Dear Steve: thank you for your thoughtful reply, which illustrates where I wasn't clear earlier. Of course I didn't mean to suggest that the Taylor and Lemp cases were exactly the same, but they were both no-knock raids where the police made claims that were soundly refuted by the other folks in the residence. In Lemp's case, the police …
Dear Steve: thank you for your thoughtful reply, which illustrates where I wasn't clear earlier. Of course I didn't mean to suggest that the Taylor and Lemp cases were exactly the same, but they were both no-knock raids where the police made claims that were soundly refuted by the other folks in the residence. In Lemp's case, the police had bodycams but there is no footage of the raid itself. Did they turn the bodycams off? Or destroy the evidence later?
I'm not arguing that Lemp was a saint, and I'm not a right-winger who believes he's a Boogaloo martyr. I'm saying that even in the bluest of blue America, police go guns blazing into residences where there are other people than the suspect, without even trying other means first. I'm trying- perhaps unsuccessfully- to back up your point that that police brutality is a problem that transcends race. I also believe, and I think the Lemp case illustrates this, that with a different framing, common cause around police militarism could bring some right and some left groups together on this particular issue.
Re: BLM and the right, I didn't use the best language. I should have said that at different points, prominent Republicans have expressed some interest and sympathy in police shootings of unarmed civilians. For example, MItt Romney marched in a post-George Floyd vigil. Tim Scott gave speeches on the Senate floor back in 2016 about being stopped around DC as a black man and several of his GOP colleagues were supportive of police reform bills that Scott was sponsoring. Again, it's a very narrow point I'm making, which is there is a constituency on both left and right for police reform, if that issue can be separated from other culture war battle cries.
Thank you for your continued exploration of sensitive topics.
Dear Steve: thank you for your thoughtful reply, which illustrates where I wasn't clear earlier. Of course I didn't mean to suggest that the Taylor and Lemp cases were exactly the same, but they were both no-knock raids where the police made claims that were soundly refuted by the other folks in the residence. In Lemp's case, the police had bodycams but there is no footage of the raid itself. Did they turn the bodycams off? Or destroy the evidence later?
I'm not arguing that Lemp was a saint, and I'm not a right-winger who believes he's a Boogaloo martyr. I'm saying that even in the bluest of blue America, police go guns blazing into residences where there are other people than the suspect, without even trying other means first. I'm trying- perhaps unsuccessfully- to back up your point that that police brutality is a problem that transcends race. I also believe, and I think the Lemp case illustrates this, that with a different framing, common cause around police militarism could bring some right and some left groups together on this particular issue.
Re: BLM and the right, I didn't use the best language. I should have said that at different points, prominent Republicans have expressed some interest and sympathy in police shootings of unarmed civilians. For example, MItt Romney marched in a post-George Floyd vigil. Tim Scott gave speeches on the Senate floor back in 2016 about being stopped around DC as a black man and several of his GOP colleagues were supportive of police reform bills that Scott was sponsoring. Again, it's a very narrow point I'm making, which is there is a constituency on both left and right for police reform, if that issue can be separated from other culture war battle cries.
Thank you for your continued exploration of sensitive topics.