#malissa williams

[unapproachableblackchicks]

"Those who commit the murders write the reports, and hence these blots upon the honor of a nation cause but a faint ripple on the outside world. They arouse no great indignation and call forth no adequate demand for justice. The victims were black, and the reports are so written as to make it appear that the helpless creatures deserved the fate which overtook them." Ida B. Wells Lynch Law In All Its Phases 1893

Blackpast.org

[teesadutta]

5.26.15

[10oclockdot]

On Unnecessary Violence

As you've probably read by now, Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo was recently found not guilty of manslaughter and use of excessive force in the slaying of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell.  The couple were killed November 29, 2012, following a high-speed police chase through Cleveland involving as many as 62 police cars.  At the end of the chase, officers fired 137 bullets into Williams and Russell's vehicle.  They were unarmed.  (here)

The detail that sticks with me the most is not that a white officer was allowed to murder two black people and get away with it (that's practically a banality at this point, it happens with such intolerable and ignominious frequency), but rather the sheer Hollywoodesque absurdity of using 62 cars to chase down two people. (video here)

Grotesquely enough, it reminded me of a favorite movie from my childhood: John Landis's 1980 action/comedy/musical The Blues Brothers (incidentally, I'm not the only one to have made the connection).  The film culminates in what must be the most ludicrously over-the-top chase scene in the history of Hollywood (intentionally so!), as Jake and Elwood Blues, on the run from the law, drive 106 miles to Chicago at high speeds to deliver a $5000 tax payment to keep a Catholic orphanage open.  As the chase escalates beyond the point of reason, a dispatcher even announces over the radio, "Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues brothers... has been approved."

Some years ago, a friend made me understand what I'd never comprehended as a child: that there's a soft but potent racism underpinning The Blues Brothers, in which two white people co-opt and rebrand black music, while sidelining to supporting roles many of the great black artists who invented or defined blues, soul, and more.  Not knowing how constitutive such music was of black culture in the 20th Century, when I was young I didn't catch the whitewashing swap that Belushi and Aykroyd had pulled on me.  Now I see that perhaps for no other reason than to disavow the white-supremacist logic inherent in such love-and-theft, The Blues Brothers also features a gang of neo-Nazis, as if in order to make sure that the two leads seem positively progressive by comparison.

And I never thought I'd see anything to further complicate my opinion of The Blues Brothers... until now.  Reading the story Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell alongside the car chase in The Blues Brothers, I now realize that it's basically a form of white privilege to witness the deployment of so many police, SWAT, and military and be able to regard it as funny, as I did in childhood.

(I might even call it privilege-in-general, since The Blues Brothers was made only twelve years after a similar over-mobilization of force to quell anti-Vietnam protesters outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I can't decide whether it amounts to resilience or denial that the Second-City alums of SNL who made The Blues Brothers decided in effect to restage such a mammoth spectacle of violence (”police riot”) in their hometown  In fact, the Richard J. Daley Center, the terminus of the climactic chase in The Blues Brothers, is only about a half mile away from Grant Park, the nexus of those '68 protests, and it's named after the quasi-authoritarian mayor of Chicago who thought it necessary to pit 23,000 police and National Guard troops against only 10,000 protesters.)

I also realize one more thing.  If Jake and Elwood had been black, they would've been gunned down in the Cook County Assessor's Office.

[stephanbroadus]

Department of Justice settles with Cleveland over police conduct

Department of Justice settles with Cleveland over police conduct

Just days after a judge acquitted a Cleveland officer in the shooting deaths of two unarmed people when he fired his gun 49 times, the Department of Justice has reached a settlement with the city over the conduct of its police, a justice official tells the Washington Post.

The settlement announcement comes amid a widening debate about policing in the U.S. following a string of high-profile…

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[justice4mikebrown]

May 25  11:20 am

Group says it has more than enough names on petition to recall Ferguson Mayor Knowles. They will present the petition to city officials tomorrow night.

STL Police: We track cellphones, but won’t tell you how

Deray McKesson: Whiteness gets nuance in the media

Cleveland cops involved in 137-shot barrage that killed Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, filed lawsuit claiming they’re victims of racial discrimination. Seriously.

10 things everyone should know about white supremacy

Report: STL economy would gain $14 billion if racial income inequality disappeared

[rimaregas]

All 13 Cleveland PD officers should have been tried for lynching | #BlackLivesMatter on Blog#42 | #Brelo

All 13 Cleveland PD officers should have been tried for lynching | #BlackLivesMatter on Blog#42 | #Brelo

The United States is the country that made police chases, and the birth of NASCAR, with its role in bootlegging, and shootouts world famous (think Bonnie and Clyde,) starting in the 1940’s. (more…)

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[stephanbroadus]

71 arrested protesting not guilty verdict for Cleveland officer who fired 49 shots at unarmed couple

71 arrested protesting not guilty verdict for Cleveland officer who fired 49 shots at unarmed couple

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh-8BAyAQd8&w=854&h=510%5D Dozens of protesters were arrested after a Cleveland, Ohio judge found Officer Michael Brelo, 31, not guilty of felony involuntary manslaughter in the November 2012 shooting deaths of Malissa Williams, 30, and Timothy Russell, 43, CNN reports.

RELATED: Cleveland Cop Who Fired 49 of 137 Shot Barrage Killing Two Unarmed African…

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[gzb94]

*deletes girl on fb who posted "#policelivesmatter"*

STOP KILLING UNARMED PEOPLE