Damn. I am glad I clicked on that, as rarely as I go onto social media these days.Originally Posted by Wondering Beard
Damn. I am glad I clicked on that, as rarely as I go onto social media these days.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cli...outputType=amp
Some of the Michigan happenings. Flint police trying to stand with the people.
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Here's a novel idea... Stop breaking the fucking law and maybe, just maybe, perhaps even, your number of encounters involving law enforcement officers will significantly decrease. I'd venture to guess that if you ain't on police radar at all then the chance of your being in a position of a police knee your criminal neck will be greatly reduced... but that's just me...
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
If you think the dynamics here are "the poor are lazy, period, and deluded by their leaders"
--find me a historical example where this has been true for a society, and cutting off social programs and berating folks for being lazy got the working class to get their shit together, and social urest disappeared.
Rome is not a example of govt. programs creating an underclass, for instance. Well, not the welfare system, anyway. Sending farmers off to war while landlords foreclosed on them set up the mass of unemployed that later needed a dole to survive.
Unions have had their back broken in this country. And a smaller and smaller percentage of folks own more and more of country. The rich are crowing about the great deals to be had, buying up even more properties during this crisis.
I find folks blaming unions, leftest leaders, and the poor insane, when they have less and less control of process in this nation.
"Get off your lazy ass and work" is fine advice to an individual.
It's just laziness when folks try to use it as social policy.
(I'm not going to even try to list, yet again, how the game is rigged, but most of it comes in the massive transfer of the cost of economic risk and maintenance to the middle and lower classes, away from elites. Costs for job training are an excellent example.)
ETA: framing all this as just "race" problems is how the GOP and DNC keep us at each other's throats and keep on keeping their big donors happy.
REPETITION CREATES BELIEF
REPETITION BUILDS THE SEPARATE WORLDS WE LIVE AND DIE IN
NO EXCEPTIONS
People said I wouldn't amount to much...and they were right.
There's nothing civil about this war.
For whatever it's worth, from a guy barely any of you know in NYC (life-long Metro area resident, lived in Manhattan 7 years now, worked here for 13, non-LEO, friends all over the political spectrum):
-Protestors and rioters mostly two separate groups with some overlap. Protestors a diverse group in terms of ethnicity, age, apparent wealth. Rioters/arsonists are mostly young (teens to 20s) people of color, local and surrounding areas, taking advantage of the lawlessness to have their idea of fun and steal luxury goods. Some with some obvious forethought and planning (using rented scooters, bikes, and NY plate cars to help carry off booty). There is a sprinkling of 20-30 something paler folks who look like Antifa/anarchist associated who are deliberately egging on the others, helping to start smash windows, initiating attacks on police vehicles, attempting to funnel marching protestors off the main roads they are marching into commerical areas. There have been several caught on video doing just that. We've also got a few of the convenient pallets of bricks and rebar showing up in front of large plate glass storefronts, it seems.
-Mayhem almost entirely after sunset, quieter during the day. Human psychology is odd.
-NYPD, which has a tough job, I will admit, sometimes really overreacting to protestors (again, there's video that's easy to find). I think this is a combo of the us vs. them mentality on both sides, exacerbated by the fact that NYers are actually pretty unaccustomed to this level of disturbance (less rioting than many big cities, historically) as well as the NYPD feeling unsupported by and combative with city administrators, for quite a while. Meanwhile, they seem to have orders from on high to disperse/contain mostly peaceful marchers while being told to leave the looters be or at least not focus on them. This is killing them in the realm of public perception.
-Chaos limited to very specific neighborhoods (mine, up above Central Park for instance, completely quiet at night. Harlem mostly untouched other than litter). Pretty saucy in some neighborhoods, friends and family in those areas are unsettled, but don't feel directly threatened in their residences. I'm just praying we don't have too many big fires started, which would be a disaster due to mixed commercial/residential living and density.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Haven't been sleeping well personally, the lady's anxiety rubbing off on me, wishing I could be doing more to help the shit situation in my mostly beloved city in any way. Weird to be coming out of a mixed race family and diverse peer group, and be getting some pretty varied and all concerned takes from different folks. Anyone has any questions, let me know.
In my life, I have had a couple of bad moments when I was...less than rational.
I had to care for folks behaving badly when I was an EMT. I saw them at their worst. It didn't mean they were bad people, or deserved less than professional care.
If the police were to be involved, I would hope they would use only the force necessary to keep everyone safe.
Last edited by peterb; 06-01-2020 at 02:34 PM.
Of course. Still that doesn't negate the fact that had you avoided your "bad moments" you would have eliminated such detrimental variables from any potential equation.
Just once, I'd like to hear some media propaganda jackass say something like "Another questionable use of force by pol.... ah fuck this... you know, if you stupid sons of bitches would stop putting yourselves in situations where this shit COULD happen, then this shit WON'T happen... take responsibility you dipshits..."
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
You too?
Having been on the wrong side of a couple cops' batons as a youth, I can tell you that they can definitely make mistakes and overreact...and that's not really in anybody's best interest.
Yes, I suppose in one of the incidents, I could've just moved along when told to, but it was uncalled for. Two young friends having a conversation outside a neighborhood candy store. Sunny day. No crime afoot. No crowds. No riots. But young cop decides that he ain't having two young guys having a friendly conversation and a laugh.
So when he tells me to move, I ask why and tell him that we are regulars, and I live a block or two away. That brought out the baton and a cross check to the chest which popped me off the curb into the street (where I came close to getting hit by a car). I started to run at the cop but my friend and better judgment prevailed.
The other time was a toss up. I might've had it coming, but I think it was premature.
My take: LEOs, like anyone, can have a bad day. But LEOs have a responsibility to not allow their bad day to influence how they do their job and protect the safety of the public, including members of the public who may end up in their custody. Otherwise, it's a volatile mix just waiting for ignition.
There's nothing civil about this war.
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