Dear Hasbeen,

Yet again I am completely taken aback by the depth of your obviously well researched and original reply. It takes my breath away just how well you manage to expand on tease out these issues with insight and brevity that puts the rest of us to shame. You really are the star contributor here and I would take issue with anyone who postulated otherwise.

Dear Armchair Critic,

You wrote;

“So I think the white demographic would me more likely to peacefully protest on the Whitehouse lawn, in making their stand whereas blacks are more likely to take it to local police. I think the blacks oppression meter would be a lot higher, enraged and prone to act more irrationally. The whites position against the federal government is that they would try to get police and military on their side whereas the blacks position is gunning for the cops. I still don't think I answered your argument very well sorry, but you definitely got me thinking. Kudos. I don't think it will help the blacks cause by shooting police.”

Permit me to leave aside the Soros stuff as it would be a distraction in examining the question before us.

You are a step ahead of some here who would argue that the Black community doesn't have a cause so well done on that front.

What I am attempting to do is examine the issue through the lens of someone who is firmly convinced one of the prime reasons for civilians bearing arms is to protect against tyrannical behavior by authorities. I think we both accept that there would be people living in black communities who would view the spate of police shootings as a form of tyrannical behaviour from those representing the authority of the state.

Cont...

Cont...

The question is whether an armed response is legitimate. I don't think there would be any reason to pose this question in Australia but in a country with a gun culture and a strong commitment to their constitution it certainly is.

You don't need to be armed to go and peacefully protest on the White House lawn. But if you are faced with the kind of overt racism that o sung wu described permeating the highly armed and 'willing to use lethal force' groups with the power of life and death within your community then perhaps it is understandable why they would regard ian armed response as having a degree of legitimate.

I too don't think shooting police will help the cause but faced with an increasing, not decreasing, spate of police killings of civilians what would you have them do differently?

There's no doubt African Americans are very much the minor players in most enterprises. Whether it's the work place, schooling, and from what I've been told University (College) the African American has to work that much harder than most of his white contemporaries, to achieve many of those prized positions, good jobs, even superior accommodation while undertaking their training.

I visited the Topsfield State Police Academy in Massachusetts, which is ideally set in some delightful forest environs. You'll rarely see African American recruits proudly marching about and readying themselves to undertake the preparatory training for State Police. All of whom are closely observed by that legendary warrior of the City of Boston Police, Arthur LAMB.

In fact the more promising, more exceptional black recruits, are all encouraged to re-direct their application to the City of Boston Police Department, rather then persevere as it were, with the MA State Police. Who are considered among the most elite and oldest of all the American State Police Departments. Often referred to as the MA Governor's pride and joy.

Who was it that said with the emancipation of the American Negro came an abundance of civil rights ? Not so in law-enforcement it would appear. Though when looking over West Point, at Highland Falls, I did see the exception, with a number of African American cadets proudly doing their 'square bashing' as would any other Cadet Under Officer would do, notwithstanding their colour.

Poirot, "The US is brimming with weaponry in civilian hands....black people are being popped off at whim....police are decked out in combat gear above and beyond that worn on the battle field"

You are having the vapors. Take a long glass of cold water and a good rest.

@SteeleRedux, Monday, 11 July 2016 8:50:32 PM

That is crazy, irresponsible stuff. You are proposing armed insurrection. By whom, for what, in one of the greatest democracies in the world and where freedom of speech and the vote are facts of everyday life and not just a hopeful notion

Dear o sung wu,

Hopefully things are changing for the better.

Dear Poirot,

The militarisation of the police forces over the last decades has been striking. It has become so pervasive that both Democrat and Republican politicians are calling for demilitarisation.

Last year Obama stepped in and restricted the range of military equipment that could be sold to police departments. While facing cutbacks in all police budgets the only area that had been spared was funding for procuring military weaponry. It was financed by generous grants from Federal agencies.

“In this, as with so much else in American governance, it starts with federal cash. Every year Congress passes the National Defence Authorisation Act, which sets out the Defence Department's budget and expenditures. The version passed in 1990, in the wake of a sharp rise in drug-related violence, allowed the Defence Department to transfer military gear and weapons to local police departments if they were deemed "suitable for use in counter-drug activities". Between 2002 and 2011 the Department of Homeland Security, established after the attacks of September 11th 2001, disbursed more than $35 billion in grants to state and local police forces. In addition the "1033 programme" allows the Defence Department to distribute surplus equipment to local police departments for use in counter-terrorism and counter-drug activities.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-22

Why on earth people felt that large caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, tanks and camouflage gear have a place in local policing beats me but that is what has happened.

"You are having the vapors. Take a long glass of cold water and a good rest."

Lol!...poor old otb decides to tell the lady she's having "the vapors".

You forget, that Poirot is more than able to hold her own on this forum despite blokey comments like that from a fella whose recourse to the females on this forum is usually confined to sexist put-downs.

Now, otb...why haven't you got around to blaming the Trotskyites, the progressives and the feminists for the outrageous situation in US?

Step it up, mate!