Absolution

Well, I'm working in the Prisons and we're in an enviroment where it's pretty hard to keep distance in some cases. We have all our protective gear but still, I keep wondering if I'll contract it. We've had a few cases inside the prisons of the virus and it's a bit unsettling. Since the prisons are already struggling to remain staffed, it's really hitting hard with the work load but I took a weeks holiday to give myself a bit of a recharge. It actually was surprise to have my work holidays approved and I am not going to question it!

Thankfully, Scotland is beginning to work it's way out of lockdown procedures though we're still pretty alert inside due to the nature of our enviroment. I can't wait for all of this to be past but I can tell that things are going to remain complicated for some time I think.

I'm remaining positive though so I hope you all are too! I hope you manage to create some rotations of some sort since I see our way of life remaining changed for some time to come. I also thought this would pass by in a couple of months but here we are, eh?

Hey guys its Tussia! I came in to check up on y'all.
What happened to Assorro? He hasnt been on in about 20 days and NSTracker has gone down.

Regarding the actual protests, I feel they are something that should happen. While there were plenty of sparks that could have lit the fire, the spark that finally did it was one of those that had people regardless of political affiliation calling out what happened as wrong. The whole thing was inexcusable. The problem is that it wasn't the first time things went too far when they shouldn't, doubly so over something that most people with a light complexion, AKA white people such as myself, would have had no issue with. A counterfeit $20 bill? Either one of two things should have happened; the bill confiscated and the goods that would have been purchased not purchased and that's the end of it, or the police do get involved and a written citation with a summons to court. Nothing complicated there, but holy smoke did it ever get complicated.

As I stated before, the spark that lit the fire was not the first spark. There are plenty of times that things went too far, and for too long people kept sweeping it under the rug with passive phrases like "Well, he must have done something wrong" or "If she has nothing to hide, then she has nothing to fear", and so many other things. Behind all of it there is a point. Law enforcement in this country has reached a completely different level of aggression when you compare it to law enforcement agencies of other countries. We have law enforcement agencies that are supplemented with military equipment, which in some cases is great but let's take a step back and see the kind of picture it paints. Military vehicle = going to war, but going to war with who? Well, last I checked we haven't been invaded, so what's left? It doesn't paint a very good picture. There's a long road ahead as far as mending fences.

The riots? Well, I honestly wish things wouldn't escalate to that point. I personally think there is no need for it, but sometimes it gets to the point where push comes to shove and the shoving goes a little too far. What I find questionable is what sparks it? Was it a legitimate protester or was it just somebody looking to instigate some violence? Or was it a response to law enforcement looking to make a crowd disperse but that went to far and now the crowd is reacting? All the same, the the protests turn to a riot it doesn't surprise me. I empathize with them by thinking about it; if I was part of a demographic that had been marginalized, deprioritized, and ignored along with having stereotypes used against me just because of my particular features that I cannot help, and one injustice after another went unaccounted for and the perpetrators of the injustice basically got a slap on the back of the wrist...yeah, I'd be a little angry about it. Apologies for the run on sentence, but it was the best way I could sum up the root of the problem.

There is widespread tribalism when it comes to sensitive issues such as this, either the police as a whole are always in the right somehow, or they are filled to the brim with the types of people that secretly want things to escalate. My life experience with the police is extremely limited, but there are more than enough articles and recordings to show that this is way beyond just the few "bad apples" that some are insisting on. Widespread corruption, discrimination, militarization, and zero oversight. It's clear that this is an issue that could easily redefine what the word "police" means to society.

I wasn't alive during the Rodney King days, but a few years ago an LA cop, Christopher Dorner, went on a rampage and started killing people. The media painted him as this total psycho and I remember my dad making an offhand comment about how our neighbors are scared he might try to hide in our area. I laughed it off cause we're not even close to where that's happening and that was that, my teenage brain didn't register the reality of what was happening. It wasn't until a few years ago that I revisited the topic on a whim and read his manifesto on why he would do such a thing. It really stuck with me and I think about it every time I see a news story involving the LA police, every time there's a high speed pursuit and the officers practically tackling the suspect even with hands in the air. Nothing has changed since the days of the Rampart scandal, he said. Cops who use excessive force or cover for those that do are publically reprimanded and privately promoted. If anything, LA police are more corrupt and violent than ever and he was disgraced as a cop for trying to reveal that. My brother and a cousin are both rookie cops, and it makes me wonder what they're like on patrol, what kind of cop they are. What kind of cops are their coworkers and how tense situations like now affect them as people. What kind of people will all of them be several years down the road. It would devastate me if my brother and cousin ever became one of those cops, I'd understand that it was for their own survival, but I'd still never look at them the same way. This is the heart of where the protests are coming from, to prevent any "good cop" from being chewed up into more of those "bad apples", which is really hard to do when most of the judges and chiefs are on the bad apple side, because brotherhood or something like that.

There's been numerous sparks as Sheika mentioned, and I think the root of it, or at least a huge contributor is that there are more cameras recording now than just over a decade ago. We have young people looking at all this footage and connecting the dots. This isn't just that one ass of a cop in their small town, this is a legitimate societal issue. Rampart doesn't just happen in big cities, it can and does happen literally anywhere with a police station, and nothing is being done. Peaceful protests had been held for years for every individual unjust killing, and all that would ever happen was lip service of an "internal investigation" being done and people will eventually forget. Even though there is looting involved, as always with huge events like this, I think the rioters as a whole are the types of people who just ran out of patience for "internal investigations". Or in some cases the police deliberately fanning the flames, a few weeks ago all you would see on Reddit were videos of officers shooting and gassing peaceful protests all over the US. Violence is not a good thing, but still understandable, and in this case got at least some results. Even if half-assed, measures are being taken, budgets being slashed, and the police are clearly fighting tooth and nail to retain their image and the status quo. I'm honestly hoping things don't just sizzle down, these are really tense times but there is a lot of potential to bring some much needed change in the system. I don't want to be afraid of talking to an officer in person, there's a lot of problems in the world and the last thing we need is for the people that are supposed to help us to suddenly turn hostile for not following some arbitrary command.

I can't imagine what it would've felt like, I've seen documentaries about it and it was a straight up warzone. The violence currently happening will be a drop in the ocean if history ends up repeating itself. Add that to the pandemic that's picking up speed and there's just no way things will be back to normal in a matter of months, it's going to take years to heal as a country.