car so that police would know someone would come looking for me if I disappeared. Her experience was out of the 40s and 50s.

But even today, I've certainly got my "retired military" license plate and stickers on my bumper and rear window identifying me as retired military. And I always hand over my military ID along with my license and registration. It doesn't always help.

As a matter of experience, it's a gamble for black people to call the police. We don't have any confidence that it's going to go well even for the person who calls.

I called the police when I was rear-ended in an accident and the other driver simply abandoned his car and ran away (a true "hit and run"). Even though I was the one who called the police, I was the one they savagely frisked and tossed roughly into the back seat of their car.

 

[RDKirk]

The objection I've heard a lot of blacks make is they don't appreciate being policed (much less harassed) by white cops. Whether or not intentional racial animus genuinely exists in those situations, blacks believe that it does exist. So that becomes the truth.

It's a complicated matter since it raises the question of how law can be enforced when blacks believe (rightly or wrongly) that they're constantly being targeted unfairly by white officers.

The race of the police is actually irrelevant.

 

[RDKirk]

I see that you are accusing the police of both over-policing and under-policing.

Ironically, yes, that is the case.

There are two kinds of policing. There is the Sheriff Andy "keeping the peace" and there is the Deputy Barney "enforcing the law."

Most white people experience "keeping the peace." Black people more often experience "enforcing the law."

 

[Willie T]

The race of the police is actually irrelevant.

Can you explain how that works when we seem to be hearing "racist" all the time. Are you saying Black cops are racist against Blacks?

 

[RDKirk]

Can you explain how that works when we seem to be hearing "racist" all the time. Are you saying Black cops are racist against Blacks?

Police culture is racist against blacks, particularly because blacks experience Deputy Fife a lot more than we experience "Sheriff Andy."

A number of years ago in Omaha NE, it was revealed that basic Omaha Police Department policy was to assign their rookies and "problem" cops to north Omaha--the predominantly black area--and to give the predominantly white areas to officers as a reward. But what's going to happen to the perception of police in a community when the only police you encounter are the rookies and the known bad apples?

 

[Willie T]

Police culture is racist against blacks, particularly because blacks experience Deputy Fife a lot more than we experience "Sheriff Andy."

A number of years ago in Omaha NE, it was revealed that basic Omaha Police Department policy was to assign their rookies and "problem" cops to north Omaha--the predominantly black area--and to give the predominantly white areas to officers as a reward. But what's going to happen to the perception of police in a community when the only police you encounter are the rookies and the known bad apples?

You don't think that one sentence, alone, (your own choice of words, BTW) speaks volumes? If the Black side of town and the White side of town were comparable, how could working on the White side be considered a "reward?"