[FRIAM] Thoughts on the Floyd protests

Wed Jun 10 23:29:26 EDT 2020

The full text of the Kerner Report:

https://archive.org/stream/kernerreportrevi00asse/kernerreportrevi00asse_djvu.txt

On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 9:10 PM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> My wife's father was a member of that Commission.  He was an attorney and
> a lifelong Chicagoan.
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 8:45 PM Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I think I wrote to the list earlier that I dredged up the Kerner Report
>> last week--1968, and I suggest you all read it.
>> http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 3:58 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Glen -
>>>
>>> I know you weren't pulling our leg (or my finger).
>>>
>>> This was the post I was composing when the tone deaf joke formed and
>>> escaped:
>>>
>>> My "intellectual" interest is in how self-organizing principles and
>>> emergence operate in social contexts...  on both sides of the debate here,
>>> as is being alluded to here already.   When Law Enforcement gets
>>> significantly defunded, what fills the vacuum left by that?   There are
>>> lots of *other* vacuums/rifts/holes being formed as our culture heaves and
>>> buckles a little under a series of shifts.   I'm not sure what (if any) are
>>> root causes and what are just cascades and reactions.   Globalism,
>>> NeoLiberalism, Authoritarinism, Fascism, Manic Hypercaptialism, Rapid
>>> Technological Change,  Hyper Connectedness,  Information Overload, etc.
>>>
>>> Many believe that shifting funding from law enforcement (which is by
>>> definition more reactionary than preventative?) to mental and social
>>> services which are intended to be more strongly pro-active in preventing
>>> the kinds of problems that the police often have to remediate down the
>>> road, is a net gain and possibly something that could be effected very
>>> quickly, even if positive results may lag in many cases.  I don't know how
>>> well that works for/with hardened criminals who've already been taken from
>>> being under-nourished, under-respected, under-opportunitied youth  through
>>> a series of trainings as a gang member first on the streets, and then
>>> inside prison for several stints, annealed and tempered by police, judges,
>>> prison-guards and one's fellow travelers to a strong core with a
>>> wicked-sharp edge.   But maybe if her mother and younger siblings aren't
>>> struggling to keep groceries in the fridge and the fridge running then
>>> maybe she can mature into something a little kinder-gentler.  Or maybe she
>>> already has, but it is hard to recognize when the only interface she has is
>>> a regular stop-and-frisking?  I think we do see a record of mellowing among
>>> aging hard-cores who survive long enough to become elders in their
>>> communities?
>>>
>>> I think Jon?s suggestion that private security will fill the vacuum is
>>> also valid.  More people will gate their communities and more gated
>>> communities will add uniformed patrols and more uniformed patrols will add
>>> lethal weapons and training.   The next George Floyd might be your massage
>>> therapist who made the mistake of making house-calls to your gated
>>> community while black/brown/yellow/red/poor and the next Chauvin & Co will
>>> be guys who couldn't even get IN to the police academy but COULD buy
>>> mirror-shades, a loaded up batman utility belt, matching chromed .45s with
>>> shoulder holsters, an Armalite 15 and a riot-style shotgun (but not rubber
>>> nor armor-piercing rounds, those are for law-enforcement-only) to carry in
>>> their ominously painted and hopped up SUV with  run flat tires, a
>>> push-bumper, blinky lights and a siren.   And that tricked out rig,
>>> security "professional" included, will cost a fraction of what a *real* law
>>> enforcement officer would BECAUSE of the lack of
>>> oversight/training/benefits, etc.    A new branch:  UBERArmed?
>>>
>>> The above is mildy (but not entirely) the maunderings of a
>>> frustrated/unexpressed cyberpunk novelist (me)... but oddly not that far
>>> away in "some Adjacent Possible"?
>>>
>>> Personally, I'm more interested in how to use this Svaha/Liminal moment
>>> to "Visualize World Peace"?   And what is in *that* adjacent possible
>>> (ensemble)?   There is value to a Red-Team/Blue-Team analysis in these
>>> situations, and I think *both* are necessary.  Awfulizing isn't the only
>>> thing to be doing right now.  Things are shifting, vacuums are created,
>>> playing-fields are being re-leveled... are there opportunities to "do the
>>> right thing", or is "the right thing" so subjective that we will simply
>>> "move the noise around"?   I identify as a humanist... I don't even know if
>>> that means what it used to (to others) or if I'm in anything like a "silent
>>> majority" in that identification.   Maybe the Anarchists and Libertarians
>>> and Radical Progressives and Radical Conservatives and ??? all think THEY
>>> are humanists.   Or maybe it's a bad word to them?   I certainly remember
>>> my self-righteous Catholic M-in-Law spitting the words "*Secular
>>> Humanist*" as if they were acid, leaving smoking, corroding spots
>>> everywhere they landed.
>>>
>>> - Steve
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/10/20 11:17 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:
>>>
>>> We have evidence of it, here:
>>>
>>> Olympia police unions respond to photo of officer posing with armed menhttps://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article243401061.html
>>>
>>> FWIW, I think our mayor is wrong. The 3% sign isn't the OK sign, regardless of whether any supremacists actually use the OK sign or not. But like any tone deaf marketing message, if the symbol you adopt is *thought* to be a racist symbol, then you should go ahead and change it. Just stop flying the confederate flag even if it's been on your state flag for your whole life ... just stop using the swastika even if you're (East) Indian or Native American.
>>>
>>> But what does lend truth to the accusations leveled against the 3% is the lack of a public statement condemning Trump for violating the constitution in clearing St John's. If they exist to use their piddly little guns to protect us from the government, where were they then? Perhaps they are only interested in protecting a particular class of people? ... or only people with whom they agree politically?
>>>
>>> As for the cop in the photo, she should at least be suspended for her stupid mistake. Don't pose with with a bunch of dudes standing in a parking lot with guns. That's simply a stupid thing for a cop (or any professional) to do. And if you must do it, take off your uniform first.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/10/20 9:51 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>>>
>>> I think the point is that are already not accountable.   Protected by unions and colleagues who will look the other way, and a culture that accepts that certain people must consent to miserable lives.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/10/20, 9:48 AM, "Friam on behalf of Prof David West" <friam-bounces at redfish.com on behalf of profwest at fastmail.fm> <friam-bounces at redfish.comonbehalfofprofwest@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>>>
>>>     downside is the private militias that Jon mentioned. just like the military that replaces soldiers with private contractors - to whom are the latter accountable?
>>> On 6/9/20 4:28 PM, Jon Zingale wrote:
>>>
>>> 1. Will the efforts to defund the police eventually meet with efforts
>>> to build private militias? Will the future of policing in this country
>>> follow a path similar to the shift from public to private postal service?
>>> If so, what will accountability be?
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>> emergentdiplomacy.org
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>> merlelefkoff at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
>> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
>> twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
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>>
>
>
> --
> Frank Wimberly
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz
> Santa Fe, NM 87505
> 505 670-9918
>

-- 
Frank Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918
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