I figured it out: current spate of police violence directed at Black men

[cilla4progress]

I sensed it has something to do with Pres. Obama. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. On one hand, I feel like it's a veiled threat to him. Like lynching - a warning to all.

Then I got it: they are proxies. The Black men (and in some cases, women) are proxies for the President. Veiled threat, indeed.

[upaloopa]

1. I don't think police profiling and brutality toward Black

men has changed over time. I think it gets reported more but it isn't on the increase it has been going on ever since I can remember. Just look at our prison population for a clue.

[cilla4progress]

2. Perhaps.

How about this then: the reporting - emphasis in the news - is aimed at Pres. Obama?

I just think the racial divide has become so much worse since his election. Certainly since the 60s, when I grew up. Over racism. I believe his election brought out the crazies from the sick underside of society.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I think maybe you don't remember the 60's very well.

Police dogs, "Bull" Conner, Medgar Evers, church bombings, Jimmie Lee Jackson, MLK assassinated…

[cilla4progress]

4. I do, but there was a greater purpose then.

A movement, a provocation with an aim.

This is senseless, and one would think we would have move beyond this, since the 60s.

[Sam1]

5. Why?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. What greater purpose? What purpose at all? Nothing great about it. It was about power...

And the complete subjugation and dehumanization of an entire group of people. Surely you didn't think racism/discrimination was a thing of the past did you?

[apnu]

15. Right on, i've see this first hand.

Disclosure: I am white, male, in my 40s and in Chicago.

When I get called for jury duty, about every 3 years it seems, I am always called to the criminal courts. In that place, they line up the accused in the hallways, shackled in lines of ten while we potential jurors wander about. Its easy to do a survey of who is incarcerated in Chicago. In the lines, on average is 0-1 whites, 2-3 latinos, the rest Black. Chicago's breakdown as of the 2010 census is 32% black and hispanic (why these groups are combined is a mystery to me), 45% white, 5% asian, and the rest 'other'

These numbers stayed the same from Clinton to W to Obama. So there it is, all laid out.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

6. cilla is right and many of us, especially black DUers have been saying this over and over again

since Obama was elected. No one is suggested that this wasn't happening before that, but there has been a very real backlash. And yes, blacks in general, and black men in particular have been on the receiving end of it as proxies for President Obama. I don't think there's any question about it. I thought that was evident, and frankly I'm surprised that people in this thread, cilla, are dismissing your OP. I thought DUers were more socially and politically aware about the impact of race/racism than that.

[JaydenD]

12. I agree with you and cilla.

A lot of it is definitely about Obama - just look at the disrespect he gets from his colleagues, the media and so call democrats. No other President has ever had to deal with so much hate from so many corners.

[cilla4progress]

8. My point is this:

in the 60s, and I was "there" as a young child and teenager, watching the fire hoses and Southern militias, African Americans were using the violence in a united movement, for change. In Selma and at lunch counters, at universities and on buses, THEY confronted the power structure and said, go ahead and tell me I'm not equal. They challenged our founding principles and brought change, at least systemically.

Yes, the violence was bad then as now, but the dramatic scenes of police violence involving large groups was in some cases a manifestion of the movement towards a larger aim, and it seemed for a time to have succeeded. I'm not talking about the rioting that went on then - that was a different dynamic. I'm talking about police response to activism, protests, marches. The people were united and the police reacted.

What I am seeing now, I believe, is random acts upon innocent individuals, picking them off one by one, instigated by police forces. It has an entirely different tone to me.

And while I do NOT believe racism went away after the civil rights movements and successes of the 60s, I do believe much of the overt expression of it went underground, only to be inflamed by the audacity of an African-American man believing he could lead our united country into the future.

[kwolf68]

9. Bizarre theory

But hell who knows, it's possible. The hatred is so palpable toward President Obama, nothing at this point would surprise me. I honestly worry about the man's (and his family) safety. There is NO doubt in my mind, Republicans (not all, but some/many) have fantasized about the death of our President. Most or all won't act it out, but there is always the one idiot jacked up on hatred, guns, with a hard on for revolution that is out there.

Obama has made the right go literally bat shit insane and the race factor has to be considered as a viable reason for their degree of lunacy. Do policemen see a black man on the street and go, "I'm getting that motherfooker because that Obama guy"....hard to say that, but the treatment of black men is certainly not something our nation should be proud of.

[Iamthetruth]

10. Huh

Paint with a broad brush shall we.

[cilla4progress]

11. The only ones I'm painting

are the police forces who incite violence. I stand accused.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

14. Don't pretend that you don't know what cilla is talking about. She/he does!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. And for those who are unsure what cilla, I and others are talking about, Drudge clarifies...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025389280#post26