Racist Killing and Impunity 289


A social culture where perception of others is not conditioned by skin tone is obtainable. In the process of getting there, a system of law with no impunity for racism and with exemplary punishment for agents of the state in contravention is essential.

A court will judge whether there was intent to kill George Floyd; what is absolutely apparent is there was certainly no intent by the police to preserve his life or health. It is also plain that the force used was wildly disproportionate for the alleged offence. It is further undeniable that police violence in the USA impacts particularly on black people, and that in dealing with black people the police act with an arrogance founded on anticipated impunity. The societal change whereby the majority of adults have camera phones at the ready has given a new power of resistance to the public in this regard. That must be reinforced by exemplary sentencing.

The law currently takes the opposite approach:

If a police officer unlawfully harms a citizen, the officer is subject to assault or homicide charges—no different than if the officer committed these crimes off duty. [2] However, if a citizen unlawfully harms a police officer, the citizen is automatically subject to aggravated assault or aggravated homicide charges, which carry more severe punishment. [3] In fact, some states make the intentional killing of an on-duty officer a capital offense. [4] Enhanced charges in police encounters are thus asymmetrical. They only apply if a citizen harms an officer but not if an officer harms a citizen.

Police who kill in the course of their duties are given every latitude by the courts and far lower sentences than others who kill. That attitude needs to reverse. Police need to understand that their duty to protect and deal fairly embraces both the alleged victim and the alleged criminal. Breach of this public duty to protect should be an aggravating factor when the police kill, and sentences should be stiffer than for the general public. There are moments in public discourse where you need to come down off the fence and decide which side you are on; I am on the side of Black Lives Matter.

Here are two murdered men who have even less chance of receiving justice than George Floyd.

There is a stark contrast between the justified international outrage at Floyd’s death, and the unremarked killing of just a couple more Palestinians. I recommend this twitter thread by the ever excellent Ben White, and the links it gives. Ben does not mention that Iyad, on the left, was on his way to classes for those with special needs when he was chased and gunned down by Israeli soldiers.

This may surprise you. The police in the USA have less impunity for killings than the police in the UK.

Even as straightforward a case as the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes, who did nothing wrong whatsoever, brought no action against the police in the UK. The killing of Sheku Bayoh in Fife had obvious parallels with that of George Floyd, yet nobody was charged. 457 people have died in police custody since 1998, from all causes. From 2005-2015 10% of 294 deaths were “restraint related”. That is 30 people in the UK in ten years who have died at the hands of police in much the same way George Floyd died. That figure excludes those shot by the police.

Not one British policeman has been convicted of an unlawful killing in all these deaths. – not one. The last British policeman convicted was in 1969. That is what I call real impunity.

Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/655710/Deaths_in_police_custody_A_review_of_the_international_evidence.pdf

And that is without examining the similar impunity enjoyed even by private contractors in the UK responsible for the many deaths in the prison system and in immigration detention.

Impunity is a major problem all round the world, and everywhere it enables disproportionate use of state violence against minorities. But it is most sinister in a state like the United Kingdom, where the support of the prosecutorial and judicial institutions of the state for those who enforce the state’s monopoly of violence is absolute, and where the public are so conditioned to the power of the state they do not even notice the impunity.

The United Kingdom is full of people, right now, looking at the images of unrest from the USA and telling each other that the way the police kill black people in the USA is terrible. We do not process that in the UK law enforcement officers enjoy still greater impunity than in the USA.

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289 thoughts on “Racist Killing and Impunity

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  • Giyane

    If we forget skin colour for a minute, USUKIS supports Muslim against Muslim conflict in Syria. While having similar skin colours, USUKIS proxy jihadists are given a free licence to bully , murder , rape, extortion or punish other Sunni Muslims by the West.

    Same could be said of Palestine where israeli civilians of similar skin colour and ethicity to local Palestinians are free to do the same with complete impunity.

    This is one of the trademarks of Western Civilisation.
    Divide and rule means to make people with no reason to be aggressive to each other, fight, while Western governments look on with delight.

  • AliTee

    Chauvin already knew his victim; they were both working as security for a local club. There is more to this story. Chauvin is married to one of the other policemen on the scenes sister, and he likely knew George Floyd too. The club owner has made a statement regarding this. Chavin’s wife has filed for divorce, however this may be to divert his property ownership in the case of civil proceedings. If you check Spike Lee’s instagram account you’ll get a perspective from Black American viewpoints. This was murder. Not manslaughter.

    • JohninMK

      Had worked together as nightclub bouncers, not known as a group as gentle and considerate souls. As you say, more to this than meets the eye.

    • Giyane

      AliTee

      Dominic Cummings gave an employment contract inside No 10 to an overt white supremacist who said unrepeatable things from the PM platform.
      Machiavellian birdseed leading to a cage and chicken stew. Trump does the same with ” on many sides ”

      It maybe suits Macchiavellian politicians to have a few klu klux Klan around to make them appear by contrast , perfectly normal. Certainly the mere fact that black people seem to be worse affected by the Virus has coincide with an open white supremacist message from Trump and Cummings simultaneously.

      Both pieces of political devilry know exactly how these butter wouldn’t melt in our mouth “””””facts””””” play on the underlying racist assumptions among the police. Both pieces of political devilry know exactly that they are pouring petrol onto flames.

      Nothing much we can do about Trump , sitting here in the UK. But there’s plenty we can do about the klu klux Klan in No 10 . It is simply unacceptable for these clowns to operate in a blatant Macchiavellian way, to exploit the natural frustrations during virus lockdown.

      We have never seen pure, evil MI5 Macchiavellianism from No 10 since the days of Callaghan. We’ve seen rank dogma from left and right and fanny in the middle but never this level of incendiary manipulation and provocation.

      Unfortunately we’re not equipped right now to take out the potus or the pmotuk or even the cattpmotuk. So the least we can do for the time being is simply register them very clearly in our minds as the original and deliberate source of these racial inflammation.
      And place the blame fairly and squarely on them until people get the clear message that this government is trying to divide and rule.

  • Squeeth

    The people without such illusions are the ones on the receiving end. Respectable middle-class people only notice when the filth accidentally treat them like plebs.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Squeeth May 30, 2020 at 23:52
      You are probably aware there are good and bad in all professions; derogatory terms like ‘the Filth’ are NOT helpful. We need to make common cause with the good people in the police and armed forces, not dismiss them out of hand as ‘the enemy’. They do not have easy choices. Remember, the vast majority of the electorate in the UK (and we are supposedly a ‘Democracy’) couldn’t give a tuppenny f**k about Syria or Afghanistan or Iran.
      The police are more aware than the common or garden Joe Blogs, and do have concerns.
      They should be reached out to – something I make a habit of doing.

  • N_

    For those who haven’t seen it already: Rob Hustle’s video “This is What Happens if You Call the Cops”.

    The slogan “All Lives Matter” ought to be reclaimed by anti-racists. We should not cede this notion to our opponents. The reason why black lives matter is precisely because they are human lives. Use both slogans. The hell with those who want to pitch them against each other.

    Racism looms large in both the US and Britain outside of the police as well as inside it. The opposition among a sizeable proportion of US citizens to having a free-at-the-point-of-use “universal” state health service is closely bound up with white racism, even if many would deny it. (Admittedly turning up for a hospital appointment on “public” land in camos and packing an assault rifle and a couple of ammo belts might also be problematic.) Diane Abbott (who I would have joined the Labour party to vote for as leader had she stood) was right in what she said about the recruitment in London of Finnish nurses and it says a lot that her message got distorted and squashed.

      • N_

        That foreign nurses were being recruited rather than training being given to British youngsters in the area, for the racist reason that foreigners were available who were white as an alternative to British citizens many of whom were black. She was not insulting Finnish people or indeed white people generally.

        • Stonky

          It’s a pity she didn’t actually bother to collect any information that these nurses had been hired “for the racist reason that they were white”, rather than for the professional reason that they were well-trained and experienced.

          But hey. Who needs evidence when you have a dog-whistle and your target audience are all identity politics obsessed grievance junkies…

          As for this:

          “And are Finnish girls, who may never have met a black person before, let alone touched one, best suited to nurse in multicultural Hackney?”

          The suggestion that treating black people who are ill is somehow “different” from treating white people who are ill is one of the stupidest and most blatant pieces of racism I’ve ever seen.

          • Kempe

            The suggestion that Finnish girls (I think she means women) might be repelled by the prospect of touching a black person is insulting. She seems to think there are no black people in Finland, there are 50,000; a tad under 1% of the population.

          • Stonky

            Well Kempe, I don’t think it’s quite that. The suggestion wasn’t so much that these Finnish nurses didn’t like touching black people. It’s more that they didn’t know how to touch them properly. Apparently there’s a special way to touch black patients – all black patients – which is different from the way you touch white patients.

            Which is, of course, not in the least bit racist…

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Stonky May 31, 2020 at 12:56
            I knew a black guy who used to live on the Estate I live on (at the time it was a Tenants Co-operative). He had visited Sweden, and he was over the moon about the Swedish girls reaction to him. Say no more….

  • Yalt

    A personal experience I’ll share for those who haven’t had the oppportunity to experience American racism firsthand. Not a harrowing experience, of course–I’m white after all–but it was an eye-opener.

    It was the late ’90s; I’d just moved into a new apartment in Chicago. Building was being modestly gentrified (when I signed the lease there still weren’t any phone jacks and the largest room had no electrical outlets, if you want a clue to what it had been before) and I was the first to move in under the new landlord.

    Heard a scratching noise coming from the direction of the kitchen. Didn’t think much of it at first–probably just a squirrel, or a mouse…and then there was a thud. Looked that way, saw a man upside down in my kitchen, head on the floor, feet still stuck on the windowsill. Slit across the bottom of the screen, where he’d presumably cut his way in. He got his feet unstuck, looked up with surprise at me.

    Total confusion. He’s quite obviously developmentally disabled in some way.

    “Where’s Mr. Terry?”

    Wheels spinning in my head–I’d had some mail delivered to a Terry who had probably been the prior occupant and apparently had been running some sort of social service agency. I have some speculations as to what might be going on but they don’t really matter at the moment, the immediate need is to get him out of my apartment before anything unfortunate happens. He’s at least got something sharp enough to cut through a screen, after all.

    “There’s no Mr. Terry here, are you sure you have the right apartment?” And I walk with him out the front door to the mailboxes, where he can look over the names for his friend. Go back inside, lock the door. Wait. I give him about half an hour to move on with life before I call the police (I’d rather stay on good terms with the landlord and he might have to file a claim).

    CPD Inspector comes out. Introduces herself, asks for my story. I tell it, more or less as I did here but with more detail since it was fresh. She dusts the windowsill for prints and all the while she’s looking at me like maybe I have a screw loose.

    “Was he black?”

    “Yes.”

    “Do you own a gun?”

    “No.”

    “It’s too bad you don’t have a gun. I’d have blown the nigger’s head off.”

    • Mary

      That awful word ‘nigger’. I can remember when it was used to describe a shade of the colour ‘brown’ for items of clothing..

      • Gav

        Now a term of endearment among the BAME. Something beautiful in that. Like flowers on a poo.

      • Yalt

        Nowadays I think I’m supposed to use a euphemism when I tell the story. Not sure that helps, don’t think it would have mattered much if she had either. It wasn’t the word, it was the “blowing his head off” that was the issue. That would be bad enough I suppose but you’ll note she had to ask what color he was before she knew whether that’s what she would have done.

        Or maybe it’s not even that–I mean it is, of course, but the sentiment didn’t surprise me. But that an on-duty police detective (did I call her an “inspector”? that’s where an edit button would be helpful) would say it casually in the course of business to a complete stranger?

        A high-level police officer recommends to the public that they take matters into their own hands and inflict lethal force in a situation where it was obviously unnecessary. As long as the lethal force is directed at a black man, anyway. And she’s utterly unaware that such a statement could be problematic in any way.

        That’s a sign that two very large problems are endemic to her department.

        Chicago’s been unusually bad in this regard, I’ll admit (though not the worst). But we’re not imagining it all.

  • Geraldine+Waugh

    It will be interesting to observe any proceedings against the police for the death of Sheku Bayou. I suspect the Procurators Fiscal will ultimately not pursue the matter. Of course killings by the state was at its most egregious on Bloody Sunday (1972) and the Ballymurphy Precedent when a sniper picked off and killed 8 people crossing a field. No one has been held accountable for those murders.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Geraldine+Waugh May 31, 2020 at 02:52
      Bloody Sunday was what set me on my course of campaigning for Human Rights, and thinking about others rather than focusing on just myself; it changed the course of my life. I’l check up the ‘Ballymurphy Precedent’. since I’ve never heard of it before.
      By the by, you can get rid of that infuriating ‘+’ in the middle of your name in future by revisiting the dialog box and just deleting it.

  • N_

    The states system in the US is broken. This has become clear during the Covid-19 upheaval:

    deaths per 1 million population:
    US 319
    Russia 31
    China 3.

    The question “If the federal state can only offer protection from Covid that’s 10% as effective as Russia’s and 1% as effective as China’s, what is the point of having the federal state?” is rising, mostly without being expressed explicitly. Will the US still even be one country by 3 November, I wonder? It probably will but one can’t be certain.

    Trumpism is part of an international far-right populist push towards race war, and while I may not agree with everything that’s done under the “antifa” banner, nonetheless “fascism and racism shall not pass” is the correct attitude. It’s possible to argue the toss until the cows come home, but generally speaking fascists love racism just as racists love fascism.

    Incidentally the British figure for “deaths with Covid-19” is 566 per 1 million population, but hey, most Old Etonians were born knowing how to govern in a “crisis”, right? Their backs are straight, their upper lips are stiff, but oh wait, most of them are as thick as pigsh*t (and would probably have been classified as “div” if they were raised on council estates) which is why they stick together so much – and why the KGB once upon a time walked all over them and Russian, Chinese, and Zionist intelligence are doing it again.

    • N_

      If you look at say the 77th Brigade’s Twitter section, they probably mostly copy what the FSB pays 18-year-olds in Macedonia crap wages for, while their strategists sit in mess rooms waiting for what developments will arise unexpectedly as if from nowhere, requiring that they respond somehow.

      • Johny Conspiranoid

        ” what the FSB pays 18-year-olds in Macedonia crap wages for,”
        How do you know that?

    • Paul Barbara

      @ N_ May 31, 2020 at 04:01
      As maybe half or so of those deaths were from Care Homes (‘Useless Eaters’, in PTB terminology) they should worry, already? How many ‘important’ people have died? Quite a few billionaires have made a financial killing from the ‘Pandemic’: ‘American billionaires got $434 billion richer during the pandemic’ (CNBC).
      ‘Its an ill wind blows no one any good’. I think we would agree which way the US politics is biased towards.

  • Gav

    Those rioters better be observing social distancing rules. It’s very concerning for all that hard work to be undone.

  • Stonky

    The one good thing to come out of all this is that the USA suddenly has a heaven-sent and most timely opportunity to show the tyrants of Beijing how a civilised democracy deals with mobs and rioters.

    • David

      yes, I’m surprised the US rioters aren’t all carrying pink umbrellas, or maybe it’s Putin who is paying to bus students in to the home of 3M

      • David

        that last comment was supposed to be sarcastic, but this one simply reflects on the ramblings of the son of a diplomat – who maintained that he wasn’t Che Guevara. Though he was serious and cared, and had a clue.

        He wrote lyrics, and strummed his guitar.
        Angelina Jolie has these lyrics tattooed on her back.

        They date from UK culture, early 1980’s,

        these are your rights:-

        “The right not to be killed. Murder is a crime, unless it is done by a policeman, or an aristocrat”

        “The right to food/money, providing of course, you don’t mind a little investigation, humiliation, and, if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation”

        “The right to free speech (as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it)”

        Our rights are decreasing, since these were written.

        • Gav

          “The right to free speech (as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it)”

          Or brave enough. Same thing I suppose.

          Great to be reminded of that line, though. It’s perfect.

          • Ingwe

            To that female mayor, who happens to be of African American descent, heard on the radio this morning chastising the protestors and ordering them just to vote in the coming election, I ask: for whom should they vote? Which of their two options has done anything about reducing racialism in the police force or society at large?

    • Giyane

      Stonky

      If I was Xi, I would be equally scared of US Empire Daesh terrorism as UK Empire relics of Territorialism.

      He will never solve his Hong Kong or his Uighur problem by authoritarianism. Nor will black people in the US ever solve their USUKIS Empire, white supremacist problem by rioting.

      The first way to deal with anger is to recognise who is pushing your buttons. Viz Trump and Cummings making racist remarks from their immensely powerful platforms. Anybody who thinks IS doesn’t play a part in creating those platforms is living in CCL. They are even instrumental in creating the Feminist platform.

  • Mary

    Roger Waters and David Hare are among the signatories of a letter supporting Craig.

    ‘I am both delighted and humbled by this support, and in awe of the display of intellectual firepower it represents.
    The perception is absolutely correct that the law is being applied selectively and with open and malicious political bias.’
    https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1267000239988375552

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18486299.global-stars-rally-back-salmond-supporters-contempt-case/

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      “Such perceptions risk seriously damaging confidence in the Scottish legal system.”
      It also puts our wee, tinpot dictatorship on par with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. So much for an indy Scotland gaining entry to the EU.

  • Manjushri

    Soros false flag to justify martial law? The ‘killer’ and ‘victim’ already knew other:
    https://kstp.com/news/george-floyd-fired-officer-overlapped-security-shifts-at-south-minneapolis-club-may-28-2020/5743990/
    Also reports of pallets of bricks delivered to street corners. More Soros involvement with his pet projects Antifa, BLM showing up. Awaiting XE and Occupy to start getting similar publicity to further the NWO elites cause. You will comply and be grateful for troops on the streets and mass surveillance.
    Stay In, Shut Up and Be Compliant.

    • Ian

      Haha, when in doubt chuck Soros’ name in to justify alt-right paranoid conspiracy theories.

    • wonky

      Funny how your arguments get shoved aside oh so nonchalantly.
      All it takes is trigger words like ‘Soros’ or ‘NWO’, and any faculty of critical thinking is instantly out the window.
      So Ian, pretzel, you tell me, are BLM and Antifa receiving substantial funds from Soros’ OSF, yes or no?
      It’s quite simple really, and more than enough info has been released in the Soros DC Leaks some years ago.
      There is literally no reason whatsoever to continue defending this guy, in fact, there’s hundreds of reasons to properly investigate him and to audit his ‘foundations’ and NGOs.

      As for the other über-trigger, the so-called ‘NWO’, the quickest way to let the hot air out of any ignorant balloon is this single and positively shocking link:

      >> https://unnwo.org <<

      Read and weep ..or vomit ..or cheer. Either way, case closed.

    • Mary

      Will Trump be re-elected? Five months to go.
      ‘The 2020 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate, and the office of president of the United States will be contested.’
      ___
      US Presidential Election 2020
      Donald Trump 11/10
      Joe Biden 15/13
      Hillary Clinton 40/1
      Deval Patrick 50/1

      • Ingwe

        Mary@May 31 at 11:32- I imagine it may be an excuse for the failing Trump to cancel the election.
        He doesn’t need much.

      • lysias

        The rioting will certainly help Trump in the election. As will the fact that Biden is his opponent, if Biden is still the candidate then.

        • Jack

          lysias

          I have watched so many videos today, I dont want to link them here, the above one was enough to show how degenerate violent protesters have become, grown ups and youth that use in theory deadly violence against fellow human beings.
          What is “good” is that alot of these crimes have been video-recorded, faces are clearly visible in many cases.

          All these images we now see coming will indeed help Donald Trump, people at large will certainly not support this.
          Nor can Biden take any other position, he have already criticised the rioters.
          This will also embolden police (and who can argue against that) since there is anarchy going on right now in many cities.

          I also wonder how this will affect the spread of Corona, will probably sky rocket coming weeks.

          • Jack

            ..on top of that the NRA will also get more support,
            I saw a couple of videos today where store owners, rightfully,show up with guns and the looters ran off like dogs with tails between their legs.

          • John+A

            Yes, amazing how all the degenerate violent protesters were dressed in police riot gear, presumably with their numbers safely covered. I am not sure all the police violence has been recorded, and no doubt, if any go to trial, they will be acquitted, but certainly, anyone who still thought the police were there to protect the people, has surely now had the scales fallen from their eyes.

          • Jack

            That is what the rioters want you to believe, that they are the victim but claiming you are the victim while you – on camera – rob, assault and set offices, stores on fire will not resonate well with the rest of the population.

            The more they create chaos, the more support will there be for live ammo being used against them.
            Even CNN building was destroyed by these hoodlums.
            https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/george-floyd-protests-latest-protest-atlanta-cnn-mayor-bottoms-a9539906.html

          • pretzelattack

            i would imagine a lot of people can argue against emboldening cops who already get away with murder.

          • Jack

            Because of the looters, rioters, assault mob, that death have already been forgotten, the movement have now been hijacked by violent gangs which have resulted that the National Guard have beens summoned.

            Chicago Mayor Sets Curfew, Expresses ‘Total Disgust’ for the violent mob
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T83woDzKkbQ

  • Frank Waring

    ‘……..even as straightforward a case as the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes……….’

    If you had characterised De Menezes’ death as ‘unlawful killing’, I would have agreed with you completely. But what I’ve always understood is that ‘murder’ requires murderous intent. Of course, those who shot De Menezes may have had murderous intentions — but where’s the evidence?

    • Mary

      Just ask Cressida, currently Commissioner, Metropolitan Police.

      ‘Before 2005, Dick attracted little media attention, but became well known as having been the officer in command of the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. She was cleared of personal blame in a 2007 criminal trial. In June 2009, she was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner, the first woman to hold this rank substantively.’

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cressida_Dick

      Now Commissioner and a Dame. Enough said.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes#Stockwell_1
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes#Stockwell_2

      RIP Jean Charles.

    • Spencer Eagle

      You might consider one question around the killing of De Menezes, why was he allowed on the tube train? The whole narrative around the operation was that De Menezes was mistaken for a suicide vest wearing terrorist. Against all training and guidance are we to believe this serious and immediate threat to the public was simply allowed to enter an area as vulnerable as a tube station by chance? You have to understand that in the eyes of the public the Met had been failing dismally against the terrorists, first the 7/7 bombings then the 21/7 attempted bombings and now a day later the Met had the opportunity to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public. De Menezes, the ‘suicide vest wearing terrorist’ was allowed onto the tube train so that he could be executed. The person in charge of this murderous plan on the day is now Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

  • Redshift

    I have seen figures showing the incidence of police violence in the US mainly correlates with degree of poverty. Its the fact that black people tend to have a lower income and therefore live in less desireable neighbourhoods (where police operate more aggressively) that mainly explains the apparent racial bias.Of course there may be some element of racism too but its not the primary effect.

    • Blue Dotterel

      What we are seeing is not “racism”, what we are seeing is the continuation of a class war.

      • Redshift

        Correct, its largely a socioeconomic war. Of course you can argue that black people being poorer now is the result of racism in previous decades. In other words (past) racism is indeed responsible for a preponderance of present police violence against black people. Either way the class war may now turn into race based wars both within and outside the US.

    • Laguerre

      In poor black neighbourhoods the cops are more commonly white. That’s the source of the racism.

      • Blue Dotterel

        The police forces are more commonly white, as is the general population. In any case that is irrelevant. There is nothing spontaneous about the violence taking place. It is most likely provoked, and used to divert the public’s attention from the continuing oligarch financial scams and political power grabs in the US.

        All of these “crises” are really just opportunities for a certain segment of the population.

        • Laguerre

          No, it is not irrelevant; The general population is not more commonly white. The buddies say that the US is 70% white. That means vast areas where there are no ethnics, and where there are ethnics, they’re often in the majority. **But the cops in those areas are still white**. That was my experience in California (SF), when I worked there for a while. The whites weren’t a majority.

  • Jack

    Chris Hedges, Violence, rioting a gift to the state,
    https://twitter.com/4aPeoplesParty/status/1266905636769599492
    =More surveillance, more control and when violent mobs hijack the legitimate issue of police/violence the state could now easily rebuff the whole spectacle. Compare this with peaceful demonstrations, that would further the cause so much better, but this, no this is just reactionary.
    I just read a police officer got his neck slashed,
    https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/05/31/officer-stabbed-in-neck-during-protests-in-jacksonville/
    If this keeps on, the military/police will start firing live ammo against these people and eventually alot of people will support that to uphold law, order.

    • Laguerre

      ” the military/police will start firing live ammo against these people and eventually alot of people will support that to uphold law, order.”

      A real Trumpian point of view. The whites are not so much a majority as they used to be. That’s why Trump’s racism succeeds. The rednecks are afraid. that they’re losing demographically. I’d be surprised if they’re still a majority, as I was told 10-15 years ago. Starting shooting blacks will only lead to division.

  • Dave

    Beware another deep-state set-up in which the initial (staged) event is forgotten in the aftermath of rioting by agent provocateurs which is encouraged by in the MSM, with its partisan and sensationalist coverage.

    • lysias

      I’d be willing to accept the hypothesis that the killing of Floyd was prearranged if I could understand how an event like that can be staged.

      • Dave

        I suspect staged, because I find it surprising a police officer would continue, for so long, with an unlawful restraint whilst being filmed.

        • pretzelattack

          why? he has been getting away with crap for years, as have so many other cops. the prosecutors and judges look the other way. they already are, the very charges contain the assertion that Floyd was resisting arrest, which the cops asserted but the videos proved to be a lie.

      • Johny Conspiranoid

        Better to wait for a suitable unstaged event and then go with the prepared game plan.
        All the hypothesis suggested here can happen at the same time and there are people with means motive and opportunity for all of them.

      • Dave

        Its terrible if not staged, but worse if it is because its the difference between an out of control officer (in a progressive state) and a deep state political act intended to incite widespread violence and anarchy.

          • Johny Conspiranoid

            “deep state’: cue theremins and 1950’s scifi music.”
            What’s your point?

        • Johny Conspiranoid

          Or it could be a deep state political act intended to incite widespread violence and anarchy by using an out of control officer (in a progressive state).
          That police officer will have been taught that kneeling on someones neck like that is likely to be fatal.

    • Adlestrop

      No. The sentencing should, indeed, be exemplary in its fit to the proven crime, in every single case.

      • Steve+Hayes

        Adlestrop, you apparently do not know the meaning of the term exemplary in this context. An exemplary sentence is one which makes an example of the convicted person in order to act as a deterrent to others who might be tempted to commit the same crime. It means punishment beyond that which is justified and customary. It is the exact opposite of what you appear to think it means.

  • Jan

    “[T]he murder of Jean Charles De Menezes, who did nothing wrong whatsoever, brought no action against the police in the UK”: that is incorrect. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7069796.stm

    I am seeing a trend on this blog where reporting is increasingly driven by wrath and not done properly. If this trend doesn’t change, I’m afraid I’ll have to cancel my subscription.

    • Cubby

      Jan

      You reference the BBC – the well known liars and propagandists – not a great choice given you want things done properly. Perhaps you should also consider your subscription to the BBC.

    • Giyane

      Jan

      All politicians get false flags before elections, boko, may, macron, now its Trump’s turn.
      Politicians should be kept in straight jackets in secure soundproof institutions.
      Then wrath will disappear on its own

      • Giyane

        At a time when China has a cure for cov19, Trump and Bojo Haram are attacking China over Hong Kong. Nice piece of timing that for Big Pharma. They get paid even if their vaccines don’t work and they don’t allow people to have treatments that do work.

        China is 100% entitled to regard British demands over Hong Kong as colonial diktat from shitty little country which has neither empire, nor manufacturing, nor reputation nor respect.

        Macron had a false flag in which blank bullets were fired at the crowd. May had a Muslim man with a van and then novichok.
        Bojo Haram and Spittle Patel had a nutter from Stoke newly released from jail and sent to a London bridge by MI5.

        Cummings seeded a black terror event by employing a racist provocateur in No10.
        It hasn’t happened yet, but it will soon.
        Trump is working his white supremacist constituency now because he has already worked his Israel constituency by making Jerusalem the capital.

        Let’s be perfectly clear. Every time an election is approaching the right wing parties create false flag incidents using the police. The police are up to their eyeballs in spying from GCHQ.
        This Minneapolis insurrection is a republican false flag. No more. No less.
        There will be plenty more to come if Bojo Haram and Cuxxings continue to lose their grip in public opinion. This is what we pay our security services to do, thwart public opinion.

  • Republicofscotland

    Craig the National carries a story about you and Salmond, and the gathering support you are receiving from around the globe including renowned and influencal figures.

    “LEADING international cultural and political figures including the Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters, the playwright Sir David Hare and the linguist Noam Chomsky have backed a former diplomat and his ally who have been charged in connection with the Alex Salmond case.”

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18486299.global-stars-rally-back-salmond-supporters-contempt-case/

    “They are among a range of high profile people who have written to the Lord Advocate raising concerns about a decision to charge Craig Murray and Mark Hirst – two supporters of the former First Minister – with contempt of court. Both Murray and Hirst deny the charges.”

    I hope the bastards sit up and pay attention to this, they’d do well to drop the charges, or face a backlash.

    • Blue Dotterel

      Unfortunately, the same “LEADING international cultural and political figures” supported Julian Assange, and look where that has got him. I think we need a little bit more than that.

      • Republicofscotland

        Well it’s a start and it’s better than nothing, let’s put it this way the UN can’t save 5 million Palestinian s from Israeli expansionism in the West Bank, one could hope though that one or two individuals, Hirst and Craig could possibly dodge the bullet so to speak.

        As for Assange the corrupt English judiciary will never free him, the US wants him and eagerly awaits his arrival. If he (Assange) hasn’t expired from ill health or some other dubious event takes place in Belmarsh, as I say the USA is the Great Satan of our time. The UK an obedient minion.

        • Giyane

          RoS

          The zionists want Assange, and Trump needs the zionists to get elected.
          Craig Murray stands in the way of them getting the man who exposed their crimes against their neighbours in the Middle East.

          Trump’s narcissism is offended that the US might reject him so its mafia rules from now on.

          • Republicofscotland

            The US wants Assange for exposing the truth, other countries want Assange shut up as well just incase he and Wikileaks expose their machinations as well. The toothless UN can complain about Assange’s human rights but not much else especially where the Great Satan (USA) is involved.

            Trump has already cut ties with the (WHO) stopping its funding to them, countries looking for a loan in these difficult pandemic times from the IMF or the World Bank, both part of the Great Satan’s playbook, will need to comply with US interests, so speaking out on the behalf of Assange or any other whistleblower could be a costly endeavour for any nations leader.

          • N_

            It’s hard to see how Trump will play this election if he runs. Keep on bashing China, with the word “China” uttered with something akin to hatred? “China wants to take your guns” maybe? “Don’t vote for China Joe”? Perhaps mix them up with “China wants your jobs” which at least has some truth to it. If one of Pepe the Frog’s tadpoles takes on a starring role, he will have to be markedly different from his father and far less “joky”. Trump needs to keep votes from those among blue-collar citizens in the rust belt who switched to vote Republican in 2016 having previously supported Obama, and that’s not going to be easy. He must keep them onside because it’s not enough to throw food to his moronic “core”. I will laugh so much if Twitter closes his account. Unfortunately as things stand that seens unlikely – he’s probably done more advertising for that particular advertising company than any other leader in the world.

    • Cubby

      ROS

      Not sure if The National has got that correct. Don’t think Hirst is charged with contempt of court. It is a different charge re menacing electronic communications.

      • N_

        Is it safe to opine that when Nicola Sturgeon took a photo of herself with haircutting scissors in her hand to imply to media consumers that she has been cutting her own hair during lockdown, rather than having it cut professionally as some have so scurrilously suggested, she seemingly “forgot” that she is supposed to have an oh-so genuine (and not at all fake) spouse with whom she really truly cohabits and that it generally speaking it is easier to cut somebody else’s hair than to cut your own? Or might I have my collar felt for alleged jigsaw sarcasm?

    • Mary

      Seconded. Thanks for your message RoS.

      Also thanks to Aidworker 1’s post ref Alex Tiffin of the Black Isle Blog who has exposed Cummings’ shortcomings on council tax payment/registration and planning permission for the green roofed ”cottage’ at North Lodge, Burn Hall, nr Durham. That is true investigative journalism.

    • douglas clark

      I was ‘allowed’ to post on that article. Now I can’t see any comments whatsoever.

  • nevermind

    It should be dawning on people now that the exclusions to public places and police powers of arrest are going to be disproportionately used against non violent peaceful protesters. This will escalate as peoples understanding of what changes we need as a new normal is galvanizing and combining with a rapidly declining popularity of the Tory party,

    parks full of thousands of sun worshipers lolling about without taking much concern over safe distancing, no arrests, just warnings,
    versus placard holding protesters asking for an end to Government inaction on climate change, standing 4 m apart and wearing masks,

    14 arrests? what are the instructions Cressida Dick is giving out to her officers in charge? why are they disproportionately targeting protesters with their emergency laws?

    I fee l that a hastily called back to school agenda will put a lot of focus on schools during the next 4 weeks. Any infections and death of teachers/ children here after this much discussed risk, could result in producing the same boiling point, the actions of Mohamed Bouazizi had in Tunesia 2011.

    https://twitter.com/realmediagb/status/1266802225608826886?s=21&fbclid=IwAR0LwYZhgBTw_yaShly2anx1FDw40SG0bSMS-Qk2Fgfzn2SwFXgNFY3oYqE

  • Republicofscotland

    As America tears itself apart over the murder of yet again another unarmed black man, and it receives plenty of airtime around the globe. Around about the same time a unarmed disabled Palestinian man with learning difficulties was shot dead by an IDF soldier, of which I’d wager the airtime of the heinous murder was much less.

    The Great Satan (the USA) and its counterpart in the ME Israel (the Little Satan) are definitely reading from the same page, when it comes to shoot first, ask questions later.

    • bevin

      Evidently the Minnesota police involved are trained, in ‘crowd control’ by Israelis.

      • Republicofscotland

        It certainly wouldn’t surprise me, when you look at police forces in not just the States but in other countries as well, the officers now look like full military combat soldiers. Some US states even have what looks like to me military vehicles in police state livery.

        • N_

          Then there is the reserve military force the National Guard, mostly organised by state, which was used against insurgents in Watts 1966, Detroit 1967, and Los Angeles 1992, in the latter case in cooperation with the regular military. The ongoing rioting is not yet on the scale of any of the above conflicts, in which there were 34, 43, and 63 deaths respectively.

          Interestingly in both the 1968 and 1992 presidential elections there was a change of party in the White House. In the first the incumbent (LBJ) chose not to stand; in the second the incumbent (GWB) stood and lost. The strong showing by a third party candidate in both elections may have been unrelated to the unrest.

  • Republicofscotland

    I had to laugh this morning at the hypocrisy dominating from that hapless tool Dominic Raab on the Marr show.

    As Marr made clear that some sort of exit deal with Hong Kong in 1997 meant that up to 3.3 million people living their could be eligible for a British passport, and come to the UK.

    Raab replied saying that it could be triggered if China didn’t drop some strict laws it was about to introduce in Hong Kong. Raab went on to denounce China for treating Hong Kong in this manner and flouting International laws.

    What sprung to my mind was the way Westminster treated the Chagossian people and how they openly flouted International laws, and that they are detaining Julian Assange without charge.

      • Republicofscotland

        Indeed Cubby, as for Hong Kong, the British exploited it for centuries, as the Portuguese did with Macau, though don’t get me wrong Beijing introducing laws in Hong Kong that forbids any dissent against the Chinese national anthem are way over the top. Mind you I’m under the impression that calling for the abolition of the parasites, I mean the monarchy in the UK still carries a prison sentence.

        • lysias

          A good book on the oppression of Chinese in Hong Kong before WWII is Gerald Horne’s “Race War”.

  • Anthony

    Well said. Calling this stuff out in your own backyard is what counts. Sir Keir never did that as DPP but has suddenly reinvented himself as an opponent of police violence and racist policing practices. Just one more bullsh*tter.

  • Jack

    “Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda,” he said. “In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and…far left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics.”
    https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/30/george-floyd-protests-ag-barr-blames-anarchic-and-leftist-groups/5291926002/

    Trump will probably proceed to label Antifa a terrorist group after this., although most people are just out there looking for spreading their violence and not being tied to any group as such.
    https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-antifa-tweet-organization-terror-2019-7?r=US&IR=T

      • Ian

        Yes, let’s ban anti-fascism. Great idea. Good work on repeating all the alt-right memes. Obviously an expert.

        • Jack

          No anti-facism wont be banned, the group known as Antifa is to be banned.

          Noam Chomsky correctly described Antifa as “a major gift to the right”,
          The Democrats condemned them when they used violence in Berkeley 2017.

          Just because you call yourself antifascist doesn’t give you any right to loot, destroy, assault people.

          • Ian

            Nobody said it does, but mindlessly repeating the Trump/Bannon memes is no answer. Whatever Chomsky thinks, if he does indeed think that, and isn’t being quoted misleadingly.

          • Jack

            Ian

            Chomsky actually said more than that.
            They are a fringe violent organization, have nothing to do with “anti-fascism” its a label to fool people but senseless violence should not ever be accepted.

          • Johny Conspiranoid

            Both Antifa and facists could be run as part of the same psy-op.
            That not to say they aren’t full of people who sincerely believe in the those things.

    • pretzelattack

      just like the 60’s, just like russia gate and china gate, “outside agitators” are a useful target to blame to deflect blame from the system and actors themselves.

      • Jack

        The left losing out when they let the thugs hijack the peaceful protests with violent acts,
        https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1267190263388057600

        1 Second Amendment? Stronger than ever.
        2 Income inequality? Hard to care when “protestors” are destroying minority owned businesses.
        3 Police are a problem? The left owned that issue, with universal agreement about the George Floyd video, until Antifa turned police into the saviors of civilization.
        4 Black Lives Matter? Yes, of course, but I don’t think that message was the one that came through. It is playing out like protestors are trying to persuade the opposite.

  • Mark Russell

    The US Embassy has been encircled by thousands of protesters in central London. Staff have been evacuated.

    It would be very good if someone could find the keys to a cell in Belmarsh in the coming melee.

    Good luck.

    • Republicofscotland

      Let’s be honest here, black folk in the states, and to a certain extent in the UK face deep racial prejudice, it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that protests in London and Manchester over the death of George Floyd, and years of discrimination against not just black people but the ethnic community are taking place.

      Of course in the US theres been much violence and destruction of police property which is to be expected decades of racial discrimination along with police brutality, and a general overall feeling by the black and ethnic communities that things do look as if they’ll get any better, has lead to violent outbursts that the entire system is biased and broken.

      The UK police could be next to feel the wrath of the black and ethnic communities, if they don’t curb their bias agendas towards them. As for the US, it was stolen from the indigenous people, who were murdered in probably the greatest ethic cleansing agenda in the history of the world.

  • Ottomanboi

    While this is a serious matter, of much greater immediate concern is the manner in which by government decree the normal world of human association has been proscribed, seemingly with the full cooperation of a majority of citizens, on the basis of rather flawed modelling by a none too independent body styled the World Health Organization.
    It seems to me that the young are having their freedom appropriated by seniors, politicians, self-styled experts etc scared of dying.
    Having lived in the Near East/Middle East I do know about the latter and I choose, unconditionally, freedom, free choice and God Willing, life.

    • Tom74

      Except it doesn’t look from the behaviour of Cummings and Ferguson that they are scared of dying – or of the coronavirus at all. We do know they want other people to be scared though.
      So what can we draw from this? That the coronavirus is likely a red herring – that it is a relatively mild illness that is being used as a cover for politicians who don’t want to take the blame for an economy that was already crashing, while also providing a window for crony powerbrokers and corporations to asset-strip our country and seize power for themselves.
      Do most people support this? We don’t know. What we do know is we have a corrupt political system and media, which are quite prepared to manufacture consent with faked polls etc. Presumably part of the plan in the social distancing is also to keep people apart so they can’t protest or assemble to communicate.
      If the young want their freedom they will need to fight for it. as previous generations have. So will everyone else. Hiding behind phones and masks waiting for the government isn’t going to cut it.

  • deborah Lacey

    Thank you Craig, for saying the truth so clearly. Black Lives, indeed all lives matter. In the UK our system is skewed against people of colour in a significant way and it makes me angry that Black Lives are seen as less than other lives. This is simply not the case. I feel dismayed by what I see happening in the USA as I was when Stephen Lawrence was murdered here in the UK. Our attitude to Grenfell Tower was similarly blighted by racism. The English attitude towards people of colour has not changed since we were stealing people from the African Nations in order to make sugar on plantations. Still it goes on that we are blinded by our white privilege.

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