I don't have much time so I'm going to be brief. This was meant to be a comment in another diary on the subject, but I've decided to put this out here on its own.
This all, to me, seems as it's a Sanders versus Clinton proxy war, with genuine anger and sympathy for the fucked up situation that Sommer Foster had to deal with. I feel horrible for the bullying that she had to endure. No one should have to endure that. No one.
I support BLM. It took me a day or so to get the protest at Netroots Nation, but I eventually got it. I've been subjected to police bullshit all my life. I'm lucky to be alive. Seriously lucky to be alive.
These are a small sample of what I've dealt with--simply for Driving While Black:
1st time- Cop claimed I had not come to stop when a bus was stopping on the other side of an undivided highway. The bus wasn't stopped, their sign wasn't even out. Yet myself and a black woman were ticketed. We both agreed it was total bullshit. That was $187.00 that I'll never see again.
2nd time- Driving on a wet curved off-ramp from the highway about 5 mph below the posted 30 mph speed limit a half mile from my apartment complex. I was driving an SUV and the roads were wet and I didn't want to flip my sled. Cop claimed I was speeding at 50 mph. Used verbal jujitsu and the fact that he didn't even have a radar gun in his patrol vehicle to get out of the situation. He thought I was playing loud hip hop music--but I was listening to house music at respectable level.
3rd time- Not a few months after the 2nd incident, I got pulled over because the cop also thought I was playing loud hip hop music with a lot of bass. I showed him the CD that I was playing--it was full of house music and my music wasn't even loud. I've got factory speakers. Same area as my apartment complex, which was in Maitland, Florida--a bedroom community about 10 minutes north of Orlando off of I-4. The police there have a reputation for being dicks.
I've also been harassed while walking with white women from police (which happens often because my best friend is a white woman). I've deliberately avoided encounters with police, even though I have friends on the police force in meatspace. I live in a predominantly black neighborhood--edge of Parramore, the western side of Downtown Orlando.
It's not easy being a black man in this country, or anywhere else for that matter. I am a human target. One of many. Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and countless others weren't so lucky.
Hopefully the Sanders, Clinton, and O'Malley campaigns get that this is a national emergency in the African American community. From what I've seen from their collective reactions, they have. It's up to us to organize and get all levels of government to address the senseless murder of African Americans.
Unfortunately I'm seeing a proxy war on this site and elsewhere that solves nothing. Everyone loses if that what this situation devolves into. I do not want to lose this. Because I, and millions of others like me, are still human targets every time we leave our homes--and in some cases when we're living in our homes.
We should be supporting Black Lives Matters without any asides, without any agenda save getting sweeping reforms in our law enforcement apparatus (from the cop on the beat, rigged grand jury processes, sentencing, the prison industrial complex, and judges), dealing with the rampant and systemic racism in our law enforcement apparatus, and most importantly...saving the lives of African Americans from the oppressive grip of corrupt law enforcement.
By the way, I'm a Sanders supporter. I'm glad that he gets BLM. Now let's get the rest of the country to get it without tearing at each others' throats. Because we all lose if that happens. I'm tired of reading news stories that make my blood boil to the point where I have to chain smoke to calm down.
Peace.