Steelers Player Didn't Mean to Stand Alone During Anthem

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: SlapMonkey

Why do I care about other human beings, the way they are treated, and the freedom of others to protest at their treatment by the state?

Well damn... If you have to ask that question, there are bigger problems than I can solve by answering it for you.

Well, damn...I didn't ask that question, you are putting those words in my mouth through a (willful, IMO) misinterpretation of my comment. I asked you why you are so concerned about this particular issue of kneeling during the national anthem, not why do you care about other human beings (most, if not all, who are doing the protesting are not treated remotely bad by "the state.")

The idea that any one of them is existing in a state where they are under increased scrutiny or risk of arrest or even death, just because they belong to a specific demographic is of great concern to me. It also happens to be the case that there are people I care about personally living in the United States, and I am greatly concerned that they are living in a country whose authorities are not in any way capable of self management, even at the street level.

Then you are greatly misinformed as to the severity of this issue (police murders and brutality). I have seen you cite statistics many times--statistically speaking, the amount of incidents where this occurs versus the amount of police interactions on a daily basis in the U.S. is tantamount to a statistical anomaly, not a systemic problem of racism and hatred.

You don't live here. You don't experience daily interactions with police. You aren't privy to local news stories about all the good that officers do on a daily basis. You hear the bad (or perceived bad, in many cases) and hear bull# chants like "Hands Up Don't Shoot" and proceed to latch on to the idea of purposeful, systemic issues. Reality couldn't be more reflective of the opposite conclusion.

I expect national governments to be little more than collections of filth, but the idea that police agencies are permitted to continue to employ people who simply should not be on the job at all, is very worrying indeed, in a far more immediate sense than is the idea that central governance is failing massively.

Well, if we don't want the hiring of people who sometimes end up being racist assholes, maybe liberals shouldn't support all of these measures from the federal government that say that we can't ask certain questions at job interviews, or that we can't discriminate during hiring (discrimination CAN be a good thing in certain instances), or that we should consider affirmative-action hiring so that we have a diverse work force in lieu of the best people being hired for the job.

See, the federal government, even though it's hand is deep in the hiring cookie jar of non-federal entities, should not be telling these entities how and whom to hire, or forcing them to hire this or that person (or not hire this or that person) because of arbitrary federal guidelines meant to keep up appearances.

You don't want asshole cops with poor human-interaction skills, then advocate for allowing better hiring practices for police departments that are allowed to take into account more in-depth mental and physical evaluations, or to hire mostly all-white, all-Hispanic, all-black, or all-whatever departments if that means being able to hire the best-qualified individuals.

See, it's not that the federal government "allows" these people to be hired, it's more or less that they manipulate the hiring system so much that these people do get hired--and when they turn out to be asshole, trigger-happy cops, everyone is amazed at how they got hired in the first place.

But, by all means, perpetuate the inaccuracy that this is a systemic problem with cops--and, by all means, certainly avoid discussing the personal culpability that many of these "victims" of police violence hold in their own encounters with police.