Dammit Bananagrams
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Phoenix has it's own "I can't Breathe" case. The outcome was exactly the same
AZCentral: Phoenix has its own 'I can't breathe' case. The outcome was far different
"Three years ago, Phoenix had its own "I can't breathe" case. But its outcome has so far been very different than that of George Floyd's."
Let's see, black man doing basically nothing at the time:
"In 2017, Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin Jr. tried to take his dog with him to the bathroom at a city community center in west Phoenix. The police were called, discovered he had a warrant for his arrest, and decided to detain him."
Sounds the same to me. Maybe the police response was entirely different?
At least four officers got on top of him and held him down. Some put their knees on his neck and head.
Exactly like George Floyd. Perhaps Muyaymin was released without harm?
"I can't breathe," Muhaymin is heard saying several times in police body camera footage. When officers eventually got off him, Muhaymin had no pulse, according to comments from officers in the video, and lay in a pool of his own vomit.
With the same unnecessarily violent, incomprehensibly callous response from law enforcement, same tragic outcome for a non-violent black man.
The outcome was exactly the same. The "outcome" that matters is the life or death of this black man. The rest is just wrap up.
Once the headline had to say Phoenix had it's own 'I can't breathe' case, it was too late. I want to see the headlines saying "Our community has not had a case of police brutality in 5 years", "...10 years", "... 50 years".
"...a man in tactical gear with a long gun brandished it menacingly at protesters. “Open carry” of firearms is illegal in Illinois. The police had a quick chat with him and sent him on his way unmolested."
https://newrepublic.com/article/157981/police-take-side-white-vigilantes
How's that working out Arizona #covid19 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-map-coronavirus.html
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Old (from 2015) but good: why saying “all lives matter” is harmful
https://relevantmagazine.com/current16/problem-saying-all-lives-matter/
Making a new reading list https://www.bustle.com/p/10-books-about-race-to-read-instead-of-asking-a-person-of-color-to-explain-things-to-you-8548796
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"Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so." -- Mike Mullen, Former chair of the Joint Chiefs
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-cities-are-not-battlespaces/612553/
Champers (SORRY, LOST IMAGE) <!-- ![/static/uploads/B3B1D6BB-CE1D-483B-8DE3-8786FC92E5BC.jpeg](/static/uploads/B3B1D6BB-CE1D-483B-8DE3-8786FC92E5BC.jpeg #derg
What Trump means when he says "All Americans" and "citizens": http://monkinetic.blog/2020/06/02/not-all-americans
Lots of thoughts today as I follow the police riots across the US. First:
http://monkinetic.blog/2020/06/02/who-is-my-neighbor-2020
Not All Americans
It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me. Trump's election victory speech
When I hear Trump speak about "all Americans" - I cannot in looking at his actions believe that he means African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinx Americans, or any other minority, disadvantaged population here.
Armed white protesters are "very fine people", black and brown protesters are "THUGS".
Trump says that he defends the rights of "citizens"; but citizen is a legal/political construct that can be redefined and narrowed to exclude those without power or privilege.
Consider the new (Feb 2020) Denaturalization Section of the Justice Department:
The Denaturalization Section “underscores the department’s commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization,” Joseph H. Hunt, the head of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement.
No one wants "terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders" in the country, but –
“The Denaturalization Section will further the department’s efforts to pursue those who unlawfully obtained citizenship status and ensure that they are held accountable for their fraudulent conduct,” Mr. Hunt said.
Trump's Justice Department considers entering the country illegally to be a crime (of the worst sort, considering the resources they have put behind CBP and ICE). There's the real goal: the power to strip the rights and liberties from any immigrant who has been here as a productive member of society long enough (7 years?) to become naturalized.
The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, established after the civil war to establish and protect the citizenship of former slaves, says in part:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
The Denaturalization Section is in practicality an end-run around the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution. And to drag out a long post longer...
This clause reversed a portion of the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which had declared that African Americans were not and could not become citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship. Citizenship Clause (Wikipedia)
The goals of denaturalization laws now are the same racist goals as the Dred Scott laws of the post-US Civil War era.
Who is My Neighbor? 2020
From Sojourners in 2018, When White Nationalist Christians Redefined Their Neighbors :
Ludwig Müller, who became the Nazi-sanctioned Reich Bishop, went so far as to “Germanize” Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In his 1936 translation, Jesus says: “Happy are those who are at peace with their fellow Germans [Volksgenosse];"
In doing this, he captures how German Christian nationalists had already redefined who counted as their neighbor. If neighbors can be defined primarily as the “non-foreign” members of one’s nation first, then one can morally justify all sorts of actions against people who are categorized as outsiders.
I want to focus on my own white Christian community here. We are seeing this redefinition in action right now in our nation. Americans who consider themselves Christians are reading Facebook, watching FOX News, and watching Trump's speeches and going "you know we definitely do not want thugs or illegals in our streets! LAW & ORDER!"
But the "thugs and illegals" are whoever Trump considers them to be today. That photo op at St. John's Episcopal in DC? Among the "violent protesters" that were dispersed with tear gas and flash grenades was a priest from the church Trump wanted to visit.
We must take stock and recognize how much even our faith has been shaped by the systematic recism of our nation, and re-evaluate our worldview in the light of the scripture we claim we follow:
Who Is My Neighbor?
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ...
This is what Müller's false interpretation was targeting, for the same reason the questioner in Luke did: to narrow the definition of who he was expected to . But Jesus insists on the wider interpretation - even to the those whom the Jews considered heretics to be treated as dogs:
33 "But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out [his own money] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'"
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Emphasis mine) While our cities burn and police departments are instigating riots... on whom will we have mercy?
If we are not heartbroken and angered at the every day treatment of black and brown people in our communities, cities, and nation, if we will not speak up for them, if we will not spend our resources to give them reprieve, then we no longer consider them our neighbors.
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