Here is the great Richard Pryor talking about the relationship between police and the black community. Does this sound like what people are talking sbout in 2020?
This stuff is not new.
This stuff is not new.
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Richard Pryor - 1979? Or 2020?
- Thread starter fantome profane
- Start date
Yes, I agree this stuff is not new. This has been talked about for as long as I can remember, and by the same token, society has made attempts to try to address these issues. Why they continue to be unsuccessful after so many years is a mystery.
There have been some mixed messages which might confuse the public. Sure, white folks watching Richard Pryor might be sympathetic and think that the police are a bunch of meanies, but then Hollywood and the media show the public scenes like this:
That's the kind of scene which fills white bread suburban communities with fear, and this feeds into their desire to give more power to the police as their only recourse to protect themselves from the kind of guys portrayed in this and similar movies. The news media also add to this in the way they cover urban gang violence, and to be sure, a lot of things these gangs do have been pretty gruesome. Those who stoke fear among the general population are a part of the problem.
Heyo
Veteran Member
The YouTube algorithm is pretty good at digging up relevant material from the past. I get recommendations of videos about police violence and racial injustice from years back.
It just shows that all that time all the protests had no effect. It's a sad thing that only when buildings are burning, the politicians pay attention.
I'd amend that to "no immediate and visible effect". Change is not easy or immediate when it comes to deep rooted and pervasive injustice. It takes time and effort.
Heyo
Veteran Member
It seems it can go very fast once the incentive is high enough. New York is preparing to defund their police and records are no longer secret. Elsewhere choke holds get prohibited, police training gets improved. Those in charge just have to realize that people really mean it now. People getting killed by police isn't that unsettling but when property gets damaged the threshold is reached.
Biggest obstacle I'm told are the police unions. No one really wants the hassle of the government looking over their shoulder second-guessing every action they take. The fear being if the police refuse to serve the community, then crime rates go up. Crimes rates go up then the citizens will kick out the incumbent politician. Unions create a big hurdle to change. If the politician wants to keep their job, they got to keep the unions happy. Though perhaps now is the time they can afford to go against the unions. 
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I guarantee you New York will not defund their Police. The Police Union is far too entrenched and they take care of their bought and paid for politicians very very well. Chairman Coumo knows that all too well and all he is going to do is give the public lip service and tell them everything they want to hear, and then do a complete turnaround behind closed doors in secret meetings where the public is not allowed, to ensure he wins future elections with their support.
New York’s progressive mayor, Bill de Blasio, found larger meaning in the confrontation, explaining that he told his son Dante, who is half-black, that he faced extra danger when interacting with the police. “With Dante, very early on, we said, ‘Look, if a police officer stops you, do everything he tells you to do. Don’t move suddenly. Don’t reach for your cellphone,’” said de Blasio. “Because we knew, sadly, there’s a greater chance it might be misinterpreted if it was a young man of color.” ...
...Though no such postmortems have taken place yet on the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we can already see the likely direction they will take. The Minneapolis Police Department hired a black police chief in 2017, and he pledged to institute broad reforms, but he’s faced resistance. One problem typical of Democratic-controlled cities is that public-sector unions are powerful, and the Minneapolis police union has apparently stymied efforts by the new chief to discipline and suspend officers accused of misconduct. “During recessions [the city] would give the union management rights in lieu of money,” Robert Olson, former chief of police in Minneapolis, told Reuters two years ago. “We’re not talking about just one union contract. We’re talking about incremental changes in contracts over years that cumulatively, suddenly, there’s all of these hoops, which makes it far more difficult for chiefs to sustain discipline.” It’s an old obstacle that the city’s political leaders haven’t rushed to fix, despite years of complaints from minorities, because unions are deeply embedded in the political landscape. Minneapolis has one of the highest rates of unionization of public employees of any metro area in the country.
In Big Cities, Democrats Have Failed to Reform the Police
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
As long as there are union lobbyists, the status quo will be business as usual which will never ever end, no matter how much rioting and looting goes on. Floyd's death means absolutely nothing to these people.
There will be a token bone thrown out to pacify the situation. Wait for a period, then put the clamps back on harder than ever after things settle down.
The People's Republic at its finest.