Bill Deblasio's off-the-cuff remarks on Staten Island were eloquent, emotional and spot-on.
Black lives matter.
It's shouldn't have to be said, but it does. The failure of the grand jury in Ferguson to indict was unsettling but not altogether unsupportable, given the conflicting evidence (though the failure of the prosecutor to ask more penetrating questions is suspect). But the failure of the Staten Island grand jury to indict is egregious. The evidence was crystal clear: an unarmed, unthreatening black man was taken down by police in a choke hold; he cried out repeatedly that he couldn't breathe, and the officers stood by, doing nothing to aid him.
I'm not black, and I live in a corner of the US which s overwhelmingly white. I miss the racial and cultural diversity that I enjoyed in my previous 22 years in inner city Chicago. The daily impact of racism is hardly visible where I live because other races are hardly visible here - which speaks to the geographical racism of rural Wisconsin. I know of no incidents in my county of police mishandling of suspects of color. And yet ... could they happen here? They might even be more likely here, since people of color are so uncommon.
Black lives matter.
It's shouldn't have to be said, but it does. The failure of the grand jury in Ferguson to indict was unsettling but not altogether unsupportable, given the conflicting evidence (though the failure of the prosecutor to ask more penetrating questions is suspect). But the failure of the Staten Island grand jury to indict is egregious. The evidence was crystal clear: an unarmed, unthreatening black man was taken down by police in a choke hold; he cried out repeatedly that he couldn't breathe, and the officers stood by, doing nothing to aid him.
I'm not black, and I live in a corner of the US which s overwhelmingly white. I miss the racial and cultural diversity that I enjoyed in my previous 22 years in inner city Chicago. The daily impact of racism is hardly visible where I live because other races are hardly visible here - which speaks to the geographical racism of rural Wisconsin. I know of no incidents in my county of police mishandling of suspects of color. And yet ... could they happen here? They might even be more likely here, since people of color are so uncommon.
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