Another Police Shooting Of A Person Of Color ... In Sixty Seconds

The Daily Kos has a theory that it takes about 60 seconds for police officers to assess a situation before fatally shooting people of color.

Philando Castile was shot 64 seconds after being stopped by Jeronimo Yanez. That was a little long ... children get shot faster.

Seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot 9 seconds after police surrounded the house she was in as they attempted to serve an arrest warrant. 

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot 2 seconds after officers approached him in the park where he was playing with a pellet gun by himself.

So, maybe for kids the Sixty Second Rule doesn’t apply, but for grown people of color ... ?

Last week in Oklahoma City police shot Madgiel Sanchez less than a minute after coming upon him; and Sanchez was deaf.

Sanchez was shot outside his home after police showed up to investigate a hit-and-run. The first officer on the scene pulled out his Taser and ordered Sanchez, who was on his front porch, to drop the two-foot-long pipe he was holding.

His commands didn’t seem to register with Sanchez, who walked off the porch toward the officer, waving the pipe in his right hand, as Sanchez’ daughter yelled:

“Don’t kill him, he’s deaf. Don’t do it!”

Six other neighbors joined in, shouting at the officer, but within sixty seconds another officer arrived and pulled out his handgun; the first officer fired his Taser and the second fired his handgun.

Okay, so was Sanchez coming at the officers and they felt threatened? Well, everyone, including the officers, used the word “amble” to describe his movements—meaning Sanchez was walking at a slow pace; he was not charging at them. And people were shouting that Sanchez was deaf, but the officers tasered him and shot him dead nonetheless.

In his neighborhood, Sanchez was known for walking the streets and was always carrying that pipe to shoo away stray dogs. Neighbors say he even used the pipe “to communicate,” moving it around to try to convey what he meant. They say he was doing that with the officers before he was killed.

Now, some might say this isn’t about race, it’s about a man wielding a pipe, even though he was deaf, and even though was ambling off his porch, and even though one officer tasered him while the other shot him dead.

People will say that police have a difficult job and must assess a situation within seconds but ...

“Black men are 2.8 times as likely to be killed than white people during encounters with police. Hispanic men are 1.7 times more likely to be killed. Black women and girls make up 33% of fatal police shootings of women despite only being 13% of the female population.”

Doesn’t sound right, does it? And if it doesn’t, isn’t it about time to do something about policing?

And wouldn't it be nice if we could get it done in less time than it takes to shoot a person of color in America.

Daily Kos

You Can't Say "Evolution" In Oklahoma ... At Least Not On A FOX Station

You know, when all these stories broke about this state and that state trying to pass legislation allowing business owners to deny services to The Gays in order to protect their alleged “religious freedom” the pundits said it was happening because The Gays and The Liberals and President Thanks Obama had declared war on religion.

Somehow I missed that memo.

But, is anyone talking about the Religious Folks and their war on intelligence? Their war on any idea that doesn’t magically fit into their little history book?

I thought so.

But, last Sunday night, in Oklahoma, go figure, and on a Fox station, when Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey premiered it became the first time in decades that a science show appeared on a big-time network in prime-time.

And it went well, I guess, until the last ten minutes or so when the show’s host, Neil deGrasse Tyson brought up the theory of evolution. Just before he began describing how humans “stood up and parted ways from” our ancestors, viewers in Oklahoma City were treated to a mid-scene cutaway to their local Fox station’s news promo.

And oddly enough, once Tyson had finished talking about the human transition to “standing on two feet,” the station returned to the show.

That channel, KOKH Fox 25, responded to the curious edit and cutaway via Twitter, saying they “regret” the “operating error:”

Sunday, during @COSMOSonTV, a local news promo was aired over a portion of COSMOS content. This was an operator error & we regret the error.
— KOKH FOX 25 (@OKCFOX) March 12, 2014

An accident that not once during the show was there a cutaway until the idea, the mere mention — and you know it was merely a mention because it was a fifteen second cutaway — of evolution.

A war on religion? Hardly. The war is from the religious against anyone who disagrees with their fantasy books.

Just sayin’. And hoping that when this blog post hits Oklahoma there isn’t another mysterious edit of I Should Be Laughing.

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Jim Roth Was Called Anti-Gay Slurs While Being Beaten, But In The OKC That Isn't A Hate Crime

I’ve tried explaining this before, but, well, in light of the police comments in this case it bears repeating:

A man is walking down the street and he is beaten and robbed at gunpoint. It’s a crime, no? And a hateful one, at that, but it isn’t a Hate Crime.But, a man walking down the street who is beaten and robbed, because he’s gay, or perceived to be gay, is hateful and a Hate crime.

It really seems quite simple, but not to the police in Oklahoma City.

See, Jim Roth, one of Oklahoma’s first openly gay politicians was assaulted by three men outside an Oklahoma City bar earlier this month; he got by with a few scrapes and bruises.

But police seem to say, even after talking to Roth, that it’s hard to classify these kinds of assaults as hate crimes, so let’s see what we have here.

According to a police report, Roth and some friends were at Grandad's bar in Oklahoma City for a birthday dinner when a man started making anti-gay comments. Roth and his party tried to ignore the comments but eventually decided to leave.

They were followed out of the bar by the man who made the comments and two of his friends, who attacked Jim Roth when he got outside. Roth told police the men yelled anti-gay comments as they punched him in the head and pushed him down.

Now, police admit that Jim Roth got into a verbal altercation with a man who had made some anti-gay comments about him, though they seem quick to add, as if it makes a difference, he wasn’t “seriously hurt”. But the fact that the men yelled anti-gay epithets as they punched and kicked Jim Roth doesn't seem of any interest to local police.

But Grandad’s posted a Facebook rant, which read, in part:

“We will not tolerate bigotry and hate. You don’t have to love everyone who walks in the door like we do but you do have to tolerate them. Gay, straight, black, white, plumber, politician, whatever… let’s just all have a drink and be cool.”

The bar owner identified the suspect to police but no arrests have been made , and yet Oklahoma City police say that they cannot classify what happened at Grandad’s hate crime. “It’s definitely an assault case Oklahoma City police Master Sgt. Gary Knight said. “That’s what we’re working is an assault.”

“Often local law enforcement is simply not equipped to deal with hate crimes,” Scott Hamilton said, with the Cimarron Alliance—a nonprofit political action group promoting LGBT issues. He said the incident is part of a growing trend, as the fight over LGBT rights gains more attention. “As minorities gain rights, there can be an increase in violence and sadly we’re seeing that in Oklahoma City.”

Makes it sound all the more like a hate crime and yet the police in Oklahoma City can’t even be bothered to arrest the man identified as one of the suspects. How can we fight hate, anywhere, if the police are sitting on their hands?

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OKC Votes For Nondiscrimination Policy That Includes Sexual Orientation

When I first read this story, I thought, "Well, here's a bit of good news from the land of Sally Kern." And, don't get me wrong, it is good news, welcome  news, and about time news. But, it's also slightly troubling. Really troubling. Very troubling. What people will say when fighting equality and calling in the name of God in their fight.

The good news first. The Oklahoma City Council voted 7-2--quite a majority--to add sexual orientation to the city's employment nondiscrimination policy. See, now The Gays are just like everyone else....who's a city employee in the OKC.
But the debate over the issue is the troubling news.

Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid, who sponsored the measure:

“I would propose that we let the city be the employer, and let God be the judge. Let God sort this out later, and let us act objectively based on somebody's job performance, and that's it.” 

Ward 3 Councilman Larry McAtee, who was one of the two dissenting votes:

 “Oklahoma City has shown it is a thriving municipality with much to be thankful for. It would be foolish to jeopardize our success without a proven need for doing so.” 

And now, for those citing 'religion' as an excuse for inequality.

Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond:

“Why are we creating a special class of protection for someone's behavior? We're not talking about civil rights. This is not a gender, or this is not a race.”

Eric Rogers, just a Regular Joe....asshat:

“This proposed law could be construed to help those that would look to animism, polygamy, transvestite ... or even later, if you want to get crazy, convicts, molesters, liars or any other behavior choice.”

But the worst of all was one little man of god, little g, one Pastor Tom Vineyard of Windsor Hills Baptist Church, spoke against the measure and actually cited a New York judge in saying more than half of murders in large cities are committed by gay people.

'Pastor' Asshat failed to mention the name of the judge, or the study, or the statistics, He simply said that more than half the murders committed in large cities are committed by gay people, and then received the longest standing ovation of the day after his remarks.

Like this one:

Tom Vineyard, 'pastor':

“Many homosexuals openly admit that they are pedophiles because they cannot actually reproduce. They resort to recruiting children. ... Folks, you're making a decision that will bring down God's judgment on your city if you vote in favor of this.”

Of course, though, not all pastors are such narrow-minded, hate-filled, lie-spewing, homophobes. In fact one such pastor, Scott Hamilton, of the Church of the Open Arms said:

“To couch in Christian terms these so-called statistics, I'll call them what they are. They are lies.” 

This is a perfect example of the Separation of Church and State. While everyone, even people like Tom Vineyard and Eric Rogers, are entitled to their viewpoints, be they religious or not, logical or not, factual or not, they cannot be allowed to impose their religious convictions on the laws of this country.

But then, as I want to do, to lower my blood pressure, and remove the remnants of these morons from my mind, I will once again focus of the good news, because, and it bears repeating, the Oklahoma City Council voted 7-2--quite a majority--to add sexual orientation to the city's employment nondiscrimination policy. 

Take that, 'Pastor'.

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