3 Police Shootings - All Questionable - Post Racial America?

[my2sense]

By Roland Martin

It has been interesting to watch so many people talk about how America has moved from a nation fixated on race to one where we are now living in a post-racial world, courtesy of the election of President-elect Barack Obama.

There is no doubt that we crossed a huge hurdle with the election of Obama to the highest office in the land.

But that doesn't mean that the realities of race are not being played out in our communities each day.

In Oakland, a semi-riot took place last night after the funeral of Oscar Juliuss Grant III, who was gunned down during a scuffle with Bay Area Rapid Transit officers. Click here to read the Oakland Tribune story on the semi-riot.

Grant, who is black, wasn't carrying a gun, and the whole incident was caught on tape. Click here to watch shooting.

The officer involved has quit the force, and civic leaders are demanding answers to why it happened.

In the Houston suburb of Bellaire, the family of former Major League Baseball player Robert Dolan are also demanding answers to why their son was shot.

In wee hours of Dec. 31, police followed Robert Tolan Jr., home, and accused him and a friend of driving a stolen car. When Tolan, 23, and his family made it clear to officers that the car in their driveway was his, the situation grew heated.

Tolan Jr., a standout baseball player at Bellaire High School who played ball at Prairie View A&M University, who was lying in the driveway with a friend, saw an officer grab his mother and toss her up against a wall. The family says he rose up slightly to see what happened and to tell the cop not to treat his mom that way, and suddenly three shots were fired. One hit Tolan in the chest and traveled to his liver. He is now in a Houston hospital.

And in Mississippi, the NAACP and the family of a high school football star are also searching answers after a cop there says the young man blew himself away with a shotgun after a routine traffic stop.

In early December, 17-year-old Billie Joe Johnson, was pulled over by a county sheriff as he headed to an awards banquet. The officer says he was in his car running the driver's license when he all of a sudden heard a gunshot and saw the young man fall out of the driver's side with the gun on top of him.

He claims Johnson shot himself. The star football player had run for 4,000 yards in his career and was being recruiting my football powerhouses such as LSU, Alabama and Tennessee.

All of the suspects are black. All of the cops are white.

What these cases illustrate is that whether we want to admit it or not, racial profiling still exists, and we are more likely to hear about a black man being gunned down by police than someone white.

There are investigations involving all three shootings, and the desire is for the truth to come out. But all too often, cops are no-billed in shootings, rarely prosecuted.

Let this be a reminder that while we all celebrate Obama and his impending inauguration as president, America's race problem is ever present.

Source: http://essence.typepad.com/news/2009/01/post-racial-ame.html

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Looks like backlash to me.

The TV and radio mouthpieces have already started.

And who knows what the "churches" have been spewing since November 4, 2008?

[ColbertWatcher]

2. One other thing, I'm starting to wonder if ...

... the phrase "racial profiling" has become a euphemism for "racism."

[NoQuarter]

5. Ding, ding, ding!

We have a winner!

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Wow! I haven't won anything today!

Woo hoo!

[my2sense]

3. Don't know but somehow I think this thread

would have gotten more response if it were entitled "3 DOGS Shot DEAD by Police Officers".

:crazy:

[Uzybone]

8. or 3 Deans shot by Gupta and Warren.

DU outrage is always selective.

[my2sense]

9. That's become painfully obvious to me lately n/t

:(

[merh]

13. I worked on this case

with the attorneys for family of the man killed.

http://www.michaelwcrosby.com/mwc_(steel_blue)_007.htm

http://www.sunherald.com/static/video/jail.video.3.takedownclip/index.html


I could barely get DU to pay attention to it.

[L0oniX]

31. Britney Spears is pregnant again ...would get more responses.

:evilgrin:

[KamaAina]

4. In what way is the BART shooting "questionable"? It was clearly WRONG.

We've got it on tape. NBC Nightly News even broke with its longstanding tradition of showing only fluff and Bush PR pieces and aired it nationally last night.

[my2sense]

6. The title was to show the linkage of the three incidents

My eyes don't lie, I saw the video - the officer should be charged IMHO.

[Uzybone]

10. These could be our kids

shot dead or incapacitated for no good reason. The fact that the media barely talks about these stories and the issue that surrounds them is very telling.

[my2sense]

11. We definately have a problem

It seems our society simply does NOT VALUE the lives of minorities even though we've managed to elect Obama.....it's very strange.

[Brewman_Jax]

12. Looks like business as usual

post racial America? I think not.

[hfojvt]

14. so because the Sheriff is white and Johnson is black

The Sheriff must have blown him away for no reason. I suppose there is no dash-cam video. But obviously a white guy would make up a lame story like that after he blew somebody away for no reason. Because there's no way investigators would ever find that the kid got shot by the Sheriff's gun rather than his own and that the kid wasn't sitting in the car when it happened. No, it must be a racism motivated murder. We almost know that, because, after all, the cop is white.

[my2sense]

18. So based on past history are we to assume

the white officer is a truthful and upstanding citizen and it just so happens that the victims are normally black when we here of these types of cases?

Come on - surely you can see that this is questionable.

[hfojvt]

25. it's a strange incident to be sure

but it's also pretty strange for cops to blow people away for no reason. If they blow somebody away they usually make up a better story too, that they thought he was reaching for a gun, that there was a struggle, etc. A suicide makes no sense, but neither does a murder, and I am not gonna jump either way based on no evidence other than skin colors.

[my2sense]

30. Well - it's funny how we've been trained to always

side with the cops when they make up claims that certain groups appear to always be holding a weapon or reaching for or whatever lie is told. We are conditioned to automatically suspect certain groups of being to blame for their own demise. I'm not saying that this is true or not - but I can't assume this officer is being truthful just because he's white and the victim (whom is dead) can never tell his side of the story.......the story just doesn't add up.

[Raineyb]

32. No its not

There have been studies that document the disparities in treatment for black people in the criminal justice system starting with who gets targeted all the way to sentencing. Putting that aside for the moment, why is it when you hear of these incidents it's usually a black or Latino person being shot down by white cops? I'll tell you why, because when cops see young white men they see people like them. "Fine upstanding citizens" if you will. :puke:

When these same cops see black and brown young men they see suspects. That's why black and brown men never get the benefit of the doubt and are lucky to survive run-ins with the police. You can put your head in the sand if you wish but that does not change the history of this country and these shootings are absolutely in line with it.

How obvious does a pattern have to be before it's safe to say that even a moron should be able to see it?

Regards

[tech3149]

27. I don't think it's just a matter of race

I think it's a compound problem. Race may be a factor but income level and life experience may be more to the point. If you live your life as being someone viewed as less worthy of respect and consideration than others, you're much more likely to resent being a target of an authority figure. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, what you perceive is a result of your life experience.

On the other side, too many people are drawn to law enforcement for exactly the wrong reasons. The ideal of "protect and serve" or provide safety and security to the general public, might not be the goal of many attracted to the profession. Too many are drawn to the profession by the concept of power to control others. My face to face experience with LEO's is limited, but I've known more than a few in the profession. Most were good people but even some of those "good people" showed a tendency toward exerting influence on others rather than enforcing just administration of justice.

I haven't had the stomach to watch the video, I've seen too much of that shit and I expect it wouldn't tell me half the story. What I would say from what I've read is that this is a case that should be the subject of independent investigation. Follow the truth where it leads and apply the rule of law as your moral center demands.

[newtothegame]

15. While I think we are in no way in a post-race era...

I do find it interesting how many DU'ers consider us the most racist country on the planet, and yet the first time an African-American candidate that didn't completely polarize one side or the other (unlike Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton) ran for President, we overwhelmingly nominated him over a woman for Democratic nominee, and then overwhelmingly voted him in as President. How racist can we be?

ed for sp

[Caliman73]

24. There are always extremes either way.

I do not think that the US is the most racist country, but I also do not believe that we are the least. It seems that many of the people who are trumpeting the death of racism are not people of color. I would venture to say that we are certainly very hypocritical about our racism. It is a concept which people have a very difficult time seeing. The fact that the color of a person's skin is even considered a factor in their ability to lead points to the tone of the racism in this nation. Same way that sexism is still rampant. It is not as popular to be overtly racist in this country and in most cases it is illegal to consider race in regards to opportunities. Why then are minorities still so much less likely to attain the highest levels of success and wealth. There aren't even number relative to the population sizes that can indicate the racial minorities are accorded the same respect as the majority population.

When situations like reported in the OP occur, it reminds us how much more work there is to be done to challenge attitude that create an "Us against them" mentality in law enforcement.

So, "how racist can we be?" That depends on how much racism is tolerated.

[juno jones]

16. Four now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3682381


When is this shit going to end? :cry:

[my2sense]

21. I hope this is not a taste of whats to come

As the economy gets worse and folks getting tense, angry & desperate things could get real ugly.

:crazy:

[beltanefauve]

17. I live in Oakland

and my partner is a BART station agent. We were together on New Year's Eve at the 19th St station when it happened. Regarding racism in 21st Century America, you would be amazed and appalled by the comments that have been posted on the SF Chronicle's website. I looked for some to post here, but most at this point have been flagged and deleted for hate speech (I flagged several of them myself)
And this is the so-called progressive Bay Area!

This one seems to have made it under the radar, though:

insinsutiv1/9/2009 8:40:10 AM

Interesting choice of words...."slain". That word implies that the officer was "hunting". The left wing media would love us to believe that the officer went to work that day in hopes of getting to kill someone. None of this would have even been "news", except that the kid was black. Black = victim, in this country, and I'm sick of that. My ancestors have been here for over 400 years, and my country treats ME like a 2nd class citezen. Tell me this: how many of those people having a blast at the protest were not on public assistance of some sort? Many people on welfare think that we are "screwing them" by not giving them more benefits. That's why looting seems fun...they have no accountability...and no conscience. What if a bunch of white people did the same thing...ran through the streets, torching cars, breaking windows...one would have been shot immediately, and the media wouldn't have blinked. I feel ashamed when I see the hands tied behind the backs of our police "force".

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2009/01/08/BA3U155V2F.DTL&o=5

[burythehatchet]

19. I HATE it when they use the term racial profiling

is it not just RACISM???

[awoke_in_2003]

20. It wouldn't matter...

if the cops were black. Once they join the force, their thinking changes. They are every bit as racist (toward their own race) as the white cops.

[Caliman73]

26. unfortunately that has some truth to it.

There is definitely some correlation between racial attitudes and service in law enforcement. I have had Latino police call me a beaner, and I think, "You are calling me, a member of your own ethnic group, the very same racial epithet that your White partners probably call you behind your back?" Secondly, you assume that I am doing something illegal when I am engaging in the very same activity that a group of White kids is engaging in not 50ft away from my group of friends? That was the experience I had growing up.

Racist attitudes are very easy to learn because they are born of fear and ignorance. They are very hard to shake because the provide the holder with a sense of power and righteousness. We all need to examine our biases and attitudes constantly just to keep from falling into a racist mindset.

[awoke_in_2003]

28. yep. I have been around

a lot of cops, the badge does something to their head

[beltanefauve]

33. I've heard that this is true

I've heard that black cops tend to be more hard-assed than white cops to AAs, maybe because they feel they have to prove to their white collegues that they're not soft on their own race. This also happens in the business world as well, whereas the black employer may be more inclined to ride the black employees. I'm white, with a black boyfriend, and he, and other African-Americans, have been pretty much schooling me on black culture for most of my life.

[L0oniX]

22. I will never trust a cop ...or the military!

[4 t 4]

23. The police are out of control

no doubt but unlike that situation so are so many people. I find it so interesting that all the people are rioting I like it and I don't. That cop resigned right away they said he might have meant to pull out his taser gun-maybe ? He fucked up big time.

[Caliman73]

29. The very big problem I have with it is...

that the people involved seemed to be subdued. I know that the video is not 100% undeniably the only source of evidence, but it is damning. There seemed to be no struggle on Craig. They flipped him and the cop had his knee on the back of his head. There did not appear to be ANY reason why the office would have had to reach for any type of weapon at all. If they were taking the men into custody then they should have had them cuffed.

[beltanefauve]

34. BART cops

wear the tasers on one side of the belt and the gun on the other side. Nope, I call bullshit on that one.

[SpookyCat]

35. K & R...this needs to be seen...n/t

[beltanefauve]

36. This deserves a thread of its own

because it deals with a resergence of racist activities as backlash since the election rather than being specific to police shootings, but I thought this story was relevant enough to include a link: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1870709,00.html

A Klan Initiation Murder: A Backlash to Obama's Victory?

(snip) She arrived in Slidell on Fri., Nov. 7. It was precisely three days after Barack Obama's election as America's first black President. There had been some nervousness in parts of the country in the months leading up to that milestone. In October, two men had been arrested in Tennessee for allegedly plotting to kill Obama. His victory seemed to incite a violent revulsion among a few whites already dismayed by the economic crisis and surging immigration. White supremacist groups and Internet forums like Stormfront.org reported a surge in interest. "I think there's a perfect storm coming together, and we're at a very worrying moment," says Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, which tracks hate crimes in America.

(snip) Lance Hill, executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University, in New Orleans, has studied hate group activity for years. He was struck not only by the groups' resurgence, but by its members' youth and apparent embrace of hooded robes — symbols that in recent years had become passe for many white racists. Particularly given the presidential election's outcome, Hill says, "In the rural white south, there's a sense that they've become marginalized, and are politically irrelevant to national politics. Taking up those robes and rituals of the Klan can be seen as an act of defiance," he says, adding, "That's a dangerous turn, because that kind of hopelessness can lead to more extremist and violent acts of desperation."

As you say, the race problem in "post-racial" America is ever-present.