Friday, July 9, 2010
BART officer Mehserle either guilty of deliberate homicide or not -- adrenalin and stupidity
Adrenalin can make you as stupid as alcohol. When I was I Bronx cab driver the closest I came to accidents was with police cars who had ALREADY made an arrest -- blowing through red lights without lights or sirens. Whatever happened in the BART station could reasonably have raised the BART officer Mehserle's -- or anybody's -- adrenalin level.
He either intended to shoot a gun or he intended to shoot a Taser when he pulled the trigger. Given a normal adrenalin rush, carelessness can not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
As far as the rioters, they can be compared with supporters of Israel who always call its critics anti-Semitic -- they unfortunately (if maybe not consciously) may be the actual racists.
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The real blame for Oakland riots -- and Oakland gangs, etc.? It belongs to the richest white people in the nation -- who imagine they are the biggest progressives in the nation -- who never lift a finger to help their relatively small, economically desperate minority population.
Whenever I return to Chicago after spending some months in the SF, Berkeley area, for two weeks, I am afraid to talk to African Americans I don't know in just everyday interactions, like buying something for two weeks. I am terrified they will act like I don't just exist -- very embarrassing in Chicago; expected half the time in North West California. I can't help it; Pavlov's dogs conditioning. Black folks in Northern California don't know any white folks sleeping on somebody else's couch, working at Wal-Mart. PS. Do run into the exact same phenomenon in Evanston, home of North Western U -- exact same reason.
Right now the federal minimum wage is 75 cents an hour below what it was in 1956, adjusted for inflation -- did a comet strike? -- no; 2 1/2 times the average income later. In 1968 the median wage was $12.50/hr. Double the average income later the median wage "should be" $25/hr -- not $15/hr! -- that means the 50 percentile earner is missing $10/hr! Small nuclear war?
"Should be" because the 15% shift in income from the bottom 90% to the top that accounts for the missing money did not in any way rationally benefit the economy. To show how extreme the un-benefit is: the shifted income did not even go to the 180,000 Wall Street gamblers who averaged $180,000 bonuses on top of their average $120,000 salaries in 2007. Top 1 percentile American household income for 2006: $1.2 million! (a lot of exclamation points -- also 18s and 12s; makes it easy to memorize)
90-97 percentile earners receive the same share of overall income they did in 1973 (the year fair share began rolling down hill). They presumably represent the best of education and striving. It is substantially the top 1/10 of 1 percentile (doing 5-10 million a year?) who the income seems to have shifted to: CEOs, ballplayers, TV news anchors -- none of whom have the brains to have done it to us.
Who really is responsible for losing all that income share to the tippy, tippy top? Asleep at the bargaining switch American labor meets its real enemy in the mirror every forever sleepy morning. For more on that story and a lot of info links for this message click here: http://www.angrybearblog.com/2009/07/imaginary-conversation-with-my-family.html
Also here:
* http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/04/news/companies/wall_street_bonuses/index.htm
** http://www.bloggingstocks.com/tag/FinanancialCrisis/
*** http://www.hoovers.com/general-motors/--ID__10640--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
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