the mellow tigger's musings

This is the view from my front door this morning. This is the weather for the protests yesterday and last night.

I'm feeling slightly better this morning. Still enormously distracted, though. Definitely not feeling focused on work like I should be at this hour, while I'm writing this blog entry. I'm reading up on the events of last night, and it's just as bad as I expected.

I've told this story before (back during yet another police murder of another local black man), but it bears repeating.

I'm old enough that I remember when cops would enter gay bars for no justifiable reason whatsoever. The too-loud dance music would immediately end, the disco lights would go off, the loud chatter in the bar would stop. White lights would turn on... and then there would be nothing but the sound of police boots as a group of cops entered the room. They walked the entire perimeter of the small bar, then they walked out again. No other sound. No word spoken by anyone.  Both sides looking at each other, wondering "What will they do?", and both sides knowing that only one side will suffer if anybody does anything at all to disturb this ritual display of authority and submission.

I remember.  I was there.

This old (white male straight (I assume)) Minnesota professor's summary is still best for these recent events:


Another day.  My thanks to all the protesters who continued yesterday, while I'm feeling old and tired and frustrated.

The curfew begins at 7pm today.  The road I drove to work in the morning was blocked off this afternoon.  It passes directly by the local Federal Reserve building, which got its own National Guard troops during last year's riots.  There are plenty of news articles with photos showing how authorities responded yesterday (local story) too.  Traffic on my alternate path home was gridlocked worse than before covid arrived.  After stopping at the grocery store on my way home, I passed military vehicles stationed at a mini-plaza area about a dozen blocks from my house. 

Freakin' military vehicles and troops are in my neighborhood!  Because yet another cop killed yet another black man for no justifiable reason at all.  Where I got my covid shot last week, that's about halfway between where Daunte Wright was killed and the police precinct where people went to protest.  It's a suburb neighboring Minneapolis to the northwest.

Early word is that the officer called out "Tazer" but shot a gun instead.  It doesn't matter if it was a mixup.  It straight up Does. Not. Matter.

1) Accepting that defense would mean, as we've said all along, that people trained to self-authorize a killing act cannot be trusted to act in any situation that does NOT require killing.  They will make deadly mistakes, and those mistakes cannot be tolerated.  Those mistakes SHOULD NOT be tolerated!  As we keep saying, time and again and again and again and again.

2) Accepting that defense would mean that every police encounter has an immediate loophole.  It's the same ploy used by "stand your ground" legislation.  All you have to do is claim that you perceived the situation in a way that justifies a plausible action.  It becomes an opinion which replaces as fact the actual situation.  It's a self-justification with no accountability.  This escape route is perfectly illustrated in this very old South Park comedy clip.  All that officers would have to do is start shouting "Tazer" every time they fire a bullet.  Don't allow it.  End it now.


3) Accepting that defense would mean that fully trained professionals are forgiven to act irresponsibly, while untrained civilians must act perfectly or just accept getting killed by their own government.  Anytime an encounter results in an observer thinking, "They should've just done [x]", then we're holding the public to a higher standard than the government itself.  Don't do that.  That's backwards.

I am angry that police killed again.

I am angry that military are stationed in my neighborhood.

I am angry that my government will go to any freakin' lengths to preserve its status quo.

As an old, white male Minnesota professor put it so appropriately in a tweet earlier today:


I think a lot of people are finally realizing the necessity of the changes that we've been advocating.  No more stalling!

My tolerance continues to fray.  Here's a 2-minute video recording that I clipped from the public meeting that my city councilmember held on October 8th. 
http://www.deltaworld.info/media/jordan/minneapolis.ward5.publicsafety.20201008.mp4  (12MB)

When I wrote my earlier "dream" post and started yelling that people should listen to what I hear daily, that was exactly the day that the police officer described in the above MP4 clip.

• 400 people shot, 60 dead, so far this year in Minneapolis
• 809 guns recovered thus far in 2020, a 90% increase over 2019
• 4th police precinct includes my Jordan neighborhood and others here in north Minneapolis
• 42% of all guns recovered in city of Minneapolis are recovered in 4th precinct
• 2020 October 07 Wednesday, 250 bullets fired between 6pm-11pm in 4th precinct

When I repeatedly over years refer to my area as the #WarzoneInMinneapolis, I AM NOT KIDDING!  When government and people of all levels continue to ignore this disaster of a civilization, it is starting to make me angry.  When people talk about going out for a walk to relax in these stressful times, I want to heave an annoyed sigh and glare at them for being so ignorantly privileged to enjoy their own safe sidewalks.  When people talk about traveling for vacations (especially to foreign countries), I want to yell at them to pay some much needed attention to their own crumbling territory first.

I DARE YOU to name exactly what either Donald Trump or Joe Biden would do that will make life better HERE.  On my street.  There were candidates that had ideas that seemed targeted at exactly these painful oversights of government, but people somewhere are collectively responsible for sidelining all of them.  I'm willing to make significant changes.  I blame everyone else for being unwilling to see the suffering that happens near them or to actually solve it.

I am feeling significantly uncharitable to everything associated with "status quo".  The two separate Americas are entirely unsustainable.