Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Triple Hate: Racism in America (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Rocco Castoro, Vice.com; Huffington Post; Los Angeles Times 
A cross-lighting ceremony took place near Tupelo, Mississippi, in late March following a Ku Klux Klan rally in Memphis, Tennessee, organized to protest the renaming of three parks in the city built in honor of the Confederacy. More (Part 1)
 
Hate or aversion (dosa) is an almost entirely reprehensible root of suffering. It leads not only to the demise of the hater but sometimes even harms the hated.

What motivates police to beat, murder, and terrorize unarmed suspects and bystanders? Is it revenge, "an eye for an eye" with fear driving them? Is it delusion? Is it greed for paid administrative leave after clubbing, strangling, or shooting a detainee in their custody or a suspect with the audacity to run for his or her life?
 
(Huff Po) Police try to coverup assautl and murder but questions remain
(LA Times) Sheriff Deputies Kill David Silva and Coverup their Crime
  • “I saw two sheriff’s deputies on top of this guy, just beating him,” Ceballos said. “He was screaming in pain...asking for help. He was incapable of fighting back -- he was outnumbered, on the ground. They just beat him up.”...According to witnesses like Ceballos and lawyers for them and the dead man’s family, the deputies hit Silva repeatedly on the head even though he was prone on the pavement and posed no threat. Sheriff’s officials later seized cellphones from people who used them to shoot video of the altercation. In two cases, deputies detained the witnesses for hours until they agreed to hand over their phones, attorneys say. “It makes it look like a coverup,” said David Cohn, a lawyer... More
Eight Sheriff's Deputies Beat Intoxicated Man to Death
  • BAKERSFIELD, California (May 8, 2013) Kern County Sheriff deputies beat intoxicated father of four David Silva to death in the street, then detained and intimidated eye witnesses, confiscated video evidence they shot with their phones, and arrested another man who spoke out. The deceased was beaten with batons, left in a pool of blood... More
One kind of delusion (moha), wrong view, distortion is racism -- the systematic mistreatment of a group for its perceived traits and qualities usually based on faulty data and dangerous prejudgments. If xenophobia is common among homogenous groups, it is certainly an aberration in mixed company.

Obviously, different groups can live together. Culture divides creatures more than biology. A distaste for one group can grow to dangerous proportions as we are led to enormous suffering, driven by the poisons of the heart/mind: greed, hatred (fear), and delusion. All bad karma is rooted in one or more of these bases. And we have been suffering for them longer.
 
Police brutality victim with three of his four children from family album

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