Are You Showing Support for Black Lives Matter in Second Life?

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I got all excited about Mayor Bowser's street painting and name change, but then read this...

So now I'm back to being uncertain about it all.

My understanding is that it is all about the Mayor's pissing contest with Trump about him not getting the National Guard out of DC when she initially asked.  Since DC is not a State, the National Guard are not under the Mayor's control. 

I still applaud it, even if mostly for a pissing contest, just because it would have pissed off Trump.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

13 minutes ago, Gatogateau said:

But hearing "defund the police" sounds like one of those simple answers to a complex issue. I don't think any of us would like the country without *any* police presence, not for long anyway.

I don't think it's a "simple answer" at all. What it is, maybe unfortunately, is a simple slogan.

The notion of "defunding" police departments, i.e., diverting funds into other socially-beneficial areas that might reduce poverty and crime, is a pretty old idea, and is founded upon a fair amount of thoughtful theory and analysis.

https://theappeal.org/defund-police-george-floyd/

Would it "work"? That depends on how you define success, perhaps. For many blacks, the current system, which represents a broken social contract between the police and a segment of the population they are supposed to protect, but are actually threatening, isn't much worth preserving.

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 minute ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

My understanding is that it is all about the Mayor's pissing contest with Trump about him not getting the National Guard out of DC when she initially asked.  Since DC is not a State, the National Guard are not under the Mayor's control. 

I still applaud it, even if mostly for a pissing contest, just because it would have pissed off Trump.

My concern is over tactics that end up working against the strategic goals. Pissing off Trump and his base could very well put him back in office for another four years.

[kali Wylder]

40 minutes ago, Gatogateau said:

I'm sorry, but the misanthrope in me read your sincere reply and laughed. I tried not to, honest. All I could think of was the saying, "And how's that working out for you?" Like you I believe that facts, logic, education and information plainly given *can* make a difference. People have to *want* to change, though, and not everyone is a customer, so to speak. There are a lot of people entrenched in their views, validly or not, and as much as I might want to move a 14-ton boulder out of my property by pushing on it, no matter how hard I try that boulder ain't budging. Of course I know you know all of that. As I was pretty sure I knew what your answer to my question would be (not verbatim, but the gist).  Carry on! Maybe that boulder will move... (said more wistfully & not snarky)

oops there goes another rubber tree plant

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

My concern is over tactics that end up working against the strategic goals. Pissing off Trump and his base could very well put him back in office for another four years.

It wasn't his base that got him elected last time. Just like most elections, it is really the people that are closer to the middle, leaning slightly left and slightly right (the swing voters, they are often called), that got him the win.  That is the group that don't really LOVE him, but 4 years ago, for probably a wide variety of reasons, decided he was a slightly better choice.  Currently though, the ramblings on some of the more centralist forums are showing a lot more of those folks are pissed at him right now.  If enough of them get pissed enough and for long enough, they'll swing the other direction.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

6 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

It wasn't his base that got him elected last time. Just like most elections, it is really the people that are closer to the middle, leaning slightly left and slightly right (the swing voters, they are often called), that got him the win.  That is the group that don't really LOVE him, but 4 years ago, for probably a wide variety of reasons, decided he was a slightly better choice.  Currently though, the ramblings on some of the more centralist forums are showing a lot more of those folks are pissed at him right now.  If enough of them get pissed enough and for long enough, they'll swing the other direction.

I really wish Warren would have gotten the nomination rather than Biden.. I do not think Biden will win against Frump.  We really need 

 

added

we really need someone committed to change and not someone who will invoke old policies that did not work.

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Tarina Sewell

[Beth Macbain]

54 minutes ago, Tarina Sewell said:

I am sorry, I must have missed your mentioning her, She died at the hand of police in a raid on her home, when they came in unannounced and her boyfriend was defending their home. This is an example of having to do some reforming and policy changes, it is very much like Floyd, except we did not see her die. If you mentioned her earlier then I am sorry I missed it. That was not meant to start anything, only get her name out there to.  I am sorry you became defensive it, I suppose the couple of forum users targeting me have got people thinking everything I say is meant to be taken in the worst possible way.

This is my city. Pretty much everything I’ve posted here about what is happening in my city has been because my city is reacting to the murder of Breonna. Have you looked at any social media today? Everyone is talking about her. The chief of police announced his (forced) retirement after her murder, then flat out got his ass fired after his cops turned their body cameras off and killed another black man after the city put a curfew in place to stop the protesters protesting the murder of Breonna Taylor. $5 million has been raised for her family. My city is protesting and marching every damn night.

I have absolutely no idea why you’re trying to pretend that these past 30 whatever pages have only been about George Floyd. They’ve been about Black Lives Matter... ALL Black Lives. Young, old, male, female, LGBTQ... all black lives matter.

[Beth Macbain]

Even after the cuts, the LAPD’s budget is still 52% of the budget for the ENTIRE city of Los Angeles. That is just insane when you start thinking about what else has the fit in that other 49%, like the LAFD that has to stop the entire city from literally burning to the ground at least once a year.

[Alwin Alcott]

just a retorical question/remark

Where was everybody, let's say , last 50 years? ... lot of words, but nothing really happened./changed

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

It wasn't his base that got him elected last time. Just like most elections, it is really the people that are closer to the middle, leaning slightly left and slightly right (the swing voters, they are often called), that got him the win.  That is the group that don't really LOVE him, but 4 years ago, for probably a wide variety of reasons, decided he was a slightly better choice.  Currently though, the ramblings on some of the more centralist forums are showing a lot more of those folks are pissed at him right now.  If enough of them get pissed enough and for long enough, they'll swing the other direction.

I hope you're right, Li'l.

[Beth Macbain]

25 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

just a retorical question/remark

Where was everybody, let's say , last 50 years? ... lot of words, but nothing really happened./changed

Being complacent and complicit while POC fought like hell for their lives.

Your point?

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Truth be told, they are not "his law enforcement".  That isn't the way the US works.  Each and every state is responsible for their own police policies, the police actions, and any consequences to those actions.  

It even goes more step down than that..

Each state, each county, each city and little towns and burbs..

 

Our town is a county seat which we have all three stations in our town.. I've actually seen and heard with my own eyes and ears in town, someone pulled over by the state police and the local police show up and pretty much push the state police off.. It was like, ok I got this,you can go now.. real smartassy like too..hehehe

I don't think they care for each other too much when they start stepping into each others areas..

 

 

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I don't think it's a "simple answer" at all. What it is, maybe unfortunately, is a simple slogan.

The notion of "defunding" police departments, i.e., diverting funds into other socially-beneficial areas that might reduce poverty and crime, is a pretty old idea, and is founded upon a fair amount of thoughtful theory and analysis.

https://theappeal.org/defund-police-george-floyd/

Would it "work"? That depends on how you define success, perhaps. For many blacks, the current system, which represents a broken social contract between the police and a segment of the population they are supposed to protect, but are actually threatening, isn't much worth preserving.

If you ask me, asking for defunding is like asking for more bad cops to join..

More pressure on the higher ups to enforce policy is how you weed out a lot of the bad apples..

Start paying cops less is the same impact you'll get when you start paying teachers less.. Less good teachers..

 

Our town was full of clout cops..Someone knows someone and them getting in over someone more qualified..  our police used to be so corrupt..

One guy finally got busted for pulling women over, writing a bunch of tickets and then giving them an option to make them go away..

We got a new Chief of police and he cleaned out all the old out of shape favoritism corrupt clout cops and laid down the law and we ended up with real police..

Now our police all look like they are in the shape of navy seals rather than dunkin doughnut cops just doing their job when they feel like it..

Corrupt cops put a fear into the community..

I know quite a few of the police in town now..Some were from before and many were after the big clean up..

them older ones have some doozie stories of how bad it was and how tight the reins are on them now compared to before..

Our town at one point was the worst drug problem town in the country.. a lot of that has gone down also..

Those sitting in the council chairs control the money and the rules.. everything flows down from there..If they are corrupt it's just going to trickle down and get worse along the way..

 

I won't go into the corrupt head of the school district in our town.. But we had pretty much the same results when funds got shifted from the skimming he was doing and getting those put back into the system.

I wish they could just swoop in and clean Chicago up like they did here.. That city council needs some real pressure put on it that will trickle down..

[Evah Baxton]

1 hour ago, Alwin Alcott said:

just a retorical question/remark

Where was everybody, let's say , last 50 years? ... lot of words, but nothing really happened./changed

Perhaps some people think that when Jim Crow ended and the Civil Rights Act started all the racist segregationists had a change of heart and taught their children that racism was wrong. I don't think it worked that way. Racism didn't end. It became more elusive.

I feel like a corner is about to be turned this time.

[Paul Hexem]

11 hours ago, Istelathis said:

If you support all lives matter, then you should not have a problem with black lives matter.  

That's the real problem, it works both ways. Everyone gets so hung up on needing enemies that they can't recognize when people are agreeing with them.

 

10 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Wow - another indication of just how much the Police don't "get it".

All 57 remaining members of the Buffalo Emergency Response Team resigned from that unit because of the suspension of their fellow officers after pushing someone down and then walking past them as they were bleeding on the sidewalk.  

"Our position is these officers were simply following orders from Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia to clear the square," said Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President John Evans. "It doesn't specify clear the square of men, 50 and under or 15 to 40. They were simply doing their job. I don't know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backwards."

 

They truly see nothing wrong with the actions of their fellow police officers -- or they are too scared to buck the system and go against their fellow officers.

Police need reform from the top down. Laws need to change. We have one called "qualified immunity", which basically means no cops are personally responsible for their actions. It's a huge part of why racists get into police work- it literally gives them a shield for their behavior.

 

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Because I have to believe that facts and logic matter, that education and information can make a difference, that connecting and communicating is better than not, and that people can change their minds about things when treated as though they are capable of change.

Doesn't matter which side of the debate you're on, an amazing amount of people refuse to behave that way.

 

2 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

It wasn't his base that got him elected last time. Just like most elections, it is really the people that are closer to the middle, leaning slightly left and slightly right (the swing voters, they are often called), that got him the win.  That is the group that don't really LOVE him, but 4 years ago, for probably a wide variety of reasons, decided he was a slightly better choice.  Currently though, the ramblings on some of the more centralist forums are showing a lot more of those folks are pissed at him right now.  If enough of them get pissed enough and for long enough, they'll swing the other direction.

This mess with the police is definitely going to hurt him, but Democrats have gotta get a new playbook entirely if they want to get him out of office. The fact that someone as bad as him was elected in the first place should be a huge indicator, but they still parrot the same talking points that lost them the last one.

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

Your point?

my point as i said... what did we, i, you, my mum, my grandparents, my aunt 10 times away, and all warriors here, do to change it.
If all who are on the forums, social networks and RL on the streets, really did something during theri lifetime till now, this would be something in the historybook.

All prominents and vips in their Malibu castles, or wherever their 10-20-30 millon dollar houses are...... where were they?... Nów all fight for a place in shows, radio, papers and magazines .. it's a gddamn embarresment.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

53 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

my point as i said... what did we, i, you, my mum, my grandparents, my aunt 10 times away, and all warriors here, do to change it.
If all who are on the forums, social networks and RL on the streets, really did something during theri lifetime till now, this would be something in the historybook.

All prominents and vips in their Malibu castles, or wherever their 10-20-30 millon dollar houses are...... where were they?... Nów all fight for a place in shows, radio, papers and magazines .. it's a gddamn embarresment.

 

The real change will come when we remove the cloud of election tactics which try to use geography to place it rather than concentrate on where it exists most..

Any time I hear things that concentrate on the north and south or the civil war, I pretty much lose taking it serious..

it's 2020 and the migration of people from the north to the south and the south to the north alone, would have an impact if it were the case..

I've lived in a place where racism is actually keeping people down and moved to an area where people hear it is from the media..

Just about every street in the town you'll find a good mix of people of different races..

The plant i work at is where a lot of them work together with each other.. have lunch together,do things together on the weekends,ect..

Where i came from a white person stuck out like a sore thumb. there was no diversity..

Where i live now is a good example of diversity and how things really should be...

The media bothers me because a lot of my life experience doesn't line up with where they are trying to lead me to..I know where a lot of the problems are and used to be confused as to why they were ignoring them.

it's a frustrating world and a lot of people that don't know any better get lead along..

 

ETA: Let me just add this because I want to be clear,I'm not talking about the current event with BLM..I'm not up to date on this particular situation..I'm just talking in general about things in a bigger picture over time...

I really don't think a lot of change will come from this one incident more than it will recognizing where the problems start from today,not 400 years ago..

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Ceka Cianci

[Ted McGregor]

Quote by Alicia Garza

Edited June 6, 2020 by TDD123

[Innula Zenovka]

From 2015.

https://www.indy100.com/article/the-shocking-extent-of-fatal-police-shootings-in-the-us-in-one-graphic--lJkmbhc5yb

In England and Wales last year, there were three fatal police shootings.     

Three.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/319246/police-fatal-shootings-england-wales/

[Ted McGregor]

 

[H8]

https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/4762-social-injustice-has-no-place-in-the-physical-or-virtual-world/

Pure cringe. And possibly a hypocrisy because I read LL is sued by ex-employee for discrimination at work. (Kavyanjali Pearlman, you can look it up)

How on earth anyone can possibly know the guy was killed because he was black? Police brutality is against everyone. Not the first one ever killed by police, neither black or white. But hey, lets protest against police brutality against black ?! Why not just in general. And without breaking windows?

And while we are at it, already 2 black cops were killed...sure thing black lives matter. Not to mention the daily black-on-black violence.

Hope the next building with broken windows is LL's, then maybe they will reconsider their dumb blog posts. I'm not donating to bail out people who violate other people's property. Oh, sorry.. I mean...peacefully protest! Ask George Soros to fund them with another 500 million dollars.

Absolute clownfiesta.

[Ted McGregor]

6 minutes ago, H8 said:

How on earth anyone can possibly know the guy was killed because he was black? Police brutality is against everyone. Not the first one ever killed by police, neither black or white. But hey, lets protest against police brutality against black ?! Why not just in general. And without breaking windows?

Because we were not treated on a recorded live snuff-movie like this before, where we actually see a black man pleading for his life in vain, whilst a white police officer acts as if doing his duty, knowing all too well he' s excecuting a murder with colleagues standing a few feet away not interferring with the murder.

 

 

[H8]

Just now, TDD123 said:

Because we were not treated on a recorded live snuff-movie like this before, where we actually see a black man pleading for his life in vain, whilst a white police officer acts as if doing his duty, knowing all too well he' s excecuting a murder with colleagues standing a few feet away not interferring with the murder.

 

 

That's just being horrible "law enforcers". But you can't prove it was done because they were racists. Maybe there were, maybe there were not. Like I said, plenty of people have been killed by the police, from all ethnicities.  What if the cops were black and he was white?  I think we both know this wouldn't have been blown out of proportions. 

What happened was horrible, but don't make it racial issue. This is used by certain groups to destabilize USA.

 

 

[Ted McGregor]

6 minutes ago, H8 said:

 But you can't prove it was done because they were racists. Maybe there were, maybe there were not. Like I said, plenty of people have been killed by the police, from all ethnicities.  What if the cops were black and he was white?  I think we both know this wouldn't have been blown out of proportions. 

What happened was horrible, but don't make it racial issue. This is used by certain groups to destabilize USA.

Then let' s have the case first where a black cop would act exactly the same against a white suspect ? Are there such cases ? Is that list as long as the vice versa list ?

And if there are not to be found any, do you think it' s about time THEN to act or contribute this to racism ? Only when YOU are convinced ? When it' s TOO LATE ?

 

This police brutality would differ a lot if racial issues were indeed not playing along. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by TDD123

[Aethelwine]

32 minutes ago, H8 said:

Ask George Soros to fund them with another 500 million dollars.

Absolute clownfiesta.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/rising-conspiracy-theory-claims-george-soros-behind-us-unrest-adl-says/

You really need to get your information and opinions from different media sources.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Aethelwine