
Time to demand change!
I’m getting a little tired of all the people saying that the football player who will not stand during the anthem is disrespectful and he should stand up for the anthem no matter what.
I totally disagree. Requiring anyone to stand and display support and favor for anything political is something I would expect of Nazi Germany, Communist China, or North Korea. Where people can see and take note of anyone who is not displaying the appropriate behavior so the government can come after them.
It makes me think they really don’t understand everything about the America Revolution. One of the key items was the right to be able to say that you disagree with the government stance on something or some government action. You couldn’t do that in public in England without running the risk of getting arrested for sedition or attempt to incite a riot. Even if there was no riot and no intent to start one. Because there had been riots, the government was passing stricter and more oppressive laws thinking that would prevent riots.
To say people have to conform to public displays of patriotism is completely un-American. In fact, the right to protest in order to effect change is perhaps the MOST American action one can take. Peacefully refusing to stand for the national anthem because local and federal government is doing nothing to hold the police accountable for their actions and for doing nothing to stem the tide of increasing acts of police brutality against civilians of all races is a valid form of political protest that does not harm anyone but still makes a point.
I rather hope the Seattle Seahawks remain seated, en mass, is support of this other player and in support of all the people, both innocent and guilty, who have been killed, brutalized, raped, permanently injured by excessive use of force.
Reading people’s comments on various articles on-line, you see a growing situation where people are saying it is okay for policy to kill people for simply asking WHY. Why was I stopped? What did I do? Or for people to think it is okay for police to kill people who were guilty of a crime even thought the person was NOT resisting, or was already subdued and under police control BEFORE the police brutality began. People are supporting officer, police or correctional, who refuse to provide treatment to people already in custody because they think the suspect/inmate is faking and then that person dies in the next couple of hours.
This nation is turning into a fascist police state because people are not demanding accountability from the police force. People who investigate these events almost always side with the police. Even in cases where there is clear video evidence that should indicate otherwise. Until people demand an unbiased investigation into these events and demand accountability and demand a police force that is trained in de-escalation tactics rather than shot first and don’t worry about getting in trouble then things will actually continue to get worse and worse.
I was taught to go to the police when in trouble, but the police are so often attacking and injuring people who ask for help that I’m as afraid of the police as I am of criminals and don’t see any sign of improvement anywhere in the near future.
People might argue with my use of “fascist” in this contect because they usually associate it with dictatorships. But it is a form of radical nationalism. And when I listen to people who say that ALL people should publically support the President’s actions, even if they disagree, in order to provide a united front against the rest of the world makes me feel that ‘fascist’ and ‘fascism’ are completely appropriate. Of course, I find it interesting that as soon as we ended up with a black president most of the people demanding that level of patriotism were the ones who suddenly decided that they would do anything in their power to prevent anything he wanted to accomplish from happening.
But now a lot of people are applying this attitude toward the police. Oh, the police are in a dangerous job so they should be forgive if they shoot as soon as they give instructions, not letting the person have time to comply, then blaiming it on the person for noncompliance. Those in authority over the police are constantly deciding these acts of police brutality and murder were within the scope of their authority under the situation. Fear for their safety has become an escape clause, a get out of jail free card, and is being considered appropriate even if the person was already in compliance or even already in custody and hasn’t done anything.
Body cams are catching officers threatening to shoot people before anything else and threatening to shoot people after they are in custody and saying entirely unapproratiate and unprofessional things. While they are on the job, and when they have people in custody, they should be trained to maintain a certain level of professionalism and be expected to behave appropriately. But they are not. This feeds into their mentality that they can do anything, say anything, and be as brutal as they want to.
Something has to stop. We as the public have got to start demanding better behavior and accountablity from the police force.