Long overdue but thanks very much for this info, Robert. I've heard medical professionals allude to the fact that they know for certain which patients are non-citizens and always wondered how this was possible in California where citizenship status is virtually a protected category.
You are correct, Yngvi--I misspoke. What I meant to say was the United States has never had an official language.
Thanks for querying this point Rip and let me be perfectly clear that I agree entirely with what you've said. Also, full disclosure: I haven't seen the entire 8 minute video, only the clips that have circulated on the news wires. In case it wasn't clear from my original post, these scum deserve all the punishment that's coming their way.
However, proving malice on the part of a white police officer who murders a black man in an all white court in Minneapolis--one of the most systemically racist cities in the US--is likely not going to happen. As a reminder, when the Philando Castille case happened, police chiefs from all over the county almost uniformly condemned the actions of the piece of shit that shot Castille 7 times at point blank range in front of his girlfriend and infant child for no good reason at all. In that case, the white officer that shot an innocent black man was acquitted, because, well, racism. (Compare this to when the black Muslim Minneapolis police officer shot the innocent white woman a year later and got 12.5 years, lest anybody accuse me of race-bating).
To reiterate, I agree completely that what those cops did was inexcusable, racist, and unquestionably malicious. But how I feel about the world and what I know about it are two different things. Not only did I live in Minneapolis for 5 years, but I'm also the son of a deputy city attorney; I know both Minneapolis and the insidious and unrelenting racism of the criminal justice system intimately well. As unfortunate as this reality is, I simply don't see it as being very likely that these cops will get anything worse than a slap on the wrist when all is said and done.
Especially considering that so far, even after the city has been burning for three days, only one of the officers involved has been arrested and he was charged with murder in the 3rd degree, which is somewhere below involuntary manslaughter according to Minnesota law: "without intent to effect the death of any person, caus[ing] the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life". Like I said initially, if anything, they'll stick him with negligence and he'll get a unjustly light punishment, as unfortunate as this likely scenario is. As it stands now, the case against him does not look very strong, even on the watered-down charges that have already been brought against him, considering the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's autopsy has essentially exonerated him of any blame in Mr. Floyd's death.Can confirm. I learned this while reporting from the RNC in St. Paul in 2008. Here's a protip I picked up from the Anarkiddies: if you dip your bandanna in white vinegar, you are now immune to tear gas. Just don't forget your swimming goggles and you're good to face tank all the tear gas your heart desires. Flash bangs, on the other hand, are a horse of a different color...
Not sure what sources you're quoting, but Jeronimo Yanez is not latino at all. He is half White and half Native American (the first name should be a dead give away to anyone who's paying attention).
Nonetheless, you bring up an interesting point here--in the racial hierarchy of police brutality, in the Twin Cities especially (St. Paul is home to the largest urban Native American community in the US), both Latinos and Native Americans rank far above Black folks in terms of treatment by police. For all intents and purposes, Latinos and Native Americans enjoy the same benefits as White folks do when it comes to encounters with the police--you are not assumed to be a threat by default until you prove otherwise. I cannot remember the last time an innocent, unarmed Latino or Native person was murdered in cold blood by a White cop.
These two phenomena are not mutually exclusive in the least. Separate but Equal and Apartheid are textbook examples of how government sponsored racism and overreach frequently go hand-in-hand.
To be fair, its this type of rural perspective that makes us city slickers think you country bumpkins live in a vacuum removed from the time-space of the rest of the world. Cops kill black people frequently, even in more rural areas, with little more than a performatory outrage that lasts no longer than a few days. The last time I recall anybody even filling the streets in protest against the police killing of a black man, was in response to Tamir Rice in 2014, and he was 12 years old... Looting and burning hasn't taken place in reaction to police brutality against a black man since 1992, over 25 years ago. The previous time before then was in Watts in 1965, 55 years ago. You'd literally have to have been living under a rock for the last quarter century to think that what's going on in cities across the US right now happens more than once in a generation. It has happened 3 times in the last half century but somehow this appears to be a daily occurance? The mind boggles...
Importantly, what the three events have in common that separates them from every other instance of police brutality against black people is that they occurred during the worst economic crises of the last century; the great inflation, the bush recession, and the covid depression. The importance of emphasizing this distinction cannot be understated: People only act out in such extravagant fashion when you take away their livelihoods. Unemployment is what causes looting, period. Racial tension certainly does its fair share to exacerbate the situation, but without the underlying economic disruption there is almost never rioting, looting, and wholesale destruction.
Such an erudite and wordy post, all to justify the unjustifiable position that is at the heart of the Conservative/Liberal divide: criminals are victims and not at fault for their actions.
Defending indefensible looters and hoodlums?
How unfortunate and pathetic a position to hold!