Is there any real point in being angry any more?

[kpete]

The Tamir Rice Shooting Reveals the Darkness at the Heart of Open Carry Laws
Ohio's law clearly does not apply to everyone.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
DEC 29, 2015

Is there any real point in being angry any more?

Is there any real point even to be surprised? There certainly is no point in emphasizing the damn irony that Ohio is an "open carry" state so, even if the cops assumed Rice was 18, and they also assumed his gun was real, they had no cause even to stop him, let alone open fire. Listen to the spiel that Wayne LaPierre unspools every time he's in a room with more than four people listening: arm yourselves, because the world is a hellscape of violent Others who are coming for you and your children. At its heart, open carry is about open season on the people who scare you. It's certainly not about an absolute Second Amendment right that applies to black people as well as white. Open carry is about You and the Others, and so is the training of our modern, militarized police forces. If only Tamir Rice had not been born with that congenital ability to become huge and threatening the way he did in the mind of Timothy Loehmann. If only…

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40818/tamir-rice-shooting-open-carry/

MORE:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/28/foxs-open-carry-crowd-silent-after-tamir-rice-grand-jury-ruling-hurl-racism-at-victim-instead/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/opinion/clevelands-terrible-stain.html?_r=0
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/28/tamir-rice-decision-shows-you-can-get-away-with-murder.html?via=desktop&source=twitter
********

The Tamir Rice case shows how prosecutors twist grand juries to protect police
The grand jury process didn't fail this time. It worked exactly how prosecutors wanted it to — that's the problem.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/29/in-tamir-rices-case-the-grand-jury-process-was-turned-upside-down/?postshare=2331451415925037&tid=ss_tw-bottom

************


https://twitter.com/ARNewland/status/653241188749676544

[MindPilot]

1. I can't really help it.

This morning, the first thing I see on DU is two incidents of cops unleashing their dogs on innocents. One, an emotionally distraught teen whose parent made the mistake of calling the police for help, and the other an infant strapped into a car seat.

I'm literally shaking with rage right now; it's hard to type.

I don't begin to have an answer...maybe, short of armed insurrection, there isn't one. I have kind of resigned myself to the fact that we live in a police state, and it is growing and metastasizing at an ever-increasing rate. For me, I'm glad I'm white--although that is becoming less and less protective--and I'm old so I won't live long enough to see the worst of it.

The fact is though, that this old white guy now fears the police far more than any criminal.

[TheJames]

4. What he said!!! n/t

[sorefeet]

8. I was just thinking that this morning

I have known lots of criminals in my life, so has everyone else here. I don't usually fear a regular thief or loser meth head except they will steal from you. I know that so if I run into one I pay attention. A cop on the other hand is a sniper. You never know what he is going to do. It is a shame I am a 63 year old Veteran living in fear of the police in America. I also fear the VA clinic. You walk on pins and needles there because they will ruin your life in a split second. So will a cop.

[Wounded Bear]

13. Well, I don't fear going to the VA hospital...

but your other points are certainly valid.

[truth2power]

18. `MindPilot..I agree with what you said..

I, too, am old. And white. But I would think long and hard about calling on the police for help, even though, in the community where I live the police have behaved, consistently, in a professional manner. But it's like trusting a dog that you're not familiar with. You never know what's going to trigger an aggressive reaction. So, be alert when approaching one.

Yes, it is a fact that we are now living in a police state. More than a year ago some DUers were saying that events were moving this country in that direction. But, per usual, those who tried to raise the alarm were called conspiracy theorists and worse. That seems to happen a lot around here. People are told that what they're seeing with their own eyes isn't really happening. Until it becomes a done-deal. Then, it's "There's nothing you can do about it". Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?

A few days ago I was watching a recent talk by Chris Hedges. He was referring to Hannah Arendt and her work, "The Origins of Totalitarianism" in which she said that when the police become "omnipotent" it's a way for the State to put into place all the trappings of a repressive society. Then, in the event of civil unrest, as is certain to occur in this country, sooner or later, dissent will be immediately crushed.

Moreover, I'm currently reading "Rogue Lawyer" by John Grisham. The entire novel appears to be a series of vignettes where Grisham tallies up all the grievances he feels toward our so-called justice (sic) system. In one account he relates how the police, all tricked-out in battle gear and accompanied by a tank, mistakenly bust down the door at the home of an elderly couple, shoot their dog to death and kill the man's wife. Of, course, a cover-up ensues. The way Grisham describes this would be humorous if not so sickenly true.

And last but not least, it is a fact that some police departments are sending their officers, for training, to a certain ME country that has been described as an apartheid state. Is this not relevant?

[MindPilot]

23. I think the turning point at DU was Eric Gardener & Michael brown

You're absolutely correct and many of us were told that because it is not a totalitarian regime like North Korea or a police state could not exist in a place where one is free to call it a police state, then it is not a police state. "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you've nothing to worry about", or "it is only isolated incidents by a few bad apples". I recall those threads very well.

The American police state I think is much more insidious for that very reason; it can hide in plain sight, and to make it even worse than anything that has come before, this police state--rather than being driven by ideology--has a clear and unambiguous profit motive.

Grisham does a great job with this kind of stuff; as an aside, I just finished Grey Mountain, which is about Big Coal, strip mining, black lung, and being a lawyer at a legal aid clinic in Appalachia.

Currently reading Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop. I just started it; the first couple chapters are history lessons about how our current urban police structure developed from British Common Law.

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[Orrex]

3. I saw a chilling follow-up to this, though I can't post the pic from here

It had a shot of that white asshole who's walking around black neighborhoods "open carrying" some kind of assault rifle, and the cops can't/won't do anything about him.

But if it's a black child playing with a toy gun, then they can apparently murder him instantly with no consequence.


Disgusting from start to finish.

[demmiblue]

6. Here is a video of the situation I think you are referring to:

[Orrex]

7. Yes, that's the exact asshole I meant.

If a bearded black man dressed that way and "open carried" in an all-white neighborhood, cops would shoot him from 100 yards away and then report that the dashcam footage was lost.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. Why would they need to report the footage being lost? nt

[Orrex]

10. I don't know why they'd *need* to, but...

It makes it easier for them to stonewall an investigation for weeks or months or years.

[Lucky Luciano]

11. I was kind of joking...implying that footage of them killing is not grounds for indictments! nt

[Orrex]

12. Yeah, I figured that's what you had in mind.

I'm sad to say that you're exactly right, too.

[valerief]

15. And they "forgot" to turn on their body cams. The hatred of black people is blatant. nt

[Orrex]

16. ^^That too.

Appalling at every level.

[truth2power]

19. The police of this country

are culling the herd...of black people. Simple.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. I think...

in those few seconds before the murdering pigs killed him they told him to drop the weapon or maybe they told him to put his hands up bla bla bla - so naturally it was time to kill

[Wounded Bear]

14. I guess we are supposed to understand...

that when the 2d Amendment was passed, black people weren't included (they weren't even considered people), so to a strict Constitutionalist it still doesn't apply.

I guess that is although I'm not really sure.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[aikoaiko]

20. I don't understand why Hayes and Pierce are misleading the public on open carry laws.

In no state that I know, can someone wave around a pistol unless in a self-defense situation (which is what was reported to police, IIRC). If that's true it which would give the police cause to investigate.

Having said that the police negligently escalated the incident by rolling up mere feet from young Tamir and practically guaranteed a shooting scenario which could have been avoided easily. We saw similar escalations in several other wrongful police shootings. It must be stopped.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. A common misunderstanding

That said. Same exact scenario with little John in Shaker Heights, up the road, would have resulted in a talk down by officers.

You see white 12 year olds do look like well 12 year olds. While black 10 year olds are seen as threatening young hoodlums.

Yup, plenty of research on that one

[Indydem]

29. Well said.

In Tamir's case, as well as John Crawford's - it is the brandishing that cases the issue. Not the carry.

Still bullshit. Still need independent tribunals for police.

[hack89]

21. Protecting POC's 2A rights should be a Democratic Party issue. The RW certainly won't do it. Nt

[bvar22]

22. I just checked outside.

Nobody was coming to "get" me and my children.
What a disappointment,
and I'm tired of waiting for the Zombies to rise up.

[ladyVet]

24. They aren't there yet, but when they get around to you, don't expect anyone to stand up.

Because the ones who would have done it will have been killed or imprisoned in some gulag. And if you think that can't happen, you should study history. The American Empire is not immune to fascism.

[bvar22]

27. I'll be one of the last "they" "get".

I can barely find my own cabin in The Woods, at the end of a one way rugged 4WD road, and surrounded by extensive National Forest and protected Wilderness within quick walking distance. GPS puts you in an empty field about 1/2 mile away through thick Woods from our cabin.
We grow most of our own food, keep chickens and Honey Bees, heat with wood, have our own water source (deep, cold,spring) and the wildlife is abundant if it comes to that.

The "fascists" can keep the cities and suburbs where the people are easier to control. The only ones I worry about are the few crazy "survivalists" in this area who stockpile ammo and MREs,
and fantasize about shooting hungry people(and "hang" at the ammo counter at WalMart)
How long before they get tired of "keeping watch 24/7" and eating MREs, and start looking for REAL food, which we have?...One day? They are the only real threat, and if "they" come...its over....after a fight which my Wife & I will lose despite our guns and skill at using them, but fight we will.

We have a policy about the food we have preserved, and the food we are producing:
Don't ask, don't tell. Nobody knows what we have preserved in the pantry, or exactly what we grow every year.

Hopefully, we can live out our lives in PEACE in this beautiful and abundant place,
and, if the "fascists" somehow find us, we won't leave alive.

We have no mortgage, no 401K, no bills, own everything outright, are involved in a robust "cash only" Black Market. Wall Street can live or die without our money or concern.

[Skittles]

31. the NRA has won

everyone armed, everyone paranoid

[TBF]

26. Texas joins Open Carry states on 1/1/16

I had to do a search to see how many states are now Open Carry - Texas makes 45.

I can only imagine what that will lead to down here.

[Skittles]

28. makes it easier to identify the paranoid gun humpers

for sure

[TBF]

30. Right? HEB said no thanks

so I will stay away from Kroger until the loons settle down.

[bobthedrummer]

32. Focused anger, yes. McGinty, the CPD, well-we, the people haven't been focused enough.

No more "isolated incidents" requiring "reforms"-there is a history to all of this abuse and slaughter of kids by cops, judges, military leaders, elected officials, organized religions, etc. Evil crosses color and class boundaries.

Chapter 21-Omaha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016139460