Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
Sure, those two things are very real. Totally agreed.
But if you think that's all it "comes down to" you're missing the key and current element of this, the one that many people desperately hope can change:
When you're a dark-skinned male, all these risks and consequences are much much more dire for you than otherwise. It's a different set of probabilities.
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That's why I deliberately didn't day 'it all comes down to two things..'
But also even more reason to comply and not escalate the situation. I remember a post by Ben a couple of years ago about being stopped and making sure that his hand was outside the car window so could be seen he was unarmed
I read that as Ben feeling forced to overcomply, and it shouldn't have to be that, but unless/until things calm down maybe there ought to be a push for compliance to be a thing, in conjunction with police officers make it policy to taser rather than shoot if they feel close-quarter action is necessary (obviously it would best if neither were needed)
I'm an outsider on this, so could be said to be either objective or naive (or both I guess), but it's going to have to take something like this to change, as at the moment the situation is spiralling the wrong way: more people are seemingly becoming more volatile and confrontational, and this would logically seem to increase police officers likelihood to feel that they need to protect themselves (rightly or wrongly so - as above, I've already said that video doesn't to me seem to show the officer shooting was immediately obvious)
The protests have been seen internationally, not just in the US, there is an agreement that there is an issue, but the direction is not one of solution at the moment. More awareness and good has been done by Kaepernick's and others' protests than has been by an increase in violence to protest violence.
(Or as I type this maybe it could be argued that the two aspects needed to happen together to allow both sides to step back from something)