Derek Chauvin verdict: How the crack in the blue wall of silence should be exploited

[SharonClark]

Excellent article, as usual, from Digby....

From Rodney King to George Floyd, what progress in policing has been made over the last 30 years in the U.S?

30 years ago last month I was watching the 11 o'clock news in LA and a grainy black and white video came on that shocked me and shocked the conscience of the entire world. It showed a group of policemen, bathed in the harsh glare of their vehicle headlights, viciously tasering and beating a Black man on a deserted street while several others stood by and watched. There had been police beatings on television before, of course. We saw many of them during the civil rights and Vietnam War protests. But this was different. This video showed what the police did when they thought no one was looking, validating their victims' accusations of police brutality, which were routinely dismissed as the complaints of combative criminals who resisted arrest.
. . .
I've been thinking about that time ever since George Floyd was murdered almost a year ago in Minneapolis. Once again we only know what happened that day because the incident was videotaped by a bystander and we were able to see and hear exactly what happened. The police report was just as dishonest as the report in the Rodney King case three decades before and even more inexplicable since the cops in Floyd's case knew their actions had been recorded. They must have believed they were immune from the law they were charged with upholding.
. . .
It shouldn't have taken 30 years to get there but considering it's a centuries-old problem, at least it's a start.

source: https://www.salon.com/2021/04/21/derek-chauvin-verdict-how-the-crack-in-the-blue-wall-of-silence-should-be-exploited/

[Faux pas]

1. I

haven't recovered from seeing Rodney King being brutalized, civil rights marchers being fire hosed and attacked by dogs or any other horrible, inhumane thing that the USA has done to people of color. As a country, we are an ASS.