General Discussion

UglyGreed

(7,661 posts) Sun Dec 21, 2014, 03:07 PM Dec 2014

America's Decay Into a Violent, Cruel Place

December 17, 2014

It seems police can get away with anything: choking men who have surrendered; shooting unarmed teens; knocking pregnant women to the ground. While the issues involving race, civil rights and the relationship between law enforcement and communities are essential for examination and correction, few are talking about how all of this fits into the larger pattern of America’s cultural decline and decay. America has become a society addicted to violence and indifferent to the suffering of people without power. Whenever there is a combination of a culture of violence and an ethic of heartlessness, fatal abuse of authority will escalate, and the legal system will fail to address it.

Critics are right to condemn the criminal justice system for its embedded inequities and injustices, but they are hesitant to condemn the actual jurors giving killer cops get-out-of-jail-free cards. These jurors are representational of America: ignorant and cold. They hear testimony from eyewitnesses claiming Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown while he had his hands in the air, and set Wilson free without trial. They listen to reports of three officers choking Robert Saylor, an unarmed man with Down syndrome who wanted to see a movie without a ticket, and they send the police back to work. They watch video footage of police choking Eric Garner in New York, and of two police officers brutally beating Keyarika Diggles, a woman in Texas, and they decline to make them pay for it.

Have they been programmed into cruelty and apathy by American schools, churches, families, politics, and pop culture?

There are practical demands that the sane minority of Americans can make as they march the streets of Ferguson, New York and Chicago. Body cameras on police officers is a technological aid to the people who live under military occupation from the blue army. Tougher requirements for entering the police force, and better training methods for those in the academy are essential, as is a sweeping and radical review, best led by the White House, of a racist and predatory criminal justice system.

http://www.alternet.org/americas-decay-violent-cruel-place?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Please forgive me if this has been posted already.

4 replies

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Highlight:

America's Decay Into a Violent, Cruel Place (Original Post) UglyGreed Dec 2014 OP

We are devolving into a "Mad Max" society. I've been saying that for years. Brigid Dec 2014 #1

It's a scary thought... kentuck Dec 2014 #2

There is a lot to applaud in the article, but I find its premise just plain wrong. True Blue Door Dec 2014 #3

+100 nt okaawhatever Dec 2014 #4

Brigid

(17,621 posts)

1. We are devolving into a "Mad Max" society. I've been saying that for years.

Reply to UglyGreed (Original post)

Sun Dec 21, 2014, 03:18 PM

Dec 2014

I notice that fewer people laugh at me for saying that these days.

kentuck

(111,076 posts)

2. It's a scary thought...

Reply to UglyGreed (Original post)

Sun Dec 21, 2014, 03:23 PM

Dec 2014

...but it is a possibility.

True Blue Door

(2,969 posts)

3. There is a lot to applaud in the article, but I find its premise just plain wrong.

Reply to UglyGreed (Original post)

Sun Dec 21, 2014, 03:27 PM

Dec 2014

America has not "decayed" into a violent, cruel place - it has simply become more self-aware of the extreme violence and cruelty that have always festered beneath the radar of the privileged. If you actually talk to elderly minorities about their experiences, you're not likely to find many who think matters are worse today than in the past, and most will probably say they've seen considerable progress.

The only people who seem to be laboring under the delusion that America is losing otherwise innate compassion are the kind of sheltered, white, affluent types who in the past would have been insulated with air-tight precision from any knowledge of how the system treats everyone other than them. Now they have Youtube, Twitter, and Reddit, and they see the ground truth right in front of their faces as it happens.

When was this fantastical time in American history where juries were throwing away cops by the bushel for violating the rights of poor, black, Hispanic, or other people? When was this magical Camelot where they were not shamefully resistant to holding police accountable?

I'll tell you one thing: There has never been a time in American history where the issue has been this unifying in favor of justice. I don't mistake exposure of rot for its creation. We are not becoming cruel, we are losing patience with the cruelty that infests our society. We are shining a brighter and brighter spotlight on it. And the brighter the light, the uglier it looks - and the less willing we are to tolerate such things.

The murders that have spurred national action, a decade ago would have been known as Tuesday. And the decade before that, lunchtime on Tuesday.

okaawhatever

(9,461 posts)

4. +100 nt

Reply to True Blue Door (Reply #3)

Sun Dec 21, 2014, 03:32 PM

Dec 2014

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