Quick Hits for 10/16/16

• Let's start with the disturbing video of the Edina Police clearly overstepping their bounds.  They manhandled an African American man whose only crime was walking around a construction site in Edina, getting slightly close to the shoulder line, with Edina Police in turn treating him far rougher than they should have.  Edina Police say they only treated the man, Larnie Thomas, the same way they treat everyone else.  As a white man who lived in Edina, that's the largest pile of horse crap I've ever heard.  There is NO WAY, they do the same thing to a white guy, even if the white guy was drunk as a skunk.  I've witnessed the drunk and disorderly behavior of Edina kids, white kids, as they almost seem to try to get into trouble, and the police don't even bat an eye.  Nope, this was pure harassment of a man because he was African American, plain and simple.  Thomas was stopped for WWB, 'Walking While Black.'

• Since Edina wants to insist this incident has nothing to do with race, let's have a little history lesson about Edina.  Edina originally (pre-1900) was actually a very inclusive town, but it all changed when they became a "Sundown Town," so called because the city passed laws which insisted people of a certain ethnic groups (in the case of Edina, African Americans and the Jewish) were to be off the streets and out of town by sundown.  While they were developing certain parts of Edina in the 1900's, deed restrictions were used to keep Edina as caucasian as possible, with language such as:  "No lot shall ever be sold, conveyed, leased, or rented to any person other than one of the white or Caucasian race, nor shall any lot ever be used or occupied by any person other than one of the white or Caucasian race, except such as may be serving as domestics for the owner or tenant of said lot, while said owner or tenant is residing thereon." How charmingly racist!  Even though such restrictions were struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1940's, Edina was still trying to be their own little slice of the Aryan Race well into the 1960's.  In certain Edina neighborhoods, neighbors were trying to get African American homes condemned, as a way to drive them out of their own personal 'Lily White Dale.'  Proud 1960's Edina-ites insisted Edina contained "Not one Negro and not one Jew."  And let's not forget, due to very small minority population 'invading' elements of the east side, Edina actually split their school district into two in the early 1970's, with 'white as snow' Edina West and 'less than 5% minority population, but still too ethnic for West kids,' Edina East.  It was less than ten years later, after Edina East kept winning boys state hockey championships, Edina West folks starting asking themselves if having one school district with a tiny minority population would be such a bad thing, eventually reuniting the district in 1981.  My sophomore year at Edina was with the seniors who were the last group to be separated, and they insisted the small east side minority population was the only reason the schools were split.  Yes Edina, you do have a history with this sort of thing, and no, it's not ancient history.

• One of the more interesting aspects of the tape of Larnie Thomas' arrest is who took it.  Janet Rowles is a professional mediator, appears to be caucasian, appears to be more affluent than most individuals recording questionable police behavior, and was trying desperately to calm the officer in question down.  She clearly saw an officer overstepping his bounds.  This element, her mediation during the video, is more damning evidence against the officer, accentuating the racism far past what our eyes see alone.  She's comes across as a better police officer, suggesting a community friendly solution, as opposed to the overzealous officer who's throwing Thomas around like a rag doll.  In regards to the officer in question, there's a bi-polar element in the way he communicates with Thomas and Rowles individually.  He seems to treat the white woman taping him with a very different tone from the one he uses on the individual he's harassing.  And since the person video taping is not some 20-something kid, friend of the victim, or an opportunist trying to make a buck, this video becomes much harder for the Edina Police to wipe aside.  Maybe Edina Police should hire Janet Rowles to teach them some professional mediation skills.  They clearly need them.

• Is the Presidential Election of 2016 actually coming down to this:  the first woman in US history with a realistic shot at the office, taking on someone who could be the most misogynistic candidate ever to attempt to win the White House?  If someone was to offer this script to the Lifetime Movie Network, they'd insist it was too unbelievable.  It doesn't seem real, and as we dig through the ugly history of Donald Trump, exposing the disturbing, disgusting and demeaning behavior he's prides himself in, it almost seems like the Republican effort against Hillary Clinton boils down to them trying to find the ultimate antithesis of her.  Weird.

• When you combine these stories (another African American getting treated unfairly by police/Trump exposing the ugly reality: almost all women have been, to some extent, sexually abused and mistreated by men, under the false argument the abuse is socially acceptable behavior within certain circles) maybe our awareness of these issues means we're witnessing something good.  Our acceptance of this continued atrocious behavior is wearing away.  It'll still take years, if not decades, to eliminate just these two injustices alone, but if we can at least start to see the abuse, and accept it's continued existence is unacceptable, maybe we can start to build on hope.  To paraphrase Tony "ClownCar" Cornish, only with sanity and dignity:  "Here beginith the lesson."

• Finally, I leave you with a dark, gnawing fear in my heart.  I'm terrified the Russians, the Nazi's or just some delusional Trump fan will attempt to kill Hillary Clinton.  Right now, its the only option that gets them a win.  They're not going to be able to overcome the Trump missteps, and every day he seems to be getting more and more unhinged.  The Russians would have a tremendous amount to gain from a Trump victory.  Since their leader, Putin, has killed off most of his enemies, is it too hard to believe there might be Russian para-military in the United States today, plotting an assassination attempt?  The Nazi's were a laughing stock, until the Cheney/Rove GOP voter initiatives started to welcome them into the mainstream.  You think they want to go back?  And as far a a lone wolf nutbag, how many years of absorbing right leaning media screaming "they're going to kill everything you love, kill everyone you know, and take all your money, unless someone stops them!" do you think they need before they finally become convinced killing their political opponents is what Jesus wants them to do?  Trump himself has insisted the election is already fraudulent.  My guess is the guns are going to be coming out soon.  If not for Hillary, then for her supporters, or for the protesters at their rallies, or for the media they hate for reporting the truth, or for the polling places on election day.  If any of these tragedies comes to fruition, then we need to hold the enablers from the right accountable for what they've wrought.