BLM Tears Down 'Blue Lives Matter' billboards

[Costa Fierro]

I don't agree with tearing down a billboard per se, but generally people who say "all lives matter" or "blue lives matter" are kind of racist and inciting it.

What's racist about saying "all lives matter"? Police brutality in the United States isn't a uniquely African American problem and there are substantial issues with police at all levels, from the mentality of its officers to how training is conducted to who is even accepted as a candidate. There's also no independent civilian oversight of police departments, so abuse cases very rarely go to court, let alone secure convictions.

The Guardian is keeping count again this year. Whilst it does show that African Americans have a significantly higher chance of being killed by police, what's interesting to note is that Native Americans also have a significantly high fatality rate.

Should we be really looking at this as a race issue when it looks very much like an issue with poverty and bad policing?

[Kaedshi]

Unless they are an express hate campaign, nobody's sign should be torn down.
Yes. Bad cops exist. But there are bad apples in every association, nationality, etc.
It's not fair to tear down and deface anyone's property.
Black Lives Matter was in the wrong here.

[New Owca]

Unless they are an express hate campaign, nobody's sign should be torn down.
Yes. Bad cops exist. But there are bad apples in every association, nationality, etc.
It's not fair to tear down and deface anyone's property.
Black Lives Matter was in the wrong here.

QFT

[SD_Film Artists]

They were in the wrong. Most police officers do a good job and even if they don't, they don't deserve to get shot. Neither do people who get arrested unless they're a threat.

Government goons deserve no respect, especially when they harass minority communities.

That sounds rather dehumanising don't you think? I mean the average cop is a real person you know, not just coming out of the ground as a born "government goon" who uses every waking hour to think "let's pointlessly harass minority communities". But I guess it's harder to be prejudiced towards people when those pesky "families" and "different perspectives" get in the way.

[HMS Vanguard]

At first I thought "Blue Lives Matter" was meant to be irony, i.e. Democrat voters' lives matter.

Only now do I realise it means police.

[Ethel mermania]

Blacklivesmatter is a group of thugs. This behavior is par for the course for them.

[Atlanticatia]

I don't agree with tearing down a billboard per se, but generally people who say "all lives matter" or "blue lives matter" are kind of racist and inciting it.

What's racist about saying "all lives matter"? Police brutality in the United States isn't a uniquely African American problem and there are substantial issues with police at all levels, from the mentality of its officers to how training is conducted to who is even accepted as a candidate. There's also no independent civilian oversight of police departments, so abuse cases very rarely go to court, let alone secure convictions.

The Guardian is keeping count again this year. Whilst it does show that African Americans have a significantly higher chance of being killed by police, what's interesting to note is that Native Americans also have a significantly high fatality rate.

Should we be really looking at this as a race issue when it looks very much like an issue with poverty and bad policing?

It's an issue of race. Sandra Bland was a middle-class woman.

http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next ... aragraphs/

Basically, saying 'all lives matter' is problematic because it erases race and racism. 'White lives' already matter - white people aren't being disproportionately killed by police. If you disagree with saying 'black lives matter', then you implicitly disagree with everyone mattering equally.

[SD_Film Artists]

At first I thought "Blue Lives Matter" was meant to be irony, i.e. Democrat voters' lives matter.

Only now do I realise it means police.

I thought it meant 'blue people', calling out the stupidity and hypocrisy of saying 'X colour needs rights' rather than 'all colours need rights'.

[Kaedshi]

What's racist about saying "all lives matter"? Police brutality in the United States isn't a uniquely African American problem and there are substantial issues with police at all levels, from the mentality of its officers to how training is conducted to who is even accepted as a candidate. There's also no independent civilian oversight of police departments, so abuse cases very rarely go to court, let alone secure convictions.

The Guardian is keeping count again this year. Whilst it does show that African Americans have a significantly higher chance of being killed by police, what's interesting to note is that Native Americans also have a significantly high fatality rate.

Should we be really looking at this as a race issue when it looks very much like an issue with poverty and bad policing?

It's an issue of race. Sandra Bland was a middle-class woman.

http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next ... aragraphs/

Basically, saying 'all lives matter' is problematic because it erases race and racism. 'White lives' already matter - white people aren't being disproportionately killed by police. If you disagree with saying 'black lives matter', then you implicitly disagree with everyone mattering equally.

What.
That's some impressive mental gymanstics xe was able to pull off there.
*claps*
Well done, laddy/lassie/laxxy.
But, in all seriousness, come on.
All lives matter is literally saying that all lives matter equally. There's nothing to insinuate that white lives don't already matter. Of course white people are killed less often by police. But this is because the minority of African Americans commit a huge amount of crime. That's not racist, it's a fact. And if you think the facts are racist I don't know what to tell you.
All Lives Matter overcomes the boundaries of race because they are imposed and superficial. Judge by the content of character

[Costa Fierro]

It's an issue of race. Sandra Bland was a middle-class woman.

Did I mention Sandra Bland? No. Did I mention class? No. I mentioned that there were a lot of issues with how police function in the United States. I'll go further and say that turning this into a dispute over race actually does little other than polarize communities and further reinforce stereotypes of African Americans being nothing more than criminals and all police officers being nothing more than trigger happy murderers.

Basically, saying 'all lives matter' is problematic because it erases race and racism.

And yet what of those communities that have higher instances of shootings than White Americans? Should they not get a voice too?

'White lives' already matter - white people aren't being disproportionately killed by police. If you disagree with saying 'black lives matter', then you implicitly disagree with everyone mattering equally.

I never mentioned white people in my post at all. I even explicitly mentioned Native Americans, who also have a statistically high fatality rate with police shootings (well according to The Guardian at least). The fact that you make it about white people when I never mentioned them once in my post at all. The fact that you're willing to reduce an argument to "whites vs blacks" really shows that you aren't willing to consider other ideas and arguments or even remove race from the argument of police brutality altogether.

I'm not saying that black lives don't matter, I'm saying that the issues with police violence and abuses in the United States transcends racial boundaries. The issues are institutional and I accept that blacks face disproportionate racial profiling. But limiting these issues to African Americans only ignores the other largely impoverished communities in the United States who also suffer from a range of issues with their law enforcement agencies.

[Atlanticatia]

It's an issue of race. Sandra Bland was a middle-class woman.

http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next ... aragraphs/

Basically, saying 'all lives matter' is problematic because it erases race and racism. 'White lives' already matter - white people aren't being disproportionately killed by police. If you disagree with saying 'black lives matter', then you implicitly disagree with everyone mattering equally.

What.
That's some impressive mental gymanstics xe was able to pull off there.
*claps*
Well done, laddy/lassie/laxxy.
But, in all seriousness, come on.
All lives matter is literally saying that all lives matter equally. There's nothing to insinuate that white lives don't already matter. Of course white people are killed less often by police. But this is because the minority of African Americans commit a huge amount of crime. That's not racist, it's a fact. And if you think the facts are racist I don't know what to tell you.
All Lives Matter overcomes the boundaries of race because they are imposed and superficial. Judge by the content of character

It's when it is said in order to dismiss 'black lives matter'. Of course randomly saying 'all lives matter' isn't problematic.

And I agree that it would be great if we could 'overcome the boundaries of race' and judge people solely by character. And race is a social construct, yes. But that doesn't make it any less real, in that it leads to people being discriminated against and oppressed. Just ignoring it won't correct for hundreds of years of racism and ingrained prejudice. We need to dismantle it, not ignore it.

[Imperializt Russia]

All lives matter is a complete whitewash of the disproportionate targeting and violence directed at minorities, largely blacks, by police, largely white.

Even if a minority of blacks did commit "a huge amount of crime" (it's disproportionate, but in the case of say stop and search, a lot of it can be explained by confirmation bias - you expect blacks to carry drugs, so you stop blacks, and you happen to find a lot of blacks carrying drugs), this in no way justifies or excuses the shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude of American police in certain high-profile cases.

So Michael Brown stole some cigars from a shop. So what? The officer who shot him didn't know that, so it's not an argument in his defence.

[HMS Vanguard]

So Michael Brown stole some cigars from a shop. So what?

So indeed, Asian shopkeepers don't matter.

Perhaps one day the US can be like Sparta, where blacks have a month a year in which to slaughter as many helots as they want.

[Val Halla]

Vandalism is shit. I see no reason to consider this shock worthy, supporters of one cause will always vandalise campaign boards/flags/whatever of other causes. Homophobes ripping down pride flags, Labour supporters damaging Tory signs. No reason to single out blm.

[Frenline Delpha]

Yeah, that's too much. Most cops are good. You can't go around doing this because of a minority of terrible police officers.

But, but... obviosly all police are rackst. So this was totally justified¡

[Kaedshi]

What.
That's some impressive mental gymanstics xe was able to pull off there.
*claps*
Well done, laddy/lassie/laxxy.
But, in all seriousness, come on.
All lives matter is literally saying that all lives matter equally. There's nothing to insinuate that white lives don't already matter. Of course white people are killed less often by police. But this is because the minority of African Americans commit a huge amount of crime. That's not racist, it's a fact. And if you think the facts are racist I don't know what to tell you.
All Lives Matter overcomes the boundaries of race because they are imposed and superficial. Judge by the content of character

It's when it is said in order to dismiss 'black lives matter'. Of course randomly saying 'all lives matter' isn't problematic.

And I agree that it would be great if we could 'overcome the boundaries of race' and judge people solely by character. And race is a social construct, yes. But that doesn't make it any less real, in that it leads to people being discriminated against and oppressed. Just ignoring it won't correct for hundreds of years of racism and ingrained prejudice. We need to dismantle it, not ignore it.

Race in itself is not a social construct. But the boundaries between people with different skin color is. You can't transition from white to black. You can't transition from black to asian. That's a given, unless you want to cut off your skin and wear someone else's.
Of course the boundaries between different colors of humans is contrived and ridiculous. I come from a mixed race family. I'm white af and my last name is Rios. Nobody knows what the hell I am.

[Kelinfort]

I don't agree with tearing down a billboard per se, but generally people who say "all lives matter" or "blue lives matter" are kind of racist and inciting it.

What's racist about saying "all lives matter"? Police brutality in the United States isn't a uniquely African American problem and there are substantial issues with police at all levels, from the mentality of its officers to how training is conducted to who is even accepted as a candidate. There's also no independent civilian oversight of police departments, so abuse cases very rarely go to court, let alone secure convictions.

The Guardian is keeping count again this year. Whilst it does show that African Americans have a significantly higher chance of being killed by police, what's interesting to note is that Native Americans also have a significantly high fatality rate.

Should we be really looking at this as a race issue when it looks very much like an issue with poverty and bad policing?

You know there is a Native Lives Matter movement too. And given the whole concept of intersectionality, it's probable that BLM supporters also support NLM.

[The House of Petain]

Blue lives matter, black lives matter, all lives matter, but that was never the point of BLM was it? Everybody knows all lives matter, BLM is about making note of the systematic racism that results in the greater likelihood of somebody who is black being shot. Please don't get me wrong, I respect police officers. Most are just trying to do the right thing. But to use the same acronym kind of misses the point and slightly offensive.

It would be like comparing the 2016 election to 9/11 and only a gigantic ass clown would do that.

[Inter-Universal Republic of Earth]

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

[Imperializt Russia]

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

That's not infringing on someone's free speech.

[Inter-Universal Republic of Earth]

Blocking someone for voicing their opinions on billboards or otherwise is an infringement on free speech.

[Kelinfort]

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

That's vandalism

[The House of Petain]

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

Was it the government or university? If not, then free speech wasn't infringed upon. Defacing though would be an accurate way to describe it.

[Inter-Universal Republic of Earth]

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

Was it the government or university? If not, then free speech wasn't infringed upon. Defacing though would be an accurate way to describe it.

Can we bring the forum topic to the problem at hand, being that was it wrong that the BLM members infringed on other's free speech by tearing and defacing their property?

Was it the government or university? If not, then free speech wasn't infringed upon. Defacing though would be an accurate way to describe it.

My mistake, apologies. Defacing, not infringing.

[Alvecia]

Blocking someone for voicing their opinions on billboards or otherwise is an infringement on free speech.

Not really. Free speech ensure that you can't be arrested by the government for what you say, not that other people can't object to it.

Edit: Ninja'd