Kneeling to kill (and other pictures)

2 Jun

 

… and sixty-one years earlier. On August 25, 1959 – eight days after the release of Kind of Blue – Miles Davis was at Birdland, recording an Armed Forces Day broadcast for Voice of America. In between sets he escorted a friend out, put her in a cab and had a smoke in front of the club. A cop told him to move on. Miles pointed to the Birdland sign featuring his name but the officer persisted. A detective, drawn by the crowd gathering, blindsided and hit him in the head a few times with a billy club, drawing blood. Miles was then arrested and, after going to the hospital for head stitches, charged with felonious assault on an officer.

 

Meanwhile, the late George Floyd is commemorated on a wall to keep Palestinians out of “the middle east’s only democracy” …

4 Replies to “Kneeling to kill (and other pictures)

  1. I spoke on your last post about acrimony on the net. Misjudgements with inappropriate material are another problem. I posted an old cartoon referring to racial tension. It was one where the Lone Ranger and Tonto are surrounded by Indians, the Ranger says, “Looks like we’re in trouble now!” and Tonto replies “We?” – but then after perusing some horrible stuff on the net, I took the cartoon down realising that this is not the time for such trivialisation. What really scared me was this:

    https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/11/20882005/accelerationism-white-supremacy-christchurch

    It starts off with a chilling tale of murderous old friend betrayal and then talks about the most conceivably radical white supremacist movement that is deliberately attempting to destroy the entire foundation of society by backing the most extreme elements in every situation no matter how these elements are orientated. The aim is to have everyone at everyone else’s throat in order to bring down everything and start building a new Reich. These are not the times for flippancy.

    • I remember that cartoon on Tonto and Lone Ranger. I saw it in Mad Magazine, circa 1967.

      I wanted to pair the cop keeling on the neck of the S of L with an image I’ve seen of an IDF soldier kneeling on the neck an intifada protestor in Gaza. I couldn’t find it though, and this was always meant as a two minute post with zero comment.

      I agree that these are not times for flippancy. Good political cartoons aren’t flippant.

      • A bit off topic but OffG has really been taken over by nutters BTL. Every poster is now a Flaxgirl. The latest is that George Floyd wasn’t really killed at all! The evidence? He was an actor! And these are the comments that are gaining all the upvotes!

        • Fuck, really? Fuck and thrice fuck.

          (I bet they’re not all as polite as Flaxgirl. For all her wackiness she did strive for courtesy of tone.)

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