Will black lives ever matter?

[RockLock]

So another killing of a black man Ahmaud Arbery by 2 white men (Father and son) in US. They nearly got away with it calling it a citizen arrest and self defence. Father was a retired policeman.

They followed him, armed with guns and shot him.

Prosecutors tried to cover it up until the video emerged.
Ahmaud’s crime? He was going for a jog.

Will black lives ever matter?

@EmbarrassedUser they picked him because he was black. It wasn't a random killing. They saw a black man running and decided to arm themselves and go after him.

If you think it was for any other reason than the colour of his skin you're either naive or deluded.

Or wilfully ignorant.

Yap

Source? FBI stats are considered a pretty standard and nonpartisan source of information. Especially when it comes to reporting homicides.

@EmbarrassedUser Apt username. You really honestly believe that he would have been killed if he were a white man out jogging?

I honestly cannot believe some of the nonsense on here...he just happened to be black...really?!

My dh does not like to travel to America but we have a few times due to family commitments.

He doesn't go out on his own, he doesn't jog, he doesn't do anything that might draw unnecessary attention and we can't stay anywhere remote....because he just happens to be black.

@EmbarrassedUser you should be embarrassed, making a comment like that. McMichaels literally called 911 to report a “black male running”. This was in the afternoon too.

24 hate crimes reported in a year in the US. LOL

Obviously untrue, but even if it was it shows that people don't bother reporting it because what is the point? You'd probably end up dying for reporting it.

I wonder why the US is considered a first world country. Apart from military might and not letting anybody else have nukes, what is so first world about them?

More 18 year old black boys in prison than in college

The largest incarcerated population in the world.

Massive homeless population. Anybody see the parking lot they opened up to homeless people during covid while we housed all of ours?

You can only access healthcare if you have money.

Guns everywhere.

No school shootings for a month for the first time since 2004. Why? Because schools were fucking shut![ grin] I could go on and on....

Growing up I think we all wanted to live in America because of what was shown in the movies. Now we know it's fur coat and no knickers. I'd rather live somewhere like Nigeria if those were the two choices. They probably were world leaders in the 80s but now they are behind technologically. They don't even have chip and pin, never mind contactless!

24 hate crime homicides, not 24 hate crimes.

The statistics are woefully deficient though
www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/opinions/fbi-hate-crimes-data-whats-missing-berry-wiggins/index.html

The number of "hate crime" homicides is irrelevant anyway, so maybe we should just move on from that. Most murders of black people will not be recorded as a hate crime, even if race was a contributory factor.

Corrupt and inhumane judicial system, lack of gay rights, flat earthers, religious nutters, lack of abortion rights, only the rich can afford university education......

I know this is slightly off topic, but I think it is relevant to the wider duscussion.

My conclusion is: no, black lives will not matter in our lifetime in the USA. That country is a law unto itself.

I'm pretty sure he was shot because he was black, but whatever.

I haven't read the full thread...
I just watched the video of a black man being tasered in front of his little son, screaming 'daddy!' and crying. The man was face to face with the police man and there were 2 police officers. The man was being arrested, but such disproportionate force used on him.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/taser-arrest-man-child-manchester-police-iopc-a9505566.html

I doubt they would treat a white man the same. We've all seen when dangerous people are being arrested. Nothing like this. This guy only had a kid in his arms.

I really really feel afraid for the young people in my family. They could just be jogging along, minding their own business and then be targetted.

I think Snoop Dogg said it best a few hours ago...the authorities didn't arrest the men because they saw the video, they were arrested because WE saw the video.

It's such a messed up world we live in. Racism is well and alive! Some of the comments on here are absolutely shocking, but I'm genuinely not surprised. As a person of colour, we know a lot of whites won't have our back. It's called privilege. You'll never know what it's like being disadvantaged in so many aspects of life JUST because of the colour of your skin.

Obviously not condoning it, but you are being unreasonable to pin point your theory on this when it happens all the time to people of all different races/colour etc

So, you're saying a retired black police officer and his son would hunt down a white 25yr old white man jogging along, having done nothing. @radiantrose, you ARE condoning it.

@PlanDeRaccordement did you miss the fact that the police had been sitting on the video since February and that they said they had no intention to prosecute?

OP, you can see from here, black lives will probably never matter. Thank goodness the police taser issue from Wednesday was a taser, that man would have been dead now.

I can't believe what I'm reading.

That poor man was guilty of nothing other than exercising whilst being Black. It would not have happened to a white man.

Obviously not condoning it, but you are being unreasonable to pin point your theory on this when it happens all the time to people of all different races/colour etc

I'm really winning in bingo tonight thanks to this thread. ' obviously not condoning it but...'

When I first learnt about racism it upset me but now it really doesn't. It actually amuses me, the idiots that come out with gems like this. I never know if they are genuinely racist and trying to upset (sorry, you failed on that count) or are they seriously that pig shit ignorant?

Number of victims of hate crimes against Blacks or African Americans in the United States in 2018, by crime type

Nope, nothing to see here.

Not all white people refuse to see it.
To me it seems obvious that being black in america is a risk. Cops in America need to be investigated and punished much more severely. If i was the mother a a young black adult son in america id be so scared.

My conclusion is: no, black lives will not matter in our lifetime in the USA. That country is a law unto itself.

But it's not only the USA, is it...

PrincessConsueIaBananaHammock you mean it's not 24 after all?!

That's from the FBI since it's been mentioned a lot.