In order to qualify this election, we have created a list of best to worst results that we can expect. Note this is not the best possible results, as that would require Bernie Sanders to still be in the race and win the presidency. As that will not happen, we have to face reality and that means Clinton or Trump. The two most hate politicians in the records of polling such questions.

Best Clinton wins and Democrats win both the House and Senate. In which case for the next two years they might, just might get something done in the passing of progressive legislation. They might fill in their nominations for the courts and they may stumble on some good policies to help working and the poor.

Next, Clinton wins but they lose the house to Republicans but win the Senate. This means the Iran deal is safe but little will get done. Paul Ryan is but a shadow of real leaders in the House, where what the speaker would say would become law. Now his speakership is merely cardboard cut out they use to toss rotted fruits at.

Next Clinton wins the Presidency and loses both House and Senate. What might likely occur? This result will means four and possible eight more years of ideological gridlock and posturing. Little would be done and even less would be accomplished.

Last, Trump wins, in any combination. He does not know how to rule, how to work with, or how to create anything. The man is a shyster as can be seen in his so called “Trump University scam.” At this point despite the incompetence at the top, the transition team will find good people if ideologically bent to take up the offices in Washington and may even figure out a way to work with Tea Party enthusiasts to get something worked out. For example, Money out of politics would be nice. But I won’t hold my breath. Four years of trump, will the republic still be standing? For surely it is greater in its summation and grandeur then even he can destroy… not that he won’t try his best to do so.

Teachers can be petty, jealous and mean. The great ones inspire their students to soar above them, in skill and dreams to reach for the stars and chase comets across the sky. The worst merely try to tear their students down, like pulling the wing from an angel or a butterfly as they were some tormented adolescent trying to rip the wings off flies. The best teachers fill us, their ever grateful students with the wonder and joy of learning. The love of the novel, the warmth of knowledge and the comforting friendship of thoughts yet to come, yet to be but always soon to become. The worst teachers batterer us with fear and loathing from their own weak, tepid insecurities that eke out their miserable existence trying to create more gloom dweller incapable of every learning to fly and be free of their own self-pity, contempt and disparaging existence. That is the sum total of our schools. For along that path lies every single teach you will ever meet, from the good to the bad to the horrible. But just one caring teacher will change the perspective of that lucky student who will let them take off, and soar above it all, to reach out to become better than they are, above the petty fray of based meanness, drudgery, and mediocrity. The goal is to survive the bad teachers, ignore the incompetent, and embrace the greatness when you manage to stumble upon the few, the rare but always the best! Learn from those you can. Love those you will and the rest, be they ever so humble, they are our teachers.

White people make up 62% of the US population. Black people only account for 13% of the same population, or nearly 5 white persons per every single black person in society. Of all the people shot and killed by police, White people are shot by police in 49% of incidents. A 13% difference then the expected result. White should be shot more, if they were being shot was in proportion to their numbers in the makeup of the population. Black’s are shot and killed by police 24% of the time, an 11% difference from their percentage of the population if they were in proportion. In fact, black people are almost shot twice as much as their population numbers would indicate. This is a significant difference. Whites are killed by police less than their proportion of the population would indicate and blacks are overly targeted by police.
13% of all black people who are shot and killed by police are unarmed. Compared that to only 7% of whites being unarmed when shot by police. Again twice as many black are killed while unarmed as a white person would be. In relation to their respective population numbers, blacks are 10 times more likely to be shot and killed while unarmed as a white person would be.
Of all people shot and killed by police in 2015, 40% were black men, who only make up 6% of the total population. What is clear is that a disproportionate amount of blacks, men and women are killed then their population numbers would indicate. This is a problem. This is why a movement such as Black Lives Matters is needed to foster better training and better inter community relations in order to meet, debunk and socialise police officers to the black community. In my personal opinion, Blacks are demonized as dangerous criminals in the mind of law enforcement. Therefore, maximum precaution must be taken, and that action that done by a white person would be excused, done by someone who happens to have colour in their skin will result in a death sentence. By training officers better, familiarizing them with blacks who happen to be the most often target of black crime, police might build stronger community relations and bridge the gap to those communities. Also, this is not longer a desire, a request or an optional. All police need to have body cameras upon themselves. The camera never lies, and to show the public, what happened in the event of a police shooting will do wonders to help bridge the gap. Black people, just as white people, can see if an officer is in danger and forced to defend him or herself. It is the unknowing that causes the distrust. Show the videos fast and get them out into the media faster will prevent issues from arising in the communities affected in a police shooting. For when people can see the video, they can put themselves in the place of the police forced to kill someone. They will then make up their own mind if it was justified or not. Too often, those videos are held back cause mistrust, if the video cleared the officer why is it not being presented? There is also usually no good answer why there is a delay in showing the video.

Statistics are from Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter Experiment DEBUNKED
Young Turks

The top five reasons why Donald J Trump should not be elected President of the United States

1) He is a con artist. From his charity foundation buying a picture of himself, to using other people’s money to make donations o the same amount, this foundation was mostly a way in which The Donald could fund rentals for his own businesses. Then there is Trump University where his sales reps, keep pushing people to max out their credit cards for the next big course. All for the student gain of nothing of value, no degree, no job, just an inflated credit card bill. If he was really that rich, he would not be stealing pennies from the poor house.

2) Treatment of the press: The Donald has been doing all he can to destroy the power of the press, from isolating hem into a set area where he can pick on them at his rallies, to merely attacking hem as biased in his speeches. What little respect people have for the news will soon be lost. The Donald would go even further as President, so much for the 1st amendment.

3) Treatment of women: “Grab them by the Pussy” is now a mainstream legal word that the FCC won’t be fining Howard Stern for any more. The Donald has made it a mainstream word. Lenny Bruce is somewhere above dancing at this expansion of the words you can say on TV. George Carlin has changed his skit from the seven words you cannot use on TV to 6.

4) Assassination of Clinton or merely the jailing of: What third world fascist government openly calls for assassination or jail of their rival? Small Hand Donald has done both in this election and in more than one form and at more than one time.

5) Rigged elections: Saying the only way he would lose is if the election was rigged, at the same time as Republicans, desperate to avoid a melt down along both the Senate and House turning to Democratic control, are actively seeking way to disenfranchise as many minorities as they can. What’s next revoking the 19 amendment allowing women to vote? Undermining the essence of democracy because he, having failed to win the plurality, is poor sportsmanship and childish.

Any one of these reasons is enough to not vote for him. All of them says vote for someone else.

Thesis evaluation consist of an oral defense that is usually open to the public, this can has caused more than a few problems. Here are some of the worst nightmares that can happen. All are true stories. Here are my top five worst Thesis defense ever!

The first story was told to me by a professor as she was then a student. She wrote her PHD thesis in a year and submitted it to her adviser. The advisor read it and invited her to a nice restaurant for supper and then broke the news. “I am afraid this simply won’t do.” One year of work, flushed. So she went back to the writing table and rewrote it anew.

Another student when told took the opposite road and demanded a hearing of the full thesis defense board as is allowed by university thesis rules. They followed procedure to the letter. When the vote was cast, the student lost by a vote of five to zero. They failed him. And that failed him out of the program. So no Masters as a door prize as he left either.

A female student went to her defence where she had misquoted someone in her text; a very minor error that we all do. But most are caught in time before the defence. In her case, the problem was not the tiny error, it was the readers. Her advisor was hated in the department so they had one outside reader to be impartial and one reader who hated him. Well over this tiny error, the two started to go at each other. The chair asked the audience to leave. Whereas inside the shouting and screaming could be heard across the library as it went on for hours. Thirty minutes for her defence, and three hours of screaming. Degree earned, vote two to one.

When making enemies, do not piss off the vindictive graduate chair when planning to do your thesis defense, for there may be repercussions you have not considered. He first scheduled her defense in the schools largest auditorium, and then proceeded to order all the first year undergrads to attend this mandatory event. Then made sure a sign-in sheet was passed around. Normally you defend in a class room with a few people at most 20-30 people. She had to defend her thesis in front of 500 students who resented her taking up their free time. Talk about hostile environment.

Perhaps the worst thesis defense occurred for an international student who lived in Saudi Arabia. For some unknown reason she had to defend her thesis online and an Islamic religious policeman was to be in the same room as her. Now English was her second language so she struggled with it. The police officer spoke no English, requiring her to stop and explain to him in Arabic. If he got bored or if she took too long in her answer he would interrupt her. What should have been over and done within an hour at most went over near three hours. Where at one point he got up and almost smacked her. Only later would we find out what he was saying to her in the midst of her thesis defense. “Why are you doing this? You are just a stupid girl, you should not be talking to these men, you be fucking your husband so stop whoring yourself out to sound smart then you are stupid girl.” She passed 5 to zero.

Bonus, a thesis on Foucault went seriously off the rails when the professor began to talk of this philosopher’s sexual preferences, using non academic terms like “Fist fucking.” He went off topic and spoke on that subject for near an hour before the chair could take over and call an end to the session.

Montreal is a most beautiful city. You may enjoy it, if you c can get out of the traffic jams. Seems that on every route, every bridge and every highway, there is construction, repairs or just imaginary things forgotten in the minds of engineers, waiting still to be called done, with the left over orange cones scatters about to mark the memories and nightmares of truckers, roadsters and travellers alike, who have to navigate the impossible rubric of a city transport grid run amuck. It is not just how much repair work is being done but how bad the planning of it is. On one particular bridge, they normally allow during rush hour in coming or outgoing traffic. So one day repairs needed to be done. So at 7 pm, when they switched to both ways, they blocked the out bound lane, where all the traffic was in order to repair on the side of the bridge. The inbound lane was opened to let in ten, fifteen cars. The outbound lane still had maybe 500 to a thousand cars wanting to get off island. But repairs come first. And that in bound traffic all ten of them had to be let in. The 1000 cars waiting were simply not important enough to consider. What is worse is that next year is the 375th birthday of Montreal. So the Mayor doubled down on construction and repairs to get in as much as he can this year, so next year will be relatively light on such things as needed in order to let the tourist enjoy the city. For all that, the bad planning, the traffic and the horrible drivers Montreal is known for, we are getting off lucky. Why do I say that? In the United States where they desperately need such infrastructure repairs. Where roads, bridges and highways are literally falling apart, they do not have the tax revenue to afford such things. In truth the bill could be as high as 4 trillion dollars at this point, and surely will go higher. But they have also a lack of will to tax their people in order to get the money to do those repairs. So whereas Montreal has a high rate of tax, as does Quebec, Canada too, the infrastructure is being renewed, repaired and rebuilt. Heavens knows what will happen down south as their cities, roads and bridges start to fall apart.

NASA has declared that August 2016 is the hottest month ever recorded, making it the 11 month in a row where the temperature of the world has increased, breaking old records and setting new records. What more need we say to prove Global Warming. How many more months before you admit the end of times is here, death, dying, gloom and doom. Yet those nasty deniers continue to spew their lies and deny the heat of hell’s doorway, as it flash flames the world.
Or we can try and look at the matter scientifically.
First, let’s make a comparison to each month being one second. So for the last 11 seconds the whole world has been heating up. By what measure do we compare this to? Minutes? Hours? Days, weeks or even months? Let along years decades or centuries. Global weather records perhaps at best go back 150 years or so. Using these comparisons of months in seconds, we are talking about 11 seconds out of the last 30 minutes. But even that is an invalid example. For what NASA is telling us is not the local weather or the weather for whole country or even the average temperature at surface. Using satellites, they have gathered the temperature for the entire planet as best they can observe, from the temperature in the oceans, to the air temperature at all elevations and into the Atmosphere and stratosphere. Record the whole temperature at all these locations to boil down to one single average temperature for the planet. They do not get into the scientific certainty factor of this, or how tiny the number is in the difference. They don’t need to. Any increase is telling. Fine. But now we are comparing apples to oranges. NASA does not even have records of global temperatures much more beyond 40 years ago at the outside. So instead of talking in our comparison about the last half hour, we are talking about the last 4 minutes. And in the last 4 minutes, 11 seconds were the hotest of them. Great. This then proves all things to all scientists so we can thusly deduce global warming is real.
Sadly, no. It just say’s we are heating up over the short term time span of the last few years, beyond which record are meaningless, going beyond the evidence that we actually have on hand and frankly unscientific because we have no basic agreement on what it might mean or any theories to explain it so. There are many things we need to do for the environment. False science of Global warming is not one of them. Fight for reason science, real environmental protection and real battles for our planet. Not this hyperbole of rhetoric. There is an ocean of plastic in the Pacific the size of Texas. Clean that up would make a lot more sense than crying wolf with global warming. No one is buying it any more.

Does the rhetoric of Donald Trump rise to being hate speech? While what he is doing is in fact inciting hatred towards Muslims and Hispanics, he is not breaking any laws. He has just made it acceptable to go mainstream with his racism and not be shamed by the very public surrounding him for utter such garbage and filth. The only good thing about all of is this, with this increased attention upon the Muslim community, it has forced them to be more welcoming and hold outreach session to the community in order to broaden the public knowledge and understanding of who and what they are.
It is very hard to hard someone who happens to also be the doctor you trust… or the pharmacist. While Muslims make up 1% of the American population, they make up 2-10% of the doctors and pharmacist depending on methodology in the count. In any case a great percentage than their share of the population would account for. Thus far, the American Islamic community has been insular, keeping to themselves, Sheltered within its mosques. After 911, they went even further to hide from a very hostile community seeking to cast blame on anyone remotely associated with the terrorists. No matter how far a stretch to do so. Now, due to the political climate from such as Donald Trump, they have no choice but to come out of hiding. They have to branch out and make friends in the community. Make alliances with the people within their own community that they live in and make “Open Door” a policy for all to come, every day, not just by invitation or on special days.
A few things
A woman protesting on anti Muslim rally day… yes there is such a thing… Never underestimate man’s ability to hate fellow man…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4U-09zkAw
She was outside a mosque and the cops were all in force to prevent trouble. She was out numbers by both cops as she was the only one to show up. And the evil Muslim came out and did what? They offered her what? Hatred for hatred? Evil for evil? No, they offered her tea and cookies, and then invited her inside. Surprisingly… she agreed and went.
Big deal, she is just one person; one heart, and one mind but with one person at a time. Next time someone tells her that Muslims are all evil, she will go… “Yes most of them… not all…” And that is a worthy start. One person at a time.
New York City, two cops sitting in their car, a 4×4 drives up and tosses in a bag, cop 1, Officer Peter Cybulski says “Boss it’s a bomb.” Cop 2, Sgt Hameed Armani, flicks on lights and sirens and gets out of 46th and Broadway (Time Square), so when the bomb goes off it would not kill hundreds of people…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaPV1hDyqcA

Turns out, the bomb was a dud. The suspect, I say with great surprise, (not) turns out to be mentally unstable in need of hospitalization. Cop 2, the driver, Sgt Hameed Armani, is a Muslim American from Afghanistan and a single father of a 12 year old daughter. He had ever reason to run from that bomb. Yet he did the one thing you could expect in the best of all of us. His duty. Nuff said. The two cops, one Christian, one Muslim, both prayed together as they drove like hell out of there. Now that was something more important, more profound and more importantly of all, it was more human than Donald trump will ever be with his hate filled rhetoric.
As well there was a knife attack in the London tube last year (December 6 2015) and the guy filming said clearly, “You aint no Muslim bro.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNUwrIuihE
David Cameron then repeated that in the House of Commons and in a number of speeches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IxFNJNN5I
That one phrase did more to improve the vast perception of who and what is a Muslim then anything that could have done or said. A Muslim man telling a knife wielding psychopath, you are not a Muslim! Short and sweet, yet cutting to the heart of this matter, it sums up what we should understand from this attack and this attacker. As that message passes from hand to hand and mouth to mouth, it resonates within the mind of the haters and those unsure. We knew that this sort of attack is done by the crazed, the insane and the mentally disturbed. Though they may shout some sort of religious slogan, “The devil can quote scriptures for his own end.” They are not representative of any real Muslim group. Just those run of the mill haters of no worth to anyone. Just like Donald Trump is.

In part, white privilege does not exist for whites.
Male privilege does not exist for males either.
However, if you are black and or female, only then you can see it. The white male cannot.
As a white male, I can drive all over and never get stopped by the police. The man, Philando Castile, had been stopped something like 31 times and hit with 63 traffic charges in the last 14 years. Total number of times I have been stopped? (Knock on wood) Zero. See no privilege for me. I will just assume that I am a drive better than any African American… But the absence of gains (not being stopped) does not in any way show up when each stop takes 30 minutes to an hour of their time. Yet unless I see beyond my lofty position, that is only privileged from an outsider prospective, I cannot see imagine having any advantage. Cops look at the skin color of the driver. “Oh he is white, so he may be a lawyer, or a judge or he maybe someone important.” But when they see black, that is all they see. There are reports on this guy’s life, that he was a role model for his students, praised as a local hero to get kids off on the right start. He was always there, always working for his student, his colleges and all that, a stand up guy considered a pillar in his community. Even if only half of that is true, he was more than an asset to his community and the communities at large. He was some needed in every community. All that the cops saw was black. In my case, I doubt very much if I would be so praise, coming anywhere near this guy’s involvement. But I am white and thus giving a road pass. The absence of evidence is the evidence of absences that is the evidence itself need, in this case of showing white privilege. A NY city cop recorded his bosses giving him advice. (Paraphrased) Why did he only stop 2 black men? He replied that he stopped the same number of people as he was supposed to but he was lower in the “pop” rate; those people who are wanted on warrants, wanted or whatever, to be detained, arrested or put back in jail. People stopped are said to “pop” when their name is entered and they have issues with law enforcement. The cop goes on to explain that he stops everyone equally regardless of race, or color. He stops those he has legal probable cause to stop. The boss goes; (paraphrased) “Stop the blacks. They pop more. They commit the crimes. More pops means more arrests which in turn mean better performance reviews.” Of course that means for the rest of the black males who are not going to pop they will be stopped more often. And who cares if that is a violation of their civil liberties? No one cares because they are black… Not like as if they were white… who might be someone… This is the attitude of cops to blacks. In Canada it would be more of cops to aboriginal thing in most of the country and to a lesser extent to minorities in the cities. Same basic perception from aboriginals here as Americans have in their racial problem with African Americans, only it is just a different ethnic minority sub class of society in Canada, with the same role, same function and stereotypical behavior along with the same poor treatment. We, in Quebec, however, have a standard of decency for our police. A level of expected behavior that is enforceable and controlled by a body that does not have to work with police like Crown prosecutors have to on a daily basis. The Police Ethics commission; they don’t judge based on race or familiarity or any other such consideration but on facts as they can ascertain and the ideal of behavior expected of a cop and from police. Should be and where they find fault, the cop is publicly humiliated for having failed to live up to the standard expected of being a police officer. Essentially saying they have been judged wanting of their duties and failed to live to their oath of office. The best part is this; you only have to fill out a paper forum to make a complaint. No need for a lawyer or costs upon the complaint. The Police Ethics Commission take’s over and investigate your complain. Including a follow up visits or calls, so that if your complaint is deemed insufficient they will call you or visit to ask for more information; i.e. you say a cop stopped you? Well, what cop? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Badge number? Name? Car number? Every detail they can find so that they can investigate your complaint. Best of all? It is run by civilians who do this full time. Not cop on cop but civvies on cop, bureaucrats on cops. They also do not have any conflict of interest as the prosecutors have when they need to have the cooperation of police to get their cases convicted in court. The Ethic commissions are fair, honest and they have the grudging respect of both sides. So in part, because we have such a body, and I fear I have never heard of one anywhere in the United States, our cops are better behaved and more respectful if only cause they have big brother watching over them, peering across the blue wall. I should add we have such stops in Canada and in Quebec, where a number of black men were pulled over for the crime of driving while black. The number of stops was in one case like 3-8 times before this citizen filed a complaint and won a judgement against the officers because they, the police, were in the wrong. If American cops where more focused on crime prevention and deterrence rather than lock’em up in corporate prisons and throw away the key they might be better at their job.
American blacks and minorities vote Democrat. Nixon and the Republican’s “South First” strategy was designed to stop blacks from voting, by first criminalizing them, then depriving them of their right to vote. (In Canada the Supreme Court rules that all citizens must be allowed to vote and that the government must allow voting from prisons.)Thus began the war on crime and the war on drugs. Where white American are convicted of powder cocaine use at the same rate as blacks with crack cocaine use, white will get diverted into treatment with no criminal record, whereas blacks will go to jail, losing their right to vote and forever must stigmatise themselves with having to admit to a criminal record. A white male in Stanford, Brock Allen Turner, raped a woman and got 6 month in jail because it will mess up his life. A Latino man, for a similar crime got 3 years. It was the same judge, Aaron Persky.
Ok I could go on and on…
The point is this;
There is no such thing as white privilege so long as you are a white male. That is the bottom line and is absolute fact. If you are black or other minority and or female, you can spot the difference if only in the absence of the same sort of treatment that a white male takes for granted. “What do you mean white males are treated differently?” of course not on they will say. Others see the difference because there is the absence of similar treatment (That blacks are subjected to frequently) does not mean it does not exist. Just they cannot see it. Until they do… things won’t change.
In North Miami, a black man with his hands up in surrender, lying on his back, in the street, is shot three times by a SWAT officer who was trying to hit a stationary man who was a sitting target. There are so many thing wrong here. 1) Three shots is not an accident discharge. 2) SWAT are trained to shot, he hit what he was aiming for. 3) Why was he shooting in the first place? The man was telling the police he was a mental health professional with a client in distress. No gun was involved. No one was in any danger until the police showed up. At the republican Convention, a sheriff, David A. Clarke Jr. of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, boldly asserted that Blue Lives Matter. Well that is true. All lives matter. So why did this man’s life not matter? The main point here for black lives matter is this, One is too many, period. So instead of bemoaning the existence of Black Lives Matter, instead of trying to shift blame on to blacks, black culture or anyone else, assume and accept that the blame rest squarely on the shoulders of law enforcement. And then do something about. The point is not merely to enumerate the problem. The point of leadership is to find lasting, effective solutions to these problems. And when you put a challenge to the leadership, you have to put forward your own solutions. That is a responsibility under taken when one criticise the police, the question is well what is “your” answer. Well here is mine.
Every cop needs a body camera. Ever squad car does too. Police need Federal guidelines and standards that ensure police receive de-escalation training and effective familiarization with minority communities and the mentally handicapped or special needs. Finally, all states need a police Ethics commission run independently of police, having no other association with the police and their behavior or with the courts, other than to adjudicate the actions of police against their own guidelines. With a budget that allows them to investigate and either to exonerate or convict police of wrong doing, imposing penalties of fines, suspensions and termination of employment. That is where we will see that there is no need for protest movements. Efforts to bring cops to heel will be first the recordings, then what is in the cameras in the cars. Then they review of federal Guidelines by an impartial body that will run, yes this was justified or it was not. Period. Final word. Until then we can expect escalation and more violence on the part of protesters who are clearly not getting their message heard and this will continue to inevitable lead to more death and more shooting as police feel even more embattled and even more isolated from the communities they patrol.

In order to understand the trouble that vexes the United States with recent events, it is important to understand elements of their socio-economic class and racial structure: White Privilege and Black lives.

It is very hard to explain what white privilege is to a white person. Just as it is hard to explain to a male what male privilege is from a female perspective. For in both cases, they say what privilege? They do see the problem walking anywhere, at anytime, wearing anything they want. Whites simply do not interact with police, so what privilege is that? Never seeing that based on being white the police will not stop them for any reason other than the colour or lack of colour in their skin. However for someone black, they do interact in absurd amounts with police compared to the whites. Diamond Reynolds calmly recorded her boyfriend dying in the seat next to her after he was brutally shot by one nervous cop. Being that she, as a black female, was so often stopped by police for no reason, getting upset would not change anything, let alone prevent anything from happening. Male privilege means they don’t have to be as weary of the next corner because if preyed upon it would be for their wallet not what was under their clothing. So they too can calmly walk through a storm that would leave other who are not used to such behavior completely affected with fear and dread.

The concept of privilege is one that can only be seen from the perspective of one who does not have it. Just as entitlement is alien to whoever is so privileged and has the rights to be entitled. From the pauper view however, it is very different. They can see up, the privileged must be challenged to see down. There is a national best seller, but clearly 50 or more years old called “Black Like me” by John Howard Griffin (published 1961) where a white man walks in the shoes of being black in the south. Changes his race to cross the colour barrier and see what life is like on the other side of the coin. This book tells the tales from his journey. You can see the way he is treated what privilege is. Or in a more humorist vein Eddie Murphy does a skit on Saturday Night Live about being white; where he dons white makeup to look like a white person. While very funny, it is also very telling too. Clever humour does indeed transcend beyond me laughs into a deep social commentary.

As a white male, I am never suspected of being a criminal just because I am white

As a male I am never looked at as “Asking for it,” no matter what I am wearing.

It is only when I look at the reality of people of colour or of women do I see the privilege of my existence.

It is only when other people begin to look at the world from the eyes of the “other” that they see the charmed existence we who have the privilege have compared to others.

Three dead cops in Baton Rouge and three injured… by a gunman, details are unclear at this time, but I suspect it will soon be linked to black lives matters as well. For all crime against police comes from Black Lives Matter. And if that makes no sense to you, so what? Anything to discredit that movement will be found and used against them. For nothing is more dangerous than a good idea. Only the privileged need not be bothers to look or to see that. Martin Luther King jr was subject to black mail over illegal tapes; such as being ordered to commit suicide and other horrible things. And his crime was? Leading a movement to bring equality to all people.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

Martin Luther King Jr

As much as the SC shooter, wrapped in the Southern battle flag murdering people in a black church, Dallas and Baton Rouge were both acts of mad men. But armed with military weapons and free access to purchase as many as they can carry or could carry… This is the inevitable result. Where blacks armed themselves and confronted police in the streets of California, Ronald Reagan, as governor signed some of the harshest carry laws in the USA with the full support of the NRA. Carrying guns is a right only to the privilege and being black with a gun is seemingly an executable offense in Minnesota or it was for Philando Castile.

The cause is always the same, injustice, videotaped injustice, which is now finally making its appearance on TV and the internet that will force politicians and police to demand better answers. If all cops had cameras, and all the stops where recorded, then the often heard cry of abuse, racial profiling and racism would be there to be seen and view and best of all, reviewed. Accountability would have to kick in. Most cops are good people. The bad apples are the ones they need to be found and removed from office. Let them work in sanitation and be as hateful as they want to be. They give all police, a bad name. In Dallas, while the crowds were running from the violence. The men and women in blue were running towards it. When Shetamia Taylor was shot by the sniper in Dallas, she and her son that she was shielding, were, in turn, shielded by police officers. There to serve and protect, they served her by protecting her and getting her to a hospital in a vehicle shot up by the sniper. She is black, they were white.  To then look at this issue as only a black and white thing, is to miss the point. It is not colour but of power that is often reflected in a white on black thing. But similar tales are found in all white communities where the white police pick on lower socio-economical privileged whites. It’s not the skin, it’s the power.

Sadly, I do suspect that what has started in Dallas and now Baton Rouge will accelerate and continue as more and more cops will be ambushed in the coming days. But without a resolution, or solution in sight this will be just another story soon forgotten as more and more are killed. Cops are focused on their weapons and military tactics to deal with type of event on average of 180 hours of training and practise. Yet any possible solution would be found in de-escalation and non lethal force. How much training would they get in that on average? Only 24 hours. 180 hours to kill, 24 hours to control and de-escalate… Seems we have one clearly visible, low hanging fruit to pick off with ease.

American cops taken to a target range with a simulated battle field exercise; they walk around an obstacle course only with the chances to shot. They are then faced with various pop ups of either criminals and or civilians and have to decide to shot or hold fire. The fastest time win. Scientists using this for controlled experiments where they are secretly measuring the reaction time in the decision to shot or to hold fire. Studies show that they take half as long to decide to shot a black face than a white face. This is not a training issue. This is cultural issue. If your head is filled with the insulting stereotypes that refer to the “other” as dangerous predators (Ask Hilary Clinton about that one…). You approach the “Other” like wild, dangerous animals. Shoot first out of fear to protect yourself.  26% of all shooting victims by police are black. Yet blacks make up only 15% of the population. The only way to break that barrier down is to familiarize white cops with black families and brown and Asian and everything else until they see those “others,” are not “others” at all but the same as you are, people not predators. Humans with hopes and dreams who also want to go home at the end of their encounter with police.

The Dallas police chief encouraged disenfranchised black youth to join the police force so they can patrol and protect their own communities. To help build a better tomorrow by showing positive role models in their home communities and create sorely needed bridges from the police to the minorities that allow both sides a better tomorrow.

While I applaud that very idea, there is one problem. Who is the one class of people who cannot become police? Criminals. What is the one thing most black males all have in common? They have been arrested, charged and convicted of a crime in some places greater than 50% of the male population over 18 years of age. So just who amongst those new bridge builders can they, the police, reach out to for this help, when they have already been precluded from their helping? Vicious circle. No black community members to help so the white cops are an alien invasion force that act like lord high sheriff to the lowly villagers who are in turn regularly abused by those with their police power in the mere fact they are in the community but not a part of it. White cops in Ferguson don’t live in Ferguson. That’s where the blacks live. They moved out long ago to more white areas. But they surely come back to keep the people in line. Just ask Mike Brown how that worked out for him. I was going to use the word citizens instead of villagers but can that even be said when being treated as a second class citizen would be a step or two up?

For better or for worse, there is a problem. Point fingers at one side of the other will not help. Nor can we be expected to demand from people to be less criminal or get themselves to a position of more power, better income less poverty. What we can do is make sure police are giving the best possible training, and that has to include socio economic field work with minority communities, de-escalation training like they do in Europe where the use of police violence is near unheard of and lastly camera both in car and on cops. When citizen journalists do observe the scene of police interaction, they should be welcome and embraced as being there to keep all sides honest. That won’t cure the problem until gun control comes in to remove some of the 300 million firearms around the country from the hands of unstable people who suffer mental health problems. But it will be a start, whose time is overdue.