The NYPD gets away with murder

The grand jury's appalling decision not to indict in the Eric Garner case in NYC made me crazy last night. I couldn't watch anything on TV afterward. I had to shut it off. If the NYPD can kill any person of color and suffer no consequences, then NYC doesn't have a police force, it has 007 agents. They undoubtedly have a license to kill -- as long as the victim is a person of color.

I don't know what needs to be done about racist cops in this country. Certainly every cop should be forced to wear a camera that is always on. That would definitely help. These racists operate under cover of darkness, and the cameras will shine some much-needed light on everything they do. Police cameras represent one small step that we can take right now, but much more needs to be done.

One thing I'm thrilled about is the return of protesters to the streets. There's been far too little of that, even as the 1% siphons away all the money and benefits. People are so uninformed that they don't know enough to fight back. Some don't even realize there's a reason to fight...anything.

But violence against people of color, perpetuated by cops, is the norm on city streets -- everyone can sense that. If you're black and you're outside your home, you're in danger. You don't need to tune in to a particular TV channel to understand this. You just have to go outside while black, and it will happen to you. So this is one area in which people at least know that there's a need to fight for their rights. Fox News can't take that away from them by doling out misinformation. It's something they see every day of their lives.

If I still lived in NYC, I would refuse to recognize the existence of an NYPD officer ever again. If one of them said something to me, I would walk on by without recognizing him. And if a cop was coming down the sidewalk, I'd give him a huge berth. If everyone did this, the police would no longer be able to do their jobs.

That's what's needed at this time: something that will hurt the cops where they live. This has been one-sided for far too long. Shun all police officers. If they want the time of day, let them go buy a watch.

Being polite to cops is now an anachronism, something from our quaint and distant past -- you know, when people had rights. Today's cops don't deserve civility, since they don't feel a need to show respect for citizens of color.

I hope lots of people dig down deep to try to come up with ways to disassemble the ability of cops to function in NYC. They lost that right. Let's put them out of business.

Mayor Mikey Jackboots

So mayor Mikey Bloomberg wants super-sized sodas off the menu. Because he cares about people so much. Uh-huh. And then he sends his troops out nightly to scour the city for young people of color to harass and intimidate.

I swear this frisking of young people, based totally on race, drives me wild. And he doesn't even see anything wrong with it. When questioned about it, he says, "It's working." The man doesn't get it. He is blind to the existence of other people. To Mikey, there's only him and his rich friends living on this Earth.

Perhaps this will wake him up a bit. This practice has to end immediately.

Bloomberg's sudden change of heart

Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of Money

The Mayor of Money, Michael Bloomberg, actually did something constructive this week. This article may explain why. I've said it here before: Bloomberg has been a monster toward young people of color.

Here's an excerpt from another article that explains the problem:

Just over 50,000 people were arrested on marijuana possession charges last year, a vast majority of them members of minorities and male. Critics say that as part of the Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy, officers routinely tell suspects to empty their pockets and then, if marijuana is displayed, arrest them for having the drugs in public view, thereby pushing thousands of people toward criminality and into criminal justice system.

Bloomberg duped young people of color so he could arrest them. That's the simple, verifiable truth. He sees New York City as a place for rich people and only rich people. And you know what color rich people are. So he gets his police to yank the people of color off the streets and thinks this makes the city more welcoming for rich, white people. It's that stark.

The "good news" is that he's finally directed the police commissioner to have officers, you know, follow the law. They can no longer trick young people of color into showing the (decriminalized small amount of) marijuana, and then arrest them for following an order. This has been going on for years. I hope a class action brings tons of money to the young people whose lives were derailed by this white man's "justice".