[Vision2020] Cleveland - latest media circus of 'white cop shoots black kid'

Sat Dec 6 17:03:36 PST 2014

 This blogger has an interesting take on the incidentNo More Mister Nice Blog

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  Yesterday I listened to an NPR interview with Constance Rice, a civil rights attorney who regularly sued the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1990s because of its treatment of minorities, then subsequently worked with the department to improve police-community relations. She interviewed a lot of cops, and she came to the conclusion that a lot of them had been worked up into a state of absolute terror:
Cops can get into a state of mind where they're scared to death. When they're in that really, really frightened place they panic and they act out on that panic. I have known cops who haven't had a racist bone in their bodies and in fact had adopted black children, they went to black churches on the weekend; and these are white cops. They really weren't overtly racist. They weren't consciously racist. But you know what they had in their minds that made them act out and beat a black suspect unwarrantedly? They had fear. They were afraid of black men. I know a lot of white cops who have told me. And I interviewed over 900 police officers in 18 months and they started talking to me, it was almost like a therapy session for them I didn't realize that they needed an outlet to talk.

They would say things like, "Ms. Rice I'm scared of black men. Black men terrify me. I'm really scared of them. Ms. Rice, you know black men who come out of prison, they've got great hulk strength and I'm afraid they're going to kill me. Ms. Rice, can you teach me how not to be afraid of black men." I mean this is cops who are 6'4". You know, the cop in Ferguson was 6'4" talking about he was terrified. But when cops are scared, they kill and they do things that don't make sense to you and me.
And this is a common feeling in the white population, as Adam Serwer notes:

... nearly half of whites believe "many" or "almost all" black men are violent. Whites overestimate the amount of crime,in particular violent crime, involving blacks. Whites are also more likely to ascribe supernatural physical abilities to black people, in particular the ability to resist physical pain,a stereotype that harkens back to slavery. Black children like Tamir Rice are "more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime."
(Rice, who was shot carrying a toy gun, was twelve, but the cops thought he was twenty.)...
Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA 

     On Saturday, December 6, 2014 6:06 AM, Sunil <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:

 #yiv4961313912 #yiv4961313912 --.yiv4961313912hmmessage P{margin:0px;padding:0px;}#yiv4961313912 body.yiv4961313912hmmessage{font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;}#yiv4961313912 'It's appropriate to look at it as a 'cop shoots 12 year kid armed with a toy gun'.  The whole 'white cop shoots black kid' is a distraction if there is no hint that this was a racially motivated killing.'

I agree here.

'But then again, the only reason this is in the news is because of the racial aspect isn't it?'

Perhaps, but the tragedy deserves attention independent of whether race played a part in it.

'The point could be statistically proven.' 

Well, have at it. I await with great interest the statistical proof. You'll have to get it from a parallel universe.

Sunil
From: scooterd408 at hotmail.com
To: sunilramalingam at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Cleveland - latest media circus of 'white cop shoots black kid'
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 16:28:21 -0700

#yiv4961313912 #yiv4961313912 --.yiv4961313912ExternalClass .yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage P {padding:0px;}#yiv4961313912 .yiv4961313912ExternalClass body.yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage {font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;}#yiv4961313912 It's appropriate to look at it as a 'cop shoots 12 year kid armed with a toy gun'.  The whole 'white cop shoots black kid' is a distraction if there is no hint that this was a racially motivated killing.  But then again, the only reason this is in the news is because of the racial aspect isn't it?  Just like Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman which wasn't a racially motivated killing and just like Michael Brown / Darren Wilson which wasn't either.

The point could be statistically proven.

From: sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 12:44:43 -0800
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Cleveland - latest media circus of 'white cop shoots black kid'

#yiv4961313912 #yiv4961313912 --.yiv4961313912ExternalClass .yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage P {padding:0px;}#yiv4961313912 .yiv4961313912ExternalClass body.yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage {font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;}#yiv4961313912 I don't think it's a 'Media Circus.' I think it's appropriate to look at this, and I don't disparage the press by calling this a circus.

I also disagree with your fear-mongering:

'Aside from that, prosecuting cops gives criminals more power and the number of dead cops will rise.'

First, I would replace the word 'criminals' with 'the people.' Second, I don't think you can prove that point, and I don't think it's true. 

Sunil

From: scooterd408 at hotmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 16:35:00 -0700
Subject: [Vision2020] Cleveland - latest media circus of 'white cop shoots black kid'

#yiv4961313912 #yiv4961313912 --.yiv4961313912ExternalClass .yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage P {padding:0px;}#yiv4961313912 .yiv4961313912ExternalClass body.yiv4961313912ecxhmmessage {font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;}#yiv4961313912 'Cleveland Cop in Toy Gun Killing Resigned From Previous Job After 'Dismal' Handgun Performance'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleveland-cop-toy-gun-killing-resigned-previous-job/story?id=27352626

There might actually be an indictment and a conviction in this case.  The scripts need to be reversed here by the prosecutor and defense teams.  In this Cleveland case, the prosecutor needs to push for the whole story (past history showing bad cop) and the defense needs to press the jury to focus on 'It was a split second reaction.  Anyone could have made the same mistake'.  In the Ferguson case, the lynch pin of getting a conviction would have been for the prosecutor to focus on the sliver in time of 'clearly he had his hands up' and trying like mad to suppress evidence and witness testimony of the preceding robbery & assault.

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