Category: Race and Racism

Resisting Arrest – 30 Years On.

Eric Garner anniversary: Capturing the New York police on camera – BBC News

MOSS SIDE INITIATIVE
THE REPORT OF THE MOSS SIDE INITIATIVE 1984 TO 1986
BLACK PEOPLE IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

“There is evidence which shows that young Black people are often charged with public order offences, which are committted after the arrival on the scene of the Police Officer.”

Normally an offence would take place. The police would be called and they would then make an arrest for that offence.

In the black community in contrast, the police were there, they aggravated the situation by handling it badly and ended up making an arrest in response to the situation that they provoked.

Frequently that arrest was for such as “Resisting Arrest”. However when there were no other charges accompanying this, it might be said that rather than resisting a non existent arrest, they were rightfully protesting a wrongful arrest.

It seems that in modern times, this is increasingly happening in the wider community, in situations such as town centres, when the police eg approach people leaving pubs and club, drinkers, homeless people etc. aggravating the situation and eventually arresting these individuals. When I watch those documentaries on the policing of town centres, I repeatedly hear the phrase from the police “I have had enough of this” with the officers then arresting people for similar kinds of Public Order matters, in effect with the officers ‘taking offence’, rather than the police arriving in response to any specific offences against the public.

He Obviously Deserved It?

HANDS UP?

This chap is laying on the ground. Hands up. Explaining that he is a therapist and at the same time trying to calm down and protect his autistic client, who is rocking back and forth and who is clearly at risk of being shot for non complaince.

So how come they shot the one that WAS laid down with his hands up and not the one who was not laid down?

Yet I dare say that there are some who will still convince themselves that there is no racism and he brought in on himself.

How is it that it appears to be ok for a TRAINED police officer, responsible for some serious weaponry to panic / make “Mistakes” yet elsewhere, a black person with a gun or tazer in their face, is not allowed to panic.

Please exlain to me in the light of this video, exactly what it is that black people have to do in order to be judged to be “Complying enough”?

Interestingly portrayed by the news programme as “A confrontation with cops” Sorry, but I saw no confrontation WITH the cops. I saw a confrontation BY the cops.

 

Thoughts on the Orlando Massacre

In the early hours of Sunday 12/5/16, Omar Mateen, massacred 49 gay people and injured another 50 or so at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando. It started off being portrayed as ISIS style terrorism, whilst others argue that it is clearly Homophobia. I have my own thoughts on the events and what has followed.

I am reading that he used to hang out with gay people and people that knew him are saying that he was not homophobic back then. The news has just said that he used Gay Apps. He has a father who says that Homosexuality is a sin, punnishable by God. We learn that he got married but was full of anger, ending up splitting up with his wife and the indication was that he was in meltdown mentally. Despite being investigated repeatedly for connections with ISIS, due to peoples concerns about him, no connections it seems were found and then some time after seeing two guys kissing, it is said that he eventually went on the rampage, killing and injuring the people in the club and saying that he was doing it for team ISIS at the last minute (and of course they would claim that it was their “victory” after the event). Rather than homophobic hatred, it seems to me that this may actually be the most horrific case of denial ever seen, something which it seems religion may be profoundly implicated in.  Look, I can’t be gay, I am part of ISIS and I just murdered all these gay people.

The events unsurprisingly are being used by the likes of Trump in the US and Brexit, the leave the European Union campaign in the UK as an excuse to back their Anti Islamic sentiment via calls for Immigration Control, on account of how dangerous they say they are as potential terrorists. Their concern seems only to jump on the Anti Islamic bandwagon, not to look at either Gun Control or at Homophobia, on which they seem to be silent, as Owen Jones saw in his Sky News interview.

Meanwhile, the Liutenant Governor of Texas tweeted from the bible immediately after the massacre – “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” and a number of other disgusting individuals who claim to be Christians are also applauding the events with comments such as the following:-

“I wake up to some dude shooting up a gay night club. Isn’t that weird. Homosexuality is condemned by God, so that’s why he let that happen ppl.”

“God opened His armoury to deal with proud fag america”

“That is the right target for such shootings. Gays should be shot for disrespecting the natural order”

“The shooter is my hero, the cops should be sued for killing a hero, who has done social justice . . . . Homosexuality is a great sin against God and every natural human law, let those who knows please buy guns and kill off any, lesbian, transgender and their likes . . . . may the soul of the shooter rest in perfect peace, amen . . . . . and fyi I am a Christian”

“This was Gods hand and he will pluck them away one by one”

“Sinners being taken out by sin”

Strangely I do not see them condemning, or advocating the killing of those who engage in other acts that the bible deems to be abominations, there are many of them. They have chosen too, not to pursue things which are permitted within the bible such as the taking of slaves, or the marrying of your rape victims, or prisoners of war. Their comments appear to reflect pure hatred rather than the love and acceptance that God is meant to have advocated. Given such glaring contradictions, maybe it is time for ALL religions to deal once and for all, with their issues with homosexuality.

It is often asked why Muslims do not stand against acts of terrorism when they take place – Blaming all for the actions of a handful of fundamentalists. Well why don’t Christians do the same in relation to the sick Homophobia and Transphobia that we regularly see spouted by Christian Fundamentalists? If mainstream Muslims are either part of the solution, or part of the problem in terms of terrorism or homophobia, why not mainstream Christians?

Omar Mateens father clearly did not agree with Homosexuality, but he said it is for God to Judge and whether you believe in God or not, it works. If there is no God, there is no judgement, but if there is a God and judgement is left to him, well personally I do not believe that he would pass judgement on homosexuality anyway. When there is murder, rape, domestic violence, child abuse, robbery, assault and the rest, is God really going to focus his wrath on people who are attracted to people who simply have the same ‘bits’ as themselves? Particularly when, if he or she exists, he also created people with Intersex Conditions, a range of conditions where peoples insides and outsides do not necessarily match. The bits someone has, are not always the defining factor. Surely focussing only on the wrapping paper and not on the insides, who the person is, would in other circumstances be considered shallow, skin deep. How come God has never wreaked his wrath on paedophiles, rapists or murderers, causing some catastrophy on the Lifers wing of a prison for example and we might also ask what sin has been committed by every person that dies in countries beset by drought or famine conditions. Strange don’t you think? Is this really a result of sin?

There is a saying – What if God hates those who claim to know what God hates? Maybe the way that people respond to homosexuals and transexuals is a test set by God, when he is meant to have said that people were made in his image and that we should love. A test to see if people respond with the love and compassion that he is meant to have preached.

If it is a test. Some so called ‘Christians’ are failing miserably.

14/6/16

Poem on Racism. The Story Without a Punchline.

WHEN NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS

The days news headlines shouted out –

There was no earth quake, no tsunami, no landslides or owt.

The CEO’s and Politicians told no lies (rare I know)

Headlines notable for the lack of porkie-pies.

 

But I heard a man tell a story that had all enthralled.

How he got on the bus and like it was the end of the world

Got off in Moss Side, a connection to make

And this HUGE great big black guy followed him –

No mistake.

He thought he was a gonner

And he started to sweat

Till the guy crossed the road and . . .

Well . . .

Simply went.

 

He’d not had to phone our wonderful police

His body went limp and he gasped in relief.

When he got to his mates at the end of the lane,

He retold the story . . .

Again . . .

And again.

20 years on he’ll still reminisce

Over the night he survived this scary near miss.

 

But why is he headlining this cautionary tale?

Telling over and over this ‘story to no avail’.

If the story seems odd –

It’s as it’s missing a punch line,

Nothing happened.

No mugging, no murder, no crime.

 

In reality the punchline

If there’s anything to tell,

Is one of racist assumptions,

Him being a bell

And acknowledging that racism

Is alive and well.

But they never get to that bit do they.
10/9/2015
20 years or more ago, someone told me a parallel story.  It troubled me greatly and I pored over it until I had worked out what was going on. I realised that this is a story about something that did not happen.   A story with no punch line.  In most peoples eyes, this does not constitute a story.  It needs the punchline.  The realization of the implications of this persons fears.

I have heard variations on this story many times since, but then, over 20 years after I first heard and dissected the story that isn’t a story, I was shocked to see the original tale on which I based my thoughts written up in a booklet of peoples reminiscences.  Over 20 years later, the person is not only still telling this “entertaining anecdote”, they also went so far as to submit it for publication as an amusing anecdote.   In writing, there for all to see.  Presumably therefore, 20 years on, they have still not got to the punch line.   If they had, they might be a bit more sheepish, or at least one would hope.

It appeared under the heading “We still laugh about that one . . . ”

Strangely, if the black guy knew of his starring role, I doubt he would be laughing and neither dear reader am I.

 

Crazy Racist Lady or Racist Post?

So I saw this post about some “Crazy Racist Lady” and decided to have a look.      http://www.newsempires.net/crazy-racst-black-lady-attacks-white-man?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Postcron.com

The film was meant to show some woman who they referred to as a “Crazy Racist Black Lady” “attacking” a white man.  I immediately doubted that this is what it would be, but thought I might possibly get a film of some woman with mental health issues, who they should not have been filming, given her ill health.    What I found was very different.    What appeared to be a film made by someone who along with his friend seemed to be engaged in race baiting a woman to get some sort of reaction, which in my view, they did not even get.   So I responded to the video as follows:-

“Crazy Racist Black Lady ” “angry hate filled racist b*tch” “Race baiters” “they discount the reality that THEY are the ones that are rac*st” “attacked by a blatantly rac*st welfare queen” Really? Well for starters, if a complete stranger was in a queue filming you for no reason whatsoever, many would have said a lot more a lot earlier on. Hate filled? Attacking? Actually no. She SAID SOMETHING to him. In reality she REACTED to behaviour which would appear to have been entirely based on racism. The article is riddled with racist assumptions and views. Race Baiters???? Really. Look in the mirror mate. It was the one that was filming that was race baiting and we do not know what expression etc was on the face of the guy. Smirking maybe? The whole thing was deliberately trying to provoke a reaction. Racist welfare queen? Did they know she was on welfare or is that simply yet another assumption about black people. There is also a gender dimension. Here are two presumably both white men targetting a woman. How does she know what their motives are once she has left the store? He was not a “boy” by the way, which presents him as younger and more vulnerable. He was a big man, with a beard. I am guessing that they would not have done this to a man. Their behaviour was potentially very intimidating on a number of fronts. I started off clicking on play thinking that if someone “attacked” a white man, at times this can be down to underlying mental health problems, frequently the result of a persons day to day experience of racism. What I saw was evidence in my view of racist assumptions fuelling an attempt to provoke a reaction, in order to try and prove a spurious point. Those who made the video were the racists. If I had been in the queue, as a white woman, I would have challenged what they were doing, intimidating a black woman in that way.

As soon as I had posted my comment, I sat and pondered on the curious way they had ‘Cleaned up’ word Rac*st.  Hysterical really.   So I went back for another bite of the cherry:-

“Not sure either why they write “rac*st” They substitue an asterisk for the “i” in B*tch to spare us from a swear word / insult. Many would do the same if using eg the “N” word, or indeed call it the “N” word, as it is offensive. The word racist is not a swear word. Not sure what toning down the word racist tells us about the author. A word that THEY do not want to be called maybe? If the cap fits . . . .”

Any reason to try and prove black people are racist it seems.    What do you think?