Donald Trump ...

STFU (please. thanx, bud)

His latest assinine remarks

entitled: "No Black Presidents For A While Because Of Obama"

Two Brave Police Voices

He 'took it to the next level.'

“…It looks to me like he took it to the next level (ordering her out of the car) because she didn't do what he told her to do and put the cigarette out. If that's the case, I'm not really on board with it. If you've got the ticket, warning, whatever already written, get her to sign it and go on. It's not worth turning a simple traffic stop into a major ordeal just because somebody wouldn't put a cigarette out.”

-- Quick_Everyone_Panic, on Reddit r/ProtectAndServe 

 He should have 'issued a warning' and 'moved on.'

Siiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhhh.........
Dude, issue the f****n warning and move on. It's NOT WORTH IT.  Prepare for the next shit storm over THIS????? Our jobs aren't hard enough these days already....we're yankin females out of vehicles cause our ego got hurt cause she wouldn't tremble and put out the stupid cigarette????? Let's pose this question- suppose she had stepped out when he asked her to....THEN WHAT??? You were gonna scold her about the cigarette??? What was his plan?? What was going to be the purpose of pulling her out?
My opinion probably won't be popular on here but oh well. I'm as PRO-US Pro Police as anyone but I can recognize when we're being dumb. This was dumb. Even tho the death/suicide wasn't his fault-- The public perception and backlash is NOT worth it.

-- NumberFortyNine, on PoliceOne 

 Though these comments are still kinda anonymous, such willingness to call bad policing just that is a step in the right direction in the dire situation we find ourselves in re: police brutality against blacks.

here's the source--shows plenty of cops defending him, too

Jeb Bush doesn't get it.

As clueless as are most white male oligarchs born into the 3rd or 4th generation of immense privilege when it comes to the reality of racial inequality and systemic discrimination.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeb-bush-martin-omalley_55b147d2e4b07af29d57f217? 

the video clip (less than a minute)

A Good reminder of what REALLY matters, in response to OU frat debacle

http://mic.com/articles/112274/the-side-of-the-oklahoma-frat-story-that-nobody-is-talking-about

Especially check out the links embedded in the article for good reminders of where we've recently been misdirected in our focus (Donald Sterling, Michael Richards, etc.).

Fashion Police Brutality on Zendeya's Dreads

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/02/24/zendaya-offensive-ignorant-dreadlocks-giuliana-rancic-weed-remark/23925415/

18-year-old Disney TV and singing star Zendeya came out swinging when ignorant Fashion Police commentator Giuliana Rancic insulted her choice of hairstyle, insinuating unpleasant odors accompanied it. Another case of "police" brutality and racial profiling? No matter, Zendeya proved she can take a punch and hit back hard. Loved this part of her Instagram response:
"I'll have you know my father, brother, best childhood friend and little cousins all have have [sic] locs. Do you want to know what Ava DuVernay (director of the Oscar nominated fil Selma), Ledisi (9 time Grammy nominated singer/songwriter and actess), terry McMillan (author), Vincent Brown (Professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University), Heather Andrea Williams (Historian who also possesses a JD from Harvard University, and an MA and PhD from Yale University) ...have in common? Locs. None of which smell of marajuana."

That's a substantive response for an 18-year-old's first time in the Oscar spotlight. And it's spot on. Of course, Rancic made the typical claim that it had NOTHING to do with race. Of COURSE not. That's why, as another commenter pointed out, white girls like Kylie Jenner face the same criticism when they go with dreadlocks. Uh huh. Sure.

Is This Guy (Giuliani) for Real?

And Giuliani says Obama doesn't know his history? Oh, that's right, having a white mother has always meant you were considered white and so are not subject to racist attacks. Now I remember. smh.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/02/19/giuliani-obama-had-a-white-mother-so-im-not-a-racist/?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Another sad outcome with cops too quick to resort to violence especially with dark-skinned "suspects."
http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-police-officer-charged-assaulting-indian-man-062639725.html

American Sniper

I haven't written on here much lately, but felt compelled to write as the public seems to be going crazy over the wide release of the movie American Sniper based on the best-selling memoir of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle. I've been troubled by the apparent glorification of war as seen in TV preview trailers. I perused a few critic reviews, some of which found this aspect troubling, while others lauded the film. Then I opened an article by Nicholas Schmidle called “In the Crosshairs” from the June 3, 2013 New Yorker, written in the immediate aftermath of Kyle's tragic death. Heres the link: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs There I was dismayed to find some rather troubling views related to race that Schmidle presented without much comment. I'll do (for the most part) the same.

“He tattooed one of his arms with a red crusader’s cross, wanting ‘everyone to know I was a Christian.’…He ‘hated the damn savages’ he was fighting. In his book, he recounts telling an Army colonel, ‘I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.’” Is this the kind of image we as Americans, and we as Christians, want associated with our causes?

Schmidle recalls “pranks” that Kyle and his friend Rury pulled on each other. “Several times, Rury sneaked up Kyle’s driveway in the middle of the night and slapped pro-Obama bumper stickers on his truck (Kyle was a fervent Republican.) In retaliation, Kyle pasted one on Rury’s truck that declared “I Love Black Cock.” This is the same Chris Kyle that his father-in-law refers to as a “good Christian person.” Wow, what a hilarious sense of humor.

Kyle also told the story (almost certainly untrue) of having gone with another sniper to New Orleans in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where they “set up on top of the Superdome, and proceeded to shoot dozens of armed residents who were contributing to the chaos.” As most everyone knows, the great majority of persons left roaming the streets homeless in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina were African-American. Curious that it is THIS collection of people, no doubt etched in his mind from media images, that Kyle imagines himself as exacting vengeance on as a vigilante superhero.

I won't be going to see American Sniper.