Last updated on 2020-06-05
Y’all can go home now: Fox News commentator Kristi Noem says the protests of the murder of George Floyd have served their purpose:
Protests have a purpose. People protest when they feel like they’re not being heard.
For the last week, we’ve seen countless protests across our country, including several in my home state of South Dakota, because of what happened to George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Personally, I couldn’t even make it through the video of his death because it was so gut-wrenching. There is no one that thinks that what happened to George Floyd was OK.
The protests in South Dakota have served their purpose [Kristi Noem, “George Floyd Protests—They Served Their Purpose. Now Let’s Do This to Solve the Problem,” Fox News, 2020.06.04].
A white woman in Pierre, South Dakota, with an entire police force and lots of goony yahoos with pistols in their pants at her beck and call is trying to tell people of many colors in the streets without guns or institutional power what the purpose of their protest is.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., didn’t protest just to be heard. He protested to dissolve the inertia of privilege and effect change:
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
…My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 1963; reprinted in The Atlantic, February 2018].
If Governor Noem is saying that a few nights of hollering have dissolved her white privilege, set real policy change in motion, and guaranteed that white cops will stop snuffing out black lives, then hot damn! Well done, protestors!
But I don’t think Governor Noem is saying that. She’s trying hard this week to marginalize, muffle, and (channeling Kristi: for Pete’s sake would you scary people of color please) shut up the protestors and their fundamental demand that we overthrow the white privilege that keep Snow Queens like Noem and racists like Trump in power over the diverse working class who risk their lives to make our bacon for crap wages.
Earlier this week, Noem tried to portray protestors as feckless gripers with no specific solutions:
“Now is not the time to continue to point to problems without offering valid solutions that will actually create a better country and world for our kids and grandkids to grow up in,” Noem says. “The question before us is what do we want for policies and policing for our cities in the future. What do we want it to look like? Let’s be problem solvers here, today, and work together” [Lee Strubinger, “Noem Wants Solutions on Policies, Policing for South Dakota,” SDPB, 2020.06.01].
Yet when she attempts to propose solutions, Noem doesn’t rise to her own standard of proposing clear solutions. She defaults back to prefab ideological points, like bashing unions:
One is police union contracts.
“I saw a statistic yesterday that said 25 percent of police officers that had been fired for certain reasons had appealed and gotten their jobs back,” Noem said. “I think we should be examining those kinds of policies and see if they’re appropriate” [Seth Tupper, “Noem Considering Police Reform Proposals,” SDPB, 2020.06.03].
Oh! for crying out loud (and unlike Governor Noem, I am all for crying out, loudly): the problem here is most certainly not people exercising their right to associate and organize to protect their rights in the workplace. The problem here is that some people are racists! If a racist cop keeps his job because he has racist supporters in a racist union, the solution is not to dismantle unions. That would be like saying that if corrupt politicians keep their jobs because they have corrupt supporters in a corrupt political party that prevents them from being held accountable for bad actions, we should dismantle political parties. If we sought to abolish corruption by banning all who are corruptible, we’d all be gone. Labor unions are speaking up for George Floyd and against racist cops.
Noem said a couple other things Wednesday about civil asset forfeiture laws and qualified immunity, but unable to offer policy specifics, she reverted to her own feckless griping:
The biggest lesson I’ve learned when tackling public policy issues is that there’s no institution more important than the family. We are blessed with great families in South Dakota and in America. Whatever your family looks like, make sure you’re a strong family.
I say that because what’s been taking place across our country shows that some of our families need a lot more attention. Parents need to know if their kids are out throwing rocks at cops. Brothers and sisters need to know if their siblings are looting and vandalizing businesses. Grandparents need to know if their grandkids are intentionally trying to destroy our way of life [Noem, Fox News, 2020.06.04].
When Kristi Noem talks about families and personal responsiblity, she’s really saying, I’ve got nothing—y’all are on your own. If an elected official can blame a social problem on other people’s families not trying hard enough, families ought to be able to point to problems and say, Hey! Elected leaders! Do the job we elected you to do and think up some valid policy solutions that will actually create a better country and world for our kids and grandkids to grow up in!
Governor Kristi Noem won’t work to offer real solutions. She just wants protest of any sort to go away. And as long as a woman like that is in power in South Dakota, dear protestors, your purpose has not been served. Keep crying out. Keep being loud.
*****
…George Floyd’s story has been the story of black folks because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to being is you kept your knee on our neck. We were smarter then the underfunded schools you put us in, but you had your knee on our neck. We could run corporations and not hustle in the street, but you had your knee on our neck. We had creative skills, we could do whatever anybody else could do, but we couldn’t get your knee off our neck. What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life, it’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say get your knee off our necks.
…even blacks that broke through, you kept your knee on that neck. Michael Jordan won all of these championships, and you kept digging for mess because you got to put a knee on our neck. White housewives would run home to see a black woman on TV named Oprah Winfrey and you messed with her because you just can’t take your knee off our neck. A man comes out of a single parent home, educates himself and rises up and becomes the President of the United States and you ask him for his birth certificate because you can’t take your knee off our neck. The reason why we are marching all over the world is we were like George, we couldn’t breathe, not because there was something wrong with our lungs, but that you wouldn’t take your knee off our neck. We don’t want no favors, just get up off of us and we can be and do whatever we can be.
There have been protests all over the world. Some have looted and done other things and none of us in this family condones looting or violence. But the thing I want us to be real cognizant of is there’s a difference between those calling for peace and those calling for quiet. Some of y’all don’t want peace, you just want quiet. You just want us to shut up and suffer in silence [Rev. Al Sharpton, eulogizing George Floyd, Minneapolis, 2020.06.04, as transcribed by Rev.com].
Kristi doesn’t even have to much original thinking to offer real solutions. She just has to read the report President Obama offered back in 2014, which he reminded young activists of at an online roundtable last night:
Real public servants spend their time in office coming up with real policy solutions, not ideological puffery.
Kruel Kristi is just fine because her white privilege makes it so. Therefore everyone else ought to either be just fine as well, or at least not interrupt her just fineness. Since she is white, it’s her just fineness and that of every other white privileged South Dakotan that matters.
A Black woman is asked by her white friend and former classmate what white privilege is. He sounds like Ryan, except he seems to really want to know. Since he was sincere, so was Ms. Hutcherson.
My White Friend Asked Me on Facebook to Explain White Privilege. I Decided to Be Honest – Yes! Magazine
https://flip.it/p9FVat
Good post Debbo. White privilege is White Anglo Saxon Protestant only. There is a difference in the American definition of white. Remember, Irish are not considered true white in America. “Anti-Irish sentiment, also called Hibernophobia, may refer to or include oppression, persecution, discrimination, or hatred of Irish people as an ethnic group or nation, whether directed against the island of Ireland in general or against Irish emigrants and their descendants in the Irish diaspora.”
Jewish folks are another white clan that is not really “white” in accordance with White Anglo Saxon Protestants. ” Antisemitism is on the march. From the far-right demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, with their “Blood and Soil” chants and their “Jews will not replace us” placards to attacks on synagogues in Sweden, arson attacks on kosher restaurants in France and a spike in hate crimes against Jews in the UK. Antisemitism seems to have been given a new lease of life.”
Of course, the real hate is what you can see in the skin color, as that is exactly what the police target in many cases. As usual NOem wants to get the iron broom and sweep this floor clear so she can get back to the Native hate that is orgasmic for her.
When was the last time the DCI and AG ruled that an officer involved shooting was NOT justified? I can not remember such a ruling and I doubt it has ever happened.
Need I say more?
The Roger Cornelius Memorial Cartoon by Marty Two Bulls.
is.gd/XRkDVX
They’re going to continue working on accomplishing the mission in Minneapolis. As opposed to Kruel Kristi, the Mpls City Council is actually listening and considering alternatives to the current, out of control police thugs. Could be very interesting.
Unfortunately it’s behind a Strib paywall, but as it develops, more info will probably appear in other Minnesota sources. I will let you know.
is.gd/7nv3kg
Cory writes:
The Legislative Research Council has stated:
Few things are more destructive of human liberty and happiness than overconfident, unaccountable agents of “law enforcement.” This issue has tended to unite civil liberties advocates from the far left and the far right, and I’m glad Governor Noem seems to be taking us more seriously than she has in the past.
How many civil assets did George Floyd forfeit to the Minneapolis PD? How would changes in that particular policy area make black lives matter?
And if civil asset forfeiture is a big deal, and if reform in that area isn’t happening, then shouldn’t we add placards on that issue to the marches and keep marching and shouting until the state feels the pressure to enact those reforms?
There is no one that thinks that what happened to George Floyd was OK.
Some one hasn’t been paying attention to comment sections of various blogs where the right wing, white scumacyst hate shines through clearly. They immediately point out his criminal past as justification for murdering him, just as was done for Arbery, the murdered jogger.
Graphic police brutality against whitey Grampa in Buffalo. Warning, this dude hit his head and is seriously bleeding out of his ear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/buffalo-police-shove-protester-unrest.html
It looked like the elderly man was returning a helmet to the police officer. We need to defund and demilitarize the police.
Surveying ally storm damage, had a 3 minute 30 yard shout out w/ white-haired red neck Clint Eastwood wearing AR-15s wife-beater, yelling “get off my property”, kept telling me “put your mask on”. Told him to put AR in his mouth. Ended w/FUs and as**oles.
What-a-man.
Not-a-racist Ryan, here’s something just for you. PBS is airing an excellent show about racism in the USA. It’s a perfect opportunity for you to educate yourself. pbs.com
Imagine if God refused to help people because they didn’t raise solutions to their complaints. When a governor offers such trite and patronizing criticism to vulnerable people and those standing alongside the vulnerable, she does not act in service of her constituents. Reminds me so hard of Sheldon Wolin’s “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism”.
I believe Noem’s emphasis on family (“building block of society”) is part of a highly calculated effort at exploiting the more insular families in our society by attempting to ensure their base won’t experience anything which substantially challenges their narrowly informed beliefs. Had she said children need to know if their police officer father is murdering people, her base just might have started questioning the basis of some of their strong opinions. I say that as one who came from a relatively isolated, small family outside a town under 500 people large.
Here is a brief history of of policing in the US. Recall that our nation’s founders considered and refused to establish a policing force fearing the tyranny that we now foisted upon ourselves. Our nation’s founders were intimately aware of the tyranny foisted on them by the King’s and royal governors’ sheriffs.
The history of policing had little to do with protecting and serving; rather, it was about protecting the haves from the have nots.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/05/police-us-history-reform-violence-oppression
Rickman-GREAT actor RIP
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NJk-yQadw_U
Here’s a great opportunity for self-education.
is.gd/pETsyz
NOem, and the brown shirt fascists in Pierre, take their cue from republican fascists nationally. The riot busting is just another brick in the wall. We must take this country back from fascism and thankfully we are working on that right now.
” PEN America has documented an explosion of 116 state bills introduced since 2015—110 of which were introduced between 2017 and 2019 alone—that create new penalties or harsher sentences for protesters. In many cases, these bills appear to be direct responses to particular protests, or designed to constrain particular protest movements. These include “critical infrastructure” bills introduced in states that have seen significant pipeline protests, and anti-highway obstruction bills following on the heels of protests that have used road obstruction as a tactic.
Legislators sometimes state openly that they are introducing legislation with specific protests or protest movements in mind. At the same time, the president expresses hostility toward certain protest movements, and support for others, depending on whether or not they align with his views. This kind of selective interpretation of the First Amendment makes all too clear the political motivations that have colored legislative efforts, and has created fertile ground for a pattern of efforts to restrict protest rights.” https://pen.org/arresting-dissent/
This House Armed Services Cmttee June letter is the kind of inquiry that SRST deserves around illegal law enforcement at Cannonball. In addition i have grave concern for likely infections of masses of LEO and peaceful protesters. Finally Trump’s walk of shame photo op was clearly his attempt to dominate the battlefield. Unhinged Presidents, Governors like Trump, Noem and GOP legislatures like our own are a clear danger to the citizens.
“… a Lakota and possibly a Black Hawk helicopter hovering low over peacefully protesting crowds using their rotor wash to disperse a crowd on June 1, 2020. Were these military helicopters and did they belong to the D.C. Guard or another unit? What was their mission, who authorized them to hover over the crowd, and why? Did any property damage occur because of the rotor wash? Were any military or civilian aviation policies violated by the aircraft crew(s), and how many (by type) airframes were involved? Did one of the helicopters have the internationally recognized symbol of a medical evacuation helicopter? If so, why was that air frame flying in D.C. that evening? Secretary Esper, you have said there will be an investigation.”
I’d written:
Cory asks:
If the police department deprived him of life, I’d say it deprived him of all of his assets.
I’d say the lives of African Americans already matter.
I believe South Dakota and its government are already feeling that pressure, Cory, and I’m not sure marching and shouting are the best ways for either of us to effect change.
“mike from iowa” writes:
The police union is claiming the suspended officers were “simply following orders,” and it’s lying about the reasons the rest of the emergency response team resigned:
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/exclusive-two-buffalo-police-ert-members-say-resignation-was-not-in-solidarity-with-suspended-officers
The typical police union seems to have about as much respect for civil liberties as the National Education Association has for the rest of Christ’s teachings.
I just happened to read Fox News’ article linked above. What world does bulimic Kristi Noem (b. 1971) live in? Line by line, as author of this article, dozens of brazen falsehoods are published by the infamous rightwing Rupert Murdoch flimflam entertainment industry in this “opinion” piece. One can only imagine what Rush Limbaugh has been saying.
There is a well known photo of Kristi somewhere, in her t-shirt which she likes to laughingly brandish, with the legend something like she is a dictator. Context is it was perhaps a gift from a loved one. Perhaps she did not “get” the good natured jibe?
Melania, another apparently vacuous beauty queen from Russia somewhere and newly ushered into the nation’s premier seat of visibility, traveling, wearing a green military designer jacket, brandished her own printed statement to the effect “I don’t give a damn” while the context was rather damning from multiple view points (consistent with her domineering husband’s style of vacuous public speech).
There is not enough ink here to quibble about the unveracity of the entire content of this “news” propaganda and of Kristi’s misuse of her platform as Governor, in this article alone. MLK’s intelligent philosophy was written 8 years before her birth.
She is like an embedded Russian spy planted to grow up in the United States only to be activated by the Kremlin to infiltrate and deceive the highest level of our democracy using her crass “beauty”. She is but a symptom, a pawn of the mentally bankrupt GOP’s mad rush to save itself itself while monopolizing the power of the people of the United States, regardless of the consequences. This “vast right wing conspiracy” HRC railed about, which unceremoniously dumped her for saying the deplorable Trump voters were really deplorable, has hidden in open view for so many decades. Some of my best friends and business mentors proudly wear the GOP pin at every level of government. I do not understand their self-deception and pragmatic self-aggrandizement. It is contrary to my understanding of “people of good conscience” and the complex discussion O and Bearcreekbat are having in a related thread is a harbinginger of the depth of the danger the GOP has put every member of American society in. This is a crashing tsunami. One only need view Fukushima once to understand the level of catastrophe heading for our gentle shores.
Kurt: “George Floyd. All those ghosts. All those black bodies that were heretofore immovable pillars are now on the move. They walk among us, and we among them, the living merging with the dead. They will have their day. They will be heard. And their voices are what is shaking heaven and earth to their foundation.” Debbo’s post.
Not the “best way”? The conservative principles you taut, and “I’m not sure marching and shouting are the best ways for either of us to effect change” likely needs to be rethought. Have you walked the rows of white tombstones and not received their message? Where do you think Derek Chauvin (age 46) got the idea that playing so “rough” was a sanctioned policy? The President, most obviously. You did not vote HRC i take it?! No need to quibble. I can’t specifically remember your numerous campaign statements here.
Not sure if I should puke or retch over this fluff piece…..
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/coronavirus-pandemic-south-dakota-governor-kristi-noem-stayed-the-course/
This is the money shot for me…
For her part, Noem responds to such speculation by noting that she is focused on being a good governor and has turned down opportunities with the Trump administration “on more than one occasion.”
Kurt, just to be clear, to put your cheap shot at the NEA in context, what organization follows the teachings of (your) Christ better through their actions? If we leave empty rhetoric and bluster and bumpersticker slogans out of the discussion, who LIVES those values?
I am calling out your straw man nonsense, your conservative distraction to undermine the value of labor and laborers at every chance to ensure the wealth remains in the hands of “the chosen few” who by no accident, tend to be an awfully white lot.
As was known all along, c ops knew white scumacysts were behind the real violence in George Floyd protests as recently revealed papers document….
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-police-far-right-antifa/?fbclid=IwAR2slXLOD0tlrPxi1viPQMlVze-sy64giDcfYNFapx-WTpxKe7nHp9MxBAo
Stunning, in depth article Mike! disBarr and Rancid Racist are such a danger to this country.
“The use of firearms greatly influences the scale and intensity of these events,” a source in the group, titled “National Accelerationist Revival,” wrote on May 27, advising followers to break police lines “with cocktails, chainsaws, and firearms.” At the time, DHS reported, the group included more than 3,400 subscribers. “Looting and shoplifting are both cool and whites should be doing it way more,” the source went on. “When the laws no longer benefit you, break them for personal gain. If you don’t feel like buying something, steal it. If you don’t feel like driving slow, drive fast. If you don’t like someone, hurt them.”
“We ought to revel in the destruction of the police state,” they wrote. “It is just as necessary to break down the police state and the system of control as it is to spread racial hatred.”