Listen to the President. Listen to the Vice President. Listen to the great grandchild of Ida B. Wells.
It’s shameful that it took over a hundred years to make lynching a federal crime. Still, you can feel the joy at this event, and I am not sure I have ever seen Madame Vice President happier. As she finished speaking, President Biden blurted out that she had done a great job.
This is a big Joe Biden deal, and he even made reference to that!
The event starts 23 minutes in. You won’t regret watching.
Open thread.
JPL
It’s shocking to me that it took so long.
sab
What a brave woman his mother was.
debbie
Never doubt the power of a mother to get anything done. I’m sorry this didn’t pass in her lifetime, and I’m sad it’s even needed, but I’m glad there’s something that will stop these hate crimes.
Baud
This video would be banned in classrooms in anti-CRT states.
debbie
Sigh. This, even now.
MomSense
A big thank you to MVP Kamala Devi Harris for shepherding this bill.
Baud
@debbie:
Is Watters a Republican? Then who cares?
WaterGirl
@MomSense: She gave a lovely shoutout to Cory Booker.
debbie
Hey, Garland Haters:
Mike in NC
The white supremacists at FOX News haven’t a clue about hate crimes. They need to STFU.
Baud
@debbie:
I wonder if DOJ had to wait for the government funding bill to pass.
debbie
@Baud:
I was surprised at the complaints coming from the January 6th committee. You’d think they’d have realized that about the funding bill, no?
Baud
@debbie:
If that’s the issue. I don’t know.
MisterForkbeard
@debbie: Is “the border” an actual problem right now? It hasn’t gotten any attention in at least 6 months aside from snide references like this, I’ve found.
Does anyone know if the situation has returned to normal or is there an actual thing that Watters wants done now?
Sure Lurkalot
@debbie: This was mentioned by me and Germy on WG’s post about Teri Kanefield’s take on the DOJ.
Just to be clear, being apprehensive about Garland’s stance on holding the powerful to account, in light of various Congress members voicing the same sentiment, is not hate. I don’t envy his position nor welcome the shitstorm that will ensue.
Spanky
@debbie: IANAL, so how many indictments can 131 lawyers get you?
germy
(via MeidasTouch)
debbie
@Sure Lurkalot:
Well, there are some who want him removed. ??♀️
debbie
@MisterForkbeard:
I can’t remember whose tweet I read, but he was a military-type and he said the border had been quiet for a while.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Uncertainty is hard.
Sometimes it’s easier to conclude that nothing is going to happen because that’s easier than living with the ups and downs that can come with trying to have faith in the process.
Especially when you have been let down by the process already and you have come to realize that our institutions are only as strong as the people who are running them.
It’s complicated. This is rocky ground that we are standing on.
Martin
@Spanky: Probably 1-10.
The DOJ has the same problem as the IRS. When you underfund the IRS, they start dropping cases at the top, because they require so much more work and are so much riskier to pursue because a multibillionaire won’t think twice about hiring 131 lawyers to counter the IRS on their multibillion dollar tax bill. But going after middle class people is easy and safe because we don’t have the resources to stall and fight.
I imagine the DOJ is having trouble dedicating resources to the Trumps, the members of Congress, the Eastmans and Thomas’ and so on who will have their teams of white shoe lawyers to tie things up.
So it depends on which indictments you want. Some unemployed rando that showed up, or the WH chief of staff?
Martin
@WaterGirl: Nihilists have the benefit of never being disappointed.
MisterForkbeard
@debbie: That was my own impression. There’s just not much going on there, but it’s an article of faith that “Borders are a disaster when you have a Dem president just because”.
But hell, maybe we’re still seeing large amount of migration. Dunno.
Jay
germy
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Exactly what I was thinking.
The other thing I was thinking was that Emmett Till was born just a year before I was. His lynching and murder was, of course, huge news at the time in his (and my) home town of Chicago, and as a 13-year-old suburban white girl I was horrified by his story. He’d probably be a grandfather, maybe a great-grandfather by now. It sickens and saddens and enrages me to this day that he never had that opportunity.
Yes, it’s good that lynching is finally a federal hate crime. Joe’s right, it is a big … deal. I’m so thankful we have him, and Kamala, and Cory, and Nancy, and all the others who know what’s important and who keep their eyes on the prize.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Did you see the big Cory-Kamala hug right before POTUS signed? It was lovely to see.
sab
@SiubhanDuinne: Judging by his mother, he probably would have grown up to be an impressive man.
WaterGirl
@germy: As I commented on the previous thread…
“Russia, if you’re listening…”
piratedan
@MisterForkbeard: out here in AZ the GOP continues to play it as one…. one of the Trumpette runners for office makes it her lynchpin issue, stating that there’s a 6 point plan for her to secure our borders, one main tenet is to finish the wall.
Same old culture war bullshit, wrapped in fear, and produced for your consumption. Have yet to see an ad here for anyone on the Dem side other then Kelly (who they are attempting to portray as a dilletante) using common sense, bipartisan approaches.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: No, I had missed that hug at the beginning. Just watched it now. Genuine affection and respect.
Geminid
I’m glad for Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-1st). Rush has fought for this law for some time. He was born 1947 in Albany, Georgia, when lynching wasn’t just history.
This is Bobby Rush’s 15th and last term representing his Chicago district. He says that he is not retiring, but instead will put his time and energy into his South Side church.
SiubhanDuinne
@sab:
From everything I’ve read about his mother, she was a remarkable woman. A teacher, a writer, an activist and advocate. I agree, I think young Emmett would have become a fine man.
OzarkHillbilly
Just curious, 100 years to get it done? Emmitt Till died on August 28, 1955.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Trayvon Martin was lynched. Ahmed Arbery was lynched. Tamir Rice was lynched. John Crawford was lynched.
debbie
@MisterForkbeard:
It’s still a top talking point for the GOP Senatorial candidates in Ohio.
narya
@Martin: I wonder whether TFG’s unwillingness to actually pay anyone affects his ability to get good legal representation at this point. I’m sure there are grift piles around, but actually prying any of it free from his tiny grubby hands might be a challenge.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: She probably meant 100 attempts.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
And yet, he said something that stupid!
JaySinWa
@germy: Trump senile? never! Burner phone? What? Some kind of cigarette lighter built in?
Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyer_Anti-Lynching_Bill
Technically, 104 years.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: OK, that makes sense. Thanx.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Tamir Rice wasn’t lynched. He was a twelve year old child slaughtered by police incompetence.
Baud
@Jay:
The filibuster doing its job.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay: And thanx to you too.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: They explain that in the video. They started trying for an anti-lynching bill in something like
18981918. I’m sure that’s not the exact date, but they tried to get an anti-lynching bill passed all those years (decades) before Emmett Till was killed, so yes, they have been trying for more than 100 years.I can’t recommend watching the video highly enough. For such a terrible thing as lynching, it’s really uplifting to hear the joy in the voices, this was a real celebration for them.
Imagine taking over 100 years to say it’s not okay to murder and torture someone. sigh
edit: Okay, 1918, not 1898, but a lot of the same numbers! I was close-ish. :-)
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly: since the first attempt to get an anti-lynching law.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: The NAACP counted any black person killed in extra judicial proceedings as “lynched”. Tamir Rice was summarily executed by police officer(s) within 5 seconds of their arrival.
AFAIC, lynched.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: No. Over 100 years. This is a big deal and a national embarrassment at the same time.
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Lynching of black people was going on long before Emmett Till was murdered. The woman who spoke (Ida B. Wells’ great-granddaughter) said that her illustrious ancestor had met with President McKinley in the WH in 1898 to urge an antilynching bill.
sab
@debbie: Isn’t that weird? I live in northern Ohio. I haven’t noticed mobs of Canadians coming through. And we do have a problem with hiring workers in any industry, the problem being that there aren’t enough workers. Good for us, because my stepson just got a chunky raise because they realized that after many years of neglect they might lose him to a good job offer.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: @Omnes Omnibus: Thanx to you too.
Because of my troubles with the spoken word, I don’t listen/watch many videos, preferring the written word which I retain much more completely. If it’s funny and short? I’ll watch. News clips? Not so much.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I see your point and I feel it. Does it fit the new law?
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: Spot on.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: I would expect it to. The NAACP probably had a big hand in it’s writing.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Glad to know that I didn’t make up the year 1898, I just attached it to the wrong event.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree on your definition of lynching, and so does President Biden. He mentioned Ahmaud Arbery and many others.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Tamir Rice’s case was typical. They prosecuted the rookie who fired and not the experienced cop who made it inevitable. The rookie’s partner rushed in to a close situation where firing was inevitable. They should have bull-horned from a distance.
The kid was an innocent kid and would have responded well, but wasn’t given the chance. The rookie wasn’t given a chance to calm things down. His training partner rushed him in to a gun situation and let things take their course, and then locked Tamir’s sister in the patrol car while the kid bled out.
And then they prosecuted the rookie, not the partner. I don’t know if I would have convicted the rookie, but I sure as hell would have convicted his partner.
Another Scott
@debbie: I immediately thought of James Byrd, Jr. He was murdered in 1998. So, that has indeed been decades.
But what’s this??
Also in Texas, imagine that.
That’s from June 2021.
So, weeks, not decades.
There are, no doubt, other examples. :-(
Grr…,
Scott.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: NAACP lately isn’t always right. They bullied Vilseck into firing Shirley Sherrod.
OzarkHillbilly
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,
It’s a very good book about the things TM and all the other NAACP lawyers endured taking on clients that could get them killed.
debbie
@sab:
Good for your stepson!
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Nobody ever is. Least of all me.
debbie
@Another Scott:
I’m genuinely shocked that didn’t make national news.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: As usual, you have another good point.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Twice in the same night??? Mark it on the calendar!!! /s/
Every now and again, it happens.
Martin
@OzarkHillbilly: The first anti-lynching bill (Dyer) introduced in congress was in 1918. So yeah, 104 years.
Famously, Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for anti-lynching legislation but FDR rejected it because he needed southern Dems to pass the New Deal.
Marc
Eleanor Roosevelt was venerated by my (black) parent’s and grandparent’s generation, FDR was not. In my father’s case, a program she personally pushed for allowed him to be trained as an electronics technician mate in 1944, deploy to the Pacific on an otherwise white ship, and after the war go to MIT on the GI Bill.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
The first anti lynching bill was introduced
over 120 yrs ago. OK I see Martin has the right year, 1918.I believe this was called the Emmett Till Anti Lynching Bill because of work done after his death by many people who were now powerful enough to actually work on the passage and the public. But the hate of some is, as I’m sure you know a very powerful thing. I’m so very glad that it has finally become federally illegal to lynch someone. That changes a lot and it is a big Biden – and many, many others deal.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
I agree. Tamir Rice, Lynched.
Another Scott
@Baud: BusinessInsider says it’s part of Biden’s FY23 budget proposal. Meaning the earliest the money would be available would be October 1, 2022. And given that budgets rarely are ready on October 1 (the start of the Federal fiscal year), it’s likely to be months after that. And maybe months after that to actually complete the hiring and get them “on-boarded”.
It’s a good thing, but we can’t expect instant output from them.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.