Matt Gaetz: US shouldn't have a national soccer team if players won't stand for national anthem

Policing is the obvious one that is getting attention now. Forget all the brutality and that. How about something simple. Almost all white kids grow up and try smoking weed at some point. White people actually are more likely to do drugs than black people statistically, but black people get arrested for it at hugely disproportionate rates.That's a systemic racist problem.

How many kids did you know growing up who had their drug phase, never got arrested and became productive members of society? I'm guessing most of us have known several. If they were white, they probably avoided getting thrown into the criminal justice system and their lives went forward. If they were black, there is a good chance they got thrown into the criminal justice system and had to deal with a host of negative factors stemming from that.

Every step of the way this sort of thing occurs. It is real, it is documented both statistically and inn the stories of the people affected. We only don't see these things if we choose not to and mostly only white people have the option to make that choice.

 

there is a time and place to disseminate about various systematical structural issues but now is not the time.

the issue that is front and center is police brutality where the systemic issue is so patently and obviously broken.

if people can’t get on board with fixing what’s obviously broken, they should look at themselves and ask why?

 

Let me explain why it’s important to define the system...

So much has been mythologized about this overarching system that people have lost view of who actually hold the keys to power.

Surely, the government can be considered a system. But so too can the news, media, corporations, sports, celebrities, and anyone or anything that has a voice. In my view, most of the persons in power, say many local governments, CNN, MSNBC, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon, NFL, MLS, USSF, etc and approximately 90% of celebrity figures all lean to the left. So, what is the system that people are fighting against? It seems to me like it’s not trying to change the system. But to silence the little man. Perhaps this is why this group of the population has been called the SILENT majority - because they have had their voices put down.

In other words, it seems odd to me to continue this term SYSTEMIC racism when all of voices of authority are in the same crowd.

It also makes me wonder - does this system even want to improve the lives of black people in America? In my opinion, they don’t. They cherry-pick examples to stir up their base and cause division. Meanwhile ignoring real solutions and real problems, that if were appropriately addressed, would greatly benefit this archetypal conception of the black man in America.

 

Black people get to decide what their real problems are. They have en masse decided police brutality is an issue they want addressed. White folks don't get to decide what are the proper issues for them to fight against.

 

Whenever I am or have been in a leadership position, and someone brings me a problem... I make them come up with the solution to that problem.

In this case...

I hear that you (and others) say there’s a problem.

Okay, got it.

Let’s move on to step two.

What is your solution to the problem?

I need some details. I’m not saying they have to be perfect. I’m just asking you (and others) to get out of their emotions and start thinking critically and working collaboratively with their countrymen.

I have offered my proposal...

-I want to see an increase in mentorship programs for black children (and others).

-I want to see Black fatherhood (and others) addressed and prioritized.

-I want to see Black Americans (and others) stop being taught to fear the police and to be taught better ways to engage law enforcement.

-I want to see mental health resources available to law enforcement.

-I want to see better training resources offered to law enforcement.

-I want to see better standards for performance of law enforcement.

-I want to see the establishment of peer reviews in law enforcement.

-I want to see recruitment measures passed to reach Black Americans to join law enforcement.

-I want to see better community partnership between leaders in the black community (and others) and law enforcement.

-I want to cease actions that vilify law enforcement, by discussing the positives of law enforcement in our community, by our leaders and the media. This is how we recruit and retain good officers - not by demonizing them.

Those are just some examples. But they’re all proactive, positive solutions to the problem you address. No one gets demonized. No one feels shame and defensive. Everyone feels like they’re working together on the issue.

So, I want to challenge you (and others), offer up some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented) goals.

Get out of your emotions - which I understand this is an emotional topic for you - and use your wise mind to improve the situation. Let’s understand that we’re all imperfect persons, and although our cause might look unjust to others, it seems just to us.

More so, let’s all just give each other the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to assume you don’t have wrongful intentions, and I am going to ask you to not assume that I have wrongful intentions.

 

As their fellow countrymen, actually, we do get a voice in the matter. That’s what collaboration is all about. Otherwise, it’s just subjugation.

It’s helping others see things from a different point of view. Not just listening to the voices inside our own echo chamber.

 

One funny thing about humans is that we all know what is best for everyone else.

 

Black folks have been following white people for a long time. Maybe they get to lead their own movements.

 

By the way, I actually like quite a lot in your list of things that need to be done. Many of these items are actually occurring in many black communities, just without nearly enough resources to make them truly effective. If we take some money from the cops whose budget makes up astronomical proportions of most city budgets, we could maybe afford to do some of them. That's the whole defend the police movement in a nutshell. Reallocating resources to places where the cracking heads method of compliance doesn't work and creating supportive systems that do.

 

Educate me... because I’m willing to listen...

But I do not see how defunding the police is going to:
#1 increase their access to mental health.
#2 improve the quality of their training and their standards.
#3 Recruit and retain quality officers.

I see defunding having an opposite effect. I see it making these resources more unavailable... which will create more of a breeding ground for poor officers to take over the culture of law enforcement.

Help me to understand if you are arguing too that we should work towards these ends.

 

No. You don't get to hold up fallen soldiers and sailors as tokens for your politics. GTFO.
And kneeling is not shunning. The kneeling protest was a variation suggested to Kaepernick by a an actual soldier as a suggestion for a *respectful* protest. So piss off with this conservative framing that it's "disrespectful" of the military or some shit.
The military does not own the flag. It belongs to *everyone* in America.

 

I understand the sentiment, but black Americans do not live in isolation to the problem. This impacts law enforcement, maybe we could say white people too, therefore, it’s not so clean cut.

More so, I look at this issue very similarly to working with veterans issues. One of the heated points of discussion in that arena is how to best transition vets back into the community. There are a number of veteran groups who argue they just need more benefits. Personally, I am a veteran too, so I do belong to that community. I do have authority to speak on that matter when I say, I believe this is what’s needed to help veterans. Now, I don’t want to take away benefits, but I believe many veterans have become handicapped in the pursuit of those benefits. More so, I disagree with the pitying and pathologizing of warriors who have experienced psychological trauma. Again, I can speak with authority on this issue, because I work with trauma and I have endured trauma. That said, my main point of argument is that counseling needs to take an approach of posttraumatic growth. To believe that we can become stronger persons because of our burdens. To maintain one’s Warriorhood. And that we all have an expectation on ourselves to be better people and to take responsibility for our own choices. Counseling should never just be about confirming our own negative state.

As this is helpful to the veteran community, a restoration of one’s self, fully with all the rights and responsibility, I believe this will prove to be much more beneficial to the black community and all other types of vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, rather than reinforcing victimization, division, and settling for scraps.

 

I said some. Basically, defending the police is not about abolishing police. It is about using police where police are needed and using other services where they would be better positioned to help than police. Police can't and shouldn't do everything. So, I was more talking about the community based stuff, like mentor-ship programs, support for black fathers, community partnerships. I work with a ton of groups already conducting such programs but they all share a severe lack of resources.

Personally, I'd say you remove the police from situations they shouldn't be in the first place and a lot of the community attitudes will change with time. Here's a decent link describing what defunding the police means in practical applications:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...iolence-is-not-reform-its-defunding-heres-why

And, I'll give one practice example from where I live. Kajieme Powell was a mentally ill man hanging around outside of a convenience store. Some locals were worried about him as he was standing there with a knife crying and occasionally shouting. He had some issues. People called the police. The police showed up, saw a man with a knife that had been reported and shot him dead on sight. No officers were charged as he had a knife and was walking in their general direction when they fired, even though there were a few civilians standing around more worried about him than scared. The police were the only one who saw him as a threat.

Under a different system, with funding going toward mental health workers instead of police, the 911 call could have been redirected to a department to deal with mental health issues. A car with a mental health worker or two could have easily diffused this situation. This could have not only saved a life, but it could have very well have prevented a conflict between police and the community.

It's kind of like if you only have a hammer every problem looks like a nail. If you only have police, every problem looks like crime. We need more tools and most city budgets have cut back everything dramatically outside the police budgets that have skyrocketed. The only way to get more tools is to get the funding from all those hammers and buy a few screw drivers.

 

I do agree we are all in this together and it will take all of us to solve it. I just think we have to be careful about condescending when we are trying to help. Sometimes people know what they need themselves at least as well if not better than outsiders.

 

This is a damn good post.

 

Oh? Here's an example of how defunding the police can make measurable change:

https://apnews.com/f00a45f36ea50b0d57e5e1cae5239f85

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local...ds-could-be-a-model-for-cities-like-baltimore

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/us/disband-police-camden-new-jersey-trnd/index.html

https://news.yahoo.com/rethinking-police-camden-nj-reimagined-164457278.html

Now this isn't to say that this is the answer. This is an example of how taking a different approach to policing can have positive impacts on a community.

 

I mashed "rep" so hard it unrepped again. It needs a double-rep

 

While some people mean defund the police to simply say get rid of the police, the vast majority of people mean it to be take money from police budgets and reallocate to more appropriate social services.

It actually agrees with a lot of your proposal.

Don't have police respond to non-violent crimes. Decriminalized drugs and things like loitering.

When there's a drugged out homeless man, don't send a cop to move them along. Send a social worker. Fund drug rehab and education. Build homes for the homeless (it works! People get jobs and get their own place!)

The vast majority of arrests in this country are misdemeanors. Stop wasting police's time on those. Even for felonies, only a small percentage are violent. And let's face it, if you live in a city or own a small business in a city (I do) police right now are USELESS against most forms of theft.

Focus police on solving murders and rapes and similar crimes. You need to repurposes to hire more skilled cops, people to process rape kits, etc. When the case solve rate goes up, crime goes down.

Take excess money from the police budget for tanks and waves of officers only qualified for clearing corners and use them on social services that actually solve the problem.

That's not really dissimilar to your plan.

The primary difference is probably this: under the defund the police plan there's a recognition that the culture of the police department is broken. In talking to several ex-cops, I think they are right. In watching how they simply can't help themselves from resorting to unneeded violence, even when filmed, and then they arrogantly lie about what we can all see on film ... it's too far gone.

I don't think we can do without police. But you probably need to tear down and build from the ground up.

 

In this case, I don’t believe we disagree at all.

I’d just add that I still like that hammer in my tool box for certain situations.

Likewise, I know, one thing I have tried to get into, in my role, is to partner with law enforcement, not just on providing them counseling services, but providing them training on mental health issues.

 

I see where you’re going, and I think for the most part, I’m somewhat on board. I know that’s a one foot in, one foot out response, but just to clarify...

I don’t know if I agree with the wording “defund the police.”

To me, that sends a message that police are not valuable. They are. And I’m very thankful for the services they offer.

More so, we can’t expect law enforcement to respond with kid gloves on potentially dangerous situations. At the end of the day, they are taking greater risks, and they have a right to come home to their families too.

And, I very much want to emphasize that I’m not board with any plan that ignores the mental health needs of our law enforcement officers. That’s something I’m very passionate about, and if I ever got out of working with combat vets (I don’t see that happening), I would want to work with law enforcement officers to help make sure that the guys who are protecting our streets feel like they’ve got the support and the skills to cope with the problems they face.

 

Lack of mental health services is huge across all levels of society. We're just starting to come to terms with how widespread mental health issues are and we have no where near the resources to address them properly. I'll always support anyone trying to make a difference in that fight.

 

Not to ignore this message, but let me read those and digest them before I get back with you.

 

Welp, i guess Michael Bradley hates his country because he even refuses to pass the baton.

 

Social media has no left lean. It's designed to give you more of what you will click on and read. If you go down any rabbit hole, twitter, youtube, facebook all keep offering you more of the same. They need eyeballs on advertising. They don't care what you look at as long as you keep looking at at the advertisements.

The top trending/shared things always include FNC/Ben Shapiro etc.

 

100%

I’d add that one of my favorite things before I got into working with combat vets was school social work.

I’d go into classrooms and teach anger management and conflict resolution, grief and loss, relationship building and support groups, and some others. I loved it. I worked with a range of populations, and it’s amazing how hungry these kids were for someone to give a damn about them. Plus, the fact of being a male - not saying this is in a braggy way - but a very athletic and manly kind of man - made so much of a difference. Kids needed to be reassured at times, but they also were so receptive to someone who held them accountable, bragged on them, and helped them come up with real solutions to real problems, without feeling disempowered.

I say that to say - it’s really sad that’s not more available. And that so many social workers are stretched so thin. More so, I wish more “manly men” became social workers because kids need that too. They don’t just need soft and cuddly all the time. So many kids grow up without a positive male role model, and so many issues in our society, could be improved upon if we worked on building these healthy secure attachments with kids at a young age.