After Seeing How The U.S. Deals With Protesters, Scotland Votes To Stop The Supply Of Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets, And Riot Gear To The U.S.
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In light of recent events, the Scottish parliament took a stance against institutionalized racism and showed support to the BLM movement. The parliament has voted to end the export of rubber bullets, tear gas, and riot gear to the United States in order to help maintain the citizens’ right to peaceful protests, which have been met with police force in many cities throughout the USA.
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Last Thursday, the motion was put into place with the overwhelming support of 52 to 0 voting in favor and 11 abstentions. The motion says that the parliament “stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and considers that the UK government must immediately suspend all export licences for tear gas, rubber bullets and riot gear to the US.”
Image credits: Geoff Livingston
The parliament also took the opportunity to address the country’s historic links to the slave trade. The same amendment also called for the creation of a slavery museum in Scotland.
Image credits: quinn norton
Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Green Party, who proposed the successful amendment, called the police brutality happening in the US “appalling” and said that the Black Lives Matter movement is an inspiration for the whole world.
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“In the weeks since George Floyd’s brutal murder the world has been watching the appalling systematically racist police brutality and the systematically racist political establishment in the US that underpins that inequality. The Black Lives Matter movement has been inspiring and it needs to be heard right around the world: that racism exists in this country as well,” he said.
Image credits: quinn norton
“I’m delighted that today the Scottish Parliament agreed a Green amendment in an anti-racism debate calling for an establishment of a Museum of Slavery to really shine a light on this country’s grim past connections with slavery and how the inequality of that history perpetuates even now.”
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“But our amendment also called for an immediate halt of UK exports of tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot gear to the US. Those weapons of oppression are being used by a racist state and it is unacceptable for us to be exporting them, putting those weapons into the hands of people who will brutalise marginalised communities. It’s important that we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement.”
Image credits: Geoff Livingston
According to Insider, since 2010, the UK has supplied roughly $7.53 billion worth of munitions to the United States, including over $1 billion in firearms, $22 million in less-lethal rounds like tear gas and rubber bullets, and more than $2.5 million in riot shields.
Image credits: Adam Cohn
However, the UK’s licensing criteria states that material can’t be sold if there is a “clear risk that items might be used for internal repression.”
Image credits: Geoff Livingston
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PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! I truly hope this goes through our joke of a police force whose sole job is to 'protect and serve' is a nightmare of a joke and they don't need further ammunition to abuse their title and hurt/kill innocent people.
Pseudo Puppy, there was a supreme court decision very recently that literally stated that the police are under no legal obligation to save you. None. That sounds bad enough but from a legal precedent it is downright devastating and a terrifying foreshadowing of what they can use that defense for. Selecting who to save based on race or religion, advancing that precedent with a conservative majority to say they are at no legal obligation to save civilians from other cops, the list goes on. It shook the legal world and anyone who was paying attention. This country's original slogans like "serve and protect" and "give me your tired, your poor," are now just false advertisements.
They are under an obligation as hired job holders to fulfill the terms of their employment. It will be necessary to clarify what those terms are since most police departments obviously have been operating without clear guidelines, but once those terms are establish, then they must fulfill them or lose their employment. Of course, no term of employment can be made based on the vague "serve and protect", but the possibility for improving on what is happening now exists. The legal scholars will have to debate on things for awhile, but in the meantime, the police departments need to get moving on working up some guidelines that eliminate human prejudice from a role in judgment making. And if a person cannot fit into those guidelines, they need to find a different kind of job.
it was in 2005 not very recently
No your wrong in your assumption. That same protection is afforded fire fighters. They arent obligated to run into every burning building. Their safety and lives are more important than yours. Yet we dont label them as racist. A cop isnt requirred to engage anyone if they fear for their own life in that situation
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
NOT AT ALL - Who should protect us against the looters, rioters, arsonists, drive by shootings in urban neighborhoods etc?? WHy do people still emigrate here in droves???
Protect and serve is their motto, not their job.
ChelleShock... wow, I am dumbfounded to learn that information. They have no legal obligation to help or protect anybody? That makes me so mad, for the sheer stupidity of it all. WTF are they actually employed to do then? Be bigots, create snuff films in public for fun, and go home and get drunk? Within countries like Australia, by law, its the police force's job to uphold / enact the law. eg arrest people on the charges of murder. They don't create the law - but they do have to uphold it. What on earth is the "job" of the US police force then? The whole thing is illogical, insane, and just heartbreaking.
Sadly Nathan, you're right... and that's the loophole they clearly are taking advantage of. :( Hopefully things will start to improve ... hopefully.
I don't know why y'all are downvoting him. That is literally the law, as ruled on by the Supreme Court. It is not their job to protect and serve, they are under no legal obligation to help or protect anybody.
Oh well, in that case they can continue with the racism and brutality. So long as it's only their motto they are contradicting, there's no problem!
Then they have no reason to exist.
Horrible!
Burn!
Now they will just use real bullets.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The ONLY people that don’t like the police are people breaking laws
*facepalm*
Absolutely not true. I have many police horror stories, and I have been there helping the VICTIMS of crime.
Careful you don’t choke on that boot. Lick, don’t swallow.
Hank you, Scotland. I hope the rest of the UK follows their example!
Given that Westminster happily supply Saudi Arabia with weapons and 'interrogation training', just forget it. On a global scale, you're safer in the US than in dozens of other countries; they're just not in the first-world tier of countries. Never been for their black population, used to be for their white population.
Yeah but...look, I agree the cops have been handling this all wrong and their behavior as a whole needs a serious overhaul. But if the bad ones don't have rubber bullets they're gonna use real ones. Maybe we should be like the UK and not give the patrol cops guns. But with a country this size, that'd be difficult especially with the illegal weapons trade and all the bad guys with automatic guns. We need more regulations, maybe more specialized units. I don't know. But every single cop needs a body can and if they turn it off while on duty they get in trouble. But every cop can't get a body can if departments get defunded. If the police are disbanded, who the hell is going to enforce the laws? Do you think criminals are just gonna stop committing crimes because there are no cops on the streets? Sorry, people in my town are calling for the defunding of the police. Good cops need to speak the fuck up. Also, we should take politics out of police and county sheriffs.
If you want to understand how society would look with a defunded police system, here is a great response by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez: "It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing etc more than they fund police. These communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police but bc they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime." Here is a link to her full statement: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indy100.com/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-deund-police-black-lives-matter-aoc-9562736%3famp Defunding the police is necessary to creating a safer and more equitable society for ALL of us.
The US Republican party, is twisting the term and ideal of "defund" the police, into the Libs want to "do away with" the Police altogether! The US is literally tearing itself apart under Trump! If he gets 4 more, I fear the US will devolve into civil war, right down party lines. This is no joke, I seriously fear for my southern neighbours if the Divider in Chief gets another term!
There was a time when America defunded their police departments nationwide, after riots protesting the treatment of Black people. It was in the 1960s. And it worked. Look at some history.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! I truly hope this goes through our joke of a police force whose sole job is to 'protect and serve' is a nightmare of a joke and they don't need further ammunition to abuse their title and hurt/kill innocent people.
Pseudo Puppy, there was a supreme court decision very recently that literally stated that the police are under no legal obligation to save you. None. That sounds bad enough but from a legal precedent it is downright devastating and a terrifying foreshadowing of what they can use that defense for. Selecting who to save based on race or religion, advancing that precedent with a conservative majority to say they are at no legal obligation to save civilians from other cops, the list goes on. It shook the legal world and anyone who was paying attention. This country's original slogans like "serve and protect" and "give me your tired, your poor," are now just false advertisements.
They are under an obligation as hired job holders to fulfill the terms of their employment. It will be necessary to clarify what those terms are since most police departments obviously have been operating without clear guidelines, but once those terms are establish, then they must fulfill them or lose their employment. Of course, no term of employment can be made based on the vague "serve and protect", but the possibility for improving on what is happening now exists. The legal scholars will have to debate on things for awhile, but in the meantime, the police departments need to get moving on working up some guidelines that eliminate human prejudice from a role in judgment making. And if a person cannot fit into those guidelines, they need to find a different kind of job.
it was in 2005 not very recently
No your wrong in your assumption. That same protection is afforded fire fighters. They arent obligated to run into every burning building. Their safety and lives are more important than yours. Yet we dont label them as racist. A cop isnt requirred to engage anyone if they fear for their own life in that situation
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
NOT AT ALL - Who should protect us against the looters, rioters, arsonists, drive by shootings in urban neighborhoods etc?? WHy do people still emigrate here in droves???
Protect and serve is their motto, not their job.
ChelleShock... wow, I am dumbfounded to learn that information. They have no legal obligation to help or protect anybody? That makes me so mad, for the sheer stupidity of it all. WTF are they actually employed to do then? Be bigots, create snuff films in public for fun, and go home and get drunk? Within countries like Australia, by law, its the police force's job to uphold / enact the law. eg arrest people on the charges of murder. They don't create the law - but they do have to uphold it. What on earth is the "job" of the US police force then? The whole thing is illogical, insane, and just heartbreaking.
Sadly Nathan, you're right... and that's the loophole they clearly are taking advantage of. :( Hopefully things will start to improve ... hopefully.
I don't know why y'all are downvoting him. That is literally the law, as ruled on by the Supreme Court. It is not their job to protect and serve, they are under no legal obligation to help or protect anybody.
Oh well, in that case they can continue with the racism and brutality. So long as it's only their motto they are contradicting, there's no problem!
Then they have no reason to exist.
Horrible!
Burn!
Now they will just use real bullets.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The ONLY people that don’t like the police are people breaking laws
*facepalm*
Absolutely not true. I have many police horror stories, and I have been there helping the VICTIMS of crime.
Careful you don’t choke on that boot. Lick, don’t swallow.
Hank you, Scotland. I hope the rest of the UK follows their example!
Given that Westminster happily supply Saudi Arabia with weapons and 'interrogation training', just forget it. On a global scale, you're safer in the US than in dozens of other countries; they're just not in the first-world tier of countries. Never been for their black population, used to be for their white population.
Yeah but...look, I agree the cops have been handling this all wrong and their behavior as a whole needs a serious overhaul. But if the bad ones don't have rubber bullets they're gonna use real ones. Maybe we should be like the UK and not give the patrol cops guns. But with a country this size, that'd be difficult especially with the illegal weapons trade and all the bad guys with automatic guns. We need more regulations, maybe more specialized units. I don't know. But every single cop needs a body can and if they turn it off while on duty they get in trouble. But every cop can't get a body can if departments get defunded. If the police are disbanded, who the hell is going to enforce the laws? Do you think criminals are just gonna stop committing crimes because there are no cops on the streets? Sorry, people in my town are calling for the defunding of the police. Good cops need to speak the fuck up. Also, we should take politics out of police and county sheriffs.
If you want to understand how society would look with a defunded police system, here is a great response by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez: "It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing etc more than they fund police. These communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police but bc they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime." Here is a link to her full statement: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indy100.com/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-deund-police-black-lives-matter-aoc-9562736%3famp Defunding the police is necessary to creating a safer and more equitable society for ALL of us.
The US Republican party, is twisting the term and ideal of "defund" the police, into the Libs want to "do away with" the Police altogether! The US is literally tearing itself apart under Trump! If he gets 4 more, I fear the US will devolve into civil war, right down party lines. This is no joke, I seriously fear for my southern neighbours if the Divider in Chief gets another term!
There was a time when America defunded their police departments nationwide, after riots protesting the treatment of Black people. It was in the 1960s. And it worked. Look at some history.