The recent actions by Black Lives Matter targeting Bernie Sanders campaign have angered many progressives (myself included) who don’t understand why the protesters are turning their ire on the one presidential candidate who actually cares about them.
As much as I criticize their tactics, I agree with their reasons for protesting. We’re in a state of emergency, and something needs to be done about the outrageous police actions against the people they’re supposed to be protecting.
The stories of African Americans who’ve been violated by the police are everywhere. One I shared this morning is so sickening that I had to play the disclaimer we run at the beginning of each show again before reading this article, telling about the sexual assault of a 21-year old black woman in Texas.
Of course, we know the names of young black men (and women) who’ve been killed by police in recent days, from Trayvon Martin to Sandra Bland and many others. It’s reached epidemic proportions, and we’re all in agreement that changes must be made.
My suggestion is that every police officer be put on probation until they pass a battery of psychologist tests to determine their fitness for police work, and a complete drug screening, including regular random testing for steroids. I’d also require any new police officers to have a degree in law enforcement from an accredited college or university. Food for thought.
There’s been ugly sniping back and forth about the Black Lives Matter activists targeting of Bernie Sanders which has only gotten worse in recent days. I wish all involved would sit down and listen to the brilliance of the Rev. Dr. William Barber, founder of the Moral Mondays movement, and president of the NAACP of South Carolina.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to see him speak twice in the course of a week – first at the AFT convention in Los Angeles, and then at Netroots Nation in Detroit. His rallying cry is Forward Together, Not One Step Back! And any preacher who can make this atheist Jewish girl stand up and shout Amen is truly a national treasure.
So, in my quest for peace and harmony on our side of the aisle, I played the entire 40 minute address from Dr. Barber to the attendees at the AFT conference on July 11, 2014. Here it is again. Please watch, listen and share his words of wisdom…
We really are on the same side…
And if misery loves company, we’ve got that covered too. Police these days aren’t only targeting black people (though there’s empirical data that they are), the rest of us have cause to worry as well.
I’ve had my problems with both the Ft. Lauderdale Police Dept and the Broward County Sheriff’s Dept., and stories of unarmed white young men killed by cops pop up regularly too.
And then there’s Ted Rall‘s story of being stopped by the LAPD, ostensibly for jaywalking, handcuffed and demeaned by the cop who was surreptitiously recording the incident. That was 14 years ago, and a mere bad memory for Ted, until he wrote about it at the LA Times as the LAPD was once again cracking down on those scofflaw jaywalkers last month. To his shock, the LAPD somehow turned up the tape that the officer allegedly recorded, and although you couldn’t make out any actual words from the noisy tape, the LA Times decided that it didn’t back up Rall’s account of the stop, and they fired him!
Ted explained on the show this morning going to considerable expense to have the tape expertly enhanced so you could actually hear what was said, and vindicated Rall. Except that the LA Times and the LAPD are sticking to their Fox-like “facts.”
You can find the entire timeline, the audio – both before and after being enhanced – and the rest of the insane story at either rall.com or anewdomain.com.
Really, we couldn’t make this shit up if we tried.
I’ll be back tomorrow to take on yet another day, radio or not!
