• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Police Aren’t Under Attack. Institutionalized Racism Is.

Status
Not open for further replies.

wildfire

Banned
I love the headline but the article is only ok. I think it was dismissive of the cop killer as just a crazy man. I don't see his decision to do suicide by cop as random craziness but rational craziness.

I wonder what he means that the police unions are financially motivated. To a small extent I get it because the people who have to run the union day by day need to collect membership fees and thus need to protect their members as best as possible but I feel the much stronger motivation is that they do feel they know better how to do there job and they are insulted at having their judgement questioned.

The strong point is how he asks cynical and myopic people to ask themselves if they actually see the everyday protesters going on a murderous rampage. He basically asks them if they do really believe death of cops is the solution the protesters are looking for.
 

MBison

Member
They are related in the loosest sense but the protests that have been popping up over the last few months are not about cop killing. This dude mentioned their deaths as his motivation but this dude also killed his girlfriend and drove to NYC to kill 2 cops. He is for lack of better words, fucking crazy. His actions do not degrade in any way what the protesters have been advocating for.

He said "no way" related.

False.

There are protesters shouting death to cops. There are GAFers in that thread saying cops got what they had coming.

To say the two are unrelated is offensive.
 

lednerg

Member
He said "no way" related.

False.

There are protesters shouting death to cops. There are GAFers in that thread saying cops got what they had coming.

To say the two are unrelated is offensive.

You don't have people on national television or in print media justifying the deaths of these officers or calling out for more. At best, you have some morons on social media and some forum posters (who get banned). On the other hand, you do have plenty of people on television and in print doing everything they can to justify the deaths of unarmed black civilians by police and vigilantes. They stop at nothing to belittle the concerns of millions, merely for the sake of ratings and to help political allies. At the same time, they'll support protesters at the Bundy ranch, some of whom who had high powered rifles trained on federal officers. (Two of them later went and killed two officers in Vegas. "Where's the outrage?" as they say.)
 
He said "no way" related.

False.

There are protesters shouting death to cops. There are GAFers in that thread saying cops got what they had coming.

To say the two are unrelated is offensive.

Like I said, they are related in the loosest sense. If a few Gafers and a some dumb people saying dumb shit is enough for you to catch such a huge hang up, there is a problem. The smallest of minorities does not represent the large majority. Don't get caught up on a small technicality.
 
Like I said, they are related in the loosest sense. If a few Gafers and a some dumb people saying dumb shit is enough for you to catch such a huge hang up, there is a problem. The smallest of minorities does not represent the large majority. Don't get caught up on a small technicality.

The "getting caught up on the small technicalities" is exactly what the article is trying to address funnily enough.
 

MBison

Member
Like I said, they are related in the loosest sense. If a few Gafers and a some dumb people saying dumb shit is enough for you to catch such a huge hang up, there is a problem. The smallest of minorities does not represent the large majority. Don't get caught up on a small technicality.

LIKE I SAID, I'm pointing out that his statement that they are not related is false, even by your own admission.

It's not a hang up. Write ups like these are fine if they are truthful. But it's hard to consider something as good intended and "brilliant" when nearly it's entire foundation is built on a misleading statement.
 

Crocodile

Member
I've been off the grid so to speak for a few days so I only just heard about this incident. Excellent response from Kareem :)
 
I just found out (going by their names) that the cops who were killed weren't White (Which would be the stereotypical "bad cop").
really? because in many of the cop-related threads, posters often mention that minority cops are even worse, often turning the knob up to 11 to show they're "one of the boys" to the white cops.
 

Aaron

Member
LIKE I SAID, I'm pointing out that his statement that they are not related is false, even by your own admission.

It's not a hang up. Write ups like these are fine if they are truthful. But it's hard to consider something as good intended and "brilliant" when nearly it's entire foundation is built on a misleading statement.
No, they're not related. The killer wasn't motivated by the protests. Even if some protesters shout 'death to cops' there's still no connection. If anything, drawing parallels is distorting the nature of these very separate events.
 
LIKE I SAID, I'm pointing out that his statement that they are not related is false, even by your own admission.

It's not a hang up. Write ups like these are fine if they are truthful. But it's hard to consider something as good intended and "brilliant" when nearly it's entire foundation is built on a misleading statement.

It's a hang up, basically everything in the article Kareem wrote is true except his opinion about the shooting not being related to the deaths of the two black men. It's loosely related, it doesn't change any of what he said in terms of how realistic and accurate it is. You're just attacking his choice of words on something that is not at all the foundation of the argument.

The argument is that a crazy person who hunts out and kills cops (which is a very rare occurrence in itself), has a large criminal record and troubled past, killed his girl friend hours before and posted his crazy rambling intents on instagram is not someone you use to discredit the efforts of protesters about their cause. This is a crazy troubled person, he doesn't harm the cause unless you're someone that just wants the cause to disappear. So yeah, it's a hang up that doesn't really matter.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
"At the same time, however, we need to understand that their deaths are in no way related to the massive protests against systemic abuses of the justice system as symbolized by the recent deaths—also national tragedies—of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Michael Brown."

Uh false.

Uh not false.

It has nothing to do with the protests. It may have something to do with the deaths, but not the protests.

It's hard to consider a post as good-intended when it's based on an obvious misreading.
 
LIKE I SAID, I'm pointing out that his statement that they are not related is false, even by your own admission.

It's not a hang up. Write ups like these are fine if they are truthful. But it's hard to consider something as good intended and "brilliant" when nearly it's entire foundation is built on a misleading statement.

Was the killer motivated by the protests? Was that proven?

You totally missed the foundation of this writeup.
 

MBison

Member
Was the killer motivated by the protests? Was that proven?

You totally missed the foundation of this writeup.

Uh

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” “They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” he used hashtags shoot the police as well as hashtags relating to brown and garner.

Totally unrelated.
 

ISOM

Member
Uh

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” “They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” he used hashtags shoot the police as well as hashtags relating to brown and garner.

Totally unrelated.

That's not protest related though. None of the protestors advocated for the death of cops. This was just a psychotic person who decided to use the death of someone else to justify his actions in his mind.
 

lednerg

Member
Uh

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” “They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” he used hashtags shoot the police as well as hashtags relating to brown and garner.

Totally unrelated.

Would you say that the blood is on all of the protesters' hands?
 
Police are not under attack, institutionalized racism is. Trying to remove sexually abusive priests is not an attack on Catholicism, nor is removing ineffective teachers an attack on education. Bad apples, bad training, and bad officials who blindly protect them, are the enemy. And any institution worth saving should want to eliminate them, too.

I like this.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
At the same time, however, we need to understand that their deaths are in no way related to the massive protests against systemic abuses of the justice system as symbolized by the recent deaths—also national tragedies—of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Michael Brown. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suicidal killer, wasn’t an impassioned activist expressing political frustration, he was a troubled man who had shot his girlfriend earlier that same day. He even Instagrammed warnings of his violent intentions. None of this is the behavior of a sane man or rational activist. The protests are no more to blame for his actions than The Catcher in the Rye was for the murder of John Lennon or the movie Taxi Driver for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Crazy has its own twisted logic and it is in no way related to the rational cause-and-effect world the rest of us attempt to create.

You don't get to shoot your ex gf and kill yourself and hold onto sanity and logic. We have been downplaying insanity for centuries until it is 'convenient'.
 

Dash27

Member
Trying to remove sexually abusive priests is not an attack on Catholicism, nor is removing ineffective teachers an attack on education. Bad apples, bad training, and bad officials who blindly protect them, are the enemy. And any institution worth saving should want to eliminate them, too.

This would be a good analogy if his premise was police reform, not Institutionalized racism. He includes Michael Brown, who robbed a store, assaulted a cop and went for his gun. He also mentions the "iconic Michael Brown gesture" of surrender with hands up, which happens to be false just like the initial claim of being shot in the back.

Eric Garner is an excellent example of why police tactics need reform, or at least a discussion about it... it was horrible to watch the man literally say he can't breathe and police act indifferent, all over some loose cigarettes, but there's no indication that race has anything to do with it.
 
This would be a good analogy if his premise was police reform, not Institutionalized racism. He includes Michael Brown, who robbed a store, assaulted a cop and went for his gun. He also mentions the "iconic Michael Brown gesture" of surrender with hands up, which happens to be false just like the initial claim of being shot in the back.

Eric Garner is an excellent example of why police tactics need reform, or at least a discussion about it... it was horrible to watch the man literally say he can't breathe and police act indifferent, all over some loose cigarettes, but there's no indication that race has anything to do with it.

Amazing.
 

krazen

Member
Uh

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” “They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” he used hashtags shoot the police as well as hashtags relating to brown and garner.

Totally unrelated.

Using that same equivelency anyone mad about garner/brown is automatically a protestor, lol. Just because part of his motivation were the well publized deaths of two men by cops doesn't mean he's an activist.
 
Using that same equivelency anyone mad about garner/brown is automatically a protestor, lol. Just because part of his motivation were the well publized deaths of two men by cops doesn't mean he's an activist.
Fuck that. Dude was mentally ill, on his way out, and decided he was taking someone with him. The protesters aren't to be blamed. The people doing that are ones that..well, don't like it.

These grand juries on the other hand..
 
This would be a good analogy if his premise was police reform, not Institutionalized racism. He includes Michael Brown, who robbed a store, assaulted a cop and went for his gun. He also mentions the "iconic Michael Brown gesture" of surrender with hands up, which happens to be false just like the initial claim of being shot in the back.

Eric Garner is an excellent example of why police tactics need reform, or at least a discussion about it... it was horrible to watch the man literally say he can't breathe and police act indifferent, all over some loose cigarettes, but there's no indication that race has anything to do with it.
You do realize that none of what you're saying here was established one way or another and is only the police account correct? Actually it's a lot more likely that like most people who pass off theories as facts that you don't care.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I bet I won't see this in Facebook like I did with Barkley's stupid ass comment.

Great report and it's a shame his actions are being used to attack the protests.

It says alot about our soceity when Charles Barkley says something super stupid about this, it's national headlines everywhere! But when Kareem Abdul Jabbar literally writes an article for TIME magazine and it's very thoughtful, it barely gets any play. Even on CNN where I thought they had similar ownership to TIME.

SMH
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom