Okay, so one of the movies I got out of the library just before it closed for the pandemic is Cutter's Way (I also got a Blu-Ray from Twilight Time's liquidation sale a few months ago on the off chance that the library actually lets me return their copy at some point), and this scene in particular strikes me as relevant:
The first time I heard about cops getting away with shooting innocent black people (I think it was Amadou Diallo), I wound up at the "I hate the USA" phase Cutter's talking about. Eventually, more cases came to light, and I get to "there is no God." Then year after year, reports of black people being shot by cops for arbitrary reasons and their killers getting off with little more than a suspension, I find out how, even in the most morally-defensible of scenarios, the line separating a legit threat and just some punk with no intention to kill can be gossamer-thin, and becoming more acutely aware of how intertwined race and class are in America, (poor people are more likely to commit crimes, black people are more likely to be poor) and how difficult it would be to effect changes even if Congress was actually able to pass laws, and even noticing that the only thing that's been accomplished from the protests is retribution, it becomes inevitable for me to slide into "I'm hungry."
A case like this, with so few mitigating factors, a long, lingering death inflicted on a man who might have passed off a counterfeit $20 to buy smokes, a death that happened in full view of a crowd, with several onlookers either filming it (with nobody stopping them) or pleading with the cop to stop doing it (pleas which fell on deaf ears), it's becoming easier to see why this, of all cases, is helping people slide back to the earlier stages, especially after we at least get some police reforms. Fuck knows if that's going to mean much in the long run, but at least it's more progress than has happened in the past few years.
The first time I heard about cops getting away with shooting innocent black people (I think it was Amadou Diallo), I wound up at the "I hate the USA" phase Cutter's talking about. Eventually, more cases came to light, and I get to "there is no God." Then year after year, reports of black people being shot by cops for arbitrary reasons and their killers getting off with little more than a suspension, I find out how, even in the most morally-defensible of scenarios, the line separating a legit threat and just some punk with no intention to kill can be gossamer-thin, and becoming more acutely aware of how intertwined race and class are in America, (poor people are more likely to commit crimes, black people are more likely to be poor) and how difficult it would be to effect changes even if Congress was actually able to pass laws, and even noticing that the only thing that's been accomplished from the protests is retribution, it becomes inevitable for me to slide into "I'm hungry."
A case like this, with so few mitigating factors, a long, lingering death inflicted on a man who might have passed off a counterfeit $20 to buy smokes, a death that happened in full view of a crowd, with several onlookers either filming it (with nobody stopping them) or pleading with the cop to stop doing it (pleas which fell on deaf ears), it's becoming easier to see why this, of all cases, is helping people slide back to the earlier stages, especially after we at least get some police reforms. Fuck knows if that's going to mean much in the long run, but at least it's more progress than has happened in the past few years.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
![[Image: harmlesskitchen.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/yxR97P23/harmlesskitchen.png)
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
