Update: With Democrats like Doug Jones who needs Republicans like Roy Moore? #BaseMeetBus

93% of the black male vote. 98% of the black female vote. In return, Doug Jones has thrown black folks to the wolves. https://t.co/jt9RypbF0s

— The Root (@TheRoot) March 16, 2018

So, instead of taking on gun control Democrats (and I use that term loosely) are teaming up with Republicans for a stealth attack on Wall Street.

The whole process reveals the totemic power of bipartisanship, which can sway lawmakers into supporting things that could cut against their political interests. There is no real constituency for bank deregulation outside of bank executive boardrooms and K Street. Trump voters aren’t intensely concerned with giving Barclays or SunTrust less supervision, or giving Citigroup fewer leverage requirements. In fact they’ll likely punish those politicians who do. But “working together to solve the nation’s problems” sounds so good that it doesn’t even matter what outcomes result.

Doug Jones backs a bill that could hurt black homebuyers but that's OK at least it's not Roy Moore

A provision in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act would exempt the large majority of mortgage lenders from key disclosure requirements that help the government identify racial discrimination and enforce fair housing laws. The provision would facilitate redlining, allowing lenders to deny loans to black homebuyers, while also giving lenders carte blanche to overcharge black homebuyers or steer them into the same predatory loans that exploded during the financial crisis, pushing countless families into foreclosure.
Yet this bill, which would widen the already staggering racial wealth gap, won support from more than a dozen Democratic senators, including members such as Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Claire McCaskill, and Doug Jones who rely on black and Hispanic voters to win elections. (The bill is also backed by one independent, Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats.)

Them There Black voters in Alabama are never satisfied they should be grateful for what they git, shut up and be glad Roy Moore didn't win. (said in my Gomer Pyle voice)

As your Senator, I have made a point of working with colleagues who may not always agree with me. And while I'm still new to the Senate, I'm proud of my record of reaching out to find common ground.

I have tried to take that common sense, bipartisan approach in everything I do. And while that may not always be popular with some people even in my own party, I believe it's the right approach for

Translation:  Bus meet Base. Again.

Well, this is a wakeup call for Democrats. … They’ve taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time. It’s time for them to get off their ass and start making life better for black folks and people who are poor.
They’ve always had our votes, and they have abused our votes and this is a wakeup call. We’ve got it in a great position now, but this is a wakeup call for Democrats to do better for black people and poor white people.

"All Lives Matter when All Lives Care" #SayHerName #CourtlinArrington #NeverAgain

This shamefully ignored school shooting is why kids should walk out for 18 minutes, not 17 | Will Bunch https://t.co/qsVVYourO2 via @phillydotcom

— Red Eye (@RedEyesPage) March 14, 2018

RedEyes Wednesday Rundown #GunReformNow #HuffmanHighSchool #SayHerName #CourtlinArrington #NeverAgain

Making America Hate Again




Over the objections of the majority of Americans, let's arm some public school teachers!

Florida middle school teacher calls students "n*ggers," says black kids are dumb and tells white girls not to date black boys; @DuvalSchools gives him 10 day suspension/vacation because Florida: https://t.co/dVTwPvMVjn pic.twitter.com/NCwLHPoUKQ

— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) March 8, 2018

There was a school shooting in #SweetHomeAlabama yesterday at a school with armed officers present and metal detectors at the doors. But you probably won't see/hear much about it in the mainstream media because the schools is an "inner city school" and the victim is black. 

She was going to college to be a Nurse. She was going to help save lives one day. IF WE DON’T CHANGE THE LAWS THIS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN AND THAT CANNOT BE ALLOWED, FOR EVERY PERSON IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW HELP US FIGHT THIS FIGHT #NEVERAGAINhttps://t.co/016nwAcRk8

— Emma González (@Emma4Change) March 8, 2018

#NeverAgain 

There is more than a whiff of #hypocrisy and #racism #ParklandTeens #Nevermore #BlackLivesMatter2

Black and Brown people are not political pawns. The @NRA doesn't get to use us to prove a point-while repeatedly devaluing Black and Brown lives.

View my latest for @Mic.pic.twitter.com/HAuZMCehhC

— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) March 6, 2018

In the wake of the tragic Parkland shooting, it's become clear that there’s a hypocrisy when we talk about America’s gun violence problem — @MsPackyetti explains for Mic. pic.twitter.com/cQ5jMWgfbP

— Mic (@mic) March 6, 2018

Update: What looks like #STUPID on an ordinary day in #GOP controlled Alabamastan

An Alabama lawmaker will propose arming school teachers after the Florida massacre, says children in school are 'sitting ducks'. Is this the right solution? https://t.co/r2GYm8Qx31 pic.twitter.com/5nvJsiTv85

— AL.com (@aldotcom) February 15, 2018

Josh Moon nails it 

This dream that Mr. Upton, the algebra teacher, is going to put down a mass shooter is really, really stupid.

A picture is worth thousands of lives

As attorney general, Eric Holder saw the carnage of Sandy Hook firsthand. “If the American people had access to those pictures, if the American people had seen those pictures, the calls for reasonable gun safety measures would have been passed,” Holder said in a 2016 interview. “If members of Congress perhaps had a chance to see those pictures and see what happened to those little angels I think we would’ve seen a different result.”

Are we safe yet? What Color is the Terror Alert? Are your ducks taped, and your water bottled? #GOPHypocrisy

Remember the good old days of Bush and Company's Homeland InSecurity Advisory System, and the color coded "Terra Lerts" that would appear just before elections?

Remember how Bush and Company kept us "safe" after 9/11?

Remember how the man who gave us Sarah Palin blamed President Obama for the Orlando Mass Shooting?

Remember all of them/this on election day. 

EYE know EYE will.

RedEye's Rundown #BlackHistoryMonth2016

White America's Broken Heart 

Much of America’s past is the story of white people benefiting from a system that white people designed and maintained, which increased their chances of success as it suppressed those same chances in other groups. Those systems persist to this day in some disturbing ways, but the current, vociferous naming and challenging of those systems, the placing of the lamp of truth near the seesaw of privilege and oppression, has provoked a profound sense of discomfort and even anger.

SaLuTe #BlackLivesMatter

Black Struggle is Not a Soundbite

Here we go again.

You know the drill. 

Mass shooting

Thoughts and prayers. 

President offers condolences.  

Legislators shrug, do nothing.

Repeat. 

#gunsense

#BlackHistoryMonth2016

Today is a day of remembrance as we celebrate the life of #MalcolmX! 51 years ago today Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ball Room in Washington Heights!


“No, I don’t worry,” Malcolm X said. “I tell you, I’m a man who believes that I died 20 years ago and I live like a man who is dead already. I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything.”

Sound Familiar?

RedEye

Keeping the Dumb Bigots in Line. THIS is the #MainstreamMedia we have.

So, yesterday President Obama overerstepped his bounds (code for didn't stay in his place) and announced a series of Executive Orders, one of which makes it more difficult for Americans to sell guns unless they obtain a gun dealer’s license from the federal government.   Gasp!  Some of the  same people who demand we obtain a government issued ID card to vote lost their ever loving minds.  Go figure.

State Senator Paul Sanford (R from Huntsville) said, “The President should set an example and tell the Secret Service that protects he & his family to lay down their arms! Executive Order that!”

EYE am trying to figure out how making it more difficult for Americans to sell guns unless they obtain a license translates into Obama is coming for your guns?  Strike that.  EYE know how.

It's

The

Media

What happened to reporting both sides?  Strike that.  EYE know what happened.  Got to keep the uniformed, misinformed.  Can't risk reporting the truth because the truth is liberal.   Snark

"The fact you are allowed to arm yourself while calling Obama a 'gun-grabbing' tyrant kinda proves he's not."

What part of We the Peeps are fed up with up with gun violence don't the mainstream media and the GOP understand? 

At no point yesterday did any Republican candidates or lawmakers point to anything specific in the president’s policy that they found objectionable. Not one measure, not one idea, not one initiative, not one paragraph, nothing.

EYE thought republicans were pro life?

"Bowling for Colombine-A brief history of America

See, Eye told you black folks don't have 2nd Amendment rights in the USA

The Cheetum family in Doerun, Ga., in 1950. Credit Bettmann/Corbis 

 

The Shirley Sherroding of Georgia Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) President Sam Mosteller.

You know the drill.  Take a snippet out of context and spin it like a top.

Breitbart News is reporting that Georgia Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) President Sam Mosteller has been suspended from the organization following his call for Black families to “exercise their Second Amendment rights” by arming themselves against police.

There's just one little problem, Sam Mosteller didn't call for Black families to "exercise their Second Amendment rights by arming themselves against the police.  THIS is what he actually said.

  “We’re going to have do something in our community to let the rest of America know that we are not going to be victimized by just anybody whether it be police or folks that decide that Black people are thugs and we need to control the Black community.”
He goes on to say, “You know, the SCLC stands for nonviolence, but nonviolence hasn’t worked in this instance. You stand there, (police) shoot. You run, they shoot. We’re going to have to take a different tack. Nobody is protecting the Black community! I am going to advocate, at this point, that all African-Americans advocate their 2nd Amendment rights.” In addition to calling on families to arm themselves, Mosteller is also organizing recalls of the sheriffs of all counties where unarmed Black people have been shot by police.

Mosteller is calling for black folks to exercise their Second Amendment right to protect themselves FROM the police,  not AGAINST the police.  Words matter.   And what is wrong with African Americans exercising their rights?  There is no out cry when whites exercise their right to protect themselves.

Gun sales in and around Ferguson, Missouri, have soared in recent weeks, as the city waits to find out whether a local police officer will be indicted for shooting an unarmed teenager in August, according to CNN. A grand jury investigation into the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown is expected to reveal its findings sometime this month, putting many residents who fear riots in the  wake of the ruling on edge. Some gun shops near Ferguson have seen gun sales double or even triple in recent days, local radio reported.  
“This is very abnormal,” Steven King, of gun retailer Metro Shooting Supplies in nearby Bridgeton, told KMOV News radio. “With all the rumors on the Internet, they are saying every neighborhood is unsafe, there is a possibility of a strike in any neighborhood.”

Despite public opinion to the contrary blacks have a long tradition of taking up arms to defend themselves of racial violence. 

“active self-defense against violence,” is a tradition that developed alongside nonviolent resistance, and that “even before slavery had been outlawed, Black Americans took up arms when their lives and livelihoods were threatened.”

Well we can't have black folks defending themselves when their lives and livelihoods are threatened in America. 

The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws -- and not in any subtle way. Throughout much of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping blacks and Hispanics "in their place," and to quiet the racial fears of whites.

So there you have it, if we want comprehensive gun control laws all black folks have to do is start exercising their Second Amendment rights....

If supporters of the right to keep and bear arms want their pleas to be heard in their proper context, they might consider talking a little less about Valley Forge and a little more about Jim Crow — and attempting to fill their ranks with people who have known much more recently what tyranny really looks like.

Eye am just saying.....

Stuck on Stupid in Alabama " Thank God (Republicans) are in control of the Senate and the House." Richard Shelby says

How to talk to your children about guns

Sweet Home Alabama, listed as one of the most corrupt states in the nation, already has one of the loosest gun restrictions in the country, but that wasn't good enough for the red, republican, controlled state legislation.  Nope.  They want to make it easier for children to walk around locked and loaded so they can whine about black on black crime, and have candlelight vigils for victims of gun violence.

To rectify this gap in the unstated “guns for everyone” mentality of Alabama’s Republican-led legislature, lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the state’s gun laws that would allow minors to acquire their very own pistols. At the moment, the law is on a bit more even keel, stipulating that “no person shall deliver a pistol to any person under the age of 18.” Lawmakers want that changed to allow minors to have pistols, but only if they get the permission of a “parent, guardian, or spouse who is 18 or older (?)”

And they wonder why police shoot first and ask questions later?

The bill, if passed, would also eliminate record-keeping requirements from the Code of Alabama, removing language that mandates firearm dealers "keep a permanent record of the sale of every pistol, revolver, or maxim silencer, showing the date of sale, serial number, or other identification marks, manufacturer's name, caliber and type, and also the name and address of the purchaser."

Who could possibly think this is a good idea?

 The measure is sponsored by three state senators: Arthur Orr, Greg Reed and Clay Scofield (all Republicans). A matching House bill is being sponsored by Ed Henry, Micky Hammon, Barry Moore and Corey Harbison (all Republicans). It’s unclear why the group of lawmakers felt that kids needed additional relaxation of existing gun laws.

 God, please help America.

"This world will be a dangerous world - more dangerous than it is today. I hope that deal doesn't come through. If it does, Congress is going to speak on it and I believe we will turn it down. Thank God (Republicans) are in control of the Senate and the House."

I submit Sweet Home Alabama will be a dangerous state - more dangerous than it is today.

 Bills like these may be a victory for the NRA, but they are, without a doubt, putting the lives of children in danger. How warped is the mentality of Alabama’s pro-gun lobby that they feel that kids need handguns? How many of Alabama’s children need to die before the “freedom” of a child to carry a pistol isn’t worth the sacrifice? These are questions Alabama lawmakers must answer.

I thought republicans were pro-life?

 Republicans aren't pro-life. They are just pro-birth. And there's a big difference between the two.

RedEye

New Year same as the Old Year, only worse....

#Scalise #scaliseexcuses Well said!!! pic.twitter.com/j9cvdrUJ9P
— Jeremy Meredith (@SosukeAizen) December 31, 2014

I'm sorry, but I can't bring myself to start the year with a post full of HOPE for the future of our country in 2015.  Maybe things have to get worse before they get better.  Between the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party gaining control of the House, the Senate, and  republican gerrymandering to ensure they maintain control until eternity, and the dark money thanks to Citizens United, the game is rigged.  And who wins in the end?  Not us liberals that's for sure.

RedEye's Predictions:

But, but, black on black crime will continue to be the excuse for the extra judicial killing of black folks.

But, but, guns don't kill people will continue be the excuse for mentally ill people and toddlers to exercise their second amendment rights.

But, but, I'm not a white supremacist because I know some good Negroes will continue to be used as a an excuse for those in positions of power and influence to exercise their racism.

But, but, let's not throw any more money to fund public education will be used as an excuse to justify not funding public education.

But, but, Obama is a Kenyan, Muslim, Socialist, will continue to be used as an excuse for red state governors not to expand medicaid.

But, but, excuse me while I go back to eating drinking and being merry for a little while longer.

"Once again after a mentally ill person guns two people down NO ONE is talking about gun control'

While Obama calls for Prayer and Peace, Rudy Giuliani fires up the Right-Wing base with his lies & propaganda. #NYPD pic.twitter.com/Cl4u0Dzwa6
— Benny (@BRios82) December 22, 2014

For those who don't know, a mentally ill African American male with a history of arrests  gunned down two NYPD officers after shooting and critically wounding his ex-girlfriend.  Righty's and others are using this as an opportunity to blame Peaceful Protesters, President Obama, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, because a mentally ill person with a gun killed people.   I don't know weather to laugh or cry.  So I'll just chant USA!  USA!  USA!

Shamming and blaming is a lot easier than addressing legitimate issues.

Those who are trying to connect the murders of the officers with the thousands of articulate and peaceful protestors across America are being deliberately misleading in a cynical and selfish effort to turn public sentiment against the protestors. This is the same strategy used when trying to lump in the violence and looting with the legitimate protestors, who have disavowed that behavior. They hope to misdirect public attention and emotion in order to stop the protests and the progressive changes that have already resulted. Shaming and blaming is a lot easier than addressing legitimate claims.

For those of you who just don't understand why African Americans don't trust some (not to be confused with all) Police,  we are not anti ALL police, we are anti police who abuse their power.  The main ones complaining about painting cops with a broad bush are the same ones painting protestors and African Americans with a broad brush. The Police union blaming the Mayor and supporters of the Brown and Garner families is like blaming all police for their deaths! No thoughtful person does that. ‪

"Violence Threatened is Violence Enacted"

In other news, the Ferguson Prosecutor doesn't mind that witnesses lied before the grand jury,  and YorkThe New York Times is calling for Bush and Company to be investigated and prosecuted for torture.

Rest in Power

"Standing Their Ground" --> #BlackLivesMatter #p2 pic.twitter.com/aYVqG2EagZ
— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) December 7, 2014

#CrimingWhileWhite # "Dear White People I'm Tired "

Remember how law enforcement officials cut and ran when confronted by an armed posse when Bundy refused to pay his taxes?

Remember all the tanks & tear gas & choke holds used at the Bundy Ranch standoff? Me neither. pic.twitter.com/Dxcjw9RJWR
— TheKitchenWitch (@kitchenwitch62) December 4, 2014

Compare and contrast law enforcement officials reaction to American's protesting killing unarmed black people.

223 arrested as protesters and police clash in New York City: http://t.co/H9iN41JsTp pic.twitter.com/oG1NNI6Hug
— ABC News (@ABC) December 5, 2014

Dear White People:  I'm tired

I direct this specifically at white privilege. It wraps you in arrogance and blinds you to how utterly un-inclusive the world you’ve made around you really is. People of color literally fear for their lives around a white person and a gun and we have good reason, especially when we’re unarmed. White people I am tired that you sometimes fail to live in reality. That you continuously prop yourself up and hold the moral high ground as long as you’re better off materially than another group of people. All social markers of superiority and success are in your favor and equality threatens that superiority.

Maybe if there weren't so many guns on the streets Cops wouldn't be afraid they weren't going to get to go home to their family at night.

I'm just saying....

#VestorVote

Post by Dream Defenders.

#hsvboe #SpyGate Redux

"@PoliticsPeach: @Bidenshairplugs u RACIST PROUDLY wave guns ... but AA's it's a crime! #FergusonOctober #tcot pic.twitter.com/FecmQNaIHj"
— Ms. L. (@SouthernLady328) October 11, 2014

In order to combat gun violence, and to keep schools SAFe (pun intended), Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski called the passage of strict gun control laws .

 NOPE.  He invoked the Sandy Hook tragedy and instituted a scheme, I mean, an  off the books spying program after being alerted of a potential (not to be confused with actual) threat via Twitter,  against a teacher with a cough cough foreign connection, via the National Security Agency, via Al Langford, of the need to monitor some (not to be confused with ALL) students  social media accounts , including, but not limited to, brazen students posting pictures of themselves with submachine (sic) guns, fist full of $100.00 bills, and flashing "gang" signs, not to be confused with students posting pictures of themselves with guns for hunting .

NOTICE: Due to Huntsville City School Superintendent Casey Warydynski's  Executive Orders, the school district may have read your social media accounts without warning, warrant, or notice. You have no recourse nor protection but to call for the resignation of the Superintendent and the Board of Education who enabled him.

Join us as we rally for the future of our children and the immediate resignation of HCS superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski,  Annie Merts Building, 200 White Street, Thursday, October 16,2014, @3:30 PM.  "The future of our children, community, and our city, requires your support and your presence.

This young man better be glad he is not a student enrolled in Huntsville City Schools #SpyGate

.@Keith_Dailey @Kroger  I've been a customer for 27 years. You'd rather have this guy? #GroceriesNotGuns #MomsDemand pic.twitter.com/NeNqggPDbS
— Cornelia (@PaladinCornelia) October 10, 2014

#TBT #SpyGate #SandyHook #RacialProfiling #LifesUnfairness #hsvboe #environmentaljustice

NOTICE: Due to Huntsville City School Superintendent Casey Warydynski's  Executive Orders, the school district may have read your social media accounts without warning, warrant, or notice. You have no recourse nor protection but to call for the resignation of the Superintendent and the Board of Education who enabled him.

In addition to bashing any media who dares the report the facts (not to be confused with spin), and blaming everything on the black guy, I mean Al Langford, I mean the NSA, one of the memes HCS officials, including the Mayor, cite to justify monitoring some (not to be confused with all) students social media accounts for threats of potential (not to confused with real) violence is to evoke the memory of Sandy Hook, and other mass shootings.

There was a recent opinionated, and irresponsible, article in "The Huntsville Times" about a program the HCS has implemented to help keep the schools safe. We have only to look at national tragedies such as Columbine, Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech to see how badly things can go...or even locally at Madison City Schools or UAH.

 Like most every school system across America, the HCS has instituted security procedures to try to intervene before there is a tragedy. Unlike the picture painted by The Huntsville Times, we do not have a secret group that trolls the social networks across the world for possible threats. Instead, we follow best-practice protocols used by others.

But, but you do have an off the books spying program that  trolls  the social networks of some students for possible threats.  We don't know if you follow best-practice protocols used by others,  because some members of the BOE were kept in the dark about this program.  The public would still be kept in the dark if someone hadn't leaked it to Al.com.  

Both Blair and McCaulley voiced concerns about the information provided to AL.com and the subsequent media attention the program is receiving.
Blair said students intending to do harm at school might be less likely to put information about their intentions online if they know the district is watching.
"This kind of stuff puts kids in danger," Blair said.
McCaulley said that whoever leaked the security presentation to the media may have broken Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws because the presentation included pictures of students.

So now they are worried about FERPA?  Excuse me while I ROTFLMBO.

I am convinced this Superintendent, and this BOE  must think we are stupid.  I mean, really?  Do they honestly believe we are going to believe they are spying on some students (and who knows who else) because of concerns about student safety, and to prevent another Sandy Hook?  

The reason I know this isn't about student safety is because Huntsville City Schools risk the health of the next generation, for the sake of giving our community a school, located less than half a mile from an active rock quarry, aided and abetted by the city of Huntsville.

Mayor Tommy Battle and the city's air quality chief, Danny Shea, both say the amount of particulate matter in the air on Pulaski Pike is far below levels considered potentially harmful by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The city has an air quality monitoring station next door to the school site; Shea said it measures airborne particulate matter every six days.
The EPA threshold for particulate matter is 150 micrograms per cubic meter.
Shea said 46 micrograms is the highest reading detected by the city on Pulaski Pike in the past five years. The average particulate concentration was 14.8 micrograms in 2009; 17.8 micrograms in 2010; 16.3 micrograms in 2011; 14.9 micrograms in 2012; and 13.5 micrograms in 2013.
The levels are similar at Huntsville's other air quality monitoring stations on Airport Road, South Memorial Parkway and Madison Street downtown.
In a May 27 letter to the mayor, Shea said the city's measurements "demonstrate the absence of substantial adverse air quality impacts from quarry operations at the proposed school site."

I am not a rocket scientist, but you tell me how airborne fine particulate matter can be lower less than half a mile from an active rock quarry than at some other spots in town?

The reason I know this BOE doesn't give a flying flip about potential threats to some students is because not one of them has contacted the Environmental Protection Agency or conducted a health risk analysis.

One reason I know Sandy Hook is a red herring is because the targeted students were black and brown, wanna be gang members (not to be confused with real gang members who wouldn't be caught dead on Facebook), and studies show most school shooters are white males.

Sex of the shooter is fairly much a no-brainer – female spree/school shooters are rare, and the one entry here is only because I lowered the level to three fatalities.
Race of the shooter – there is a nearly 80% chance that the perpetrator will be white.
Age group – broadly speaking, there is about a one-third representation for teens, twenties, and 30-52.

Another  reason I know Sandy Hook is a red herring is because what is the first thing white males did in response to the Sandy Hook massacre?  Call for comprehensive gun control laws?  Nope, the demand for weapons and ammunition skyrocketed.  Which leads me to the conclusion if the school district were really trying to prevent another Sandy Hook, the NSA would be calling them about potential threats of violence from the people pictured below.   I'm just saying...

A crowd winds around Larry's Pistol & Pawn Friday morning along North Memorial Parkway. Interest in guns and ammunition has soared since the shootings of over two dozen students and staff at a Connecticut elementary school. WT Martin/HNW

Only in America

Do this?... no problem. Sell cigarettes on the Street?....Deadly choke hold. pic.twitter.com/imT912hmEL
— esd2000 (@esd2000) July 29, 2014

Eric Garner:  Tall, Dark, and Threatening

Eric Garner may not have been a saint. Pro-law enforcement media, under the guise of fair and balanced reporting, has made a point to note that Garner had a fairly extensive arrest record (not all convictions; there is an important difference). Still, even as he was no stranger to the criminal justice system, Garner had been in custody over 25 times…and somehow managed to live to tell about it before being choked to death. I say this because for those who would want to push the “he was a known perp who resisted arrest” angle, it is much harder to understand why someone familiar with the system would “resist” to that degree unless there was indeed a life-threatening level of discomfort. Generally, telling someone “I can’t breathe” counts as life threatening.

Watch The Difference Between a White Guy and a Black Guy Committing the Same Crime