You’d be surprised. There’s some sects still in the south- although they’re very small in number- and they’re still semi active. They don’t do much against the other races or play dress up anymore (or at least the ones in my home town didn’t), but they’re very much against lgbt+ and female bodily autonomy.
I know academically that they're somehow not dead yet, I'm just scoffing at the idea of every, or even a significant number of, Native, Asian, black, latino, Jewish, Irish, or homosexual officer actually being klansmen.
Marginalized group: Doesn’t like being generalized as a whole for the actions of a few and abused for who they inherently are and cannot change.
Marginalized group: Generalizes a minority group of the population as a whole based on the actions of a smaller subset of the group just because of their job.
Yeah seems PERFECTLY fair.
There’s an irony to it. Often times the “different sides” of an issue are the same mechanically and just differ ideologically- although we tend to be much less apt to notice or identify it as wrong when WE are the ones who philosophy is the same as an ideological opponent we call out as wrong for their philosophy. That too is an irony in a meta sense as we- likely guilty of the same fallacy- call out these groups for it.
As for numbers- the KKK in the USA as an official organization is thought to have somewhere around 3,000-4,000 members acting in 22 states. As of 2015 the KKK was almost complete eradicated- but it saw a sharp spike from 2014-2017 brining the numbers up to a long time peak, with steady but single percentage gains in membership over the years between 2017 and 2019.
Texas and Florida have the second highest number of “hate groups” using data fro the Southern Poverty Law Center- but the often considered democratic and liberal state of California leads the pack in total number of hate groups by 18% or so above the other two leaders.
Not all cops are in the KKK, and to imply all cops are racist- or any more racist or racial biases that basically any other human being- is disrespectful and a gross hyperbole. But to paraphrase Chris Rock: “.....Some jobs just can’t have bad apples.... like pilots.... airlines can’t be like: ‘most of our pilots like to land. We just get some bad apples that like to crash into mountains...”
The fact is too many police are in hate groups- and the number there should be 0, or very close to. I won’t droll on- google the bro Nazi gang formed by LA sheriffs, or the FBI- yes. The 10 year FBI investigation that is somewhat ongoing and revealed officers or even entire agencies in Illinois, Ohio, and Texas for example- had hate group ties.
In 2014 2 Florida officers were outed by an FBI informants as Klan members. 2 isn’t a lot- but one was the DEPUTY CHIEF OF POLICE. The list could go on- but while the number of actual Klansmen left is very small- when we say things like “well- it’s only X number of officers in the Klan...” well yes. But considering the size of the Klan that would then just mean that even if “only” a “small” number of officers are members, supporters, or follow the ideology- thy would still make the Klan comprised of a larger percentage of police officers. With only 3,000 or so members- 300 members from a certain group would be 10%. Of course- we know for a fact that there cannot be even 1 Officer in EVERY town in America officially in the Klan- or else the Klan would be over 20,000 members minimum. So wether your town has an official member on the force, or several- there are forces that have to have none.
Of course- that’s official members of the Klan and doesn’t count supporters, ideologically agreeable, or members of other “hate groups” or non affiliated racists. So... her sign is factually wrong- but something is also wrong when we see the number of officers with ties to these types of groups.
Highly recommend the episode of United Shades of America about KKK. Very interesting and first black person to be invited to one of their ceremonies (cross burning)
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· 3 years ago
While I would at least like to believe the majority of cops aren't racist, and I don't want to generalize them, a lot of people I've seen online have justified their beliefs with:
1) The disgraceful amount of recent instances of extreme cop action, specifically against people of color (if you search on twitter, you'll find a lot of videos of cops saying very hateful things on radio, and arresting/beating peaceful protestors/POC without any apparent cause. I can't say if police brutality is rampant or just too prevalent but it definitely happens. We should strive to get rid of it as much as possible, but hopefully the percentage is small)
2) There is evidence of white people having often been treated disproportionately fairly by police in the US (Lots of examples online of POC having been arrested/handled too aggressively for nothing, whereas some mass muderers have been arrested without such incidents. This is circumstancial, though)
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· 3 years ago
3) White supremacists have been known to have tried to infiltrate US police depts. (link) The severity is unknown, though.
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I want to make it clear, I think this is a large and complex issue, and I don't think the police in the US are either majorly bad or majorly good. All I can claim to know is that there are very good and very bad cops, and I hope the good guys get rid of the bad. I definitely don't believe all police are racist or anything like that. These are just points I've seen people use a lot, and I'm sharing them so to give these guys their devil's advocate.
Well said and reasonable. I would contend one point- with caveat from my perspective- “Racist” is a misused word- and very few police officers shoot a minority out of pure murderous hatred- racial BIAS is as well as other biases. Racism is not the same thing as bias- some of the results can be the same, and they are hard to tell apart sometimes. Both should be mitigated or otherwise dealt with- but in discussing the issue and how to solve it- it’s an important distinction.
As for wether the police are racist, or racially biased, or biased on socioeconomic or other factors that could be seen as racial bias- the majority- essentially all people are. So at the least the police force likely falls within some margin plus or minus the general populace in this area... the problem... regardless of the numbers... is that police are armed, empowered, and generally have legal protections other members of the population don’t. Perhaps more importantly- they occupy a position of trust and authority- and for most people are one of the primary actual “touch points” and representations of an entire system of justice and government.
We all have bad days at work. We are human. When the kid at the fry machine messes up- 2 hours of customers get bad fires or have to wait 10 minutes for new ones- MAYBE someone gets burnt. When a police officer, an astronaut, a nuclear reactor tech... their real bad days- they end up on the news. They end up often costing millions or dollars and ruining lives.
not accurate but clever! ( i mean there might be cops who are Kkk by probability but sign is extremists. But made Miley and Hanna montana the new batman and Bruce Wayne)
Marginalized group: Generalizes a minority group of the population as a whole based on the actions of a smaller subset of the group just because of their job.
Yeah seems PERFECTLY fair.
1) The disgraceful amount of recent instances of extreme cop action, specifically against people of color (if you search on twitter, you'll find a lot of videos of cops saying very hateful things on radio, and arresting/beating peaceful protestors/POC without any apparent cause. I can't say if police brutality is rampant or just too prevalent but it definitely happens. We should strive to get rid of it as much as possible, but hopefully the percentage is small)
2) There is evidence of white people having often been treated disproportionately fairly by police in the US (Lots of examples online of POC having been arrested/handled too aggressively for nothing, whereas some mass muderers have been arrested without such incidents. This is circumstancial, though)
.
I want to make it clear, I think this is a large and complex issue, and I don't think the police in the US are either majorly bad or majorly good. All I can claim to know is that there are very good and very bad cops, and I hope the good guys get rid of the bad. I definitely don't believe all police are racist or anything like that. These are just points I've seen people use a lot, and I'm sharing them so to give these guys their devil's advocate.