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Sunny

Sunny

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I'm bewildered, and probably missing a piece of the story. But I can't understand the connection between cancelling sports events and protests against police brutality. Example: Yesterday, the Nationals vs. Phillies game was cancelled abruptly. Major league teams are cancelling games all over the place. The NBA has brought things to a halt, pretty much. I don't get it.

I get the protests, and back them 100%. What I don't understand is how cancelling these events will improve police behavior, Is an immature, racist jerk of a cop with a gun in his hand which he is itching to use, going to stop and rethink his behavior because if he shoots this guy in the back, another baseball game may be cancelled?

Is this silly, inconsequential posturing? Is it the kind of thing people do when all logical appeals to decency have failed? Do the top honchos of sports teams have some kind of sway over police behavior? Is it the right thing to do, even if it's just symbolic? What is going on with this?
 

It took me aback as well, Sunny, but I look at from the perspective of, change has to come about from somewhere, and no seed blooms or blossoms as soon as you plant it. Good things take time

I see the move as a great start to bigger and better things, and if anything at all, it casts additional awareness and reminds people as to how meaningless and disposable we have all become.
 
The coach of the L.A. Clippers stated that black neighborhoods need more money and so and so on.

So, coach, why don't you, or your players, donate? You make enough money! Just like NFL players.........donate/give!

This whole thing has gotten ridiculous, but "it is what it is".
 
Actually, I'd like to see any professional sports player be a cop for a day/night in a high-crime area and try to arrest someone who is resisting. It's not easy! Just ask a real officer.
 
ClassicRockr said:
The coach of the L.A. Clippers stated that black neighborhoods need more money and so and so on.

So, coach, why don't you, or your players, donate? You make enough money! Just like NFL players.........donate/give!

This whole thing has gotten ridiculous, but "it is what it is".
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I don't think it's gotten ridiculous enough, because that's why we continue seeing the mishandling, abuse, and injustice being served each day.
 
On my soapbox:
We pay athletes, TV personalities, movie stars and other "celebrities" obscene amounts of money. The police who protect us, our military who likewise protect us and the teachers who educate our children, the future of this country, get paid a pitiable amount. What's wrong with this picture?
 
I'm astounded by the lack of understanding concerning the point of view of the players, who are humans first, after all. I found the following in the Washington Post by a black columnist, Jerry Brewer:

"For all its stealthy might, the novel coronavirus didn’t burst the NBA bubble. Police brutality did. Racism did. Heartless disregard for Black lives did. This is not a game; this is our reality. Our fear. Our pain. Our helplessness. And so there can be no games.

Basketball players — and all sports figures — are not toy entertainers, America. They do not exist in some imaginary world that can be turned on and off. There is no place for them to be stored away when inconvenient. They are people — part athlete, all human. To be Black and human is to know society can separate the former and dismiss the latter."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/26/black-america-nba-strike/

I'm especially astounded by your bewilderment, Sunny! :( Can't we at least try walking in another's moccasins for a little while at least and at least see their point of view?
 
In most cases, these examples of "police brutality" involve an excessive use of force against an individual violently resisting arrest. George Floyd, Rashard Brooks, "gentle giant" Michael Brown, etc.

Jacob Blake (who had a warrant outstanding for his arrest -- the cops didn't know that but he did) wrestled with the police, was tased, then walked around to the drivers' side of his car and opened the door. He later told police there was a knife on the floorboard.

Did the officer see the knife? Did he decide to shoot Mr. Blake rather than get stabbed? We don't know. These facts may come out at trial.
 
If the salaries of the two professions was reversed - police officer and professional sports figure - we might see improved quality of policing.
 
It's a progression of the protest against racial inequality and police brutality begun by Colin Kaepernick when he "took a knee" during the national anthem.
 
Pepper said:
I'm astounded by the lack of understanding concerning the point of view of the players, who are humans first, after all. I found the following in the Washington Post by a black columnist, Jerry Brewer:

"For all its stealthy might, the novel coronavirus didn’t burst the NBA bubble. Police brutality did. Racism did. Heartless disregard for Black lives did. This is not a game; this is our reality. Our fear. Our pain. Our helplessness. And so there can be no games.

Basketball players — and all sports figures — are not toy entertainers, America. They do not exist in some imaginary world that can be turned on and off. There is no place for them to be stored away when inconvenient. They are people — part athlete, all human. To be Black and human is to know society can separate the former and dismiss the latter."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/26/black-america-nba-strike/

I'm especially astounded by your bewilderment, Sunny! :( Can't we at least try walking in another's moccasins for a little while at least and at least see their point of view?
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Pepper, what is there to be "astounded" by? I have expressed no point of view, except to ask what will be accomplished by cancelling games. I have no "point of view" on this games-cancelling thing, except to be puzzled.

And if you've been reading what I have to say on the subject of police brutality at all, you know I am on the same side as you are. So what's your problem? Am I not allowed to ask a question?

Let me ask again: Are relations between the Black Lives Matter movement and the police going to be any better as a result of cancelling a bunch of sports events? What is the connection?

About bringing in paychecks, etc., I think that is irrelevant to this subject. My question had nothing to do with who gets paid how much. I don't think this is about money.

It does seem to me, so far, that the ball players and their managers are doing more harm to themselves than to brutal thugs on the police force. How will this help?
 
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Sports figures get more attention in this country than mothers, fathers and other real life heroes. People in this country are addicted to sports. When they do something or don't do something....people pay attention. And they are saying Enough is enough! These athletes are using their voices and power to bring attention to something that has gone on for far too long....for decades. White people have no idea what it's like to be afraid every time your child or grandchild walks out the door. Now things are getting to be so bad that people are being killed in their own homes by out of control cops. Our babies are scared, our mothers, fathers and grandparents are frightened. I had a friend who worked two jobs and bought her only remaining son a BMW. She said every time he drove that car he was stopped by police because they assumed, because he was Black, that he was into drugs or stole the car. SMDH!! This sh*t goes so deep that even some Black people can't fathom or comprehend the depth of it.

I salute every last one of those athletes who are standing in solidarity with BLM and each other. What I don't get is that so many in this country will defend animal rights and inanimate objects (the flag) before considering human rights of certain humans. What the flag allegedly stands for is not what is happening in too much of America. And now Roger Goodell has revealed that he should have supported Colin Kapernick and his reasons why. It took him worrying about his Black nephew stepping out into the environment of hate and profiling to open his eyes...really?! He said “It is not about the flag. The message here, and what our players are doing, is being mischaracterized,” Goodell said. “These are not people who are unpatriotic, they’re not disloyal, they’re not against our military. In fact, many of those guys were in the military, and they’re a military family. What they were trying to do was exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. That misrepresentation in who they were and what they were doing was a thing that really gnawed at me.”
BTW...Colin Kapernick got plenty of support from non-athletes who were in the military, yet another segment of our population (veterans) who often get overlooked and sometimes mistreated.
 
Aunt Marg said:
I don't think it's gotten ridiculous enough, because that's why we continue seeing the mishandling, abuse, and injustice being served each day.
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Question: Have you ever been a law enforcement officer and worked in a high-crime area? Have you ever tried to arrest a person who resisted? It's definitely not easy when a person is on drugs and even a taser doesn't work. It doesn't work either when a person tells themselves and/or law enforcement, "I'm not going back to jail again!" What about when a suspect physical resists an officer and tries to get his service weapon?

There are times that the officer is at fault, but many, many times the officer is not.

As far as "mishandling, abuse and injustice", again, be an officer and see what you would do!
 
So, just what will any of these pro-athlete's do if they need law enforcement and nobody comes? Will they hear on their phone, "sorry, 911 is no longer in operation".
 
Sunny said:
Pepper, what is there to be "astounded" by? I have expressed no point of view, except to ask what will be accomplished by cancelling games. I have no "point of view" on this games-cancelling thing, except to be puzzled.

And if you've been reading what I have to say on the subject of police brutality at all, you know I am on the same side as you are. So what's your problem? Am I not allowed to ask a question?

Let me ask again: Are relations between the Black Lives Matter movement and the police going to be any better as a result of cancelling a bunch of sports events? What is the connection?

About bringing in paychecks, etc., I think that is irrelevant to this subject. My question had nothing to do with who gets paid how much. I don't think this is about money.

It does seem to me, so far, that the ball players and their managers are doing more harm to themselves than to brutal thugs on the police force. How will this help?
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Hi Sunny. I've bolded what I need to answer. Bold 1--You're right, astounded is too big a word!
Bold 2--Yes, we appear to be on the same side. Bold 3--OEDiva said it best, #15--sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to draw attention to something Wrong. "We're not going to be entertaining you as if nothing is going on....It's too Important."
 
jerry old said:
Poo, the topic has bored me for two weeks-enough, huh?

















P
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Bored you? It bores you that we are only all created equal when it's convenient? It bores you that black men, women and children are treated badly because it's assumed that the color of their skin indicates that they've done something wrong? Or are about to do something wrong? It bores you that somebody's son, brother, father, sister, mother, gets arrested because they have been judged in advance simply for being black?

Walk a mile in those shoes, just be careful where you walk and at what time of day, and be careful what you have in your hand or in your pocket.

There are way too many people who live so far out of the realm of this kind of possibility, having never even come close to experiencing this kind of horrid treatment, that they really believe it doesn't happen...because, after all, it's never happened to them or to anybody they know.
 
ClassicRockr said:
So, just what will any of these pro-athlete's do if they need law enforcement and nobody comes? Will they hear on their phone, "sorry, 911 is no longer in operation".
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And what did those pro athletes do who were themselves victims of racial profiling? Many have been, then released with an "We're sorry. We didn't know who you were."
 
JimBob1952 said:
In most cases, these examples of "police brutality" involve an excessive use of force against an individual violently resisting arrest. George Floyd, Rashard Brooks, "gentle giant" Michael Brown, etc.

Jacob Blake (who had a warrant outstanding for his arrest -- the cops didn't know that but he did) wrestled with the police, was tased, then walked around to the drivers' side of his car and opened the door. He later told police there was a knife on the floorboard.

Did the officer see the knife? Did he decide to shoot Mr. Blake rather than get stabbed? We don't know. These facts may come out at trial.
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What difference does it make that Blake had an outstanding warrant? Even had they known, seven bullets to the back wasn't required in order to arrest him on that warrant.

Neither George Floyd nor Rayshard Brooks was "violently resisting arrest." Jacob Blake wasn't, either. Please cite your source.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
Bored you? It bores you that we are only all created equal when it's convenient? It bores you that black men, women and children are treated badly because it's assumed that the color of their skin indicates that they've done something wrong? Or are about to do something wrong? It bores you that somebody's son, brother, father, sister, mother, gets arrested because they have been judged in advance simply for being black?

Walk a mile in those shoes, just be careful where you walk and at what time of day, and be careful what you have in your hand or in your pocket.

There are way too many people who live so far out of the realm of this kind of possibility, having never even come close to experiencing this kind of horrid treatment, that they really believe it doesn't happen...because, after all, it's never happened to them or to anybody they know.
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Ok, GeorgiaXplant, I've got the perfect solution: No matter what a black person does, police should leave them alone. Let them spit on officers, cuss at officers, throw bottles, etc., etc.. Let them shoot/kill someone and never get arrested.

IOW, absolutely no laws for blacks! That would solve the problem!

And, even though there are many, many whites in poverty also, have the government give money to the black neighborhoods. As much money as they want.
 

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