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Diane Putnam

Diane Putnam club

Posted: 31 May 2020

Taken: 30 May 2020

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American week

American week
An unspeakable event* has lead to massive rioting in most large cities. An outrage inside a societal crisis inside a pandemic inside a leadership vacuum. Our very own Matryoshka doll.

White cops killing unarmed black men - not an unusual event in the USA. They almost never result in charges against the police, even when a bystander's video clearly shows it was, at the least, an unjustified shooting and needs to be presented to the District Attorney for possible criminal charges. Fortunately, there were many bystanders filming at the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th. That is our Memorial Day, I might add. There was something about this particular case that touched and enraged the entire population - with certain exceptions - and led swiftly to murder charges against one officer. The other three will possibly be charged, too, since none of them (one a senior officer) stopped the primary perpetrator.

I am sick of grief and anger. I just want to have peace. I don't even expect happiness.

* WARNING: difficult to watch...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMGUAHBFmjk

, Beatrice Degan(MARS), Peggy C, Old Owl and 16 other people have particularly liked this photo

48 comments - The latest ones
 Peter G
Peter G
Nicely done!
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Peter G
Thank you, Peter.
4 years ago.
 Sylvain Wiart
Sylvain Wiart
is the light really at the end of the tunnel ?
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Sylvain Wiart
Not yet. Maybe not for decades. Depends on what happens on election day in November.
4 years ago.
 Sami Serola (inactive)
Sami Serola (inactiv… club
Watching 'How to Get Away with Murder' on Netflix. Well, it is a fiction and "entertainment", but the scene where the main character Annalise Keating (Shonda Rhimes) demonstrates in court what solitary confinement can do to human mind, made me almost cry. System is broken...
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Sami Serola (inactiv… club
Yes it is, and I am opposed to solitary confinement. That is gradually being phased out.
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
 Pam J
Pam J club
THE ONE HOPE WE HAVE .... IS THE YOUNG GENERATIONS COMING UP NOW.

THEY HAVE DRAWN THE LINE IN THE SAND. ... THEY HAVE SEEM THEIR FUTURES TRASHED .. BUT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT. NOOOOOOOOOO

THRSE YOUNGSTERS ARE BEING GIVEN THE TOOLS BY THOSE WHO LEAD WITH DIGNITY.. .ORG... AND THESE YOUNGSTERS HAVE THE VOTE.. AND MORE TO THE POINT.. WILL STIL BE THE VOTING AND RULING PEOPLE IN 80 YEARS TIME.

HANG ON IN THERE. WE ARE BEING GIVEN A CHANCE TO MEND THER TROUBLES.. THE BATON HAS BEN HANDED ON AND PICKED UP WITH STEEL IN THE HEART.

HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSS
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Pam J club
YES, THE YOUNG ONES ARE VERY PROMISING.

I FEAR A RIGHT-WING BACKLASH SHOULD THE RIOTING GO ON TOO LONG. THOSE PEOPLE ARE VICIOUS.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Pano ☼ Rapi ♫✯♫ club
Ah yes, I watched that last night. He has brilliant observations about a society he didn't even grow up in.
4 years ago.
 Ulrich John
Ulrich John club
Impressive together with your words, Diana !
4 years ago.
 Steve Bucknell
Steve Bucknell club
Passionate, powerful.
4 years ago.
 HappySnapper
HappySnapper
A public execution, "Nothing less"
4 years ago.
 Gabi Lombardo
Gabi Lombardo club
it's really a horror...I have no words for explain what I feel of those base and vile actions ...I hope in justice....
4 years ago.
 aNNa schramm
aNNa schramm club
Dear Diane thanks so much for your words and explanations.
It's a sad story, but again and again you have heard about it and seen how hard the police are dealing with coloured people. I have no words for it. All violence must be rejected!
But now the youth is giving vent ...
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to aNNa schramm club
Thank you very much, aNNa, I appreciate your kind words.
4 years ago.
 Marko Novosel
Marko Novosel club
Great work,so simple but complex.
My mother cried on the video..
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Marko Novosel club
So did I, it was so horrible. Thank you, Marko.
4 years ago.
 kiiti
kiiti
The expanded production of misfortune has happened again.....
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to kiiti
Yes, kiiti. It seems there is no peace these days!
4 years ago.
 John FitzGerald
John FitzGerald club
I see the authorities have already trotted out the old stories about how all the trouble is due to "outside agitators", even though the arrest records show different. The Sixties are back.

And let's not forget Breonna Taylor:
www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to John FitzGerald club
There is actually a group suspected to be a right-wing organization (reporters first recognized them), intending to stir up more havoc. Their agenda would be to cause more hatred against the black people who are protesting. Well, I am just trying to keep busy with other things than watching CNN.
4 years ago.
John FitzGerald club has replied to Diane Putnam club
I'm a left libertarian but those right-wing libertarians at Reason often get it right:

'There's a long history of dubious rumors about outside agitators—some of them "possibly even foreign," as Mayor Frey might say. The most infamous cases were in the Jim Crow South, when segregationists regularly claimed that most blacks were satisfied with their lot and that any conflict was the creation of the national civil rights movement. But there are plenty of other examples. Antebellum southerners convinced themselves that white abolitionists were stirring up slave revolts. 20th century politicians blamed race riots on Bolsheviks right after the Russian revolution, on the Japanese during World War II, on the Soviet bloc in the '60s. After the first flareup of the 2015 Baltimore riots, city leaders tried to attribute the violence to "isolated pockets of people from out of town." That tale fell apart the same way the similar storyline did in Minnesota: Nearly all the rowdies arrested that night turned out to be locals.'
4 years ago.
raingirl club has replied to John FitzGerald club
I simply would like the message of the protests to be the focus. My opinions about how the non-pacifist actions get started are neither here nor there at this moment.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to John FitzGerald club
These aren't libertarians, they're white supremacists. Yes, "outside agitators" were apparently very busy during the Vietnam war, civil rights movement and every unrest since then. Now, they're called "paid" outside agitators. Anyway, because of trump, white nationalists are thrilled to have projects like riots. Or, as they would call them, race riots. They are a growing, internal terrorist movement. But, also true that city and federal officials don't think people are intelligent enough to decide on their own what to protest or riot about.

Authorities in Minneapolis have charged the other three cops with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and upgraded the main perpetrator's charge to 2nd Degree Murder.
4 years ago.
 Billathon
Billathon
An incredibly powerful piece all round. Made all the more so by the subtly nuanced and understated images which stand in sharp contrast to the violence of the subject matter.
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Billathon
Thank you very much. I appreciate your comment.
4 years ago.
 tiabunna
tiabunna club
A sad time indeed and everyone I know would endorse your very feeling comments. Meanwhile, I see your (current) leader believes the problem is with "leftists"!
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to tiabunna club
Thank you. The current leader has nothing helpful to say.
4 years ago.
 Annalia S.
Annalia S. club
Your image is as powerful as your words, Diane, and strongly conveys the dark cloud of anguish created by such events. This was indeed a murder and that whole group of officers are responsible for it. And, at the very least, also whoever is responsible for training police officers on the use of these dangerous "holds" needs to be made accountable.I draw hope only from the fact that bystanders did their best to intervene to stop them when it was clear the poor man had lost consciousness. Unfortunately, they were powerless as the police chose to ignore (and even threaten!) them. I lived in Minnesota for several years and I know from personal experience that there are police officers who do their job conscientiously. But if a whole group of them failed to see how terribly they were mishandling the situation and not a single one of them tried to stop it, then the system itself is broken.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Annalia S. club
Thank you, Annemarie, for your very thoughtful comment. It's been an awful time.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Annalia S. club
Thank you, Annalia, good news today: the other three were charged and arrested today.
4 years ago.
Annalia S. club has replied to Diane Putnam club
Thanks, Diane. In my opinion it should not have taken so long to charge them, though. It should not have taken protests and riots to get the authorities to act! One look at the video should have gotten the prosecutor's office activated immediately. And, like I said before, police trainers and higher ups also need to be made accountable. How is it that these officers were trained to use a dangerous hold like that but did not seem to have it clear that maintaining it for several minutes can kill?? Are there no protocols to strictly regulate the use of holds that block blood flow to the brain or impede breathing??? I think this is a systemic problem and must be addressed as such.
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Annalia S. club
Police departments are now making clear regulations about that. I have read that many forbid that kind of action, but this particular policeman was a training officer and would certainly have known the regulations! That was shocking. The other two helping him were his trainees.
4 years ago.
 Jean Paul Capdeville
Jean Paul Capdeville club
Chére Diane. Je ne sais que dire devant tout celà sinon que c'est trés triste et que votre photo exprime trés bien cette réalité. Il y a un vieux dicton chez nous qui dit "Qui souffle le vent récolte la tempête". Il y a dans notre monde actuel, un cumul de malchance étonnant. Certains évènements sont imprévisibles et déstabilisent nos sociétés. Les extrémistes, qu'ils soient de gauche ou de droite (ou de nulle part) en rajoutent pour aboutir au chaos. Mais les bases de nos sociétés sont solides. Le bon sens du peuple finit toujours par prendre le dessus. Ayons confiance. Bien amicalement. Jean Paul
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Jean Paul Capdeville club
Jean Paul, I sincerely hope you are right! I am exhausted and discouraged by life in 2020.
4 years ago.
 Old Owl
Old Owl club
A powerful image, Diane. The struggle MUST continue until the fight is won.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Old Owl club
Yes, Old Owl!!!
4 years ago.
raingirl club has replied to Pano ☼ Rapi ♫✯♫ club
Yes! (and I hadn't heard Pete Seeger's version before - thanks for linking)
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Pano ☼ Rapi ♫✯♫ club
If only these were such innocent times...

Joan Baez is a goddess. ;-)
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
Pano ☼ Rapi ♫✯♫ club has replied to raingirl club
There is a "making of"-video.
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
 Peggy C
Peggy C club
Somewhere in here you had -- "the current leader has nothing helpful to say".. it isn't to be expected .. we have until November to get our heads straight and vote for OUR COUNTRY - not a spineless, wanna-be dictator

Remove if you want, Diane.
Take care out there.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Peggy C club
Why would I remove? I always like what you have to say, Peggy!
4 years ago.
 Andy Rodker
Andy Rodker club
I agree with you all but I would add that here in Madrid we have had issues with crowds; this time a Women's Day demonstration at the beginning of Covid-19 when the risks were known by absolutely everyone yet the politicians somehow thought it too politically risky to ban the march. 100s of thousands marched, arm in arm and the virus spiked a couple of weeks later. Many of us were aghast that it hadn't been banned. I still can't believe the stupidity of the politicos who allowed it.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Andy Rodker club
I think of the millions of people around the world who, just because they aren't governed by dictators, now run rampant on beaches, in parks and in protests. I am fully behind the protests, but the timing is terrible - and a dilemma! Meanwhile, I enter my 4th month of nearly total isolation.

I have noticed that great numbers - maybe a majority - of protesters in the USA wear masks. Almost no members of pleasure crowds do.
4 years ago.
 Beatrice Degan(MARS)
Beatrice Degan(MARS) club
This video was also broadcast on an Italian TV show, not many days ago.
I couldn't watch it all the way through: I couldn't watch George Floyd die pinned on the ground crushed under the weight of those mad and barbaric giants-.
Of course the news was broadcast immediately, arousing in me as in millions of other people anger, rejection, rebellion and suffering.
I certainly do not justify !!the violent reactions, but at the same time I wonder what can be expected when the very ones who should be guardians of the Law and Order feel free and justified by some super power and above all just civil and human rights. to perform these horrible actions.

Nonetheless, I firmly believe in the youngest generations who everywhere in the world have been showing that they absolutely want to put an end to all that!
Will any new decent political leader collect their voices and realize them ?
Thank you Diane.
4 years ago.
Diane Putnam club has replied to Beatrice Degan(MARS) club
It is surprising to see many police departments around the country making rapid changes in their regulations. So, the protests are working! You are so right about the underlying causes of protester violence, especially the African-American population!

I've never forgotten what my mother said during the 1992 L.A. riots*, "I don't understand why they don't murder us in our sleep." She was the radical left member of the family! ;-)

* About the 1992 riots: tinyurl.com/yylgw5mo <
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.

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