Protesters to Police: Get Off Your Knee--Local marchers discourage 'copaganda' viral moments

[TexasTowelie]

It’s become a common refrain at police brutality protests across the country: Take. A. Knee.

Police officers who join marchers in kneeling have been the subject of viral photos and videos, but leading activists in Nashville and elsewhere are trying to put a stop to so-called copaganda.

“I think it’s pointless,” says Jeneisha Harris, a local activist whom police sought to arrest earlier this month before conceding it was a mistake. “We are asking people who are brutalizing us to empathize with us, and I think it’s impossible.”

In Nashville, the phenomenon can in part be traced back to 2014, when the nascent Black Lives Matter movement was protesting the decision not to charge Missouri police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown. Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson met the protesters with hot chocolate, and he in turn was met with national praise.

Read more: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/cover-story/article/21137356/protesters-to-police-get-off-your-knee

[janterry]

1. Empathy is NEVER pointless

n/t

[whathehell]

4. +10000

I agree completely.

[Beakybird]

2. I don't trust those who project no empathy onto others.

There are some really nice police in my town. They were very sweet to my dark-skinned Mexican son-in-law when he got lost and my Mexican wife when she's had traffic offenses that were let off with a warning.
People who are willing to reach out should always be appreciated.

[Squinch]

3. The more images of cops taking a knee the better.

[Tanuki]

5. Jeneisha Harris is dissing fellow Nashville activist Justin Jones,

whose plea to guardsmen to put down their shields made national news when they were photographed doing so. Harris has been making some very ugly snipes at Jones, including dismissing him as "barely Black," presumably because his mother is Filipina. Here is how Harris spent her day yesterday, when others were in the street:

Link to tweet

[Tanuki]

6. Well, she has deleted the tweet in which she was lounging happily,

and elegantly attired and coiffured, at a picturesque out of town waterfront.