Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Today in Being Black in America

Today in Being Black in America

by | 90 Comments

This post is in: 

While Covid-19 ravages black and minority communities, day to day life for uninfected African Americans remains no less dangerous:

Mr. Cooper, 57, a Harvard graduate who works in communications, has long been a prominent birder in the city and is on the board of the New York City Audubon Society,

The incident took place around 8:10 a.m. on Monday in the Ramble, a semi-wild section of Central Park where dogs are required to be on leashes at all times.

After Ms. Cooper refused to restrain the dog, Mr. Cooper said he planned to offer the dog treats to lure it away and induce her to leash the animal, according to a Facebook post in which he documented his version of their exchange.

“Look, if you’re going to do what you want, I’m going to do what I want, but you’re not going to like it,” he told her, before he pulled out the treats and began filming, according to his post.

Mr. Cooper then produced dog treats, he said.

“I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence,” he wrote. “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn,” he said, using the name Karen, which has become slang for an entitled white woman.

The video captures Ms. Cooper first asking Mr. Cooper to stop filming her, then saying she will call the police and claim that she is being threatened by “an African-American.”

“Please tell them whatever you like,” Mr. Cooper says off camera.

She proceeds to call.

“I’m in the Ramble, there is a man, African-American, he has a bicycle helmet and he is recording me and threatening me and my dog,” she says to the 911 operator as she grips her pet’s collar tightly.

She adds: “I am being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately!”

She hangs up.

“Thank you,” Mr. Cooper says after she puts her dog on a leash and just before the video ends.

You’ve heard of suicide by cop? This was attempted murder by cop. Period. Full stop. If you watch the video she was actually harming her dog to make it yelp to sound like she was really being assaulted.

Fortunately, this had a good ending. Everyone is alive, and the woman was identified and the dog was taken back by the rescue organization, and she has promptly been fired from her job. The same can not be said for George Floyd:

Four Minneapolis police officers were fired Tuesday, authorities said, amid protests and outrage after a viral video showed one of them kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man who cried that he could not breathe and later died.

A bystander’s video of the incident captured George Floyd telling the officers “I cannot breathe” as he is pinned to the ground, and as an increasingly distraught crowd of onlookers pleads with the officer to move his knee.

You can look for the video yourself, I see no reason to put it up here to traumatize our African-American readers, although I would recommend that those of you who are white search for it and watch it. Internalize it.

The casual indifference to life displayed in the video is shocking. George Floyd was, to those four cops, an unperson. It’s good they were fired. Now they all need to go to trial, be convicted, and sent to jail for murder.

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  6. 6.

    moops

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):

     

    I don’t know.   I’ve heard about black cops beating the crap out of people (of all backgrounds).  I’ve also seen white cops nightstick and pepper spray white people.    If you can get through the academy and get on the force they you are part of a different class hierarchy.  White cops are more important than black cops, but both are much more important than any civilian.

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    It’s good they were fired. Now they all need to go to trial, be convicted, and sent to jail for murder.

    They’ll either be re-hired by the city in 18 months after legal action and arbitration with the police union or they’ll be hired by another jurisdiction.

    The depraved indifference to a fellow human being’s literal life is numbing.

    City residents have taken to the streets. Here are some young people speaking to the issuie.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    Sure, some white people have been abused by the police, but let’s not pretend for even one second that it’s not a million times more dangerous to be a black person around the police, particularly a black male person, of just about any age, than it is to be a white person.

    Black people are being almost almost routinely murdered by police and the police almost always get off scott-free, even when there’s video.

    And white people can carry guns in public and the cops don’t appear to think that’s a threat.

  10. 10.

    LesGS

    @moops: Just a little push back on using “civilian” and excluding cops from that category. LEOs are not members of the military (unless they are MPs). I hate how the police have become so “militarized,” and them being considered “non-civilians” subconsciously reinforces that process.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    “I am going to weaponize my white privilege even though I am the one who is breaking the law.” Fucking hell.

  17. 17.

    Laura Too

    I’m in south Minneapolis, just got back from 3d precinct protest. It’s loud out here, lots of sirens and idiots shooting off really loud fireworks. I hate this so bad. My heart is broken.

  18. 18.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    All she had to do was keep her dog on a leash and she would still have a job. It’s all so stupid, in addition to being racist and abusive to the dog. The senseless entitlement of it is what gets me. She sounded laughably hysterical, even before she phoned the police. How pathetic.

    using the name Karen, which has become slang for an entitled white woman.

    That’s how it was used, until misogynistic dicks of the Gamergate variety got their hands on it. Now any white woman (or any woman at all) of a certain age with a short haircut is a “Karen” now. Brie Larson was memed as a Karen during the Captain Marvel hullabaloo

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Andy Beshear brought the fire regarding this weekend’s effigy hanging and front yard invasion by 3%ers. One of our local temporarily lounging sportswriters did us the favor of a transcript (Eric’s been great throughout this).

    Andy Brings It

    Sunday was a protest, where my administration offered a drive up and a drive-through permit, a way that was safe, safe for everybody who was involved, where COVID-19 wouldn’t spread and, in part, what they claimed that they wanted, at least in their lawsuit. But the organizers and even the attorney general disagreed. At the demonstration, a right-wing militia group called the Three Percenters, left the front of the Capitol, and walked through and across all of the barriers to the governor’s mansion, where they say it is no longer open to the public. They walked up and stood on the front porch, and there, just a windowpane away from where my kids play, the mob chanted and heckled. Thankfully, my kids weren’t there that day. But I want to remind you, they are 9 and 10 years old. Unsatisfied, the mob retreated to an area several hundred yards away, and hung a dummy with my face on it. It included the saying yelled by Lincoln’s assassin. Think about it. A celebration of assassination on our Capitol grounds.

    So let’s start by calling it what it was, and what it is. Actions aimed at creating fear and terror. Crossing over barriers, standing on the other side of the glass from where I raise my kids and hanging me in effigy? That’s an action intended to use fear to get their way. This small group, way less than 3%, is trying to bully everyone else into doing what they want us to do. But they didn’t get there alone.

    They had been embraced and emboldened by elected leaders that rallied with them weeks before. Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people, including me, aren’t Christian, and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered. What do you think was going to happen after throwing out those type of claims to this group? Shouldn’t they have known what was going to happen?

    You cannot fan the flames and then condemn the fire. Those elected officials that embraced these individuals, and that stood in front of people dressed in tactical gear and the rest, and threw as much red meat as possible at them, they have to claim responsibility because they absolutely know what could have happened. And they are in part responsible for what did happen. All elected officials can no longer actively seek the support and cater to these groups like we have seen. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. You can’t wait until something nasty and horrible happens to then claim it’s wrong, while you’ve then catered to the support of certain groups, for votes or other reasons.

    And you certainly can’t write a column blaming the media, and then say it’s because no one is playing baseball. That’s wrong, and that writer knows it. And everybody else does, too.

    Let’s also not ignore that the hanging was intended to send a message to others – one of intolerance, and one of hate. I can never understand the depths of pain that this symbol causes to many of my fellow Kentuckians, but I can condemn it outright, as wrong, as vile and as evil.

    So where does that leave us? I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down, not to them and not to anybody else. Being governor in this pandemic means that I have a responsibility, and it’s a heavy responsibility – to lead us through one of the most dangerous times, where an invisible enemy is taking people we care about, and could do so much more damage than it has done thus far. I have to lead Kentucky through a 100-year outbreak. And I know that the people out there are with me. I see the signs of unity in the sidewalk chalk, the green lights, the bells, and the thousands of letters I’ve received, and almost thousands we receive every couple of weeks. I owe it to the people of Kentucky not to bow to terror, but to continue to do what is right, for their families and for mine.

     

  21. 21.

    Leto

    @LesGS: if they would like to be “de-militarized” in the eye of the public,  they can start by giving us back all of our fucking military equipment they believe they need to “protect” us. They also need to overhaul their training, specifically public interaction and de-escalation techniques. Also civilian cops and military tend to really not like each other.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    Mr. Cooper is a very brave man.  Ms. Cooper (no relation) was absolutely trying to get a cop to come out and shoot him.

    I honestly don’t know what you do with people like her.  She’ll get another job, probably manage to get another dog (God help that poor animal) and go on blithely ignoring any laws she doesn’t like, and when convenient, call the cops on people she wants shot.  And she will succeed at that at some point.

    You could jail her, she will learn nothing and change nothing.

    You could execute her, seems to me there’s some legal and moral issues with that.

    Too late to raise her properly.

    There’s millions of her in America.

    God help me, I have no idea what to do with these people.  They’re a huge problem.  They’re why we are where we are, politically, financially, legally, morally, and under threat of death by plague.  And I have no idea how to stop them or at least their vile behavior.

  23. 23.

    Cacti

    Do you mean to tell me that white women are as capable of lying as anyone else?

    Get right out of town.

  24. 24.

    columbusqueen

    @Laura Too: All I keep thinking is how much somebody could learn from Mr. Cooper just by striking up a conversation with him. I’m so tired of privileged white shit, starting with the MAGA monster in the White House.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Opening 10 minutes or so of today’s Maddow show is must-see TV.

    Nothing necessarily new for BJers, just laid out so straight by those in the thick of it that it carries an extra wallop.

  29. 29.

    TS (the original)

    Christian Cooper lives up to his name. This is what he has said

    “I’m not interested in repercussions,” he said. “It’s unfortunate what happened. There was definitely a lapse in judgment. But she put the dog on the leash, and I don’t need to see anything else happen to her.”

     

  30. 30.

    Spanky

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    They had been embraced and emboldened by elected leaders that rallied with them weeks before. Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people, including me, aren’t Christian, and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered.

    Name names, Governor.

  32. 32.

    Nicole

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    All she had to do was keep her dog on a leash and she would still have a job.

    Yup.  Or have just leashed the dog when he first asked her.  She was in the wrong; she KNEW she was in the wrong, and she doubled down.  One of the most impressive self-owns ever captured on video.

  33. 33.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @The Moar You Know:

    I hope for Ms Cooper’s sake (and anybody else that she might call the police on) that she’s learned from this.

    Shit like this and the Tamir Rice shooting make me afraid to call the police. I’d hate to be responsible for the police shooting an unarmed person to death for no reason

  34. 34.

    LesGS

    @Leto: I agree absolutely that is what our LEOs should do. However, I don’t believe that they WANT to be “demilitarized” in the eyes of the public. They feel pretty powerful dressing up as soldiers in a combat zone.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    More from the NY Times story.  And good on Mr. Cooper.

    On Tuesday afternoon, he said in an interview, “I was quite adamant that I was going to tape her as long as the scofflaw behavior was continuing,” despite the threats.

    “I didn’t want to kowtow to that, I didn’t want to give it any power,” he added. “I am pretty adamant about not being a participant in my own dehumanization.”

    “I am one of the few male African-Americans who birds the Ramble regularly,” he said. “And I have always been aware that if I am crawling around behind a shrub trying to catch a glimpse of that rare bird, holding a metal object in my hands, I will be perceived differently than a white man if police come across that scene.”

    The police said they had responded to the report of an assault in Central Park on Monday morning.
    “Upon arrival, police determined two individuals had engaged in a verbal dispute,” said Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell, a police spokeswoman. No summons were issued and there was no arrest made.  [Note the he said/she said from the police department.  Thank dog for cellphone video recordings.]

    Shortly after the video was posted on Monday, someone who said they had been the white woman’s dog walker identified her. Her name soon began trending on Twitter.

    Internet sleuths digging into Ms. Cooper’s life found an Instagram profile of her dog, Henry, and began sharing old photos documenting injuries he had suffered.

    By nightfall, she had surrendered Henry to the cocker spaniel rescue group she had adopted him from two years before, according to a Facebook post by the group.
    …

    On Monday evening, Ms. Cooper’s employer, Franklin Templeton said she had been placed on leave while the incident was being investigated.

    Ms. Cooper had been a head of insurance portfolio management at Franklin Templeton, according to her LinkedIn page, and graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

    On Tuesday afternoon, Franklin Templeton announced that she had been fired.

    And Franklin Templeton did not mince words, either.  From their tweet:

    Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.

    Mr. Cooper said in the interview that he had been overwhelmed by the response to his video, but that the retribution against Ms. Cooper had taken him aback.

    “It’s a little bit of a frenzy, and I am uncomfortable with that,” he said. “If our goal is to change the underlying factors, I am not sure that this young woman having her life completely torn apart serves that goal.”

    Mr. Cooper sounds like a class act.

  36. 36.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: What you said. I feel like if I start to think about this issue any more I am just going to start screaming. I guess I shouldn’t be so shocked that shit like this happens so routinely even 150 years after the alleged end of the Civil War…but the casual contempt shown for black lives in the wake of all that Black Lives Matter was trying to highlight does still, somehow, manage to shock me. You’d think that we as a culture would have been shamed enough to clean up our act and our police would somehow been taught to stop straight-up murdering black citizens, but no…

    It’s like our whole fucked up revanchist white Herrenvolk culture (thank you, Adam!)  is just shoving its middle finger in the face of anyone who isn’t a white MAGAt. I’m glad there’s pushback and even some attempt at accountability from the Minneapolis PD but pushback doesn’t buy back lives.

  37. 37.

    Laura Too

    @columbusqueen: Yes to all of it. I’ve been lucky in my travels to run in to people like he seems to be. Passionate and generous with their knowledge. It is always a delight to share in someones excitement.

  38. 38.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: It’s freaking me out a little that they both happened to be named Cooper. Even Dickens wouldn’t have resorted to *that* much of a coincidence!

  40. 40.

    Leto

    @LesGS: agreed. They’ve bought into the framing that this (the US) is a war zone and they’re always “under siege”. Another piece of training that needs revamped.

  41. 41.

    geg6

    That video of the Karen with the poor innocent dog is everything you need to know about white privilege.  Glad her life is a shambles now.  She deserves it and is just lucky she didn’t get the guy killed.

    And I can’t watch the other video again.  They showed it on the CBS Evening News and that was enough for me. Read that the cop has had questionable arrests, etc. in his past.  Still on the force until today, though.  Fuck these goddam cops. Fuck them to hell and back.

  42. 42.

    gbbalto

    @The Moar You Know: We shall see. She made the top of the BBC News web site – she is internationally famous! I doubt that she will get as good a job as she had anytime soon. Maybe she can rebuild – all up to her now.

  43. 43.

    seefleur

    I’m Chinese – born overseas, adopted and raised for the most part in this country – pretty obviously so in terms of appearance.  Over the last 6-8 weeks I’ve had several encounters with people questioning whether I should be in the grocery store (fortunately I am a regular at both stores and the clerks pretty much squashed the assholes who hassled me – both women by the bye – and let them know that it wasn’t appropriate for them to question other customers right to shop). It was a shock to me that anyone would use appearance to make a judgement based on appearance – with a mask on! – as to whether I was a threat to them. I should have known better since this happened over 30 years ago to me and my then infant daughter.  I really thought that progress had been made since then. Obviously I was totally mistaken – as a naturalized citizen, I am so depressed by this. I’m 60 years old, and am horrified by the country that I was so proud to hold citizenship in. What the hell has happened to the USA??? (Total rhetorical question… )

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    Have not seen the video out of Minnesota.  Glad that the Minneapolis police officers were fired, four of them.  But that does not bring back Mr. Floyd.  Heartbreaking.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @seefleur:   I am so sorry that happened to you.

    Obviously, Trump and the ugliness that brought him to power caused it.  It was already there, and needs to go back under its rock.

    That said, I am glad the store clerks stand up for you — there have been some firings of employees and managers who appease the racists or other bad behavior.

    It’s up to us to speak up against this when we see it happening, too. They’re cowards, and counting on our acquiescence.

    Easy for me to say, though.  And again, I am sorry that you are being harassed.  That would be a whole extra level of wariness when you just think of heading out into public.

    This shit has got to stop, and it’s on us to stop it.

  47. 47.

    Laura Too

    @Miss Bianca: MPD is known for their racist thumping, they just usually aren’t so brazen. Kroll (head of police union) is a real POS and needs to go. I think the issue is they can’t do anything until it is time to negotiate a new contract. The Chief of police seems like a really good guy in an shitty position. He came up through the ranks and sued the department for discrimination. He is trying to change things but…Kroll.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @seefleur:

    I’m so sorry that happened to you and your daughter. Just awful. Ugh, sometimes I just despise my fellow white people.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    @zhena gogolia: Mr. Cooper seems like the sweetest guy.  He seems like he brings joy into people’s lives.  Our neighbor to the south was out with his one year old walking in the street.  I demanded to know if he was teaching him to jaywalk – big laugh.  Then his son was checking out the gravel on the side of the road so I wanted to know if he was looking for the tastiest ones – more laughter.  Our neighbor is a big tough looking black man, very dark skin, and could be intimidating but laughs and has more fun with all the neighbors than anyone we know.  And we feel a bit scared for him.  Our neighborhood is 15% white so here is not as risky.  It’s also low crime, for the most part.  But I can’t bring myself to watch the guy in Minneapolis.  That’s our neighbors.  That’s people who are generous with their love.

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    @seefleur: OMG, I am so sorry to hear that that has happened to you.

    It’s taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that even though white women are oppressed by the culture’s misogyny, we seem so eager to oppress anyone else we can in our turn. We are fickle, unreliable allies to POC in the struggle for universal civil rights, and on many, many occasions we have been more of a hindrance than a help. I don’t know what it will take for us to start examining our own privilege critically and start applying that critical knowledge to change our ways, but I am convinced that American society will not change for the better till a critical class of white women become “race traitors” and stop reflexively siding with white supremacy.

  51. 51.

    geg6

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Not that I’m aware of.  Who says so?  I think it’s perfect as shorthand for a certain type of white woman we all know.  Just like we all know what kind of guy I might call, in general terms, a Bubba.  And I don’t mean Bill Clinton, either.

  52. 52.

    banditqueen

    Thank you @The Thin Black Duke ,  @LesGS,  @WaterGirl

    Training at a typical police academy is around 22-24 weeks with a HS diploma or GED, & next comes field training. It’s the field training that really makes the cop–the ‘rookie’ already has a gun and a badge–& this is where the us v. them attitude of cop culture is cultivated, becoming more entrenched the longer they’re on the “force”. It’s the ‘forget what ya learned in the academy, this is the real world’ mentality that is so deadly.

    *Karen threw all black lives to the wind; yes this ending had some justice to it, but if Christian Cooper had been present when cops came, or had the cops seen someone else “who fit the description” this could all too easily have led to another cop using armed, inappropriate, and deadly force–it’s what they do, and Karen knew this and exploited it.

    *George Floyd: I will never ever be able to forget watching that white cop kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck, smirking, using the cop culture code of silence to dare anyone to stop him–this is what Karen was counting on. This cannot go on. There is no excuse. None.

  53. 53.

    Laura Too

    @seefleur: i’m sorry this happened to you. I do hope come November we can make such a massive change that all of these people slither back under the rocks they came out from and never come out again. (I have no hope they can see the error of their ways)

  54. 54.

    Patricia Kayden

    MPD restrained a man and choked the life out of him. And now the police are close to rioting tonight because the responding officers…got fired.#PoliceBrutality— Hound Around the House (@HoundLizzy) May 27, 2020

  55. 55.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Yeah, that was murder by cop with the approval of the other cops witnessing it. May George Floyd and his family get the justice they deserve.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @Elizabelle:

    Obviously, Trump and the ugliness that brought him to power caused it. It was already there, and needs to go back under its rock.

    Too late. It’s out now. It’s time to have those uncomfortable conversations. We need to leach out the poison not just bury it again. Putting our racist tendencies just back to underground will ultimately solve nothing. It’s time we stood up and confronted these people. We’re not going to get better as a nation unless we finally end the damn Civil War.

  57. 57.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Miss Bianca:

    for the better till a critical class of white women become “race traitors” and stop reflexively siding with white supremacy.

    Agreed. As a side note, that whole “race traitor” rhetoric and the ownership of white women by white women that was especially prominent in the South gives me the fucking creeps, y’know? It’s very dehumanizing. It treats entire groups of people like their objects

  58. 58.

    Chyron HR

    @Elizabelle:

    “It’s a little bit of a frenzy, and I am uncomfortable with that,” he said. “If our goal is to change the underlying factors, I am not sure that this young woman having her life completely torn apart serves that goal.”

    He knows she’s going to be the keynote speaker at the RNC leading the mob in a chant of “Kill the n*****”, right?

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    Just watched the “Karen” Cooper video.  My god.  It was worse than expected.

    If that had happened somewhere where guns were more prevalent, she might have shot Mr. Cooper and claimed self-defense.  Florida.  Virginia even.  It’s all so wrong.

    And I can see why she surrendered the dog.  She was choking it.  Poor dog yelped with pain at her mishandling, throughout.

    Terrible experience for Mr. Cooper, but the video going viral might help stop some of that over the top behavior.

    I did wonder if Ms. Cooper has some mental health issues too.  Looked more like cruelty, but was there paranoia underlying it?  Emotionally extreme.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    @Yutsano:   Agreed.  I will stop using the “put it back under a rock” expression, although you will see from the whole comment that I want to see it eradicated too.

    I think Ms. Cooper is going to end up fictionalized in a TV episode or two in the future.  Ripped from the headlines ….

  63. 63.

    James E Powell

    @Miss Bianca:

    but the casual contempt shown for black lives in the wake of all that Black Lives Matter was trying to highlight does still, somehow, manage to shock me.

    In the wake of Black Lives Matter – and I believe there is polling to back this up – white people’s support for Barack Obama declined and their desire for a candidate like Trump increased.

  64. 64.

    Laura Too

    So the fireworks? They were percussion grenades and rubber bullets according to the Star Tribune. There were so many people, it had to have been complete chaos. I just don’t have anything left tonight. Thanks everyone here for being such good people. I needed to be here.

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    The pages of History of THIS COUNTRY

    are littered with the blood of Black Men at the end of some White Woman’s FALSE ACCUSATION.

    Mr. Cooper is fortunate that he lives in the era of the cellphone video camera. If this were 1990, instead of 2010, he might have become Mr. Floyd.

    But…’believe all women?’

    I.THINK.NOT.

  66. 66.

    James E Powell

    @Laura Too:

    MPD is known for their racist thumping, they just usually aren’t so brazen.

    Are there any big city police departments that are not known for this?

  67. 67.

    Miss Bianca

    @James E Powell: I know. I didn’t really see how bad it was until the election was called for Donald fucking Trump in November 2016. It’s been a case of having my eyes opened with a scalpel to see how completely white America lost its damn mind when a black man got elected POTUS.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    One of the best descriptions of what happened from another blog:

     

    Especially when she explicitly said to him BEFORE she called that she would “tell the police that an African-American man is threatening me.” She understood the implication of that, she was ordering up some police brutality as though it were a pumpkin spice latte.

  73. 73.

    Laura Too

    @HumboldtBlue: Thanks, I’ll follow this.  I could hear the aftermath, just didn’t realize what was happening. We had walked home by then. Hard to keep social distance with the crowds that big. And it was poring so my mask and glasses were getting soaked.

  75. 75.

    Miss Bianca

    @Laura Too: I just read that article, and I have to admit that among a host of other, rather more serious charges, this paragraph leapt to my eye:

    In 2005, yet another lawsuit alleged that a group of cops, including Kroll, brutalized a pair of great-grandparents and their son during a house raid for an armed shooter. The residents accused the officers of kicking them, cussing at them, and forcing the son to listen to country music in the back of squad car. That suit was tossed in federal court.

    I mean, that’s such weirdly specific evidence of Crackerdom right there, and I don’t mean the Betty kind.

  76. 76.

    laura

    @rikyrah: And if only their recantations occurred when the men they falsely accused -those innocent men were still alive….

    This is a day to mourn and remember and say the name of Floyd George who was murdered by those who’s salaries are paid through our tax dollars.

  77. 77.

    HumboldtBlue

    @rikyrah:

    Every action from the moment she decides HE is not going to tell HER what to do was “I’m a white woman (with all the attendants — class, job, etc) in Central Park and you’re a huge black man so don’t go there.”

    Mr. Cooper went there.

    She treats other people like shit and puts on the pleasant “liberal white lady” mask to hide the fact she’s coiled like a spring for an encounter like this.

    She’s the unarmed version of the open-carry asshole who is just itching for the chance to chamber a round.

  78. 78.

    laura

    @laura: my head is hung in lowdown shame. I am deeply and profoundly ashamed by the institutions and societal “norms” that create a straight line between Amy Cooper’s attempted murder by white privilege and Floyd James’ murder under color of authority.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    I was surprised to see some of the NY Times reader commenters trying to have Amy Cooper’s back, saying it was scary for a woman to be out alone in the woods.  We should understand.  We just don’t get it, the dangers they face.

    Just  … no.  But that comment got 200+ likes.  Horrible.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    And, FWIW:  the 200+ is relatively small potatoes, because the top comments were up to 4,000 likes.  This story went viral, but good.

    But still horrified there were any more than 13 likes for that comment.  Way to miss the point.  Wondering if they did not bother with the video.

  82. 82.

    VFX Lurker

    @seefleur:

    I’m Chinese – born overseas, adopted and raised for the most part in this country – pretty obviously so in terms of appearance.  Over the last 6-8 weeks I’ve had several encounters with people questioning whether I should be in the grocery store (fortunately I am a regular at both stores and the clerks pretty much squashed the assholes who hassled me – both women by the bye – and let them know that it wasn’t appropriate for them to question other customers right to shop). It was a shock to me that anyone would use appearance to make a judgement based on appearance – with a mask on! – as to whether I was a threat to them. I should have known better since this happened over 30 years ago to me and my then infant daughter.  I really thought that progress had been made since then. Obviously I was totally mistaken – as a naturalized citizen, I am so depressed by this. I’m 60 years old, and am horrified by the country that I was so proud to hold citizenship in. What the hell has happened to the USA??? (Total rhetorical question… )

    I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this awfulness. If you have not already done so, please consider reporting one or more of these incidents at Stop AAPI Hate.

  85. 85.

    Jay

    So, a week or so ago, had a lovely weekend.

    Coworker of my wife needed a house sitter, so peace, quiet, respect, for 3 days, 2 nights even though I had to work. Long story.

    So, food was needed, so I went to the closest store, a T&T.

    Never been there, never shopped at one ever, but they are an “Asian Superstore” here.

    They had a seperate entrance from the rest of the mini mall, so “you can’t get there from here”. You can, there is a hidden back stairwell, that I found later. So, dumbass, did a combat roll, in shorts, over concrete to an 8 foot drop, to get to the lot where the store was.

    As I am walking across the parking lot for the T&T, there are three assholes yelling Asian slurs at the store line up from the overhanging “other mall” parkaide.

    Flipped them the finger, told them to fuck off, called them Nazis, Confederates, two times loosers. pick the winning side, and that I was coming up there.

    They r-u-n-n-e-d-o-f-f-t.

    Before I could get up there, ( that’s how I found the back stairs). That’s where the the line to get in the store is.

    The store let me in with out a mask, ( as long as I bought one for all of $0.50 at the Customer Service Center first.

    Met a lovely young woman in the line up from the Westministers, who saw not only the combat roll but also the “fuck the Nazi’s” shit. We social distanced appropriately.

  86. 86.

    Laura Too

    Unicorn Riot is doing a good job on Twitter documenting what is happening here. I couldn’t sleep. The flash grenades, teargas and rubber bullets are keeping me awake. I haven’t gone through anything like this before.

  87. 87.

    cwmoss

    @rikyrah: She said she’d claim he was threatening her life; this was before she called the cops. That was the tell. She deserves everything bad that happens to her from now.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah:

    Especially when she explicitly said to him BEFORE she called that she would “tell the police that an African-American man is threatening me.” She understood the implication of that, she was ordering up some police brutality as though it were a pumpkin spice latte.

    She forgot the words POTENTIALLY LETHAL in front of police brutality.

  90. 90.

    Arclite

    Came here to post this, but the BJ staff IS ON IT. This turned into a pissing match b/c she is a special snowflake for whom the rules do not apply to her and her dog. Reminds me of so many fucks who refuse to wear masks in the store, because “FREEDUMB.”  Luckily in my state, we have very comprehensive mask usage.

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