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Posted
when you have a hammer...

 

When ALL you have is a hammer, specifically.

 

As to using the scope as your bino..... NO GO. I'd be really surprised if there's still any professionals out there teaching that BS. You don't point your weapon at anything you're not will, and probably about to, destroy, "sniper" or not.

 

I get pretty dark when I see hunters out walking around clear cuts with scopes on their rifles and no binos hanging from their neck.

Posted

I don't think that is actually a weapon, but if I saw that guy aiming something at me I'd be a bit upset too. The militarization of the police in this country is incredibly concerning.

Posted

while I don't think officer wilson did anything wrong or illegal, the heavy handed manner in which the Ferguson PD handled things in the aftermath of the shooting should be attributed not to "militarization," but to ineptitude and underlying racial issues that have been going on since the 19th century.

Posted

Seattle PD is under a consent agreement after a very damning DOJ investigation and report, which revealed an historical pattern of excessive use of force, often blatantly racially motivated (like, captured on video n shit).

 

So there's that.

 

It seems that many police ARE out to get black people. The entire criminal justice system certainly is, given it's 3x racial bias for arrests, denial of bail, convictions, and longer sentencing for them. Everyone's aware of this horrific state of affairs - but where to begin.

 

Well, making fewer things illegal is a great start.

 

 

Posted
It's not as if the cops are like "we just got all these military guns and cool blacks SWAT outfits, let's go oppress some black people!"

 

Maybe not consciously. Still, a soldier's mission is different than that of a police officer. Citizens should be able to tell the two apart--and the hardware and tactics employed by the latter is making this more and more difficult.

Posted
Grand juries not resulting in indictments:

Police Officers: 80 of 81

Civilians: 11 of 162,000

 

fivethirtyeight.com

good to know, should i ever feel the need to off the wife :)

Posted
It's not as if the cops are like "we just got all these military guns and cool blacks SWAT outfits, let's go oppress some black people!"

 

Maybe not consciously. Still, a soldier's mission is different than that of a police officer. Citizens should be able to tell the two apart--and the hardware and tactics employed by the latter is making this more and more difficult.

 

Agreed. Think we can stop producing and dispersing military candy as if ISIS is going to march into Wallmart tomorrow?

 

I would like to use a grenade on the 24 hr media, however. While unjustified shootings occur, this was not one of them and was hyped to the max by the media from the get go. Oh - nevermind. Facts played out differently.

Posted

Ever been to an anti war protest in Seattle? Guess not. SPD deploys all the same GI Joe toys. Armored vehicles, snipers, automatic weapons...in HUGE numbers. Clancy the Friendly Bicycle Cop is no where to be seen.

 

And I guess the cops really ARE out to get black people: "the killing of young black men by police is a common feature of African-American life and a source of dread for black parents from coast to coast. This point was underscored last month in a grim report by ProPublica, showing that young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk — 21 times greater — of being shot dead by police than young white men."

 

The comfy white upper class remain blissfully ignorant of just how racially biased against blacks our entire criminal justice system is.

 

Life is easier that way.

 

"Gosh, why are they so angry?"

 

People have to be really fucking angry about something to start burning police cars. This extreme level of anger is fully justified, regardless of how you feel about making smores over a black and white. Rather than advocating crushing Ferguson further with any heaping helping of military force - a trending notion right now - perhaps we should view this as a much needed wake up call that our incredibly cruel and unjust criminal justice system is long in need of major reform - racially biased and overly violent policing, shoddy or non-existent public defense, mandatory and overly harsh sentencing, needless prohibition...the list is long.

 

Unfortunately, this would require America to look at itself in the mirror pretty closely - not a popular past time in the kingdom of exceptionalism. We actually suck at a lot of things, our criminal justice system being near the top of the list, (right alongside our health care system and), and that's OK - unless we deny it and continue to make things worse, rather than better.

 

 

 

 

Posted

Well I was at the gathering yesterday, more by happenstance than planning - and I would say the SPD was more than reasonable, particularly given the few unstable clowns in the group and several others just egging them on.

 

That said - I also was at the WTO way back and that was one cluster - the SPD didn't know what to do so fell back on the ol' standard of pepper spay and nightsticks. And THAT was when things went south.

 

While I've spent time with the peacenik marches, I also have some relationships with a few cops - and I would not want their job. The social issues of black trust, poverty, crime, discrimination, and racism goes a long way out of the purview of law enforcement.

Posted
People have to be really fucking angry about something to start burning police cars.

 

We'd do that when they broke up our house parties in high school, but hey, white privilege. They never shot us.

Posted

That's why I've focused on the entire criminal justice systems - which includes voters, juries and lawmakers.

 

You might familiarize yourself with police actions against peaceful protesters in Puerto Rico last year (2013), for a more comprehensive view of how our police act towards demonstrators.

 

After all, the right to assembly is also included in the first amendment. It's not a convenience or a nuisance, however often it may be treated as such. It's a fundamental part of a healthy democracy.

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