- neidu2 ( @neidu2@feddit.nl ) 21•3 months ago
Depends how you measure success. Did it lead to any change? Not really (as far as i know, anyway). Although there was an instance where a suspected looter was forced down in the same position that killed George Floyd, but the police let the guy go after people noticed, including other police, and started objecting.
And it did raise awareness to the issue at hand. I for one, living halfway around the world, was not aware of how bad it was.
- TheGalacticVoid ( @TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee ) 4•3 months ago
I’d argue that although it didn’t directly lead to change, it most definitely will eventually
- badbrainstorm ( @badbrainstorm@lemmy.today ) 11•3 months ago
I successfully got a few rubber bullet scars
- Count Regal Inkwell ( @VinesNFluff@pawb.social ) 9•3 months ago
Well it got some politicians and corporations to do some performative “we stand with them” gestures. That’s the same as enacting meaningful change in the criminal system and in systemic racism, right? /s
- PowerCrazy ( @PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml ) English9•3 months ago
In the cities in which the protests took place within America, I don’t know of a single one that lowered the funding for the police from 2020 levels. Most, maybe ALL including liberal bastion NYC, gave record increases to the policing budget. So from the metric of the stated goals of the protests, “Defund the Police,” it was a massive failure and waste of time and energy.
- DragonTypeWyvern ( @DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe ) 3•3 months ago
But from the perspective of getting the public to take notice of ongoing police brutality?
I have no idea. Lemmy’s pretty much an anti-pig echo chamber, and I couldn’t tell you the actual cultural zeitgeist on bootlicking
Probably bad
- PowerCrazy ( @PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml ) English3•3 months ago
Cultural Zeitgeist doesn’t matter since the purpose of the police is to keep the worst people in the world safe.
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 8•3 months ago
There were massive protests in Hamburg, so at least you can say it had a long and powerful reach.
- FiniteBanjo ( @FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today ) 3•3 months ago
Japan held George Floyd vigils as well.
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 1•3 months ago
Wow, can you tell me some more about that?
Afaik Japan doesn’t have a significant population with African background. In Hamburg it is a topic though, also with police violence.
- FiniteBanjo ( @FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today ) 2•3 months ago
There were multiple demonstrations in June 2020 but I can’t tell you any more than Google could. Most of it was US Military I think, one of them was at Kaneda Air Base.
- Wahots ( @Wahots@pawb.social ) 5•3 months ago
From my perspective, largely not. More of a cultural speedbump with a bunch of pale white people painting BLM on stuff in their neighborhoods and clapping themselves on the back over it and the BLM flag they hung in the window. Here’s why I think that:
Recently we got a measily $1.9m in funding for a civilian-led group to deal with non-violent conflict resolution instead of the police, but that feels like small potatoes compared to lifting up people of color living in poverty in poor neighborhoods, improving public schools in poverty-stricken areas so that people can actually get decent jobs, and cleaning up pollution in poorer neighborhoods, which tend to get pushed next to sooty highways, commercial rail tracks with poisonous cargo, and smoggy airports (not to mention food deserts).
I’d consider it a success if there was a massive push for better funding public schools and trade schools in poor areas, significant prison reform and in-prison job & budget training, significantly better social safety net programs for the bottom 35% of the population, and much, much tighter regulations on emissions and pollutants that make low income neighborhoods unhealthy to live in due to undesirable infrastructure nearby.
Currently, we aren’t doing much to ACTUALLY lift people out of the doldrums of poverty, in both direct and indirect ways. It’s frustrating to watch.
- Call me Lenny/Leni ( @shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee ) English3•3 months ago
To an extent, yeah, at least where I live, albeit at the cost of worsening the pandemic.
- erez ( @erez@programming.dev ) 2•3 months ago
I can’t say about the protests. But the BLM riots definitely weren’t.