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Floyd family meets Biden as Congress weighs police bill

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By ALEXANDRA JAFFE and ALAN FRAM

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Rest in power, George Floyd.

-9 ( +3 / -12 )

I support the police and when they have to put a bad guy down.

But when the suspect is under control, then you have to leave the suspect alone. End of story.

As somebody said, "Police brutality has become a team sport." That's spot on. These videos showing groups of police officers joining in or standing around ignoring everything while somebody is getting the crap kicked out of them is wrong. No wonder people are terrified now when they get pulled over by the police.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Meanwhile back in Minneapolis, police have been defunded, murders up 112%, rapes up 40%, and there were two dozen gunshots at the George Floyd shrine on the anniversary of his death. BLM’s divisive neo-Marxist campaign to racialize American is in high gear with all of the nations largest institutions teaching that we should judge people based on the color of their skin rather than the content of their character. America under the Joe Eagle regime is in crisis. The rot of racialized identitarianism is spreading from the nations blue cities throughout the culture. It’s like watch a great nation disintegrate right before our eyes.

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

The videos you see is just one side of the story. George Floyd and Black Lives Matter was a one sided story; that did not let opposing views enter the discussion. Police officers have a very difficult and stressful job for the pay they get. You will not see many people joining law enforcement as career and make situation worse in these communities. Because of these things cities are falling in the name of political correctness; Baltimore, Detroit, Orlando; next up Minneapolis. Fall of America. There is reason why gated communities are on the rise in America. Sad.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Trump will be held accountable Google Trump Grand Jury

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

George Floyd's death sparked a global reckoning over racism

Does racism exist? Are there unfair disparities in the treatment of blacks and whites in the criminal justice system? Are there interactions between cops and black people that are horrific and wrong? Yes, yes and yes. But all we really know about George Floyd's killing is that Chauvin was a bad cop. Extrapolating a national narrative about race from the isolated acts of a few bad cops is counterproductive and it obscures the real issues.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

That is not true.

Crime is getting worse in the city and it won’t get better because a lot of mainstream businesses will not be coming back into the community especially if there isn’t a strong police presence.

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/01/22/early-2021-minneapolis-crime-stats-show-250-increase-in-gunshot-victims/

Recent data shows that the number people wounded by gunshots is up 250% from last year (Jan. 1 to Jan. 18).

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mn/minneapolis/crime

https://nypost.com/2021/02/06/these-black-lives-didnt-seem-to-matter-in-2020/

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

George Floyd did not deserve to die. Chauvin was a bad cop who deserves to be in prison.

But neither is George Floyd the chocolate Jesus he is being made out to be. He had a long arrest record for drug crimes and assault with a deadly weapon, spent years in prison. The incident that led to his death was a direct result of yet more criminal activity and illegal drug use. So let us not wax too poetic.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

 But all we really know about George Floyd's killing is that Chauvin was a bad cop. Extrapolating a national narrative about race from the isolated acts of a few bad cops is counterproductive and it obscures the real issues.

Denying the problem isn't going to solve it. What happened to George Floyd is not unique at all and Black Americans have been telling us about these instances for decades. What was unique about the murder of George Floyd was that it was caught so vividly on camera and everyone was able to see clearly what so many whites have steadfastly refused to see or acknowledge for many decades.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Police violence is not exclusive to one race. Cops kill more white people than blacks every year. By making this a race issue, it misses the most important point that the police are the problem, not racism. Poorly trained non-racist cops will still kill too many people.

Making this a race issue is a classic case of focussing too much on a small issue at the expense of a big one. Now for the required throat-clearing and harrumphing- I am not saying that there are no racist cops, nor am I saying that race never plays a role in police misbehavior. Just that the actual underlying problem is deeper and more, dare I say, systemic?

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

@Attila, I kind of agree with you on this. Yes, systemic. It's a big picture. American police officers receive far too little training in de-escalating messy situations compared to their counterparts in other developed countries. And lots and lots of training in how to shoot people. Combine that with a culture of assuming the worst about suspects--wanting to "get the bad guy"--leads to a very unhealthy relationship between law enforcement and the public.

And this problem is even worse when factoring in America's long history of racial conflict.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Good that we can see a bit of common ground PM. IMHO, another big factor is police being used as revenue generators for their respective cities/municipalities (giving out tickets for various offences, code violations, arrest warrants for minor crimes, etc). This is essentially a form of indirect taxation and goes a long way in creating a bad relationship between people and police.

I agree with the concept of community/local policing but it needs to be removed from any financial elements. Siezing property for bogus reasons, speed traps, will only make the problem worse. Those functions could perhaps be performed by a level of police removed from local- state police perhaps. Just spitballin here...

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Heartbreaking scenes with George Floyds daughter and family looking devastated a year after this race-hate murder. The scum white-supremacist cop who tortured and killed George deserves at least 100 years in prison.

Say his name for justice... George Floyd

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Talking about irony, I watched a reporter talking about police reform at George Floyd Square. Just at that moment, 30 gunshots broke out between people there. This is a place where police are not allowed. So what is the real issue here?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Philonise looking good there! props.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

American police officers receive far too little training in de-escalating messy situations compared to their counterparts in other developed countries.

That is not entirely true. When it comes to crowd control they probably do one of the best jobs in keeping people and protesting groups from getting out of control.

And lots and lots of training in how to shoot people.

You are trained to shoot center mass always because that is where you aim to fully neutralizer a target

Combine that with a culture of assuming the worst about suspects--wanting to "get the bad guy"--leads to a very unhealthy relationship between law enforcement and the public.

I disagree, the most important thing is to get the bad guy off the street, this is what happen with New York they were taking the kind of approach that you were advocating and once Giuliani got into New York with a zero tolerance policy that completely changed, he cleaned up New York cleaned up the crime in New York City became a safer place, you don’t give criminals any lead way whatsoever, it leads to bad consequences, but I do think the police need to walk to be a little bit more and try to establish a better rapport with the communities, that would greatly help.

And this problem is even worse when factoring in America's long history of racial conflict.

Oh, here we go again, the left continues to push the race issue! Race or racism to be more precise is not a problem, if Democrats would create more incentives and more opportunities and treat people as people are not as individual tribes, as long as you do that you will never end the cycle of racism

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

The House bill is incomplete. An enormous amount of money will have to be allocated to subsidizing local and state police departments in order to hire people willing to work in law enforcement from now on. Salaries will have to be substantially raised for police to accept the risk of lawsuits.

What the heck. Just confíscate Bill Gates’ wealth. His huge vaults of gold will certainly solve the problem. Then Mr. Twitter’s assets...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Today is May 25th. No George Floyd police reform bill.

Another broken promise of this administration. Convenient excuses provided by the media to deflect from it.

Congress? on vacation after the Anniversary photo op.

In a sprawling speech to Congress last month laying out ­dozens of proposals, President Biden set one specific deadline for ­law­makers: to deliver a long-discussed overhaul of police practices meant to stem the killings of Black citizens at the hands of law enforcement officers.

“Let’s get it done next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death,” he said on April 28, one week after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering Floyd. “The country supports this reform and Congress should act.”

That deadline — May 25 — is now set to come and go without action. Although talks continue productively, according to participants, no deal is in immediate sight and the House is leaving Washington on Friday for a three-week break.

Key lawmakers this week played down the passing milestone — “I’m not really looking at a schedule. I’m just trying to get this bill done right,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a lead negotiator, said Wednesday — but the lapse has left them in a precarious position.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Have to disagree with Bass here, even though we generally are on the same side of most issues.

For lessons in poor crowd control, look no further than the recent Palestinian supporter/Israel supporter protests in NYC. A clusterflock of poor planning and performance.

As for shooting, the problem isn't so much how to shoot, although often too many police fire too many bullets at one target. The problem is WHEN to shoot, and most importantly when not to.

I would be very happy if police concentrated on getting bad guys off the streets. But more important I would like them to develop professional and courteous attitudes when dealing with the general public, the vast majority of whom are NOT bad guys. To lose their collective paranoia when performing simple policing functions. To know and uphold civil liberties, rather than trying to take shortcuts around them. In short, to serve and protect, not shake down and panic.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

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