Armed members of the Black Panther Party leave the Capitol in Sacramento, California May 2, 1967.
…We cannot know if police would have reacted differently to the two allegedly armed men if Sterling and Castile were white, but simple fact is that deaths like these keep happening. And they keep happening to black men.
The whiteness of America’s gun laws, and of how those laws operate in practice, is nothing new. Indeed, when black activists took advantage of loopholes allowing them to rather extravagantly exercise their own gun rights, those loopholes were rapidly closed by an icon of white conservatism — the sainted Ronald Reagan himself.
Enter The Black Panthers
[…]
Yet the dramatic events that led to the Mulford Act becoming law also reveal how quickly white conservative lawmakers were willing to act when the face of gun rights was black. And this response stands in stark contrast to modern day conservatives’ reaction to similar antics by white activists.
When Gun Rights Are White
[…]
Rather, the point is that, as the face of gun rights grew whiter over the last several decades, white conservatives grew increasingly more sympathetic to efforts to elevate these rights. The position Ronald Reagan took on guns in the 1960s would make him a pariah in today’s Republican Party. Even the National Rifle Association (which, admittedly, was a far less political organization in the 1960s) supported legislation like the Mulford Act. Indeed, they actually helped shape similar laws in many other states.
You can get white conservatives to enact gun laws in the United States, but it’s hard to do if the face of gun rights isn’t black.
An excellent article, and a nifty recap of how swiftly gun restrictions were made into law when it was the Black Panthers holding the guns. I remember all that happening.
A truly excellent article.
I doubt that, these days, attempting anything similar to what the Black Panthers did back in the day would end in the carrier being alive…
rq @ 1:
No bet. I decided to add the other photo, because the difference is so damn stark. The Black Panters were attempting to not only make a point, they were trying to enact change, to get people to listen. I was 9 years old when that particular BP action took place. I didn’t have any trouble understanding what they were trying to do, and they didn’t scare me.
The photo of the Chipotle open carry guys? They scare the hell out of me, because there’s this attitude of “hey, look at my toys, come and play!” about them, except their toys are deadly.
Think Progress also has a good article on the NRA’s silence when black gun owners are killed.
Why Black Lives Don’t Matter To The NRA.
Nowadays, it is “open carry” only if you are white. If you are black, then it is “oh shit, he has a gun.”
Suggested fix.
Related, Bahamas urges travellers to US to be cautious around police:
Gregory in Seattle @ 4:
Yep. Just ask Mark Hughes. Or the man in this video.
Me, too.
I wish someone would resurrect the Panther patrols, except with cameras (and cameras watching the cameras watching the cops) -- all livestreaming every cop all the time. It would be trivial to tag cop cars with GPS trackers, too. They’d spend hours killing themselves to find them and cops would quickly learn they could not leave their cars without having to scrub down for tags.
Cop watching via drone would be good, too, except that you’d have drones being regulated off the map immediately because: endangering cops. Of course nothing endangers cops like what the cops are doing, themselves.
Marcus:
I think all colours of people could be involved in that one, and it would take a lot of people. All cops wouldn’t be under scrutiny, but enough of them would. They have shown no interest in scrutinizing themselves, or policing themselves, so it’s up to all of us to do it.
Although, as you pointed out in your post of the video confiscation in Alton Sterling’s death, that doesn’t always help.
Caine@#2:
The photo of the Chipotle open carry guys? They scare the hell out of me, because there’s this attitude of “hey, look at my toys, come and play!” about them, except their toys are deadly.
It’s a toxic masculinity issue across the board. Cops swagger around with weaponry just as much as the chipotle guys.
I’m less impressed with cops’ fire control than most civilian gun fetishists. One of the scariest things I saw was a year after 9/11 there was a Mass state trooper standing in Logan airport, near the check in desks for USAir (where the crowds are, it’s a USAir hub) with a suppressed H&K MP5 submachine gun. Clip in it, probably empty, but -- still. That’s warfighting gear designed for mass shootings, not some onanistic ego-fleshlight for a cop to strut with.
Caine@#10:
as you pointed out in your post of the video confiscation in Alton Sterling’s death, that doesn’t always help.
A video of a cop emerging from the convenience store with the video monitoring gear under his arm… oh, that’d be so fine to give a grand jury.
Marcus:
Yes, it would. It would be even better if we could all be sure the cops never had the opportunity to tamper with it, or scrub it. If anything, that fucking stunt should teach all merchants one lesson: in a similar situation, grab the fuckin’ tape / disc, and have a really good hiding place for it, then call your lawyer.
Caine@#13:
in a similar situation, grab the fuckin’ tape / disc, and have a really good hiding place for it, then call your lawyer
I don’t think federal whistleblower protections are anywhere near as good as they should be, but it ought to be the case that if someone drops video of a cop misbehaving they are immediately extended whistleblower protections including (potentially) police protection. Uh. I mean protection from the police.