Spinoff - taking a knee at protests

[Paragon]

How is it that all of these protesters are going around and "taking a knee" and screaming at cops to "take a knee" in honor of George Floyd......

How is that honoring George Floyd?

The dude fucking died, literally because a cop took a knee on his neck

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Same reasons they think #Metoo is a good slogan.

 

[ProjectTwin]

I will say that the places where cops have taken a knee have been peaceful.

 

[Paragon]

I will say that the places where cops have taken a knee have been peaceful.

well, except that one time in Minneapolis

 

[ConwayMuddy]

well, except that one time in Minneapolis

Yeah the black guy really ruined that one :rolleyes:

 

[brd]

Yeah they've been doing this all over the LA area for the last few days.Things have been a lot quieter as the "peaceful protesters" have been arrested in droves for ignoring the curfews.

So today the LAPD and LASO announced that there would not be any curfews tonight. Brilliant move:rolleyes: .Crank up the free for all looting ,news at 11.

 

[NOTHINGWILLCHANGELANCE]

the optics look stupid.

 

[ExWrench]

How is it that all of these protesters are . . . screaming at cops to "take a knee" in honor of George Floyd......

Recently in my area, an unruly crowd of "protesters" quieted and were visibly appreciative when the front row of cops in the skirmish line knelt down.


They interpreted this event as the cops spontaneously kneeling in honor of George Floyd . . .




. . . however . . .




. . . the cops were kneeling to don their gas masks because it was time to disperse the mob

 

[Provience]

https://jezebel.com/the-meaningless-of-police-kneeling-1843857722

Police kneeling is meaningless


“Powerful” is how CBS News described a photograph of police kneeling at a protest over the weekend. The photograph showed police from departments across Miami-Dade county kneeling at a protest held in Coral Gables, Florida. The officers, CBS reported, kneeled in “solidarity with protesters,” promising that they would continue “dialogue” with the organizers. The gesture was performative at best, done solely for the purpose of producing an image, one that would be reproduced and celebrated as truth, made indisputable by the documentary force of the photograph. And mainstream news organizations like CBS News did just that, treating the Gables photograph as indicative of a broader sentiment that supposedly manifested everywhere from New York City to a police blockade in front of Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel to Ferguson, Missouri, and St. Paul, Minnesota, where police kneeled on their own after protesters refused to join them. The images of police kneeling suggested that there are plenty of good cops invested in the sentimental project of national unity—perhaps even “healing,” as the rhetoric usually demands—even as images of protesters being brutalized by police forces proliferated.

These photographs are, of course, fictions, framed and cropped to reaffirm some of America’s fundamental myths about itself, both its romanticized belief in unity and deep investment in performative humility. Take the Gables photograph, described by local affiliate CBS4 as a “powerful moment of unity” that preceded another “moving moment of hundreds praying together, united with heavy hearts and a desire for change.” The image of police from different cities within Miami-Dade county kneeling was in stark contrast, CBS4 claimed, to the “violent” demonstrations later that same day. Nowhere does either CBS News or its local affiliate note that the demonstration filled with so many “moving” moments of unity was not black-led and had invited police to speak to the event. Local progressive activists described the Gables event as “anti-black.” Hours later, in downtown Miami, thousands gathered for a protest led by Miami Dream Defenders, where they were eventually met by Miami police in full riot gear.

By then the photographs and the videos of the police kneeling had spread across the internet, doing the treacly work of concealing the very reason for the ongoing nationwide protests: the murder of George Floyd and the systemic racism that defines American policing. The promise of absolution could instead be granted in a quick tableau, a single gesture that indicted no one and absolved everyone. It’s why such images are often described as “moving”—a hollow description of absolutely meaningless feelings. The gesture of kneeling is stripped of its context, as well as the repercussions felt by those who performed it as an act of protest. As police kneel in supposed solidarity, they only seek to comfort those who are already comfortable, conjuring up images of divinity and reverence while concealing the full deadly force of a police officer’s knee. (This is likely why these photographs have proved popular with celebrities and politicians, including Hugh Jackman, The Strokes, and the mayor of Los Angeles.)

The inverse of these images is one of Derek Chauvin using his knee as a weapon, pressing his weight on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds—long after Floyd lost consciousness—until he died on the cracked asphalt of a Minneapolis street. It is Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao refusing to intervene, acting in solidarity with Chauvin. Where Floyd’s murder demands action, photographs of police kneeling demand nothing. The gap between the images reveals rupture between a certain image of America and its reality.