Just now caught up from all the posts over the weekend.
It's been interesting here in Tulsa. We have a long history with all this. Yesterday was the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. We have had 2 high profile cop killings in the last few years. So we are a community are pretty primed for a reaction.
Things have gotten tense between protesters and police. There was an incident where protesters shut down the highway and then a dufus drove through the crowd in his truck. There's been tear gas and pepper spray from the police. They shut down the mall yesterday after threats that it would be looted or burnt down. (yes, its open because this is red America and we think Covid is for pussies)
The mayor met with protesters and agreed to changes including not renewing the contract with Live PD which has been a contentious issue for a while now. So the official response is helping. The city police force recently got a new chief who is black so I think that helps ease the tension with the community in hopes that he understands the issues being talked about.
The national guard did show up last night in a limited role to assist police in responding to the protesters. I think so far the ratio of protest to rioting here has been pretty good. Some damage and looting but overall pretty low compared to the number of folks out protesting.
I have long been on my soapbox about police brutality. So none of this is particularly surprising. For those that care, I have a bit of nuance in my take.... It's not that police are racist. It's that police are on a power trip and they come into contact with minorities more than they should so they end up having negative outcomes more often. The reasons that black communities have higher crime rates and more imprisoned folks is for another day. Those are the policies that have a history of racism. And it's why you can see cops of all ethnicities and still have these problems. As long as we deify police in our culture and provide no oversight, this will never change. I really hope some good comes of all of this but I am not optimistic.
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Originally Posted by New Era
This individual is not affluent and more of a member of that shrinking middle class. It is likely the individual does not have a high paying job, is limited on benefits, and has to make due with those benefits provided by employer.
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