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Black Lives Matter Turns One

Deray McKesson on safety, accountability and justice on the one year anniversary of Black Lives Matter:

We will work hard to teach people that the safety of communities is not predicated on the presence of police – that safety is a more expansive notion than policing. Safety is strong schools, access to jobs, workforce development and access to healthcare, among many other things.

The solution-work will likely fall into two separate but critically related areas: removing barriers, and building and rebuilding.

There is much to be done to tear down systems and structures that oppress people, like mandatory minimum sentencing, broken-windows policing and police contracts that provide officers with protections that ensure they will never be held accountable for the crimes they commit.

And just as a path through a mountain is made passable not just by removing the stone but by supporting the mountain from crumbling back in on itself, we know that no barrier will ever truly be removed until a corresponding structure, system or policy has positively taken its place. In the place of mandatory minimums and broken windows must be a sensible approach to policing, particularly drug enforcement and proactive community building strategies. Contracts must be rewritten and police policies adjusted so that police and citizens alike receive the same set of protections and presumption of innocence under the law.

There is no one solution that will end police violence. Our work in the coming phase will be to help people understand a set of complex solutions, simply.

Accountability is important, but accountability is not our ultimate goal. Accountability is not justice.
In this moment, as we reflect on where we are, how we got here and where we are going, I am reminded of the difference between accountability and justice – and of our commitment to both. Accountability is the consent decree between the US justice department and the Ferguson and Cleveland police departments, and the reparations for the victims of the torture of the Chicago police department. Accountability is important, but accountability is not our ultimate goal. Accountability is not justice.

We seek justice – not an abstract justice, but a living, breathing, tangible justice. Justice is a living Mike Brown. Justice is a playing Tamir Rice. Justice is Sandra Bland at her new job. Justice is Rekia Boyd with her family. Justice is Mya Hall with her friends. Justice is no more death.

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Comments

Your movement seems to be a total fail. It's eating its own.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/social-security-medicare-rally-featuring...

What is being accomplished?

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Black Lives Matters was on every sunday political talk show today because of the high-profile protest of Bernie Sanders in Seattle yesterday. They talked about it on This Week, Meet The Press and Face The Nation.

Bernie had been asked to talk about expanding Social Security by WCAN but when it was his turn he was immediately protested. Bernie gave the mic over to the two women from Black Lives Matter and listened. He didn't get a chance to speak about his topic.

Afterward he had a second event, his largest audience yet, 12,000 at Univ. of Washington Ed Hec Arena. 3,000 people were still in line trying to get in and couldn't so he addressed them first.

I'm not sure what demands Black Lives Matter is making of presidential candidates nor have I spent much time thinking about the best role for racial justice policy on the Federal level. Here's what Sanders proposed, which includes

-Shut down the private prison industry
-Fight unjust mandatory minimums
-Fight the death penalty

Here are some of the things that are being looked at the state and local level.

  • H.2144 bill by Rep Keefe to ban military equipment to police, in Public Safety Cmte
  • Boston police body cams. Worcester, Springfield, and about three other towns in MA have started working with body cams. Boston is just 1 of 4 out of 26 major US cities that hasn't taken any official steps.
  • A proposal (bill) that police-involved shootings would be investigated by Mass attorney General and special prosecutor not DA
  • ACLU is suing Boston Police for most recent stop-and-frisk data. The FOIA was filed 11 months ago and BPD has not responded.
  • State legislature is looking at criminal justice reform for non-violent offenders
  • School discipline rules are being reviewed to end the school to prison pipeline
  • We may be witnessing a shift toward treating illegal substance abuse as a health problem not a crime problem (see Gloucester.)

There's some other stuff I can't recall of the top of my head.

Will someone read what Deray McKesson wrote about and tell me if you think he's on the right track?

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The people who pushed Bernie off stage were not formally affiliated with BLM, and there are rumors about who may have paid them.

Bernie's newest hire, his press secretary Symone Sanders (no relation), was his warm-up speaker in Portland, Oregon. 20,000 people.

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Anyone who claims Black Lives Matter movement is ineffective doesn't know what they're talking about:

Portland OR tonight

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I'm not sure what demands Black Lives Matter is making of presidential candidates nor have I spent much time thinking about the best role for racial justice policy on the Federal level.

Nice of you to fess up, anyway.

African Americans and Latin Americans are very significant Democratic Party constituents that progressives routinely overlook while navel gazing about their various progressive concerns that mainly reflect the values of liberal white yuppies.

Bernie is from a lily white state and can be forgiven to a degree for being a bit out of it. He figures economic justice will solve it all.

But there are far deeper wounds to handle, particularly when paranoid white male animosity has been so lethal since Obama was elected and it really seemed to take off when he was re-elected.

Hillary has a significant advantage here and something of a track record.

To me, racial redress and social justice are very important and I will not take white yuppie progressives seriously until I see evidence of agreement beyond passing lip service.

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Bernie is from a lily white state and can be forgiven to a degree for being a bit out of it. He figures economic justice will solve it all.

I suspect it was more finding the right people to partner with, to prevent his campaign from sounding patronizing.

Have you seen this? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-press-secretary_55c77...

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Do you have more info about the two women who took the stage in Seattle at the WCAN rally?

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I'm skeptical of the sincerity of people who use the expression "lilly white" and say "to me, racial redress and social justice are very important" but show very little evidence that's the case.

So anon, (who claims racial redress and social justice are very important to you,) what policies should the Federal government enact to address which problems?

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In the places where there are high degrees of racial tension and police policies that aggravate said tension, intrusive Fed audits and reviews are likely to be useful. This happened to some extent in Ferguson but not so much with Eric Garner. Consistency across the nation from one jurisdiction to another is a key element.

Cop shops get a lot of Fed Aid in various forms and stipulations should come with that regarding a race relations policy and training. There may be ways of analyzing reporting data regarding crime in potential flash spots to see if undue profiling and stop and frisk policies are contributing factors.

I'm semi retired now but I spent a significant part of my life trying to get African American musicians money through grants and put them in situations that would enhance their prestige.

Through various grants and arrangements, I probably got close to 100k into people's pockets in the 80s while calling attention to the qualities of intellect shaping the music. And I did most of it for free for a decade.

So that's what I got. Now it's your turn. Do edify all of us with the extent of your earnest efforts beyond parsing and policing words from some random in a comment stream.

What's the progressive plan? The summary of Bernie proposals was his and they are sound. The various efforts cited here in look good. Don't be bashful.

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