In the following clip from CNN in a discussion of how different the Police and media response has been to the mass murder spree and shootout by Waco Biker Gangs, contrasted to not just the so-called "Riots" but even the reaction to Non-Violent and Unarmed Citizens and Protestors in Ferguson and Baltimore, Former Police Officer Harry Houck can hardly restrain himself from multiple diatribes which all essentially break down into Black Criminals make Cops Kill Them, without ever addressing the fact that White Offenders of far more heinous actions are repeatedly treated with kid gloves.
Via RawStory.
Houck then goes on to claim that the reason Black people, whether they are Non-violent protestors or not, are commonly called "Thugs" while two gangs of vicious White Murderers aren't is because of - well - Rap music. Yes, really.
“I don’t know how you can make a comparison between Waco and Baltimore,” Houck complained. “Are these guys thugs? Yeah, they’re thugs… I use the word thug and I mean ‘bad guy’ when I use the word.”
“I think the word was owned by rappers,” he continued. “They started coming out with songs and calling themselves thugs, and I think that’s how this whole thing started, with the black community and the young men calling themselves thugs. Alright? And I think that’s how that all started.”
Continued over the flip.
in response to Hauk's claim Charles M. Blow does point out that word has a much longer history than mid-90's Rap
Etymology experts have traced the word thug to the Hindi word meaning a cheat or a swindler. Colonial accounts speak of groups of Thugs who practiced Thuggee and would rob and kill travelers. Some accounts describe these Thugs as belonging to a religious cult that worshipped the goddess of death and destruction and killed in order to please her.
Such accounts made their way into Western culture during British colonization and through anthropological writings such as Edward Thornton’s Illustrations of the History and Practices of the Thugs (1837).
He also explains that many groups, including blacks and gays, have over time attempted to ironically repurpose words used to disparage them by others in attempt drain them of their impact and power. Case in point, Tupac Shakur of the meaning of T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.
Shukar: It was cool because I got to speak to young black brothers about this thing called "T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E" which is a new kind of Black Power.
These white folks see us as "Thugs", I don't care what y'all think. I don't care if you're a lawyer, if your'e a man, if you're an African-American, we "thugs and niggaz" to these mutha-fuckas. Until we own some shit, I'm gonna call it like it is. How you gonna be a "man" and we starvin? You go to five different houses and their aint a man in any one of those muthafuckas. How we gonna set this shit right? How we gonna be a man. We "Thugs and Niggas" until we set this shit right.
In short Tupac was arguing that you have to acknowledge the circumstances you're living in honestly, understand the challenges before you can begin changing them.
Others have put it a little less colorfully.
It actually stands for The Hate You Gave Little Infants Fu*c*ks Everybody.
As Tupac defined it, a thug is someone who is going through struggles, has gone through struggles, and continues to live day by day with nothing for them.
And also that even against all those troubles and struggles, a "Thug" survives and thrives anyway... like a flower blooming through concrete.
The challenges before someone like Tupac were steep, every decision he made may not have always been the best, some far worse than others, yet he struggled on with the knowledge that in the end he may not ultimately make it. And he didn't.
It's clear though that when someone like Harry Houck sees someone like Tupac Shakur he doesn't see an vibrant articulate talented yet troubled young man, he's a see a "Thug". Just as Tupac described.
Blow: When you see 170 people injured, 9 people dead, that is not what I call a "Brawl".
...
Sally Kohn [Daily Beast Columnist]: When were talking about bias, we're not singling out. We're not just talking about that one cop. That one person. It's a trend it's a pattern. We had police who knew that these "criminal biker gangs" would be at the restaurant and they sat back. Their sitting around not handcuffed, talking on their cellphones while on the other hand black and brown men are routinely stopped, let along having guns pulled on them when their walking on their way to work, or peacefully protesting in Ferguson or Baltimore.
And it's also the media response. When black and brown people commit crimes we note their race and when white people do we don't know their race. The majority of mass shootings are caused by white men, but we don't say we have this epic problem of white-ness or white-on-white crime.
To these substantive points we get this response from Houck.
Houck: You can't compare Baltimore to Waco. This was a situation that was under control [Ed. After 9 people were killed]. How do you know the guys talking on their cell phones were under arrest? [They arrested 170 people... he thinks there were another 50 or so they just let go?]
Cohn: Ok, let's excuse away the fact that these mostly white bikers were not handcuffed, were using their cellphones "Oh, they must not have been a threat" versus black and brown people just walking down the street not involved in any criminal behavior what-so-ever being threatened by the police, stopped by the police, shot by the police, that's the problem. White Americans Over-Estimate the Amount of Crime Being Committed by Black People, that's because we in the media. and in the society, perpetuate these ideas that when white people commit crime - it's an aberration.
To which Houck responded.
You really can't compare Baltimore and Waco. I think that's really a stretch. I mean that's a great talking point for you, for what you believe in, but the fact is each situation is different. A riot in Baltimore with the whole community involved versus an area that cordoned off by police.
Blow: Then let's look at comparable situations of Riots where whole communities of Black people were wiped off the map. [Black Wall Street] That were worse than Ferguson, and even then we did not pathologize white America in the way that we have pathologized African-American whenever there is a riot. How many fathers are in the home and how many single-parents, but the history of riots, and racial violence in America is that they were happening when two-parents in the household was the norm. It had nothing to do whether the father was in the home or not. In the case of lynchings they were bringing the wife and kids out to see what they had done [to the father].
That really set Houck off.
Houck: That was going back to the 30's and 40's and the 20's and way before that. It's 2015 now, Charles, c'mon.
The fact is there was an activist and protestor who was arrested just this
year for "
Felony Lynching" because interfered with the arrest of a fellow protestor. And the other kind of Lynchings with a Noose have occurred as recently
as 1981, and IMO you could reasonable include
James Byrd Jr. in 1998 even though he was technically dragged behind a truck by his neck rather than hung from a tree. None of this was all that "long ago".
Blow: The savagery....Blind prehistorical beliefs are not what I aspired to. If you want to address the savagery in America.
Houck: There's no savagery.
Cohn: Charles is right about the pathology. But I do agree with Harry on this, It's not fair to compared Baltimore and Waco. In Baltimore one young man was killed, by the police, and the community hurt property. Whereas in Waco 7 people were murdered, and the nature of the response, the police response, the media response, the pathologizing of the people in Baltimore is way out of proportion with the nature of the crime.
Blow: You don't want to talk about history, let's talk about the present day because White People Riot All the Time. They just do it around sports events and festivals
This discussion raged on with Houck in turn accusing both Blow and Cohn of having "sociological talking points" to put forward their agenda. In the end though they confront him with the NYPD Stop and Frisk ruling which determined that that police force was unfairly and disproportionately targeting young black and brown men, just as the DOJ found in Ferguson and that many of the "missing black man" problem can be traced to the mass incarceration of those men as they are frequently seen as
far more criminal than the actually are by both the police and the media.
To which Houck responded with...
: And I don't agree with that decision.
Cohn & Blow almost in unison: It's a Fact.
Houcks: It's not a fact, it's that judges opinion.
But the point is in a Federal District Court the Judge is the
Determiner of Facts. Both sides may put forward their evidence, but the judge decides what the "Facts" truly are. In this case the judge was presented with the NYPD own data the 90% of the people who had been stopped, questioned and searched by the NYPD didn't have a gun, didn't get arrested, didn't get a citation and effectively
Didn't Do Anything Wrong.
In fact the "find" rate for contraband such a guns or drugs were actually higher for whites who were stopped than for blacks.
So again, why are they stopping, search, brutalizing and killing hundreds of unarmed black men every year7?
Houcks, as he ultimately admits - "Doesn't know the answer".
Well, duh. Couldn't guessed that one. Can't you tell they're living the "Thuglife"?
Vyan