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The Black Lives Matter Movement Needs to Embrace Civil Disobedience

by Philip Hamilton (HamiltonForLiberty [at] Gmail.com)
The American public should be in support of mandatory minimum sentences for police officers who commit acts of brutality, that led to serious injury or death, due to racial motivations. However, reacting to violence with violence, will not garner the good graces of the majority of the public, therefore civil disobedience must be urged by leaders of the Black Lives Movement to change the media narrative that the group is a violent organization with leaders that seek violence to continue.
In the wake of the recent racial violence in various parts of the country, such as Dallas, Texas and in Saint Paul, Minnesota, I urge people who are supportive of or directly involved with Black Lives Matter, and other fringe groups, to not continue to retaliate with violence. Rather we need to be more akin to Martin Luther King, to use civil disobedience to have mandatory minimum sentences for police officers who kill civilians, who show evidence of performing the killing(s) due to inherent racist motivations and those officers who unjustly kill civilians who are unarmed.

The author of the article, “In Support of Baltimore: Or; Smashing Police Cars is Logical Political Strategy,” claims that non-violent protests are ineffective in garnering the attention of the “privileged” ruling class. Which leads me to ask, would this author potentially claim we should resort to violence in regards to abortion rights issues, gun rights, environmental issues, and instances of police brutality against non-African American individuals? This call to violence for Black Lives Matter is a naïve viewpoint that will just lead to chaos and the degradation of the value of life for those who seek vigilante forms of justice.

Look at the history of the civil rights movement to see which methodology is more effective. Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to inspire millions through civil disobedience and was able to bring hundreds of thousands to DC to the March for Jobs and Freedom. Neither Malcolm X, nor the Black Panthers, inspired the masses to the level that MLK did because using violence to react to violence is not humble nor virtuous.

I do believe that all lives always matter and that police brutality against civilians, of any race, is a serious issue that must be addressed. Which leads me to state that the Black Lives Matter movement needs a leader who resembles MLK, who can draw attention away from the violence; because once more attention is given to peaceful resistance then more individuals will be compelled to use civil disobedience, rather than acts of destruction, to get a more effective message—condemning police brutality—out to national news outlets.

In addition, just as mandatory minimum sentences are applied to individuals who commit crimes, such as certain drug offenses, legislative bodies must consider mandatory minimums for police officers who kill civilians through acts of police brutality. Police and prosecutors work closely together, within the American judicial system, and I believe mandatory minimum sentences are necessary for police officers who kill others after acts of police brutality, in order to prevent police officers who commit such acts from obtaining lighter sentences than they deserve to have.

Government has a duty to protect life, liberty, and property, and civilians need to be protected by government officials who abuse the trust of the public by committing acts of police brutality. Therefore, by implementing mandatory minimum sentences for police who kill civilians through acts of excessive force, governing bodies will demonstrate that not just black lives matter but that all lives matter. Rioting will not result in mandatory minimum sentencing laws, due to the fact most politicians will not respond to acts of violence with an inconsistent message. Rather, acts of peaceful civil disobedience and persistent lobbying of state and federal level legislators will allow mandatory sentence laws, oriented towards police officers who commit racially motivated acts of police brutality, to be implemented in the future.
The American public needs to know about the several movements to correct this police violence, brutality and murder with intent. WE all jump to the obvious and direct answer: make them pay!!! This meets resistance and it upsets established channels of justice, much as we find those channels frustrating and hate to sound like making excuses. There are other games afoot, so lt me talk about the almost direct route, the one that allows good forces to clean house, cut their lawyer and settlement costs, improve relations with the people served and feel better about their work. Ye I am an idealisstic S.O.B.

"We Now Have Algorithms To Predict Police Misconduct: Will police departments use them?" Unlike earlier predictions based simply on the observations of superiors and the number of complaints filed, this new one, being asked for by several departments including L.A.County have signed on. So, YES they will.

The difference is that the new metric takes account of the trauma in officers from job experiences, a point the third offering revolves on. Many might find this sympathy for the devil distasteful. Lt them. The worst will always crop up. The point is that when the system stops covering their asses, they will not last long enough to plan their stories with others....and get off repeatedly. The algorithm flags less officers, but it flags the right ones! When officres start to see this, and see good guys not hasssled by the crapshoot of some hairbrain scheme...when they see that, its a game changer.

It's been a decade since Norm Stamper wrote "Breaking Ranks." He had an epiphany of his own and went on a differnt officer. Lucky him. Lucky cops who read his book and didn't have to wake up saying wtf did I just do. Yes, those guys may never wake up. We need better admissions tests than are you down with carrying a club and a gun. And those who pass need some help thru the shifts. Trump and Dave Clarke are not going to give it to them. They have wars to promote, BLM heads to crack. Occupy heads to crack. All they have is fear adrenaline and more disaster to promote.

So yes, I am so down with not giving those guys any excuse. But I am also down for separating them from the rest of the blue fish swimming in their sea.

The third is from a blackman who serves in the Oregon legislation and who wants every police candidate and every officer sering to have menetal evaluations. Regular and special after the grusome days like seeing the baby dismembered and half burned , because mo and thee current drug contact guy were really flying that day and thought baby rape was on the menu, then decided maybe they should hide the evidence.. Do you think that was a nice easy walk in the door . honey how was work? So "and every officer has his story" says the man in Portland, and they need to deal with it he says.

Portland dosn;t have a nnice tidy presentation on the web. But big data and predicting police misconduct does: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-now-have-algorithms-to-predict-police-misconduct/

Meanwhile. "DON'T THROW THAT BRICK'
Who knows, that restraint might save a kid at a dark moment in his life, in a dark alley or a bright street. because we can never predict when its going to happen, to who, or where. But we know how much it does happen, and we can see who's pointed towards doing it.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-now-have-algorithms-to-predict-police-misconduct/
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