Another OPD shooting

[Jimmie Higgins]

I went into a store about a block and a half from my apartment the other night. As I walked in, it was a normal scene for a Friday night with people headed home from work and so on. When I left the store, there was a really strange atmosphere and it was 3 times as crowded on the street than it was when I went into the store. There were groups of people gathered at all the corners and people driving by and shouting things but I didn't catch what they were saying at first. There was also tons of police and I counted at least 8 police vehicles and there were cops blocking the streets and diverting traffic. I went up to one of the group of people and everyone was gossiping. I asked what was going on and someone said that a guy was just killed. Another person in that group said "a homeless man was killed with a knife". I thought he meant that someone stabbed a homeless person, but then as I walked away, someone driving by leaned out the window and asked me what was happening and they said that someone told them that a cop shot a homeless man. I tried to go back but was prevented by the police so I went home and about an hour later read on a local newspaper's website that the OPD had shot someone.

From what I've read, thankfully, it doesn't seem like it was a fatal shot, but WHAT THE FUCK! This is about a 10 minute walk from where Oscar Grant was killed and an 8 minute walk from where OPD shot and killed another homeless guy about a year ago. WHAT THE FUCK! It's policing in an age of austerity folks.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Maybe it'll take a France 2005/Greece 2008/England 2011-style episode of social unrest in order to bring the issues regarding police conduct into the public discourse. I mean, it's something that a lot of people live with everyday. But probably only an explosion will force the larger society to look at these incidents.

It's weird how the USA has all the elements that European nations have, only worse probably, in terms of a widespread visible class divide. And a supposedly anti-authoritarian mentality as well (although this is largely a myth today). And yet people mostly just go on with their lives when something terrible happens due to the police, even if it's especially flagrant like the whole Oscar Grant deal.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yeah, people are kept invisible in the US if your very existence is somehow contrary to the story of America that the ruling class is pushing on us. You turn on the TV and it's full of all these people with huge houses and cars that never seem to talk about let alone go to work. (This is part of the reason, despite hanging on too long, that The Simpsons is probably the best representation of America as well as parody of the myths... they repeatedly call out the fact that Homer never seems to have to go to work ever:laugh:).

Homeless people are the most invisible even though if you live in an urban or suburban area you probably seem more homeless each day than any single occupation (other than your co-workers). Vets are invisible, native Americans, and the working poor. On top of all that is racism which is targeted and because things have gotten more segregated it's like a lot of white people who are not regularly target by police don't even believe that profiling or "driving while black" or harassment even happen. So not seeing the abuses by police and horror-show of US courts (not to mention prisons which are often located in the most depressed and remote areas of the state here in California) and then turning on TV and seeing "color-blind" happy fantasy land 10 times over or hearing the radio and all the AM right-wingers saying that police brutality never happens and that blacks and Latinos complain too much... well it has the impact of convincing a chunk of the population (among all races).

Ok, enough of this 2 cups of coffee ranting. Your main point about struggle really is the only way out of this wide-spread but totally flimsy ruling class facade. Austerity and 25-30% or more unemployment for young people means that the cops are just going to get more brutal for people and so hopefully a movement of some kind can begin to cohere to present an opposition both in activism and in propaganda. In the near-term, in the lack of movements, I think the US cities are not long for a Paris or London in some form.

[Jimmie Higgins]

OPD, watch out, I think I hear London calling.

[Rusty Shackleford]

wow, they are going at it this year.what the fuck.