No Rights a White Cop is Bound to Respect

Footage from rallies after the Sean Bell verdict.

So the verdict has come down, and the three officers who shot Sean Bell and his friends fifty times have been found not guilty. The New York Times article is predictably awful. It has this tone of reminding the rest of the country that Black folks really aren't too mad about this, so all is well. I must say that this article is rather discordant with my own conversations, which have revealed a universal anger over the verdict. As the videos show as well, people are pissed. As well they should be. This ruling, while insignificant legally, has ideologically taken us back to the days of Dred Scott, when Chief Justice Taney famously ruled that African Americans "have no rights which the White Man is bound to respect." Make no mistake, this case sent a message that minorities gunned down by the police shall have no recourse to the law. The only recourse available is that taken by the folks above: rabble rousing.

Closing note-
Cops are not heroes. All this nonsense about how dangerous of a job they have is pure mythology. Fisherman are fifteen times more likely to die on the job than cops. Garbage collectors have a higher on the job fatality rate than cops. As Tim Wise points out, the hagiography of the police is part of a conscious strategy to legitimize events like the Sean Bell murder.

*Update*
Prisoner of Starvation has an excellent summary of the case.

Iraq's Militias

Two good articles on Iraq this week:

Ron Jacobs on the recent Green Zone proposal to exclude any party from Iraqi elections which has an armed wing. (Hmmmm, I wonder who that could be aimed at?). Jacobs' best quote: "The suggestion that Iraq should pay for its reconstruction assumes that the Iraqis asked to be destroyed by the US military."

Pepe Escobar on the militias, with a good focus on the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Peshmerga have been out of the news for some time now, but their role in stirring the cauldron of ethnic hatred in Iraq has been crucial. There've also been reports of the Peshmerga being used for operations in Southern Iraq, a sure way to increase Shi'a-Kurdish animosity.

Democracy in Iraq

Maliki says the troops should go. Bush says Hell no!

But it's not an occupation cuz Iraq is a democracy, dontcha know.

What Democracy Looks Like (From Above)

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino at press conference:

Q The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you're saying they have no say in this war?

MS. PERINO: I didn't say that, Helen. But, Helen, this President was elected --

Q Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all.

MS. PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that's the way our system is set up.