One offered me a $500 bet. In another context (not at work with a member of executive management), I may have taken him up on it. In THIS context it was just really uncomfortable.
You know how the policy is to never negotiate with terrorists. If a terrorist demands say, a million dollars, and you pay up, you're basically telling everyone that if they want money that they should take some hostages.
So with the same logic you shouldn't give violent rioters what they want. Right?
Except in cases like this, they are just demanding justice. A thing that is good. A thing that should happen. How about instead of sending the national guard and setting curfews, we just gave them the justice they were asking for? Is it really that hard? Arrest the murdering cops and make them stand trial.
All this trouble will be over if we just start doing what we should be doing anyway. Start holding these police accountable. Today. Just do it. Nobody will be able to protest or riot if we just start dispensing justice properly. Why is this so hard?
The police like their power. They are corrupt. They don't want to be held accountable. They view themselves as the arbiters of what's right and wrong, the people keeping us from breaking down society. Even if they make mistakes, they don't want to admit they were wrong because they view that as selling out your own. The police perceive each other as brothers and sisters not to betray, rather than coworkers who are bound by rules. They believe other police over citizens unilaterally, and I imagine there is some cultish behavior.
When you isolate one group from the rest of the world like that, give them separation like a badge, a fancy car, a gun, and privilege to wield them all at their discretion...They're going to become accountable only to themselves, and there isn't much we can do. Ultimately, the system needs to be changed, but I can't imagine what the better one is.
I've wondered what would happen if we enacted a system where if a cop kills someone, justified or not, they're off any police force forever. You murder an innocent civilian, you're done, and going to trial. If you shoot down someone on a Columbine-style rampage, you can be dishonorably discharged or something, but you're still retiring.
I don't know if that would be tenable, but then I don't know if the current situation is tenable either.
I see a lot of people commenting about how the curfew was known, and so this is totally okay.
I just don't understand how you can watch a half-dozen SWAT officers abduct someone because they "broke curfew." Not only is curfew a ridiculous thing to add in the first place, but the amount of unnecessary force. Why doesn't one or two cops go up and inform the individual of broken curfew, and ask them to go home? It's kind of crazy.
It just makes me think of a livestream back during Ferguson's worst times when I saw people sitting on their lawns, looking at clouds of teargas, just asking why they couldn't leave their home willingly without running into tear gas and cops.
I can comprehend the idea of a curfew for people's safety, but the fact is that the violence, when it happens, is either: 1. Protester on police (where they're hilariously outgunned) 2. Not stopped by people being indoors
The fact is, the rioters that do cause damage are people who would cause damage no matter what. It's not like protests turn people evil and make them think they can hurt others. It's that assholes use protests as a shield to do awful things. They're going to run around and damage things and move outside the law whether there's a curfew or not, and they usually know how to outrun and escape the cops. The only people hurt by a curfew are the innocents who aren't causing violence and just trying to use their civil liberty to protest.
It's just ridiculous how much defense of the police I see. Why are other citizens so okay with the idea that we can give up our freedoms to the cops?
It's just ridiculous how much defense of the police I see. Why are other citizens so okay with the idea that we can give up our freedoms to the cops?
Because they are racist.
See I thought that, I really did. But I've seen plenty of not-so-racist folk still ardently defending the cops. Just constant memes of "Maybe you wouldn't get harassed by the police if you didn't break the law." They're really unable to comprehend the idea that the cops are doing bad things to people who didn't break the law.
It's just ridiculous how much defense of the police I see. Why are other citizens so okay with the idea that we can give up our freedoms to the cops?
Because they are racist.
See I thought that, I really did. But I've seen plenty of not-so-racist folk still ardently defending the cops. Just constant memes of "Maybe you wouldn't get harassed by the police if you didn't break the law." They're really unable to comprehend the idea that the cops are doing bad things to people who didn't break the law.
How about we disband the police forces and then self-police?
You're in the the jungle, baby. You gonna die. There are enough people who do not act like complete psychopaths out there because of fear of being caught that if we were to disband all police, bad things would happen.
How about we disband the police forces and then self-police?
You're in the the jungle, baby. You gonna die. There are enough people who do not act like complete psychopaths out there because of fear of being caught that if we were to disband all police, bad things would happen.
This is true. It's amazing how many parents don't seem to teach their kids to be decent people first and foremost. I don't know if we want to send this particular topic off on a tangent though.
Comments
x-post hockey
http://boingboing.net/2015/04/23/watch-florida-sheriff-david-mo.html
So with the same logic you shouldn't give violent rioters what they want. Right?
Except in cases like this, they are just demanding justice. A thing that is good. A thing that should happen. How about instead of sending the national guard and setting curfews, we just gave them the justice they were asking for? Is it really that hard? Arrest the murdering cops and make them stand trial.
All this trouble will be over if we just start doing what we should be doing anyway. Start holding these police accountable. Today. Just do it. Nobody will be able to protest or riot if we just start dispensing justice properly. Why is this so hard?
When you isolate one group from the rest of the world like that, give them separation like a badge, a fancy car, a gun, and privilege to wield them all at their discretion...They're going to become accountable only to themselves, and there isn't much we can do. Ultimately, the system needs to be changed, but I can't imagine what the better one is.
I don't know if that would be tenable, but then I don't know if the current situation is tenable either.
This 30 second video, with the commentary, serves as an excellent summary of all the shit that is fucked.
I just don't understand how you can watch a half-dozen SWAT officers abduct someone because they "broke curfew." Not only is curfew a ridiculous thing to add in the first place, but the amount of unnecessary force. Why doesn't one or two cops go up and inform the individual of broken curfew, and ask them to go home? It's kind of crazy.
I can comprehend the idea of a curfew for people's safety, but the fact is that the violence, when it happens, is either:
1. Protester on police (where they're hilariously outgunned)
2. Not stopped by people being indoors
The fact is, the rioters that do cause damage are people who would cause damage no matter what. It's not like protests turn people evil and make them think they can hurt others. It's that assholes use protests as a shield to do awful things. They're going to run around and damage things and move outside the law whether there's a curfew or not, and they usually know how to outrun and escape the cops. The only people hurt by a curfew are the innocents who aren't causing violence and just trying to use their civil liberty to protest.
It's just ridiculous how much defense of the police I see. Why are other citizens so okay with the idea that we can give up our freedoms to the cops?
There are enough people who do not act like complete psychopaths out there because of fear of being caught that if we were to disband all police, bad things would happen.
One good cop in Baltimore. All the others, not good.
Besides firing the whole department and starting from scratch, I don't know how'd you fix this.
I have been corrected, you still have to dress like Omar to get around in 2015.