It’s only racist to point it out
by Tom Sullivan
It is not clear as I’m writing this exactly what went down in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon:
The streets of Cleveland turned ugly on Sunday following the first national Black Lives Matter conference, where activists convened to discuss the use of deadly force between police and African Americans.
Witnesses told local ABC affiliate Newsnet5 that a 14-year-old who was thought to have been intoxicated was slammed to the ground after transit police confronted him about an open container by a bus stop.
Think Progress has more:
After this arrest, protesters rallied near the scene, and one video of the protest shows them linking arms in an apparent effort to prevent police from breaking up the protest. According to reporting by Jonathan Walsh, a reporter with the ABC affiliate, that’s when a white officer began to pepper spray the crowd.
LIVE on #Periscope: #CLE Police Harassment after #M4Bl https://t.co/pSPbwZkFlM— Dante Boykin (@DanteB4u) July 26, 2015
Coverage of such events always bring out the trolls — the kind that still insist racism is over and those who bring it up are the real racists. The comments on Dante Boykin’s Periscope video started with “Is this a new Zoo exhibit?” and got uglier from there.
But you know, it’s only racist to point it out.