‘Black lives matter’ to everyone — finally

[sheshe2]

A demonstrator protests recent grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at Boston Common in Boston on Thursday. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I am always trying to find a pony in the highest mound of filth. And the decisions in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City to not indict police officers who killed unarmed black men have given me much to work with. That the killers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner won’t even stand trial before a jury of their peers is offensive, not only to the deceased men’s families, but also to those of us who believe in the accountability that our criminal justice system strives for.

What has been thrilling to see, most notably after Monday’s decision in the Garner case, is that Americans of all stripes have been expressing their outrage wherever they can. What has warmed my aching heart this past week has been the faces and voices of the protesters. They aren’t just African Americans fighting for their lives and hoping someone will listen, let alone care. The protesters with their signs and chants of “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe” are the gorgeous mosaic of America and cut across every demographic.

The video of Garner’s chokehold death was as horrific as it was clarifying. It was a light-bulb moment, particularly for white Americans, about how the life of a black man could be taken for little reason and with little recourse. The #CrimingWhileWhite feed on Twitter is a stunning 21st-century confessional where contributors acknowledge privileges afforded them that no African American would ever think possible. I read antics by tweeters that literally made my jaw drop because of their brazenness and my head shake because of their ability to get away with it. Folks shoplifting (or “robbing” or “knocking over stores,” as some folks like to call it in Brown’s case), driving while drunk, assaulting officers, you name it — and then getting away with it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/12/05/black-lives-matter-to-everyone-finally/


Finally! Black Lives Matter!


http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/08/5_reasons_why_blacklivesmatter.html



[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]





I Matter~



I Matter~


They Matter~


Fatherhood Matters~



This is my hope. And yes it will be revolutionary. Don't be afraid, embrace it. Black Lives Matter.

They aren’t just African Americans fighting for their lives and hoping someone will listen, let alone care. The protesters with their signs and chants of “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe” are the gorgeous mosaic of America and cut across every demographic.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

~the gorgeous mosaic of America and cut across every demographic are standing up to say no more. Black Lives Matter! I am told this will fizzle and die. I am told this revolution will be a blood bath from both sides. Will some die, yes they will because the cops are out of control. Yet change is coming, mark my words.

[bravenak]

1. Thank you.

Crying so hard right now.

[sheshe2]

7. Don't cry bravenak,

as she2 cries as well. I have your back and your children's back, they mean as much to me as my wee white ones. I would give my life for them all. They are our future.

Tears~

And so much hope.

[bravenak]

9. The photos you used were just so moving.

It's an art-form to be able to put things together so well.

[sheshe2]

12. You do poetry so well, though I like to write....I do it badly.

I chose the pictures, I wanted to make a point and I want to tell a story. I majored in fine art.

Hugs bravenak

[bravenak]

13. I suppose there a role for everyone.

I can do a poem and you can set it to pictures that evoke the proper emotions the poem wants. That could be fun.

Love you.

[sheshe2]

17. I like that idea!

Love you too~

[TeeYiYi]

2. Finally...

Black. Lives. Matter.

TYY

[sheshe2]

45. That just breaks my heart.

[shraby]

3. You outdid yourself. I didn't look to see who posted this, but when I got

to the bottom, I said "That's got to be sheshe." I scrolled back up and I was right.
You put together some outstanding posts! Don't ever stop.

[sheshe2]

18. Hey shraby.

Love you....and no I am not stopping.

[shraby]

39. Good to hear! Love them.

[pinboy3niner]

4. Excellent!

Well-done, she!

[sheshe2]

46. You are so very welcome, pinboy.

[steve2470]

5. big kick and big rec! nt

[woo me with science]

6. Protesters demand policy changes, including demilitarization of police.

They certainly don't see demanding actual change in policies as a distraction from RACISM. On the contrary, this is exactly how racism is battled:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/protests-break-out-nationwide-for-third-day-1417825427

Many protest groups have specific policy goals. The New York group This Stops Today lists five, including “full accountability” for Mr. Garner’s death; a Justice Department investigation of use-of-force policies by New York City police; and passage of a “Right to Know Act’’ that, among other things, would require police to explain the reason for any enforcement activity and explain the legal basis for any searches.

Young people in Florida have succeeded in turning protests around the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin into a permanent organization. Dream Defenders now has 10 chapters across the state and a $300,000 annual budget. The group lobbies and demonstrates for criminal justice, education and other issues. “We are participating in democracy in absolutely every way possible,” said spokesman Steven Pargett.

The Ferguson Action website lists several goals, including “demilitarization” of law enforcement, a congressional hearing on alleged racial profiling by police and creation of a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice.

[sheshe2]

16. What the hell do you think I am pointing out in my threads that you hi-jack?

To answer the question that you follow me thread to thread with, since you never were able to figure it out on your own, yes I want the police demilitarized. Wow! You missed that. Why you attack me is beyond my understanding. You make this about you, if I don't toe your line, then I am wrong. Fuck that, we all have voices and express things differently. So get off my back and leave me the hell alone.

There are articles that I could link to for you of what the President is doing but I am to damn tired. Not that you would believe them, you hate Obama. That is clear. You are one of the 100% negative posters here. Every damn time. Every fucking time. Never have I seen you post compassion for a member that is hurting here. Your responses are robotic and sadly lacking in human feelings. That makes me cry.

I am in no mood to listen to your Obama sucks crap. I came back from a funeral today. I lost two close family members in less than two weeks, one was my father. I posted about it here, thanks for your condolences, or not. Nope not you.

I would rather speak with passion and compassion and die with some hope and love in my heart than go through life so angry and robotic and dead inside.

Back off me woo.

[woo me with science]

25. Your actual words, and your behavior,

(as well as the behavior of the Third Way swarm that predictably appeared in response to my mentioning this administration's complicity in the problem), are publicly visible all throughout this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5912714

I am very glad to finally hear that you support demanding that President Obama and this administration reverse its resurrection and massive expansion of these obscene programs to turn our police into paramilitary forces.

The Obama Administration's Escalation of Police Militarization
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/aclu-police-militarization-swat_n_2813334.html

It's almost certain that if the police agencies cooperate, the ACLU will find that the militarization trend has accelerated since Kraska's studies more than a decade ago. All of the policies, incentives and funding mechanisms that were driving the trend then are still in effect now. And most of them have grown in size and scope.

The George W. Bush administration actually began scaling down the Byrne and COPS programs in the early 2000s, part of a general strategy of leaving law enforcement to states and localities. But the Obama administration has since resurrected both programs. The Byrne program got a $2 billion surge in funding as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, by far the largest budget in the program's 25-year history. Obama also gave the COPS program $1.55 billion that same year, a 250 percent increase over its 2008 budget, and again the largest budget in the program's history. Vice President Joe Biden had championed both programs during his time in the Senate.

The Pentagon's 1033 program has also exploded under Obama. In the program's monthly newsletter (Motto: "From Warfighter to Crimefighter&quot , its director announced in October 2011 that his office had given away a record $500 million in military gear in fiscal year 2011, which he noted, "passes the previous mark by several hundred million dollars." He added, "I believe we can exceed that in FY 12.”

Then there are the Department of Homeland Security's anti-terrorism grants. The Center for Investigative Reporting found in a 2011 investigation that since 2001, DHS has given out more than $34 billion in grants to police departments across the country, many of which have been used to purchase military-grade guns, tanks, armor, and armored personnel carriers. The grants have gone to such unlikely terrorism targets as Fargo, N.D.; Canyon County, Idaho; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Seven ways the Obama administration has escalated police militarization
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html

[sheshe2]

27. Figures!

Another robotic response. Third way swarm

Have a great life. It will be incredibly sad and wanting because you have no soul or compassion. Oh man you just proved my point. You are an uncaring machine that hits copy and paste.

I posted that I had two deaths in my family including my dad. No response only a link. You are so cold and cruel to your fellow man/ woman. It is no wonder at all why this country sucks. You make it suck with your cruelty and lack of compassion. Fuck off woo!

[Cha]

35. "3rd way swarm".. gets on a beautifully brilliant thread that illustrates magnificently once again

"Black Lives Matter" and tries to hijack it and fails miserably. Poor little "swarmer". lol

Mahalo for your poignant OP, she


#MIKEBROWNCOVERUP @mikebrowncover
Follow
"They kill our daddies, then make fun of us for being fatherless." (via @bassem_masri) #BlackLivesMatter #Ferguson
8:06 PM - 4 Dec 2014 176 Retweets 113 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/12/06/a-tweet-or-two-182/

[sheshe2]

38. That pictures makes me cry Cha.

Black Lives Matter Period. All the asses that want to jump on and derail as he did the other night as well are uncaring souls. I find that sad. Nance posted me there and she did a great take down as always.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025912655#post232

Love you Cha

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Black Lives Matter to everyone BUT......

the owners in society who's enforcement arm is killing them. As long as there's super exploitative profit to be made on the toil of specially oppressed people, they WILL be oppressed by those capitalist enforcers. Oppressed to death in many cases.

It's good to see that a lot of folks of all ethnicities are catching on to this.

[robbob]

20. And don't forget

...black lives don't seem to matter to people who post in the comments section. Vile, vile stuff. When I talk to my friends up here in Canada I always mention that one of the places to see real virulent racism on display is in the comments sections of any major news source running an article on the current unrest in the US. One comment posted referred to the 12 year old executed drive-by style in Cleveland as a "thug" because he was playing with a BB gun in the park.

[KingCharlemagne]

33. If capitalism does one thing well, it is the proces by which it commodifies and monetizes

goods and services. However, as Marx and Engels would have predicted, capitalism will attempt to commodify and monetize anything from which it (or its practitioners) thinks a profit can be derived, whether that be drinking water (happening now in many places in the developing world), health care (right here in the good ole USA), and even imprisonment and justice (again, happening right here in the USA).

Chris Hedges published a powerful essay around this matter last Sunday:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/alcatraz_a_prison_as_disneyworld_20141130

[Odin2005]

51. +1 eom

[roguevalley]

10. I love all those people in those pictures forever.

it must never be forgotten that the mosaic is there in all its tender glory. at the front of every line with Martin Luther King people of all colors and beliefs marched with him because IT WAS RIGHT! IT WAS JUSTICE! We can forget that in our suffering but it won't make it less true. Look at that first picture and tell me I am wrong.

[VanillaRhapsody]

11. it brought tears to my eyes....I watched a crowd of hundreds of predominantly White people

protesting and chanting "Black Lives Matter"...even shutting down an Apple store and a roadway in Boulder Colorado...

[sheshe2]

47. It's there and it is happening.

[Skidmore]

14. They sure do, sheshe2.

Black lives matter. All lives matter. Peace and love to you, my friend.

[butterfly77]

15. Kick,kick,kicked&Recommended!

[sheshe2]

19. Kick!

[brer cat]

21. Thank you, she

for gracing us with another heart-touching OP. Especially for lifting Mandela's words again...that man could sooth the most troubled souls, and there are so many of those here.

K&R Black Lives Matter!

[sheshe2]

48. Love you brer cat.

You are always there for the issues that matter.

[Dustlawyer]

22. Though it's all horrible, the 12 year old boy in

Cleveland is way too much! They better not hi-jack the GJ as they have in the Brown and Garner cases. Part of me hopes they do, because all but the most hardened racists will be totally pissed at the injustice of it all! If you are a parent, just imagine that was your child gunned down in cold blood and the police outright lied like they always do! It makes me sick to think people can have that much hate!

[sheshe2]

26. I am not a parent Dustlawyer.

Yet I have nieces and nephew and their children to love and protect.

What is happening makes me sick.

[Dustlawyer]

29. Yes, being a parent is not a prerequisite to understanding the wrongness and pain!

[Jamaal510]

23. K&R

[sheshe2]

24. Thank you Jamaal.

[notundecided]

28. I've been a racist all my life

And I'm so ashamed.

[sheshe2]

30. we live and learn, notundecided.

peace~

[BrotherIvan]

53. Your post is very moving

As the quote from Nelson Mandela says, hatred and racism have to be taught. I am sorry that those around you taught you to distrust people with black or brown skin. But the fact that you have realized that it is wrong and are willing to change is very meaningful. If you could now teach those around you, your children or grandchildren, your neighbors and friends that people of color are equal in every way, then you can now help to make things better. Some people never wake up and are consumed with hatred for others, you have received a gift now that you have chosen to let hate go.

[TeeYiYi]

31. I can't breathe...

Last edited Sun Feb 10, 2019, 06:29 PM - Edit history (3)

Black. Lives. Matter.

TYY

[sheshe2]

32. The first picture....

by date 1814 Chains 1914 Noose 2014 Prison

The second....

Hope for the future. Put your clubs down.

Tears.

[KingCharlemagne]

36. The bottom-most picture is very powerful. However, out of an abundance of

caution, I would like to suggest that parents leave their kids at home or with a sitter for these protests. If the cops decide to rampage and riot as they often have in the past, nothing will protect the children from cops gone wild.

Thinking specifically of the 2007 Los Angeles MacArthur Park LAPD police riot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_MacArthur_Park_rallies

[TeeYiYi]

40. If police are sincerely about 'serve and protect'...

...then, this child should really have nothing to fear...

The stoic innocence of this one small voice, speaks louder than all of the protesters combined.

Black. Lives. Matter.

TYY

[jen63]

57. I agree,

they are the future of the movement.

[Cha]

37. Mahalo for these compelling pics, TYY..

[Suprk]

34. Thank you. Big kick and big rec!

[sheshe2]

49. Welcome to DU Suprk!

Thank you.

[Cha]

41. All Across Our Nation People Are Showing UP to Proclaim #BlackLivesMatter, she..

HennAYEssy @Aye_Mich3ll3
Follow
#BlackoutHollywood
1:18 PM - 6 Dec 2014

Photos: #BlackoutHollywood Protestors March To Speak Out Against Police Brutality

http://laist.com/2014/12/06/photos_protestors_march_to_hollywoo.php

So proud of our Kindred Spirits!.. I bet President Obama is too!

[sheshe2]

42. Black Out Hollywood!

Damn that is an amazing picture. Thank you so much Cha.



Someone sent me some links tonight. Will post tomorrow to tired to process them tonight.

[R B Garr]

43. Nice thread. The song you picked always stops me in my tracks,

it's so beautiful. Thanks for posting such thoughtful and beautiful threads.

The Youngbloods: "Get Together". I'm not sure how to post the picture link, just the URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=o4fWN6VvgKQ

[sheshe2]

44. R B Garr...Welcome to DU!

To post~

Scroll to share. The link shows in blue right below. Right click and copy bring here and right click to paste.

Thank you!!!!

sheshe

[R B Garr]

56. Thanks, sheshe.

I tried it.

edit: oh, well, lol. Anyway, thanks again for this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=o4fWN6VvgKQ

[sheshe2]

50. Black Lives Matter

[Odin2005]

52. K&R!