UKskins

On 7/4/2020 at 4:27 PM, Momma There Goes That Man said:

I hate musicals too. But I’m excited for Hamilton. 
 

also, I’m more open to it because despite my hatred for musicals, La La Land is a masterpiece so that’s warmed me up to them a bit

Hamilton is more of a Hip-hopera than a musical. I don't mind musicals, but I'm not a massive fan or anything. I watched Hamilton last night and it is absolutely incredible. Every line is so precise and well written it's impossible not to appreciate the craftsmanship (not to mention the stellar acting and choreography). Absolutely deserves to be in the conversation for the best piece of theatre ever written - it's THAT good. Lin spent literally one full day writing two lines of this show. His dedication shines through. As a show, it is fully worth the hype.

Lin Manuel-Miranda said that the reason he wrote it, and the spark for the idea was he read up on Hamilton and couldn't help noticing a lot of parallels to Tupac. 

This is the first song from the play (out of context). I won't take the thread any further OT by banging on about how good it is, watch the below and decide for yourself whether the show is worth watching. I feel it gives a pretty fair representation of the tone of the rest of the show, and the calibre of the writing so if you don't like it, then the show probably isn't for you.

So I made a lesson on BLM for my Year 7 (11 year old) citizenship class. I don't profess that it was a perfect lesson, but I do feel I did a relatively good job covering the major bases appropriate to that age group. (Lesson is free to download here if anyone wants to have a look - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/black-lives-matter-citizenship-12343276 - Mods, if that's not OK then please remove). I'd welcome any feedback on the lesson too.

First comment (this is a platform for education professionals in the UK to share resources): 

What a moron. The lesson even explicitly demonstrates why all lives matter is a stupid response to BLM. and his comment also demonstrates exactly why I made the lesson and why I think teaching racism in school is SO important.

Fortunately the feedback from my students has been overwhelmingly positive and far more mature than that loser!

My team (Norwich City) played Manchester United in the cup yesterday. The players all took a knee before kick off, which has now become standard in football (soccer).

Cantwell scored the equalising goal, and felt it was appropriate to use his platform again to show BLM.

12 hours ago, Anselmheifer said:

UKskins, that video is crazy. He really does look like a safety, but he’s carrying 265. 

I know.  That man is going to be a force for us this season.

Can't wait to see him leave Dak eating dirt.

Demilitarize is a much stronger platform. Defund means nobody upholds your laws, criminals can do what they want with no consequence? Makes no sense at all from where I sit.

Your country could save a whole bunch of money if they demilitarized cops, and stopped putting young black men in jail for their entire lives for petty crime. 

Armed police ARE a necessity. Not a popular line right now, but think back to the Boston bombing. You want unarmed cops looking for that guy?!?! The vast majority of your police don't need to be armed with anything over tazers. You need armed response units to deal with armed suspects. 

The thing that probably prevents demilitarization is your gun laws. Australia had one massacre and put a huge structure in place to licence firearms, amnesties to get them turned in etc - OK it's a country of 23 million people versus 325million in the USA, but if there is no movement on gun control then it will be wheeled out as the excuse to keep your cops armed every damn time.

Overall, I don't know what the solution is. There needs to be a coherent set of demands soon though to coalesce around.

I would suggest:

1) Cops don't carry guns as routine. Armed response squads with HIGHLY TRAINED officers can be called upon when needed.

2) Cops need 2 years or more of training to be qualified cops. 5 years before they're eligible to take the firearms training.

3) There needs to be a mass review of how you deal with protests

4) Every death at the hands of police officers is immediately reviewed by an independent panel of prosecutors to determine if it was lawful or not. Officers are suspended until review is complete.

5) No light touch sentences for cops. If they are involved in an unlawful killing then they face full force of law.

6) Cops who fail to prevent an unlawful killing are also under review and maybe a new specific criminal charge added to your statute books related to this.

7) Cops who are involved in a killing that is deemed lawful by prosecutors to receive counselling

8 ) Independent national complaints commission set up. It HAS to be legitimate from the outset so maybe you bring in some international help for that. The UK has the IPCC and I have to say, they're not perfect but they're not just a sham cover-up organisation. They do their job and they do it properly.

9) All incidents requiring use of force to be subject to prosecutor review. Use of force cannot be a default position and there needs to be a clear, coherent, public set of guidelines that cops are required to follow when making an arrest with no immediate threat to life (ie unarmed suspect)

10) Any cop subject to a complaint regarding to racial discrimination to have incident/conduct reviewed by independent panel and suspended from duty until investigation is complete.

11) If you are fired as a cop, then you stay fired. 

Just my initial thoughts.

1 hour ago, Larry said:

Now, having made several posts about how I think various positions are wrong on this issue, I'm probably under some kind of obligation to at least propose some ideas, as well.  

 

I think one that's been a strong desire of mine, for years?  

 

Any person who is not free to leave, is under arrest.  (With every right afforded to that status.)  

 

No status in between freedom and arrest.  No "well, you're not under arrest, I'm just holding you against your will 'for questioning'. "  

 

Maybe they need a status where they can arrest somebody, but they haven't decided on the exact charge, yet.  I could see that.  (Although maybe put a really short time limit on it.  Say, you can hold somebody for 2-3 hours, while you make your case to the judge why he should issue a warrant authorizing detention, with a hearing on bail and charges within 24 hours.)  

 

No doubt there's other things that would need to be covered, too.  Yes, a cop can pull you over a write a ticket without you being considered "under arrest".  Although maybe not, too.  

We have a structure where the police can arrest you but they can only keep you there for 24 hours. When time's up they have to charge you, or let you walk. You're afforded every right available during that time - lawyer, phone call etc. It seems to work.

Cartoon in one of our national newspapers today. Think it's quite poignant.

5 minutes ago, The Sisko said:

Agreed @Corcaigh. We visited S. Africa in the summer of 2016 and many of the people we met from executives to cab/Uber drivers and safari guides talked intelligently with us about US politics. Tя☭mp was an obvious topic but I remember us being a little surprised that they were well aware of some of the other candidates and issues as well. We’ve had similar experiences in the Caribbean and Europe also. I think it’s mostly just the US that couldn’t care less about knowing anything about other countries’ histories, politics, etc., or even our own.

I've stayed up all night watching every US election since 2008. I was aware of Obama before he even declared his candidacy for the nomination.

I probably know US politics better than 50% of Americans do 😂

1 minute ago, Jumbo said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/denver-police-ordered-to-stop-using-less-than-lethal-force-against-protesters/ar-BB156SbE?li=BBnb7Kz

 

Denver police ordered to stop using less-than-lethal force against protesters

There is a growing call for Britain to stop selling tear gas and rubber bullets to the US. Some of our politicians are banging the drum pretty hard. 166 (of 650 total) Members of Parliament have signed a letter to the Secretary of Trade demanding we stop immediately. Half a million have signed the petition https://www.change.org/p/suspend-uk-export-of-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-and-riot-shields-to-usa

37 minutes ago, Larry said:

Gotta say, it surprises me that anybody outside the US gives a **** about the policies of US law enforcement towards a minority segment of the US population.  

 

I know that as an American, I'm just supposed to assume that the rest of the world revolves around the US.  But me, I figured the rest of the world cares about the things the US does that actually affect them.  (And that mostly they wanted us to stop doing things that affect them.)  

I think American society is geared towards the individual rather than the collective (I don't know that, it's just my impression looking in from the outside). In the UK, we've always had things like the NHS which is geared towards society as a collective so we tend to be quite receptive to the struggles of others.

I'm passionate about a variety of causes that have no bearing on me or my life whatsoever, but I just see injustice and I hate it. We also have a HUGE amount of different cultures here in the UK so there are always people willing to speak up and speak out on issues that are relative to their own culture.

I'm a geography teacher, so I have always been interested in what's going on in the world, but I think that's a common feature of British identity.

I think George Floyd shone a spotlight on the situ in America (again) but this time, a lot of countries started reflecting on their own conduct. We have serious institutionalised racism here. It's not overt (most of the time), but there is a lot of covert, systemic stuff that limits life chances for POC. We're better than a lot of countries but that shouldn't mean we don't evolve and do better. The protests here are in solidarity with the American movement, but we also want change of our own. Australians had signs for George, and they had signs for the 400 indigenous (black) Australians who have died in police custody. In the UK we have had signs for Mark Duggan and Belly Mujinga in addition to the ones for Tamir Rice, trayvon Martin, Philando Castile etc - the police brutality element is not limited to the USA and the inequality of opportunity and justice certainly isn't either. For example - look at the graph below - this is the stop and search numbers for uk police, broken down by ethnicity. Our cops aren't innocent of racism, they're just not as violent or obvious about it.

The BLM movement seems to have grown - it's bigger than just police brutality, it's injustice of all forms, the systemic racism that features in many countries. It's now a vehicle for a more radical reform of society rather than just police reform in the US.

This is long, but it's a good watch - Akala is a rapper from the UK and is excellent at explaining some of the structural issues that limited his life chances as a POC in the UK.

Just your regular reminder that the world is standing with you. Even as far away as Australia and South Korea, thousdands are on the streets in every major city. This is a global movement and it cannot be stopped. No justice, no peace. Worldwide. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

1 minute ago, LD0506 said:

 

https://www.newsweek.com/west-virginia-fire-chief-martin-hess-george-floyd-protests-1508996

 

It is heartening in a way, the dumb**** demographic can't help themselves, given the slightest opportunity they have to leap out screaming "I'M ONE! I'M AN ASSHOLE!" at the top of their lungs, only to look all sheepish as they get called out and lose their jobs, etc.

 

Im currently involved in a debate on twitter over the Banksy piece - some dude saying "I don’t get how they expect to get whites on their side when they’re being deliberately antagonistic to us."

Some people really don't get it.

2 minutes ago, skinsmarydu said:

Where did it show up? I didn't see it in the tweet...

 

I think this was a canvas work - not sure though - he does a number of them in addition to his street art stuff.

Australia showed up today.

Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney had huge numbers on the streets.

Sydney were told the protest was illegal. They showed up anyway and then it got declared legal whilst it was happening. Every single person there, showed up thinking they were breaking the law just by protesting, but they didn't care, they went anyway. ✊🏾

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, this is different from the National Guard 😂

Ottowa showed up today. Trudeau took a knee. Well done Canada.

Just read this on twitter.

It takes just 12 weeks to train a Minneapolis police officer before they get given a gun and a badge. The Met (London) takes two years to train an (unarmed) officer.

That's your problem.

That should be step 1 of any police reforms - teaching them how to do the job in the first place.

PROUD to see my Edge Rusher already using his platform to fight the good fight. 

Chase Young gonna be a hell of a leader in this locker room.

New mural up in Belfast (Northern Ireland)

20 hours ago, The Sisko said:

Thanks so much @UKskins. You have no idea how uplifting and encouraging it is to see people around the world show up to support not only our struggle, but for the rights of their own marginalized communities as well. The Syrian tribute was especially touching given everything they’ve endured. Nothing can bring George Floyd back, but the **** that murdered him immortalized him

I missed this one in the news, but Paris, a few days ago... This protest was BANNED by the authorities but the people stood up and made their voices heard anyway.

Lots more protests in the UK scheduled for this weekend all over the country.

Sunday's protests will see us take a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silent remembrance and reflection.

UK's second largest city (Birmingham) today had thousands on the street and a number of smaller protests in smaller towns and cities were well attended. Several radio stations simultaneously played Jimmy Cliff's "The harder they come" at 7pm in solidarity tonight.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-52920826

3 hours ago, techboy said:

And really, we don't actually NEED a police officer. School personnel can handle most discipline, and in a rare case the police can be called. We don't keep a School Resource Fireman on duty in case a student sets something on fire while sneaking a smoke.

Teacher in the UK here - we don't have cops in school. Period. Unless a crime has been committed or there is a risk to safety, in which case we call them.

Discipline is handled by teachers or pastoral staff. Why would you have a police officer dealing with discipline in school? That's nuts.

I know y'all do things differently with regards to guns etc (which is totally a convo for a different thread) so I could get to a point where I understand havings cops around for security, but damn, actively involved in the running of the school and interacting with students on school behaviour/non-criminal matters?  Does that really happen?

38 minutes ago, Busch1724 said:

He's a positive influence and it would be good for the Minneapolis PD to have their good officers in schools. 

I get that but in a state where George Floyd and Philando Castile were both murdered by cops, do you really want to be taking good ones off the streets for PR purposes? Surely they're better on the streets, doing their job and protecting the citizens (from both criminals and bad cops)

BBC reporting that charges are being brought on the other 3 officers for aiding and abetting murder. Good news. Not far enough in my opinion - They should all be up for murder but I don't know enough about your laws to know if that is feasible. Chauvin upgraded to Second degree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52915019