ETA - Keep in mind that, unless I made an error (point it out if I did) EVERY SINGLE ONE of the cases that follow were the result of a violent, militarized police encounter that was initiated by a case of mistaken identity, a "welfare check", a case of mental distress or a low level misdemeanor or traffic stop.
None were the result of a shootout with violent, armed felons.
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So says Limbaugh.
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Granted media can be often hypocritical and quite possibe that may have unholy motives behind suppressing 'police brutality' aspect of this story and trying to make it entirely about race. But what is the take away of this discussion? Because police brutality cases are not uniformply highlighted or protested by media/street movements/political leaders ( like Pelosi, Biden,Trump, FLOTUS, Trump daughter etc), calls for reforming police as a result of this case should be dismissed because many other cases had been ignored by media/above cited political leaders/activism groups?
If one is against police state/excessive brutality that impacts all segments of society, what is to gain for the cause by highlighting 'disproportion' in response this time/almost universal support for police reform?
Limbaugh lacks credibility on this issue, he has lengthy track record of championing global police state policies of Bush-Cheney led globalists wars profiteers machine and even TODAY supprts one of the biggest champions of police militarization (
Trump reinstated Police militarization, Military gear given to cops tripled last year). Who knows, maybe he thinks many of the brutality examples listed above are like 'frat party' scenes as he had claimed after leaks about abu ghraib prison abuses.
Sudden rise of threads with the term "white" in the aftermath of George Floyd's police torture killing appears to reinforce media's "its solely race issue" narrative actually and can undermine "police brutality" angle that impacts people across the baord.
That said, race is an important factor even today even if not as much as it used to be historically. An argument that people of color still suffer disproportinally due to racial biases/profiling is quite credible despite current atmosphere in US and historic elections of progressive liberal pro-diversity leaders like Obama/Trump by both major parties.
How Police Became Paramilitaries
Michael Shank
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty ImagesA police officer armed with a semi-automatic carbine watching from an armored vehicle during a rally protesting the death in police custody of George Floyd, Miami, Florida, May 31, 2020
Military might has always paraded in America’s streets. But it wasn’t until this century that it became an often daily presence. In the 2000s, local law enforcement agencies began to adopt the type of military equipment more frequently used in a war zone: everything from armored personnel carriers and tanks, with 360-degree rotating machine gun turrets, to grenade launchers, drones, assault weapons, and more. Today, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment—most used, some new—has been transferred to civilian police departments. As the ACLU has documented, this has led to the militarization of American policing.
Law enforcement has, in fact, been training for a moment like this—specifically by learning techniques and tactics from Israeli military services. As Amnesty International has documented, law enforcement officials from as far afield as Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state, and the D.C. Capitol have traveled to Israel for such training.
These programs, according to research backed by Jewish Voice for Peace, focus on exchanging methods of “mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent.” The 2018 report has prompted some cities, such as Durham, North Carolina, to oppose police training with Israeli security partners because of concerns about “subsequent harms to communities of color” in the US.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/0...aramilitaries/