Sylville Smith (c. 1993-2016) was a Black American man gunned down by police in Milwaukee on Saturday August 13th 2016. It has led to two nights of violent protests so far: businesses burned, police cars destroyed, rocks thrown at police, guns fired, etc. There have been some injuries and arrests, but no one killed.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a city 90 miles (150 km) north of Chicago, is the most racially segregated city in the US. Most Black men are out of work, and most of those in their 30s and 40s have been to prison. The state of Wisconsin locks up more Black men than any other state in the nation. It has the worst Black reading scores, worse than even Mississippi or Alabama. Four out of five Black children live in poverty. Easily one of the worst places to be Black in America.
Milwaukee has its own litany of Black men killed by police: Derek Williams, James Perry, Corey Stingley, Brandon Johnson, Dontre Hamilton – and now Sylville Smith.
And, its county sheriff is none other than David Clarke, that Black sheriff you see sometimes on Fox News. He says “there is no police brutality in America”, not since the 1960s, and sees Black Lives Matter as an enemy of the rule of law.
The police say they stopped Smith’s car Saturday afternoon after they “saw suspicious activity” (of an unnamed sort). It was near where three people had been shot dead the night before. Smith and his passenger ran. When they caught up with Smith they say Smith turned and had a gun in his hand. The police say they repeatedly ordered him to put the gun down. When he refused, they shot him in the arm and the chest, killing him.
The police say a Black officer killed him. He is so far unnamed.
Smith’s sister Sherelle said her brother and the officer knew each other from high school, that maybe he killed him out of jealousy. She cannot imagine her brother pulling a gun on police without shooting.
His mother said he got a concealed-carry licence for a gun because he had been shot twice and robbed four times. She can see him running, but not pulling a gun on police.
The police were quick to tell of his “lengthy arrest record”, but apart from traffic charges, the only thing he has been found guilty of was carrying a concealed weapon. He was fined $443 and served a day in jail. Not a felony.
What the police do not tell you is that Smith took the police to court and won. Like Korryn Gaines, he felt harassed by the police.
Video: there is body camera video of the shooting. It has yet to be made public for reasons unnamed. They say it has no sound – so you will not hear the police ordering Smith to put the gun down. But they say it does show the gun in his hand.
The investigation is being done by Wisconsin’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- Korryn Gaines
- Philando Castile
- Black Lives Matter
- mass incarceration
- Black reading scores – Wisconsin at the bottom
- Fox News
521
This is what Clark said about the Milwaukee unrest, especially referring to black protestors, but I warn you, this would make Tommy Sotomayor look like Malcolm X:
http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/08/15/sheriff-clarke-calls-black-milwaukee-protesters-creeps-exhibiting-tribal-behavior/
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Also, as usual, what will be ignored in the conversation about this latest police killing of black people are the conditions black people face in Milwaukee. They will blame black people for their own conditions and deny the presence of institutional racism that’s prevalent there. They have to in order to maintain systemic white supremacy.
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Right or wrong, when I heard those chants of “Black Power!”, I got some icy chills in my body. Yup.
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@Brothawolf
Systems and institutions are the name of the game.
I just read an article that discussed some systems and institutions that make life so miserable for Black people in Milwaukee (and Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston and Baton Rouge, etc…..), namely:
1. Disinvestment
2. Segregated Housing
3. Law Enforcement for Profit
Writer, Lambert Strether of Naked Capitalism dissects those three systems and institutions and their history in the article Milwaukee Riots Round-up of “Systemic Causes”.
I particularly agree with what he sees as the underlying motivation to those corrosive systems and institutions:
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Link to the article:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/08/milwaukee-riots-round-up-of-systemic-causes.html
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“Many discussions of race and class founder on the question of “Which came first?” Can’t greed and racism be simultaneous? I imagine a slave trader working on his ledger, and counting up the profits from his purchase and sale of “human resources.” “Why did these people deserve to be sold?” he asks himself. Hmm…””
The answer is easy, racism wouldn’t be enough to convince the backers of the slave trader to risk their money. The Africans who were the sellers weren’t motivated by racism. So greed was the motive. Your confusion is due to the fact that you left out the African partners in the trade. Black officials still benefit from the tendency to see only the white culprits in this business.
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The father of Smith:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sylville-smith-father_us_57b23c10e4b0a8e15024ecb6
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Thanks for the real story Abagond. I’m not getting half this stuff in the media.
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Some Milwaukie police history.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1754251998187573&id=100008083698763
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@gro jo
There is greed enough to go around.
@ Abagond
Seems like revenge harassment is also a motive. The police seem to operate like a gang of mafioso. Winning in court against them is reason enough for constant harassment.
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The problem is the contradiction of a white brother with a gun coming out of a confrontation with police…alive. I was just watching AMC’s The Making of the Mob about Al Capone. Throughout the whole series, they made excuses for Al and how he really didn’t want to kill anyone. How he tried to make a legal living for his family that did not work. That illegal crime was the only way to survive. You have to see it to believe it. There’s a double standard out there for real.
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@sableindian
There is no double standard at all. They make plenty of excuses for Black criminals, and for that matter all criminals. This society has a gangster worshipping complex. They love Capones, Gottis, Tookies, you name it. I don’t know where you got this double standard??? As for Capone & Gotti, rap guys have even named themselves after those guys (Capone & Noreaga, Irv Gotti).
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@Rick
For blacks there is a double standard. The first thing to pop up for a black death is his record. For a white guy nothing. Unless you want to count the good guy rhetoric and that is even if he has a record. So not sure what excuses ypu are talking about being made for black criminals.
Secondly, rappers are paid entertainerst. Most of them are not even hardcore in real life, so this looking up or worshipping criminals is not true. They don’t worship criminals. They, in a lot of cases, see that as a means to make money. To get by with easy money.
Shall we go on with the double standards ypu don’t see due to you apparent white mind set?
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For blacks there is a double standard.
Not if you are a white supremacist like Rick it ain’t.
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I meant that the pop culture and also media culture paints gangsters as romantic, tragic heroes. Watch any movie or documentary about gangsters of any stripe and you’ll see they make them out to be cool, tough, naughty bad boys. How they have mistresses, how they are generous- buying puppies for little kids, etc. For Black gangsters they do this as well, always emphasizing how tough they had it growing up. For Russian ones, how tough they had it in the Soviet Union, and so on and so forth.
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@Rick
The media culture paints blacks as thugs, so where do you get this romantic tragic hero bs? A black person is a thug for dressing a certain way according to the media and a white an athlete if he dresses the same way.
They make Mob bosses out to be that, but not black gangsters. The closest you get to that for blacks would be American gangster and even in that he was cool as long as he was helping, but quickly became the opposite when he let it all go to his head.
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“or Black gangsters they do this as well, always emphasizing how tough they had it growing up.”—The movies you are referring to (boys in the hood types) they are showing how it was for them growing up. Not romanticizing it. There is nothing pretty about those type of movies and they are meant to show the struggle.
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@sharinalr
I don’t know what you are talking about, sorry. They make both mob bosses and Black gangsters out to be cool, tough, smooth, hip, sexually desirable, rich and coming up from the bottom/poor boy making it. I did not see “American Gangster” and can’t comment on it. As for the “Boys in the Hood” type movies, they may be intending to show the struggle, but viewers, especially guys, come away with how cool Ice Cube was when he took out Ricky’s killer. They say that about “Scarface” too, that it is a warning as to what can happen if you try and go big- but all I ever heard anyone talk about was how cool Tony was. That’s just the way people take things in I guess.
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OMG, getta old of this!
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnuzzFveMSY)
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@Rick
You know exactly what I am talking about. Even in your example of rappers using names like Gotti you showed the romanticism of white gangsters. Nothing you presented shows a romanticism of black gangsters. You have no clear example, because the fact is the double standard is so clear even Stevie wonder could see it. Those black gangsters didn’t make it. Many were shot dead, thus highlighting the struggle.
“but viewers, especially guys, come away with how cool Ice Cube was when he took out Ricky’s killer.”—Of the males I know, they did not come out thinking Ice Cube’s character was cool. They came out thinking he got justice for his brother. As to scareface they do think he is cool. Mob bosses are glorified and if you need more examples to show the double standard I can provide, but so far all your examples are simply supporting my stance on the double standards. You can clearly name romanticized mob bosses, but have no clear example of black gangsters.
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@sharinalr
That’s what gangsters do, they get shot dead. They know they will, that’s part of what makes them want to live that way. Danger is exciting, women love it and gangsters know that; all of them do. As for “Irv Gotti,” he romanticized the Gotti name on his own.
Gangsterdom is glorified, period. But always all gangsters have caveats included in their stories, wether in documentaries or films; that they are poor, their daddy was mean to them, reform school, the Soviet gulags, etc. No gangsters are presented as bad in and of themselves, none. From Nicky Barnes to John Gotti, they are all so cool.
“Of the males I know, they did not come out thinking Ice Cube’s character was cool. They came out thinking he got justice for his brother.” That I have difficulty believing, “getting justice” is “cool,” especially to young men. He was clearly the ‘dominant’ male character in that film, he didn’t get pushed around and did what he wanted- young guys of any stripe find that cool.
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Once again, a white person sashays into the discussion and derails it with trivial bull crap.
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They become teed off when you do not bow to their ‘superior’ wisdom. It’s comical but sad. Comical due to their white supremacist bloviating and sad because one has to read these post in their fecal glory. Well I suppose you have a choice.
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@Rick
Oddly none of that changes the fact that you are using white gangsters or Mobb bosses to try to claim no double standard, when it is clear from what you are saying that the romanticism or glorification is only for those white gangsters and mobb bosses.
A documentary is only telling their story. It is not romanticizing or glorifying it. If it was then they would have gotten away with it. If it was glorifying it then it would only show how great life was. IT would have never showed things like “that they are poor, their daddy was mean to them, reform school, the Soviet gulags, etc”. The Sopranos did just that. Tony always got away with it. Things always worked out. You pulling Nicky barnes does not hold true to how black gangsters are viewed and have been viewed by society. As the bad guys. Even in society today, when people think drug dealers they think a black dude. When people say thug they mean a black dude. They are not thinking a white dude. They not thinking Mob bosses.
“That I have difficulty believing, “getting justice” is “cool,” especially to young men.”—Not all men have the same thoughts or mentality so not sure why it is so hard to believe and unless you are black not sure why you believe you can speak for how black men felt about the situations. They did not see getting justice as “cool” they saw it as something cube had to do. Street justice.
“He was clearly the ‘dominant’ male character in that film, he didn’t get pushed around and did what he wanted- young guys of any stripe find that cool.”—He wasn’t the dominant character. Everyone favored his brother and he was seen as the “f**ck up. That is why he had such a chip on his shoulder and because his brother loved him no matter what that is why he took it hard. Most young guys did not even have an opinion of Cube’s character. The gritty nature of the film was of interest to them.
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@Herneith
Haha, somebody is automatically “white” for not being in lockstep right? Yeah, as for getting teed, that is definitely more you that me.
As for “white supremacy,” as long as you are straightening your hair, wearing suits or dresses, speaking and writing English, going to church or living in mixed neighborhoods, then you have no problem with “white supremacy.” If you are middle class, and I suspect most on here are, then you certainly have no problem with it. Unless you are advocating for a “Republic of New Africa” or some other such thing, you can go ahead and miss me with that noise honey.
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@sharinalr
There is no double standard I can see on this, I don’t know why white gangsters make a difference. All gangsters are “cool” in Hollywood. In “Casino” DeNiro’s Jewish character was the hero of the movie, the ‘redneck’ locals were the ones portrayed as bad and with no backstory or redeeming qualities.
You seem to not understand men very well, most kids I remember at that time thought Cube’s character was plenty tough and cool. Anyway, those were just my opinions on your original comment, I had no idea this was going to lead to a book-length correspondence, nor did I intend to become a movie critic, so I’ll end it right here.
Agree to disagree.
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@rick
“There is no double standard I can see on this, I don’t know why white gangsters make a difference.”—Because you choose to put on blinders to it, does not mean it is not there. White gangster makes a difference because there is a different view for a white one versus a black one, thus the double standard.
“All gangsters are “cool” in Hollywood.”—No, they are not and again you presented only white gangsters as having a cool factor in hollywood.
“You seem to not understand men very well, most kids I remember at that time thought Cube’s character was plenty tough and cool”—I was raised by men so I understand them very well, but men are not kids, who you keep trying to place as a speaking mark for MEN. IF you don’t know the difference between a man and a kid then you should not be speaking in this conversation period. Secondly, the kids you spoke to do not speak for even one else in this world and most black males did not see him as cool or tough but saw the movie as a depiction of life of the time. The same way they saw most movies of that time. He was never a pillar that people held up or put much stock into.
“Anyway, those were just my opinions on your original comment, I had no idea this was going to lead to a book-length correspondence, nor did I intend to become a movie critic, so I’ll end it right here.”—Your opinion lead to telling another comment that they were wrong about double standards they saw and noticed. Thus my response to you and continued response to you in your effort to try to tell someone how it is. If it take a three page letter for me to do it, then I will but not everyone lives in a bubble.
“Agree to disagree.”—I order for me to do that I would have to be willing to put more stock into your false narrative. So no.
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@Mack
“Once again, a white person sashays into the discussion and derails it with trivial bull crap.”
lol, was thinking the same thing.
Anyway, it’s a pretty well studied phenomenon that black criminals or suspects are reported in a more negative way.
http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/6/1/6/9/p261698_index.html
Here’s a huffpost article that also makes an observation about the difference in the way black and white suspects are reported.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/media-black-victims_n_5673291.html
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I’ll never forget how a judge felt sympathy for the Charleston church shooter’s family while a fire captain bashed all “urban” black families for the fact that Trayvon Martin was murdered. Within the racist framework it’s almost impossible for a white person to do anything to forfeit his or her humanity while black people are often seen as subhuman by default. This is reflected in the way crime is reported.
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You left out the part of many black people beating up whites, and one kid getting shot in the neck prompting an independent journalist , (Who is half Korean, but looks all Caucasian) to fear for his life , and to leave. If anyone was going to cover unfairly it was that guy. Black lives matter , as I’ve said before is divisive, and so is the mainstream media. Particularly CNN. You know Abagond, you once admitted to me that you don’t cover stories like this because you say that the mainstream media doesn’t , so you must cover it from a “black perspective” in so many words. Well, In this case you are right, except the MSM outlets like CNN cover it WITH the same bias as you. Doesn’t seem like your coverage balances that out. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMOWEAAth0)
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@sharinalr
I was meaning that ‘I’ was going to agree to disagree, I was not asking you to, that is why I did not include a question mark at the end of that sentence. I know you won’t agree to disagree, that is obvious. But, as a man, it is my responsibility to do just that.
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@Rick
I know you meant that you were going to. I was making it clear that I was not going to and stated why. My answer was a regardless one. Hence the “in order for me”
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@Origin
I love that research is done on it, but even with research the denial is there for some people.
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Criminality, Double Standards and Being a (cool) Gangsta?
Employers Prefer White Felons Over Blacks With No Criminal Record
“Racial disparities have been documented in many contexts, but here, comparing the two job applicants side by side, we are confronted with a troubling reality: Being black in America today is just about the same as having a felony conviction in terms of one’s chances of finding a job.”
Double standard, ya think?
@ rick
You should take your blinders and sashay the heck out of here with your BS.
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@ Fan
Thanks so much for that CNN link.
The great irony is that media, especially “news’ organizations are the greatest purveyors of negative Black stereotypes in the world. They are deeply responsible for planting and maintaining anti-Black images in the minds of people globally.
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@Origin
Too bad the All Academic study is behind a paywall. I wonder what qualifies as “animal imagery”? Is it subliminal, in the background or overt? Have we become numb to it?
The tremendous daily effort to dehumanize Black people is one testament to the huge subterranean lake of guilt that exists in the White community. In one of Abagond’s most powerful (and trolled) articles, he describes what is behind that effort:
Also thanks for the Huffpo link. We see and hear this stuff everyday. It’s not until you see it in one place that the intentionality of media anti-Black racism hits you right between the eyes. The contrasts are grotesque.
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Shocker, another brother killed with no justice given. I was browsing that debate with Rick above and honestly I won’t engage a brainwashed black or a non black on issues of race for that same reason. Logic doesn’t work on them. Abagond has sad it numerous times himself racism isn’t rational or logical.
The fact that we waste so much energy trying to explain things to brain washed and non blacks doesn’t make sense to me at all anynore. I’ve been down that road a trillion times. Yes, a trillion. There’s no hope of getting them to see your side of the equation no matter how logical it sounds or how many statistics you posts. White supremacy has a hold of their brains and it’s not possible to free them.
I guess that sounds nihilistic in a way buy consider my situation: I’m a black guy who lives in a predominantly white area who was adopted by white parents. White is all I’ve ever known. I can’t take a break from white people. Not at work, not on my time off not ever. So I know white people through and through and I know that for a fact that there simply no changing their racist little brains on this issue.
If you’re not in my situation then I inplore to not waste a single typed sentence debating with a brainwashed black or white person. Nothing EVER COMES FROM IT.
Peace and love everybody.
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@Afrofem
The “animal imagery” referred to adjectives in news reports.
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2008/diversity_research_center_series.aspx
@Sharina
They are willfullly ignorant and deluded.
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@rick: This guy wasn’t a “gangster” and furthermore, even if he had something on his record, none of it deserved a DEATH sentence.
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@rick: What I don’t like is people DYING for things that they shouldn’t DIE for, okay?
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You left out the part of many black people beating up whites, and one kid getting shot in the neck prompting an independent journalist , (Who is half Korean, but looks all Caucasian) to fear for his life , and to leave. If anyone was going to cover unfairly it was that guy. Black lives matter , as I’ve said before is divisive, and so is the mainstream media. Particularly CNN. You know Abagond, you once admitted to me that you don’t cover stories like this because you say that the mainstream media doesn’t , so you must cover it from a “black perspective” in so many words. Well, In this case you are right, except the MSM outlets like CNN cover it WITH the same bias as you. Doesn’t seem like your coverage balances that out.
1. The number of whites victims of crimes by blacks is astronomically lower than you may think. And for some reason, white commenters who bring up ‘black-on-white crime’ ignore the glaring and troubling truth that they’re way more likely to be a victim of a crime by ANOTHER WHITE PERSON! And if you were to do further research, you would see that crime is largely INTRA-RACIAL due to people of a certain group will likely interact more often with people of the same group.
2. Black Lives Matter didn’t divide this country. This nation was divided WAY BEFORE there was such a movement. Hell, it was divided before the Civil Rights Movement and I’m certain white people back then said the same thing about it. In the end, it was powerful white people that decided whites shouldn’t coexist with other people, and they made that point bloody clear even to this day.
3. Any perspective from black people about anything that doesn’t fit with the white gaze is rarely given the light of day in the mainstream media. Most of the content is geared for straight white males by straight white males from a straight white male perspective even if they use POC’s opinion which conveniently is the same as theirs. That’s why they turn to Sheriff David Clarke for his thoughts whenever a cop kills a black man and the news has gone national.
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And my last comment was directed to Dave up there.
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@Brothawolf
On point, as usual.
During the Civil Rights Movement, White people told Black people that their quest for equal rights as US citizens under the law was:
❖”Not realistic”
❖”Poorly timed; Black people should be patient”
❖”Creating division”
❖”Upsetting the natural order”
❖”Never going to happen”
❖”Communist inspired”
As long as the ideology White Supremacy holds sway over the minds of White people, any assertion of Black people’s human rights will be fiercely opposed by White Supremacists and their allies of all colors.
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@ Origin
Thanks for the Northwestern link.
When I was a kid, my father and his friends would joke about White people conflating Black people with apes. The jokes would vary, but the punchline was always the same: “they call us monkeys, but they are the hairy ones!”
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During the Civil Rights Movement, White people told Black people that their quest for equal rights as US citizens under the law was:
❖”Not realistic”
❖”Poorly timed; Black people should be patient”
❖”Creating division”
❖”Upsetting the natural order”
❖”Never going to happen”
❖”Communist inspired”
@Afrofem
I’ve often wondered why white people were never honest and admitted that any gains made by Black people would – apparently according to their beliefs/behavior – somehow mysteriously cause a loss in some way,form or fashion to white people. (Zero sum game?) Delusion is a powerful drug!
Why else would they plant their collective heels squarely on BLACK necks (systemic racism), and then have the audacity to call Blacks lazy people?
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Haha, somebody is automatically “white” for not being in lockstep right? Yeah, as for getting teed, that is definitely more you that me.
You don’t have to be ‘white’ to have a white supremacist mindset. You are a prime example of this.
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Rick,
Are you ‘R.L’ that used to troll in my blog but banned himself twice?
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Rare to see. A foreign head of state comment on US police state violence against blacks.
Pres. Duterte Slams international media
(https://youtu.be/m5UtXbfwoMs?t=10m23s)
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A lot of that was hard for me to understand, admittedly, but at some point I thought Duterte said “Wazzup?”
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@nomad
The pot calling the kettle black. Pres. Duterte is an avid supporter of death squad killings of suspected criminals and drug users.
Due process and the rule of law are trivialities to this Filipino version of Trump.
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@Afrofem
Yeah, as far as I am able to discern, he pretty much admits that. He basically says the US is doing the same thing re blacks. Kettle calling the pot black.
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I don’t really know him, and seeing as how Trump hasn’t killed anybody yet, I prefer to think of him as a Filipino version of Clinton or Obama.
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@nomad
(chuckle) Good points, as usual.
Three names with bloodstained hands…nationality immaterial.
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Pres. Duterte is an avid supporter of death squad killings of suspected criminals and drug users.
That would be a good way to get rid of your husband or boyfriend; accuse him of being a drug dealer!
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