Ask Fred Hampton

It's nothing new, children.

Erik Loomis at LGM:

I’ve read a number of people, including in comments here, say this is really about out of control police more than race. That’s just not true. Yes, police can be out of control against anyone they don’t like, including white kids protesting. But the large majority of the time, the people suffering this violence are people of color. When it happens to white kids, you hear about it. Hearing about the routine violence against black, brown, and red people hardly ever reaches the national consciousness, although we are obviously in a period of an uptick of protest against it. From its very founding, the United States has been predicated on racism. We see it in any number of metrics–poverty, housing, sentencing guidelines, education, etc., etc. And we see it in police violence. This is a racist nation and it continues to be a racist nation. It has always used police forces to commit violence against people of color and it continues to use police forces to commit violence against people of color. Things have changed, slightly, but the fundamental issues of inequality in American history remain central to the nation.

And by the way, happy 45th anniversary of the Chicago police shooting Fred Hampton in his sleep.