Black Lives Matter

[jasonstevanhill]

At Choice of Games, we uphold the self-evident—yet surprisingly controversial—idea that anyone can be a hero. It should not matter if you are male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or just plain queer; cis or trans; black, white, or brown. Due to its history of structural racism, the egalitarianism that we espouse is not reality in America.

Let us be clear: Black Lives Matter.

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Adama Traoré. João Pedro Matos Pinto.

These names haunt us, as they should haunt you. And these are only a few recent victims of white supremacy and police brutality.

Over the course of the past week, police officers and other security forces have committed disproportionate, illegal, and immoral acts of violence on protesters demanding accountability for the police.

This comes at a dire time in the history of the United States, when our president, unable to acknowledge the possibility of defeat, is willing to jettison democracy in favor of his own ego. We at Choice of Games have real concerns that if these protests fail to effect change, there will not be an election in November.

We support four specific short-term demands:

1. An end to qualified immunity for law enforcement.
2. An end to the sale of military equipment to law enforcement.
3. An end to the use of tear gas and other chemical weapons.
4. The creation of a national database of law enforcement officers dismissed for misconduct, that would prevent those officers from being rehired by another department.

Yet these demands only address the symptoms; they will not cure the disease. The entire United States criminal justice system must be reimagined.

We encourage everyone that can to attend a protest—socially distanced and nonviolent. If you can’t protest, we encourage you to donate money to bail funds and other community organizations pushing for police reform; you can even stream this YouTube channel, whose advertising revenue will support bail funds and other organizations. If you can’t donate money, we ask that you donate your time by calling your elected representatives—from your city councilmembers, to your state representatives, to your Congressional representatives—and express your outrage at the conduct of police and other security personnel.

Because we believe that this moment requires more than words, Choice of Games LLC and Hosted Games LLC will each be donating $10,000 to this collective bail fund, which will split the money between more than seventy community organizations across the country.

Now is the time for all of us to be heroes.

[Blazerules]

Not sure if its fine to say this but
You know how there is a Hate Crime thing that’s added on top of crimes to make them worse?

There should really be something similar for people in authority, police politicians etc that is purely for abuse of authority. It doesn’t look like there is since they’re treated better not worse than normal people doing the same thing.

A lot of stuff I’ve seen of the protests isn’t just police targetting race but some officers just seem to apply whatever amount of force they feel like. A journalist is laying down and doing everything they say? They acknowledge he is a journalist? Random officer just looks and casually sprays him in the face. No reason just cause.

An undue amount of force applied for no reason. This seems to be a pattern and while sometimes its “harmless” it can be fatal. And this should never happen.

Oh and of course he apparently had no body cam. Or an active one. Same applies to a lot of officers who do this… strange that. They should be forced to wear active body cams.

Note that obviously there are good officers, but the bad ones are often unaccountable. And some dont have body cams to be held accountable. And aren’t punished more for abusing their authority as officers of the law.

EDIT:
To me it seems like often enough they are way too trigger happy even in light situations. With a “Shoot/spray/takedown first ask questions later” attitude to even situations where everything is calm.

[HannahPS]

Thank you for your words and actions on this, and for the suggestions of actions readers can take. It makes me feel even prouder to be published by you.

[Jender]

Wow, this is wonderful - thank you! Forwarding this link everywhere.
Xoxoxoxo

[Sargent]

Thank you for this, especially for the specific calls to action for us and the steps that y’all are taking.

[Wuffles]

Thank you. This is amazing not only because you guys have strong words behind what you support is right, but important actions as well!

[poison_mara]

A wonderful action the mere idea that for your race or your own gender identity any police officer can feel that can kill you with impunity is sickening. As European, I just can’t believe how the most advanced country in the world can allow itself to have a so messed up police. I thought that was something from the 60s and 70s. It is so sad that we don’t learn from history.

[LucHD]

Can somebody explain to me what is going on in America?

[Blazerules]

TL;DR of it all is
A police officer chocked a black man, George Floyd, to death. He kept saying I cant breath but the officer didnt let up until it was way too late.

An investigation into his death, well the private one, showed that the cause of death was this officer. This has resulted in protests and anger as this is not an uncommon occurrence as evidenced by JUST the names in the post by jasonstevanhill.

Police use unreasonable amount of force which results in death. Which results in anger. But doesnt result in any real change to the system that allows it to happen. Just a slap on the wrist and keep doing what they are doing till it happens again.

@jasonstevanhill

It’s much, much deeper than that.

Yeah that’s for sure. I’m not too knowledgeable on the subject (or not enough for full detail), just trying to keep up with it as much as I can. Hence the TL;DR.

[jasonstevanhill]

It’s much, much deeper than that.

I’m at a protest right now. I’ll do my best to write an answer in a few hours.

[hotmess.exe]

stay safe, ally

[wanamingo]

the long and short of it(apologies for my english):

may 25th this year, a black man named George Floyd was detained and murdered by police because he was suspected to have passed a counterfit $20 bill.
a police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for at least 8 minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life and eventually lost consciousness and died.
part of what happened was caught on camera. if you want to see it, the footage is easy to find but disturbing and disheartening.
protests initially started because:

1. this is not the first time something like this has happened, far from it.

2. neither the officer who put his knee on Floyd’s neck nor the surrounding officers were initially charged for his murder, or in any other way punished for what they did. again, this is not the first time this has happened.

police have then proceded to use means of crowd suppression to actively harm and harass protestors, though this is not the only issue here.
peaceful protestors are being hurt for exercising their right to assembly, and police have been seen actively instigating violence and encouraging rioting.
the republican government is not on the side of the protestors.

tl:dr it’s a very, very bad situation. a man was murdered and a lot of innocent people have been hurt or arrested for exercising their rights.
the situation is still developing, and as jason says this runs much deeper than police brutality alone, but this is an overview of what i’ve gathered

[Interestedparty]

Definitely in support of the core of the protests.

1. More transparency in Law Enforcement.
2. Improve the quality of their training to focus on de-escalation and non-lethal restraining.
3. Get a separate entity to investigate criminal cases involving officers, instead of their peers.
4. Take down those stupid statues and flags already

Still, seeing some of the social media surrounding the protests makes me pensive. Lots of people talking about how we should shoot cops on sight. Or abolish police departments.

Makes me worry that the cause might not get taken seriously, or worse perceived as hostile.
It’s supposed to be protest, not rebellion.

[literary_warrior]

SAY THEIR NAMES

[Blazerules]

@Interestedparty

More transparency in Law Enforcement.

I think a big part of this

• All officers must wear active body cams when on duty.

Body cams means accountability, or should.

Nothing gives them a right to attack someone who is clearly not being violent during a protest. Saying hey we gave warning to go away, or it was curfew is absolutely no excuse to attack people as they do.

Their go to method seems to be the use of violence even when people are complying, like randomly spraying people in the face for absolutely no reason. Besides that the person was there? Quite frankly that is a gross misuse of force.

They should be held accountable for using force where force is very clearly not needed. To me this whole event isn’t just a race issue but some officers seemingly just not caring if people are hurt or killed. Just fire and forget. And its unacceptable.

I’m white and I’m afraid of the US police. Yet police is suppose to protect and serve.

[Interestedparty]

I think the majority of police officers aren’t trying to be malicious.
I’m a pretty big supporter for law enforcement.

But just like it only takes 1 or 2 angry people to turn a protest into a riot, it only takes 1 or 2 malicious or incompetent officers to break the trust between police and citizens. And police can’t be effective without trust.

It’ll probably take a while to restore trust, anyway. Some big reforms would help with that.

[Isa]

[hotmess.exe]

@Interestedparty

it only takes 1 or 2 malicious or incompetent officers to break the trust between police and citizens

and fellow officers and/or their superiors to stand by and watch, join in their brutality, or otherwise cover for their co-workers

[Blazerules]

@Interestedparty

I think the majority of police officers aren’t trying to be malicious.

Just because someone isn’t trying to be malicious, doesn’t mean they aren’t.

I’m sure some officers use undue force thinking its perfectly justified.
This would really be an issue of training and how they are taught to respond to situation if it is the case.

It happens way too often for it to be a few bad apples.

Plus, one can cause harm through both action and inaction.

The amount of people standing by makes me wonder if the bystander effect has a part to play in this. Something that can only be fixed through training really. It’s a pretty natural psychological phenomenon. Though a negative one.

[HipHipHooray]

We don’t need reform. The purpose of the police is to kill Black bodies. They are performing as intended. ABOLISH THE POLICE