Team WIN THE MORNING declares Bill de Blasio over or something, because Cops.
Just over a year after sailing into office with 72 percent of the vote on a message of transformational change, de Blasio found his mayoralty subsumed by a torrent of anger, unleashed by the murder of two police officers in Brooklyn Saturday by a troubled gunman who said he was killing “pigs” to avenge the deaths of two men by cops in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri. By Monday, de Blasio was lashing out at the press corps that covers him, trying to paper over public divisions with his own police commissioner and coping with what friends described as the emotional blow of facing public rejection by many in the nation’s biggest police force. “He’s pretty badly shaken” by the murders, one told us.
That a civic tragedy would so quickly devolve into a full-blown political crisis for the new mayor was testament to the vehemence of anti-de Blasio elements in the police union – and the mayor’s mistaken belief that his 2013 victory gave him the right to shred an old Gotham political playbook that dictated a mayor show deference to the NYPD.
You can’t be big-city mayor and alienate the cops – and that’s just as true now as it was under three-term New York City Mayor Ed Koch, or even a century ago.
And by “alienate the cops” they mean de Blasio remarking that maybe going around choking unarmed black men to death on smartphone video is something New York’s Finest might want to refrain from doing. You can’t do that, you see. Or at least de Blasio can’t. I wonder why?
But de Blasio’s unpopularity with the historically white-dominated NYPD parallels his increasing struggles with white New Yorkers, who now disapprove of him by a nearly two-to-one margin in public polling. When confronted with similar polling numbers over the last year, de Blasio allies have repeatedly said that the mayor retains the strong backing of non-white New Yorkers and the Democratic base – and claimed the mayor’s private polling showed a much more modest racial disparity.
The blue rage isn’t rooted in any one statement de Blasio has made against cops – in fact, he has been universally supportive of the rank-and-file in his public utterances. But in his past roles as a public official, he’s often sided with the victims of police brutality, and recently told an interviewer that he has told Dante, his teenaged mixed-race son, not to reach for a cellphone around officers because it might put him in danger as a “a young man of color.” He took the unusual step — unimaginable under the mayoralties of Rudy Giuliani or Michael Bloomberg — of inviting Sharpton to City Hall, seating him opposite Bratton at a table where the activist proceeded to strongly denounce the police. (“If Dante wasn’t your son, he’d be a candidate for a chokehold. And we got to deal with that reality,” Sharpton said to de Blasio as Bratton looked on.) Last week, de Blasio privately met with organizers of the Garner protests, another moment that antagonized police.
Gosh, Team WIN THE MORNING certainly is implying a number of reasons why the NYPD doesn’t like de Blasio, and very few have to do with the NYPD and everything to do with de Blasio’s family. The article starts out comparing de Blasio’s “mistakes” to Obama’s (as in treating the NYPD as rational actors the way Obama did with the GOP in his first year when they clearly wanted to destroy him from day one) and notes that de Blasio hasn’t actually said any “anti-police rhetoric” other than “Hey, there are laws you guys need to follow too, like not murdering people.”
I don’t like like the implication.
I like it less because I think for once Politico is right, and the awful part is the advice here of “Know your role and shut your mouth” would probably be best for the Mayor and his family. But it’s not the best advice for the people of New York and America. Somebody needs to remind the cops who they work for, and if de Blasio doesn’t stand up to these assholes, nobody else is going to do it for him.
That’s what being the mayor of a big city means.
Lavocat
Absofuckinglutely! I want to see some heads rolling over this, starting with Patrick Lynch’s – for gross insubordination – among many others (Bratton needs a little Come-to-Jesus moment as well or he can just get the fuck out).
These fuckers are doing nothing less than threatening the legitimacy of the largest mayoralty in the United States.
There can be only one boss, and these fuckers need to know – in the worst of ways – who that boss is.
Gotta wonder what sort of treatment deBlasio would be getting from the NYPD were he 1) Republican, 2) white in all respects, and 3) unduly deferential to the police. They’d no doubt still want him to just STFU & look pretty, but they would at least not air their dirty laundry in public. Fuckers.
The Other Bob
I don’t know what the Mayor needs to do, but I know it can’t be the typical Democratic response to bullies. Seems to me he needs to do something like the firing of General Macarthur.
The head of the police union was way out of line.
Davis X. Machina
We’ve got our own Freikorps, right on schedule for the centenary of the end of WWi…
Marc
I don’t buy it; New York mayors have virtually all had terrible relations with the police, and the ones tied too closely to the police had problems with the public when the police did crappy things. It’s a truly multiracial city (what does “white” even mean here – does it include Jews, for instance?) The game of polling whites and pretending that others don’t count is bullshit in general, but it gets even more ludicrous when you’re talking about a majority minority city (where the minorities are split between a huge diversity of groups; e.g. it’s not Detroit with one dominant ethnic group.)
BretH
As usual, Charles Pierce is spot-on:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Insubordination
japa21
Come on spinwheel, time to come out of your cave, or wherever you spend your time, and show us all the ways zandar is being racist here. I need a good laugh this morning.
Origuy
I think the police are going to find they have less support than they think. I’m here at my dad’s in Bloomington, Indiana. He’s a stanch Republican. He was telling me that after he started getting mail for a guy down the street, five deputy sheriffs came looking for the guy at Dad’s house. They wanted to search the house, claiming to have a search warrant on their computer. Dad insisted they show him a piece of paper signed by a judge. Eventually the sheriff, who lives down the street and knows Dad, told them they had the wrong house.
Kropadope
Bravah!!! Let’s not have our largest city’s politics look like those of Egypt.
beth
I was pretty impressed with DeBlasio at the press conference yesterday. He’s clearly pissed off about what Lynch said and said that it was wrong but that conversation was for another time, not right now. He also pushed back hard on some idiot newsperson who asked about the dead cops video stating that it was the news media that was riling up divisiveness by posting stuff like that and implying that all the protesters are like that. I hope he can keep that up. He may be ideally suited to it since he’s got the white privilege that allows him to speak his mind (which Obama doesn’t) and the probably long history of dealing with this shit due to his family’s makeup.
Chuckles
Great post, Zandar.
Spinwheel
@japa21: Sorry to disappoint you.
The problem is he, like the rest of you, are buying Politico’s obvious bullshit and giving credence to the very type of sloppy punditry you claim to despise.
The entire article is garbage. So why are we posting it here? Is it actually worth discussing?
Zandar thinks it is. What does that tell you?
ruemara
This little bullshit political ploy by the NYPD makes them look like just an authorized gang running the city. Di Blasio needs to crush them or run scared for the rest of his term. They have no qualms about threatening him. Also, Di Blasio can eat a bag of dicks about there not being any more protests. Our rights don’t die with the two cops and a maniac.
Keith G
If the citizens who agree with de Blasio do not stand with and for him, his efforts may come to little. As we saw demonstrated in 2009, noisemakers can be more influential than dispassionate logic. Citizens worried about the police becoming a law unto themselves must make noise, must show emphatic support not just at a keyboard but in some public forum.
If de Blasio finds himself on a rhetorical island without a vocal citizenry at is back he will eventually fall in line.
It is really on the citizens to set the exceptions of how their employees work – and I am quite weary of the way police are so often held up as more than just a group of civic employees.
WereBear
@Origuy: It’s that kind of behavior that will undermine support, for certain.
One of the things that absolutely disgusts and infuriates me is the Republican tactic of normalizing sociopathy.
Sure, it’s great for profits (which is why they are the New Ferengi) but it’s highly toxic to everything else people treasure in a society.
Tony J
@Lavocat:
I want to see some heads rolling over this, starting with Patrick Lynch’s
Pleasing as that would be, I don’t think De Blasio has any authority to give Lynch a boot in the backside. He’s the spokesman for the Veterans of Domestic Wars (or whatever the retired cop union is called) and answers to his members, not the Mayor.
That said, each and every NYPD officer who had the bare-arsed cheek to turn their back on the City’s Mayor needs to made an example of tout suite. That kind of arrogant disrespect can’t be allowed to go unpunished. Fines and suspensions for a start, followed by internal investigations into why the hell they haven’t already been disciplined by their immediate superiors.
chopper
@Spinwheel:
ZANDAR WHY WON’T YOU LOVE ME
Tony J
OFFS! – Remind me never to use any of those ruddy tabs again.
Suffern ACE
Yet in the past year, nothing has changed in New York. The police have not lost a single privilege. They might as well try for complete immunity. Apparently our most modern city is more medieval than Ankh Morpork.
Mike in NC
2015 would be so wonderful if shitty propaganda outlets like Politco, Politifact, et al were to just suddenly disappear!
Tom S
De Blasio’s biggest mistake was to bring Al Sharpton into the picture. Not only is he a red-flag to any law enforcement official (Tawana Brawley, anyone?), his career is an affront to anyone with a sense of decency and fair play. I say this as a progressive New Yorker, who has no fondness for how policing is currently being carried out in NYC and throughout the country.
Amir Khalid
@Tony J:
Patrick Lynch is the long-serving current president of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association; I think only a PBA members’ vote can remove him from that office. To get fired for insulting the mayor or advocating disobedience, he’d have to be currently on the city payroll — in his case, as a police officer. Is he?
Someguy
DeBlasio should start by firing about 500 cops more or less at random. Let the lawsuits – which will take years – sort themselves out. Send a clear message about who works for whom.
Betty Cracker
Actually, “Team Win the Morning” is full of shit as per usual. Steve M at No More Mr Nice Blog has the low down on how they got Sharpton’s relationship with recent NYC mayors wrong in an effort to bash de Blasio.
Gin & Tonic
@Tom S: his career is an affront to anyone with a sense of decency and fair play.
How so?
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
I’m getting increasingly pissed that the media has conveniently thrown Jered and Amanda Miller down the memory hole. Apparently the construction is:
Crazy guy shoots his girlfriend, then drives 200 miles to another state to murder 2 cops = It’s all Al Sharpton and Bill diBlasio’s fault!
Crazy couple hangs out with Cliven Bundy, then murders 2 cops and 1 bystander = Cliven who? Never heard of him.
Because, once again, all black people are responsible for the actions of all other black people, but white people are all independent actors who are never influenced by anyone else.
Just One More Canuck
@Spinwheel: Zandar posting it tells me that’s it’s worth discussing, even if you disagree with it’s conclusions or Zandar’s view of it.
Your post, on the other hand, tells me that you a petty, bitter person
Tony J
@Amir Khalid:
That’s basically what I was trying to say, though my habitual ineptitude with using the edit tabs garbled the message. I don’t – think – Lynch is still on the City payroll. None of the reporting I’ve read on his outburst suggested he was anything more than President of the PBA, and if he were I’m pretty sure one of the articles laying out what a complete Fonzie-faced fuck-knuckle he is would have mentioned it.
Lavocat
@WereBear: Dude, GREAT phrase! 2014 has pretty much been a year of “normalizing sociopathy”. The CIA does it, so the NYPD (and all police forces from the Redwood forest to the New York Island) think they can do it. Rights? We don’t have no steekin’ rights.
MikeBoyScout
Last night Ta-Nehisi Coates tweeted about this story “Worth noting that by having to parent a black child..DeBlasio is being treated like a black parent.” and, of course, caught a ration of shit for making this about race.
Coates’ Blue Lives Matter is worth your reading.
Keith G
@BretH: Thanks for the link. Pierce pulls together a few important lines of thought about how this is the business of democracy – about the ability of citizens to impose limits on those who would hijack the power of governing authority.
In this case it is the police as they argue, “We keep you safe therefore you must let us do what we feel we need to do” (Part of the eggs and omelet theory)
@Keith G:
Ahhh…That would be…expectations
Lavocat
@Tom S: Correct. Whenever I see this asshole I just want to deck him. Those two words – Tawana Brawley – shall define him for as long as he lives, in my eyes. Nothing but an opportunistic racist.
beth
I’m getting a little tired of the subtle racism involved in white people telling the black community who should and shouldn’t be representing them. A friend on Facebook posted a photo of Al Sharpton with the caption “hey black people, get rid of him and your problems will be solved”. Really? All discrimination and bigotry will cease with what.. Sharpton’s death? I know he’s got a past that he hasn’t really apologized for but neither has Dick Cheney and numerous other white representatives. If someone’s kid is gunned down unfairly by the police and they want to bring in Sharpton to try and get some justice who they hell are we to argue with them?
Amir Khalid
@beth:
I agree.
WereBear
It’s a glaring example of how they do not view black people as people, isn’t it?
dedc79
I’m originally from the NY area and still have a ton of friends/family there and visit frequently. I was amazed during the lead-up to De Blasios election by how many people who consider themselves progressive democrats were reflexively suspicious of him. And it’s only gotten worse from there.
Spinwheel
@Just One More Canuck: odd then that Betty Cracker agrees with me.
But by all means, let’s continue to legitimize more circular firin squad tactics on Democrats.
MikeBoyScout
@beth: I was going to comment along the same line, but you said it well. Peace be with you and yours this season Beth.
Betty Cracker
@Spinwheel: Don’t try to enroll me under your banner, you despicable, obsessive shithead.
Chyron HR
@Spinwheel:
Is it working?
ellie
I was just listening to this song!
Woop-woop, that’s the sound of da police
Woop-woop, that’s the sound of da beast
Zandar
@Spinwheel: I think I’ve had just about enough of you.
japa21
@Spinwheel: Well, if she agreed with you as to the essence of your comment, you might have a point. But since she didn’t. you don’t. But then you never do.
BTW, Betty said it better than I ever could.
japa21
@Zandar: Can understand your feelings, but, he/she does provide us with some laughter at times.
chopper
@japa21:
Yeah but you’re not the one being stalked.
Roger Moore
@beth:
I think this also misrepresents Sharpton’s relationship with the black community. He has never been a representative of all blacks any more than Sarah Palin is a representative of all whites, and there isn’t and never has been some cabal of black leaders who could “get rid of him”. It’s one more example of treating minorities as if they’re monolithic.
Frankensteinbeck
You do have a point, but I see something else. I see the massive, almost ubiquitous nature of low level racists. One Hell of a lot of whites have no problem with blacks in their daily lives, but the moment blacks rise above their place – especially by pointing out that racism exists – these supposedly non-racist whites join in lockstep to slap blacks down.
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
Blacks carrying guns are threats, where whites carrying guns are within their rights. Blacks murdering police discredit all black protests, where whites murdering police are random bad apples. I’m thinking the low level racist doesn’t want to hurt blacks himself, but he sure as Hell doesn’t want blacks able to fight back if he changes his mind.
An alternate theory would be ‘blacks are slightly scary, so things I wouldn’t give a damn if whites do terrify me.’ I’m not sure it quite fits the pattern, even as easy as it would be to believe.
@WereBear:
They’re normalizing sociopathy because they looked around and realized that they have a vast base of people who enjoy fucking over the other guy. The audience at the Republican primary debates didn’t cheer the idea of poor people dying without insurance because rich folks told them to. They cheered because they’re mean shits who’ve been brought together with enough other mean shits that they’ve convinced themselves it’s okay and moral.
Keith G
@beth: Is that really a version of racism?
I like Sharpton as a personality. I find him entertaining, but have always seen quite a bit of self promoting huskster-ism in his earlier efforts (a la Sarah Palin). Musing about whether or not he is the best public face for an issue is not in and of itself a sign of darker intent.
Edit
@Roger Moore: Heh, You got there first.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@BretH: Indeed. Charlie gets it right. Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony J
@Zandar:
For the love of God, man. Just give it back its Kid Rock CDs and all this can end.
Mike in NC
We were out driving on the local highway yesterday when a flatbed truck passed in the opposite lane, carrying a tan-painted MRAP. My wife said, “What the heck was that?”. I replied, “An armored car, probably being donated to out town’s police department”.
feebog
@beth:
Well said. How about those who have skin in the game get to make the choice of spokepersons?
Spinwheel
@Zandar: Enough of what?
Me being right?
You being a shitty blogger and a lazy, unhygienic asshole who got fired from multiple jobs for posting at work?
Or was it enough of feeling guilty over the fact you got canned for your last job for making threats to your coworkers and creating a hostile work climate for your female coworkers and manager?
Oh yes, I know all about that.
Your hero Zandar here had a young woman in tears and ended up getting paid leave for a week while he had a nice little visit to a counselor for his anger issues.
Because he couldn’t stand having a woman for a boss.
You want to keep going, Zandie?
beth
@Frankensteinbeck:
And Exhibit A: A parody song about Michael Brown sung at the Elks Lodge – Bad, Bad Michael Brown with no one in the audience being bothered at all by it. Little immoral shits is right. http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/23/michael-brown-song-video-dead-police-parody-leroy-brown/
Keith G
Let me revisit this later
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@beth: I agree of course, but whitesplaining is even more rampant than usual at this moment.
@Zandar:
So have we.
raven
Shit be ugly up in this mofo. . .
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
Only white people in this country are given the honor of individuality by default. Any black or brown person isn’t an individual, they’re an example. They’re the instance that proves the rule. Especially where black people are concerned, they’re not a person, they’re an anecdote. And if a black or brown person does get bestowed, by the good graces of society, the honor of individuality, it’s usually so they can be used as a bludgeon against the group they ‘rose out’ of, the exception to the rule.
The most galling thing about the double standard is the cry and drone of ‘personal responsibility’, while at the same time, maintaining the de facto policy of collective blame. It’s remarkably hard to take personal responsibility when society doesn’t deem you a person.
Frankensteinbeck
Jesus, Zandar, isn’t there a ‘Ban trolls for repeatedly derailing threads’ clause? I’m pretty sure there is. Get Cole to invoke it. Some of us would like to talk about the issues, not sift through post after post of commenters pointing out to your stalker what a little pissant it is. I know you and the other front pagers want to rise above and be tolerant, but we’re reaching ‘damaging to the blog’ status here. Plus, frankly, even the posters I like least don’t deserve to be constantly poked at like this – and you are not on that list.
Frankensteinbeck + Cranky before breakfast
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Spinwheel:
Are you going to boil his bunny tonight, or just slash his tires? He will not be ignoooooored, Zandar!
Hint: no one gives a shit about your offline beefs with Zandar, any more than anyone gives a shit about how horrible your ex-wife is. No. One. Cares.
chopper
@Spinwheel:
Dude, the bunny is overboiled. Go stalk someone else.
scav
Spinny self-professedly embodies the obsessive circling about the self and continually cycles rapidly down the black-hole of smug certainty. Odd that such often need a fixed point of stalking to provoke them into speech, but there it is.
Amir Khalid
@Spinwheel:
And who are you, the Angel of Payback?
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@beth:
Hey, why should they be bothered by it? Michael Brown was posthumously convicted of incurable black thuggery and superhumanly violent criminality by the court of public opinion, to the point he, like Travyon, is pretty much a synonym for ‘thug’ (and all the things that ‘thug’ is used to euphemistically replace).
I’m honestly waiting to see some asshole make an ode to Darren Wilson set to ‘Davy Crockett’ at this point, since the goddamn deification is getting close there.
Spinwheel
Just thought you should know the truth about the “progressive” Zandar.
He’s a violent, abusive asshole.
You brought this on yourself, Jon.
Keith G
@Spinwheel: I like it when commenters bring heat to folks to post here. Sharp elbows and a rough give and take are very American. And lets face it, sometimes what is posted here needs to be seriously confronted.
Personal attacks (especially on issues outside of the act of posting on a blog) are well beyond redeemable behavior. I am not a fan of folks being banned from commeting, but I hope that your personal attacks come to an end one way or an other. There is no place for them here.
raven
@Frankensteinbeck: Just fuking pie him, it ain’t that hard.
gratuitous
Is there general agreement that the police shouldn’t be choking people to death in the street? Yes? No? Should that change? I’m going to posit yes. Will that change come with the full cooperation and eager participation of the police? Hmmmm. Magic 8 Ball says, “Signs Point To No.”
I’m not saying the input of the police should be ignored, but their uncooperative, petulant whining needs to be scotched, and that right quick. Make it about police-community relations, and the hyperbole of a nitwit like Patrick Lynch should be shit-canned or tied directly to being advocacy for police murders. Don’t back off, and don’t apologize for the citizens who die so inconveniently at the hands of the police. When citizens die because police killed them, there needs to be a full inquiry that does not devolve into a “cops have a tough job” excuse-fest.
Marc
@Spinwheel:
You’re a stalker and need to be banned. You’ve admitted that you’re carrying out a vendetta based on the fact that you worked with Zandar and had conflicts with him. That makes everything that you do roughly as objective as a vindictive ex-spouse.
Everyone here knows all of this too. Give it a rest – you’ll be happier and, oddly enough, so will everyone else. It’s a win all the way around.
Marc
@Spinwheel:
Ban this shitheel.
beth
@Keith G: I think the example I posted smacks of racism and white superiority. There’s an air of you don’t know what harm he’s causing you, as if they’re too stupid to listen and form opinions on their own. It goes along with the whole “blacks only vote Democrat because they get free stuff”. It gives the black community no credit for any intelligence. I would have no problem if people would take issue with specific things Sharpton says or does and make the argument from there but like Cole said the other night, show your work. Show me video of where he’s inflammatory or hateful.
El Caganer
Police don’t need to be reminded who they work for; they know who they work for. The 1%.
FlipYrWhig
You know all the paeans to the white working class and how they ought to be fundamental to Democratic Party politics and so forth? Still feel that way, anyone? I don’t.
WereBear
@Lavocat: He’s since repented of his actions in that case, explained his reasoning at the time and now, and has worked hard to contribute to everyone’s sense of community.
He says people can grow and change. What say you?
chopper
@Spinwheel:
Yeah, nothing says ‘truth’ like the word of a deranged stalker.
FlipYrWhig
Also, who the fuck cares about Al Sharpton? What does he do? Why is he the designated bogeyman in this?
Liberty60
@beth:
Actually, I have found Sharpton to be pretty moderate and thoughtful. He seems to have mellowed from his old bombthrower persona.
Bystander
How did DeBlasio “bring Al Sharpton into the picture”? I don’t recall DeBlasio naming or appointing Sharpton to any city position.
Agreed that the Brawley mess should have been permanent disqualification. But you deal with the Sharpton that’s dealt you, not the Sharpton of your dreams.
japa21
I take back my earlier words about spinwheel. this goes beyond even normal stalking. There is a psychopathic flavor to this anti-Zandar vendetta now.
rikyrah
I know…asking the police to not just indiscriminately kill Black people is harassing them.
phuck dat shyt.
beth
@japa21: I agree, he should be banned. This has gone way too far. The crazy should not be given any more attention.
Cacti
Non-hispanic whites account for 35.6% of the population of NYC.
Why shouldn’t Politico measure them as the default of how New Yorkers feel about DeBlasio?
Gin & Tonic
@Bystander: Agreed that the Brawley mess should have been permanent disqualification
It was also 27 years ago. People serve less time in prison for murder.
Lavocat
@Spinwheel: Even if any of this were true, this is not the forum to be airing these grievances, as you well know. You are engaging in defamatory actions (and, frankly, cyber-stalking) and, I’m shocked that John Cole has not already banned you from this site. Is it too much to ask you to behave at least as well as the rest of us?
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
People who want a distraction from the issues. Instead of talking about police officers killing citizens with no consequences, we’re discussion who should and shouldn’t be allowed to represent the victims’ families. It should be obvious who wants to redirect the conversation that way.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
Especially if the murderers have badges.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@FlipYrWhig:
He’s the designated boogeyman for any kind of black grievance, the same way Al Gore is for anything climate related. It doesn’t matter if they’re not even tangentially related, mention them in regards to their respective boogeysphere and you win the conversation instantly.
Josie
@beth: Agreed.
ruemara
I am fucking sick to death of white people with a problem with Sharpton. Progressive, Democrat, or Conservative, you all sound the same. Shut the fuck up. This isn’t about you. Fuck you, he’s a go to guy because you don’t goddamn well see your respectable white advocates stepping up to discuss the issue and make waves. Fuck you, because he’s willing to stand up to the idea we’re supposed to shuffle along over the bodies of our own. That’s why Al Sharpton is there. The first fucking minute someone like even Anthony Weiner or Spitzer will get off those progressive laurels and stand up for someone who can’t pass a paper bag test, then Sharpton can retire. We have no one. Most of my friends are busy protesting Monsanto, the Fed and drones. I’m being hit up for cash all the time about banking regs, pushing Elizabeth Warren to run and “tell Obama to not do this thing that is pretty much a Congressional deal, now send us money”.
It’s like the ongoing danger of being black is just a tiny thing. We’ll be lucky if we can keep this movement going and as diverse as it became, thanks to this one lunatic. And people are fretting about Sharpton. Christ.
Archon
If Black people had to worry about who the majority of white people think should speak on black issues we’d probably have Bill O’Reilly as our leader.
gene108
@dedc79:
I think a lot of progressive / liberal types seem to think the grass is greener somewhere else and therefore whatever is in front of them – Obama, DeBlasio, et. al. – are not “over there” in the greener pasture, so they are contaminated by their association to the bad field we are stuck with in the USA.
Lavocat
@WereBear: Well, I may be able to forgive, but I will never forget what he did to the reputations of innocent people all for the purpose of gaining exposure for his hateful views. I sure the fuck hope he has changed since I actually admire the man for his “fire in the belly”. He takes no shit from anyone and that’s something I greatly admire. When he lost all that weight after going to jail for protesting the military over Vieques, I was mightily impressed – and even more so seeing that he has been able to keep it off. As a “large” person, I know how difficult a task it is. And, as a “white person”, but speaking only for myself, I am outright gleeful at the way he makes white folk squirm when confronted with their racism. As my old man likes to say, he could fuck up a wet dream (but in a good way!).
Keith G
@beth: I understand what you are getting at. That particular quote that you referenced makes no sense. I am wondering, though…
Is there a Black community? No one is hiring Sharpton. He is self selecting and holding a position by default, it seems. It is possible that he is the one person best able to fill this rather ambiguous role. Usually though, it is better when a spokesperson is less of an issue than the real issue.
I guess I’ll see.
Just Some Fuckhead
Obama has mixed-race kids too so the comparisons with de Blasio make sense.
aimai
Its a sad commentary that there are so few spokesmen for an enormous community that Sharpton has to be on call for every fucking thing. Where are the other businessmen and religious leaders? There are actually people on the ground, in every community, who have been doing the hard slogging work of organizing and fighting every day. Sharpton hasn’t actually been one of them–and can’t have been one of them–in every community in which he pops up. But the tiny black middle class and even tinier black upper class isn’t turning up to lead these protests or sue the city or do the other stuff publicly. (With notable exceptions, of course). I hope that when the President and Holder and people like that are no longer hamstrung by being in their respective positions of political power that they can take over the sporadic leadership role that Sharpton arrogates to himself. But he’s no more a “leader” than Gloria “feminist lawyer” Alred is a feminist representative.
And we all criticize the spokesmen who the media annoint–aren’t we criticizing the Patrollman’s union guy and arguing that DiBlasio should kneecap him and (for example) refuse to negotiate with him at all over the contracts? IF someone is going to throw themselves in front of the camera and inject themselves into a highly charged political moment they are going ot come in for a slew of criticism. If that criticism means they can’t serve the people they are purporting to serve then they need to reconsider whether they are really the “indispensible” people they think they are.
WereBear
Actually, he has. He references it on his MSNBC show at appropriate times.
Lavocat
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah, I agree. But fires put out with gasoline tend to burn for a very long time indeed. I think Al has changed and I’m glad for it, as I would want the man on my side in any fight.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Keith G: If it wasn’t Sharpton the racists were making a stink about, it would be someone else. I remember when it was Jesse Jackson. Hell, the entire backlash that led to the DLC taking over the Democratic Party and the Republican Revolution of ’94 was because Jackson came too close to winning the Democratic primary in ’88.
gene108
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
This a million times over.
There are thousands of white people in this country, along with major organizations GOA and NRA, which promote the idea that white people should stock pile guns in case they need to wage war against the U.S. government and its agents, i.e. police.
Several self-professed gun-nuts have killed cops. Beyond the Millers, you have the guy in Eastern PA, this past September who killed one cop and wounded another.
Yet when black people, mostly peacefully, protest the fact that jay-walking, selling “loosies” on the street, walking around Wal-Mart minding your own damn business or a kid playing in a park ARE NOT CAPITAL OFFENSES in this country, and agents of the government do not have the right to execute people for those activities, we now have a wave of “anti-police rhetoric”.
Says everything you need to know about where the cops priorities lie and what they consider “anti-cop”, with regards to the performance of their duties.
The fact that this 800 lb gorilla of racism is sitting there for anyone with half-brain to see, yet the media ignores it is pretty damning on how our media worships authoritarians.
FormerSwingVoter
@Spinwheel: Doxxing is *not* okay. Leave and never come back.
gene108
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I thought that had more to do with Democrats getting crushed in the Presidential elections of 1980, 1984, and 1988.
Romney in 2012, won more states than Carter, Mondale and Dukakis COMBINED!
Frankensteinbeck
@aimai: and @Keith G:
The national news programs are hiring Sharpton. Maybe I’m paranoid here, but from growing up in a white mild-moderate racist environment in the 80s, I think those news programs like him because he has the accent and speech patterns of a gospel preacher. That makes him sound dumb and easily dismissable to whites from my (I suspect very common) background, and the conservative old white men who hire and fire in the national news pick token minorities that make them feel good about their prejudices. I wish I did not think that’s why he has a platform, because every time I’ve heard him he’s been saying deeply insightful and intelligent things and deserved to be heard.
Chickamin Slam
Is Spinwheel the new … oh what was the name … TomandHellen?
beth
@aimai: You are right about public figures however, I think there’s a lot more vitriol being thrown at Sharpton without anything to back it up. I think Lynch should be gone as head of the union because of his statements blaming DeBlasio and referencing “blood on his hands” which are clearly wrong and inflammatory. Where’s the corresponding statements from Sharpton? Has he called for anything besides peaceful protest and lawful change? It’s not quite both sides do it at the same levels.
El Caganer
@gene108: That’s the answer! The Democrats should run Mitt in ’16!
raven
@Chickamin Slam: ted
dedc79
@gene108: I think another component of it is that there are some people who think being liberal/progressive means voting for democrats. That this is all they need to do. When a democrat like de blasio gets elected and then wants to actually make policy/governance changes that might bring a bit more equity/equality, these same supposed liberals balk at any changes that they perceive as a threat to the status quo, which is so favorable to them already.
Mike in NC
@Archon: When Bill O’Reilly decided he was making enough money milking White Resentment via his TV show on FOX last year, he discontinued his weekly syndicated newspaper column. The local rag then started to run David Limbaugh instead, because the freaking editor claimed his views would be “thought provoking”. Uh, no.
DTOzone
@Origuy: The cops in general have support, especially from white New Yorkers, because they are perceived as the last line of defense between them and the marauding minority gangs taking over the city.
But ask most white New Yorkers about their one-on-one experience with cops, and they’ll sound like Sharpton.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Spinwheel:
ETA: Ahaha! Ban this motherfucker.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Chickamin Slam:
Ted and Helen, Spatula, etc.
I don’t think so, but the air of white privilege and stalkerism is similar.
Marc
@DTOzone: Patrick Lynch is the only thing standing between us and the Warriors. And the Gramercy Riffs. And the Baseball Furies. Oh god, the Baseball Furies.
It’s always morning in America somewhere, right?
Bobby Thomson
You know, if all you white people would just get rid of spinwheel all your problems would be over.
Bobby Thomson
@Marc: Never any love for the Orphans.
KG
next time the “blue flu” hits, Di Blasio needs to do to the NYPD what Reagan did to the air traffic controllers. Sorry, but when your profession is one that involves public safety and/or trust, you don’t get the right to strike.
grandpa john
@Gin & Tonic: He left out the part about it being an affront to any white person
Amir Khalid
@KG:
I have a problem with this comparison. Reagan’s action was in large part an act of union-busting, which I consider to be a bad thing. The problem with the PBA isn’t that cops shouldn’t have a union. It’s that the union is now defending a police culture that has become toxic, in a manner damaging to the general perception of cops.
El Caganer
@KG: Well, Calvin Coolidge busted a police strike when he was governor of Massachusetts. Dunno if I’d want to use him as a model, though.
Senyordave
@Marc: What about the Lizzies?
john fremont
@gene108:This! IIRC, a guy in the Northeast shot four cops and cited gun confiscation as his motive. This was in the last 5 years.
Betty Cracker
@Bobby Thomson: Haha! Touché! (Or should I say “Douché” in honor of the subject…)
grandpa john
@Roger Moore: When you own the media, the repeated introduction of irrelevant people becomes a major weapon in the war on truth
catclub
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): Motoko_chan never gets the love, eh.
Sherparick
Showing that “IOKIYR” (and white male) has reached new highs (or is that lows) Time magazine gives a platform for Bernie Kerik to dump on Obama, Holder, DeBlasio, and the whole American African American community. You know, Bernie Kerick, convicted felon. Joining Mark Fuhrman and Dinesh D’Souza on the convicted felons (particularly since the crimes in in all three cases involved either perjury or false statements or both) convicted liars wingnut/MSM circuit (or is that circus). See http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2014/12/dinesh-dsouza-must-have-been-busy.html and see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fuhrman.
Apparently, both news magazines and cable news is appealing the whites over 50 wing nut tribe.
danielx
@Marc:
Not so; the cops got along with Guiliani and Bloomberg just fine, thankyewverymuch – because they supported the NYPD no matter what (see Diallo, Amadou) and pretty much let the cops do what they wanted as long as the cops supported them (“I have my own army”). But even a hint from a mayor that the cops might be overstepping their bounds or have committed misdeeds and the cops are all “the mayor doesn’t support us and we’re not going to take it”, etc. Jeebus, talk about your paranoia and delusions of grandeur…guess what, guys, YOU haven’t been elected to anything whatsoever.
KG
@Amir Khalid: I have no problem with cops or other public employees having unions. but federal law prohibited (and still does) strikes by unions that represent federal employees. there are legitimate reasons for that and I think Reagan was in the right then and Di Blasio would be in the right now if it came to that. you can’t take the public hostage and an illegal strike by government employees really isn’t that much different from Congress (or a state legislature) failing to pass a budget and shutting down the government.
Tree With Water
A proper tribute that can be paid the fallen is to renounce the concept of a “war on drugs” altogether, and the mentality it has cultivated. It would be fine if the new attorney general were to just that as her opening act. Do that, and maybe we can then begin getting the heavy weaponry back into the state and federal armories where they belong.
wilfred
No, that’s what taking the piss means. This poster is constantly rationalizing why Obama, the President of a really big country, can’t take action against torturers and murderers. Now Di Blasio has be a hero? Fuck off.
jl
‘ proceeded to strongly denounce the police. (“If Dante wasn’t your son, he’d be a candidate for a chokehold. And we got to deal with that reality,” Sharpton said to de Blasio as Bratton looked on.) ‘
That is Politico’s example of ‘strongly denouncing the police’?
I like to show some discernment in discussing the attitudes of my fellow White ethnics, I try to use different words to describe different degrees of ignorance, intolerance, hostility, fear, dislike and hatred. I think it helps understanding of the real issues, communication, and avoids undue and unjustified ruffling of feelings. And it is nice to try to be accurate, too.
But some sections of the White community, including corporate hack media divas and sludge like Politico are close to losing their favorable ‘bigot’ rating with me. Seems like they are reaching for that big brass ring of racial intolerance, flat out racism. But maybe that is just me.
Bob In Portland
It can’t happen here? It already happened.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Chickamin Slam:
Different crazy entitled white guy.
Marc
@wilfred: By “can’t take action” you mean “isn’t a dictator who can do whatever you want them to”.
RaflW
May have already mentioned, but the “kill the cops” YouTube report has been retracted.
Damage already done, of course. Lies travel fast, retractions sit around unnoticed.
Seanly
A NYC columnist (forget name, sorry) was on NPR this morning. He indicated that most of the bad blood is due to the largest police union (representing most of the patrolmen) doesn’t have a contract with the city. Part of their anger & hostility to the mayor is part of their posturing & preening for their contract negotiations.
Of course, neither that nor the recent events excuse the idiotic blaming of & rhetoric against de Blasio & Obama.
glory b
@ruemara: I’m late to the party, but you get an “Amen” chorus from me.
And, for the record, Rev Al has stated many times that he does not go where his presencs hasn’t been requested.
glory b
@Keith G: As I said before, Al Sharpton doesn’t go where he isnt invited. If he’s with Trayvon Martin’s family, or Eric Garner’s family, or Mike Brown’s family, it’s because they ASKED him to be there.
Give him this much credit, remember, Trayvon Martin had been dead for WEEKS, his family had heard nothing and nothing was forthcoming until Al Sharpton arrived.
Blah people’s little secret, we like him WAAAAAY more than white people believe. He’s flawed? Made mistaakes? So have white “leaders,” and no one is giving them shit (except maybe for Bill Clinton) for stuff that happened almost thirty years ago they way they do Rev Al.Many of you might be surprised at how popular he is in the Black community.
Darkrose
@raven: Pie filter doesn’t work on mobile.
Darkrose
@ruemara: This. All of this.
wilfred
@Marc:
Only a dictator can appoint a special prosecutor, or direct the AG to investigate what we already know to have been torture? Come on.
jl
@beth:
‘ A friend on Facebook posted a photo of Al Sharpton with the caption “hey black people, get rid of him and your problems will be solved”. ‘
That is a bigot’s ploy. It’s a fill in the blank move. If someone replaces Sharpton as the corporate media’s favorite black spokesman and scapegoat, they will lie by omission or commission about the next person and say that if just weren’t for ____________________, there could be dialogue or some BS.
As I have said before, I am not a big fan of Sharpton. On the other hand, compared to who else? A lot of corporate media appointed white spokesman with obscure credentials to speak on issues makes Sharpton look like fricken Einstein and Gandhi rolled into one. The vicious nincompoops Giuliani, Sarah Palin are two examples. The NYC police union wardheeler Lynch is another.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
You mean like when Woodrow Wilson was elected President and promptly fired every Black person in sight?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_segregation.html
Oh, that’s right, it wasn’t fascism because it only affected black people, was it?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@wilfred:
Yes. The special prosecutor law was a law that was passed by Congress. It was not renewed thanks to Starr’s antics. Only Congress can appoint one. The president is not legally allowed to do it.
SamR
“He’s often sided with victims of police brutality”—so, perpetrators of police brutality, victims of police brutality, who’s to say who’s right and who’s wrong? A serious reasonable bipartisan centrist moderate would note that both sides do it, and in this case “it” is “involved in police brutality in some manner.”
Leah
@Spinwheel:
I second the comments above in reply to Spinwheel.
What’s lacking on the left, among both liberals, and the further left, who often separate themselves from liberals, and often criticize Democrats as indistinguishable from Republicans, is a strong grassroots movement. FDR had one, as well as Truman, and Kennedy, and LBJ.
Bill Clinton didn’t have one, and that goes a long way in explaining his triangulation moves: Both Clintons were attacked by forces which meant to make it impossible Clinton to actually govern, and the mainstrem press went along for the ride
Even something as basic as organizing a response to an article like the one under discussion just doesn’t happen. Yes, we’re beginning to see local organizing, especially recently around Ferguson et al, but no one needs such a movement more than Obama in his last two years as President and Democrats always have to be reminded from below of what and who they are supposed to stand for.
Though Politico is often called out by the right-wing as being typically left-wing and lamestream, it’s interesting that their comments skew noticeably toward the right. The ones for this particular article are filled with hate aimed at liberals, which helps convince the Politico pundits that the center skews right.
Thanks Zander for taking on this truly disgusting, wrong-headed, and un-factual article/rant.
There’s no pay wall to keep anyone from commenting, though you might have to register, which I recognize might be painful.
Just a thought.
BTW, Steve M, focuses on the facts left out in this post:
POLITICO WHITEWASHES BLOOMBERG’S RELATIONSHIP WITH SHARPTON IN ORDER TO BASH DE BLASIO
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Merry Christmas, asshole.
These things don’t just happen. You are diminishing the crimes in the present by clinging to crimes of the past. It’s a weird defensive mechanism you have. It serves no purpose but to give you a little self-satisfaction that it’s not so bad because nothing’s changed.
The militarization of the police is a natural progression of fascism. As the separation of the haves and the havenots continues to exacerbate society’s stability more violence is needed to maintain control over the majority by the wealthy. You can’t bring yourself to admit the obvious. You still can’t separate yourself from our nation’s belligerent militarism. It’s all conspiracy theory because while it’s bad, it’s not that bad. And it won’t get that much worse.
It’s a simple word, Mnem. You live in a fascist state, and whether you’ve noticed or not it’s been getting worse over the last fifty years.
So strange that you attack me by bringing up something that Woodrow Wilson did. I was teaching race relations in the US army in 72-73, so, I realize that racism didn’t start yesterday. So why are you fighting me? What are you fighting? Are you fighting from admitting the reality around you?
Mnem, go fuck yourself. Or wait a little more and someone will do it for you. Fascists eventually get around to that too.
wilfred
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
What the hell are you talking about? This is from the joint letter for HRW and the ACLU, dated 9 December 2014:
The letter is addressed to Holder. To suggest that the President can’t instruct Holder to follow this very sound advice is silly, a distinction without a difference, as it were.
gocart mozart
@Bobby Thomson:
He is the white man’s Al Sharpton.
Bob In Portland
DiBlasio alienated the cops by marrying a black woman and having a black son.
gocart mozart
I’m surprised that the NYPD hasn’t yet called for Eric Garner’s widow to apologize to them for her husband death causing them so much discomfort.
jl
@Bob In Portland: I denounce renounce reject revile and renunciate every snotty supercilious and snide (presumably white, but let’s stipulate that) commenter here that you please to name now or in the future. So, please be fair and listen to me now. No? Ok, I apologize.
The Sharpton scapegoating reminds me of a recent Daily Show segment.
Hova’s Honor
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/cy420r/hova-s-honor
Oh, Pllleeeezze get rid of that evil ol’ Al, so we can find another excuse for our bigotry.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@Sherparick:
Whites over 50 are about the only ones left interested in news magazines and cable news anymore. The rest of us went online. When I was in college, the WWW and dot-com boom were just warming up. I remember watching the Cavs draft Bobby Sura live on ESPN.com. I turn 41 next month.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Its only fascism if it affects the angry white man.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
I’m sorry, which one of us keeps insisting that current events on Ukraine are directly attributable to events of 70 years ago and recent events like the Orange Revolution are irrelevant? Oh, right, that would be you, Bob.
The only reason you’re pissed off is that I’m playing the game by your rules now. If events of 70 years ago are proof positive that the current Ukraine government is run by Nazis, then events of 70 years ago in the US prove that the US has always been a fascist state. Sorry, but you don’t get to argue from both sides of your mouth and cherrypick your evidence to suit your preferences without having me call you on it.
Jebediah, RBG
@FormerSwingVoter:
Seconded (by the time I read the rest of the thread it will probably be forty-seconded.)
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Russ Bellant says it. Here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/179057/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-americas-dirty-little-ukraine-secret
But I am not the one who uses historic crimes to justify current events. Or, more likely, to ignore current events. That’s you.
I’ve asked you why you are arguing with me. In any forum you will find hippie punchers, and they like to jump in on the fight, because it’s same and it takes out their aggressions. That doesn’t explain you. If Woodrow Wilson was a fascist (albeit before the term was coined) then that’s still no excuse for ignoring fascism now.
There are all sorts of historical markers that can be observed of the growing fascism in the US. It’s all there to see. There is the collaboration with Nazis by Wall Streeters in post-WWI, then during WWII. And these weren’t dumb men who fell into these business arrangements. The use of torture tactics started getting absorbed into the US Special Forces in the fifties. Yes, the US brought in old Nazis into Fort Bragg back then. They weren’t necessary, but they were there. In Weimar Germany there were lots of political assassinations in the twenties and thirties by the Black Reichsfehr, who were an historical analogue to our militia movement here. In the seixties most of the heavy lifting in political assassinations was done by “lone nuts” although there were always holes in the official stories. No matter, eliminating liberal alternatives is part of fascism.
We still have elections, but between the elections being bought and Dubya’s “Help Americans Vote Act” we have a minority party running things in this country.
Ronnie Reagan, who was a spokesman for the CIA program to import Nazis into the US in the fifties, used Nazis in his administration thirty years later.
And then one day it’s all around you. So maybe in ten or twenty years you’ll figure it out. Or you’ll never figure it out.
AxelFoley
@Lavocat:
Both of you sound like that idiot James Woods.
AxelFoley
@beth: Thank you.
AxelFoley
@ruemara:
Real. Talk.
AxelFoley
@Marc:
@Bobby Thomson:
Well played, the both of you.
DTOzone
@ruemara: You’re 100 percent right, but Sharpton still isn’t helping you.
henqiguai
@Just Some Fuckhead (#93): Long dead thread, but this demands a query — Obama has mixed-race kids too so the comparisons with de Blasio make sense.
Really? Which ones? Michelle’s Black, Barack’s Black, so what’s the mix? Or are you saying the self-identified black man is not really black? ‘Cause, dude, you’re about to piss on a lot of people’s cherished ethnic identites.
Tehanu
@glory b:
I’m white and I’m just a slightly lefty liberal, not an extreme radical. I started out thinking that Rev. Al was all those bad things; and I agree, the whole Tawana B. mess was a major fuckup, no question. But about 2000 I happened to catch Al’s act on some news discussion show and I was astounded to discover that (a) he spoke straightforwardly, (b) he made way more sense than anybody else I’d heard on any of those shows, and (c) I agreed with everything he said. And I still feel that way whenever I see him. People should listen to what he says instead of demonizing him for a mistake made decades ago.