LetMeSleep wrote:The images coming out of America over the past few weeks, taken hand in hand with Trump's tweets to his base, make the chance of further escalation of unrest seem highly likely. The looting comment was clearly aimed at the same group of people who stormed/invaded the Wisconsin state house. How can a group of highly armed people can occupy a government building with zero accountability while at the same time an unarmed man can be killed by policemen in broad daylight on a crowded street?
The world stands by in disbelief at your everyday life.
All of this. I honestly watch this stuff kinda stunned. And sadness knowing that despite all this rage I still feel there is little chance of actual change at the ballot.
And even if there is a change, who's to say the grass will be greener? I can't help but think things are so ingrained by now it's almost endemic that the gap between haves and have-nots now can't do anything but continue to widen.
Oh we're far from perfect and have our own issues with deaths in custodies. Here we need to not stand by tutting at the US, we need to stand up for our citizens that are not being treated well.
Not trying to pretend we don't have our problems, because we absolutely do. Our health gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australia is a particular disgrace and unjustifiable.
But yeah, on the whole I'll take our shit over the US's shit.
I'm not tut-tutting the US either, I'm genuinely saddened and concerned.
Look up direct provision. No deaths I know of but refugees locked up in what are effectively prison camps. They’re fed (barely) and can be there for years.
Look up direct provision. No deaths I know of but refugees locked up in what are effectively prison camps. They’re fed (barely) and can be there for years.
We really need to go through each police department review policies and get them all up to a standard that respects the citizens they serve and move away from these terrible overreaches of power.
They’ll keep claiming it’s justified because probably, legally, it is justified under their policies that could be decades old. Just because they are legal policies, don’t make them right.
I work for a city and police department near the St. Louis area. It’s a small department. Police officers and supervisory staff are my co-workers. I deal with them everyday. This department has very stringent hiring practices to weed out possible problem officers. There’s a probationary period that if the new officer isn’t meeting the standards of the department, they can be dismissed. Commanders are constantly updated and enforcing policies to better reflect a more transparent agency. Officers go through a lot of training, and with a lot of medical / doctor facilities in our city, CIT training is expanded. They pride themselves on de-escalating conflicts with minimal use of force tactics.
A lot of this happened pre-Ferguson, but it’s also been expanded Post-Ferguson as well as state/county justice guidelines were changed.
I think all departments need to take a long hard look at their deficiencies and push for changes. It’s the only way you can get the public to trust you again.
Bammer wrote:Probably been mentioned already - the looting & vandalism of stores is not helping but man, burning down the murderer cop’s police station is a strong move. Respect.
Bammer wrote:Probably been mentioned already - the looting & vandalism of stores is not helping but man, burning down the murderer cop’s police station is a strong move. Respect.
Bammer wrote:Probably been mentioned already - the looting & vandalism of stores is not helping but man, burning down the murderer cop’s police station is a strong move. Respect.
tragabigzanda wrote:Kind of hope all the protestors can take their energy down to DC.
Oh come on
what
I guess I just don't know what you mean to suggest by this. Is it that the protest is all well and good but real change happens in the voting booth, which would be at best a spurious argument and one that draws a false opposition between popular and electoral politics, as if these two things don't inform each other? Or worse, are you insinuating that they actually *haven't,* before now, taken that energy to DC, that in fact they're non-voters but should become voters to, again, force some kind of real change-- an assertion you couldn't possibly support without making assumptions based on behavior, age, and race? I don't see any reading of this comment that doesn't come across as paternalistic. Certainly you're not going to simply riot your way to a better world in the face of 21st century state power, but you're also not just going to vote your way their either.
I'm literally suggesting that instead of smashing private citizens' and business owners' properties in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, etc, they go smash shit on the White House lawn.
My mistake! Yes they should definitely do that too.
VinylGuy wrote:its really tiresome to see these ¨good guys¨ talking about any political stuff in tv while also being kinda funny and hip and cool....its just...please enough of this shit.
blueviper wrote:We really need to go through each police department review policies and get them all up to a standard that respects the citizens they serve and move away from these terrible overreaches of power.
They’ll keep claiming it’s justified because probably, legally, it is justified under their policies that could be decades old. Just because they are legal policies, don’t make them right.
I work for a city and police department near the St. Louis area. It’s a small department. Police officers and supervisory staff are my co-workers. I deal with them everyday. This department has very stringent hiring practices to weed out possible problem officers. There’s a probationary period that if the new officer isn’t meeting the standards of the department, they can be dismissed. Commanders are constantly updated and enforcing policies to better reflect a more transparent agency. Officers go through a lot of training, and with a lot of medical / doctor facilities in our city, CIT training is expanded. They pride themselves on de-escalating conflicts with minimal use of force tactics.
A lot of this happened pre-Ferguson, but it’s also been expanded Post-Ferguson as well as state/county justice guidelines were changed.
I think all departments need to take a long hard look at their deficiencies and push for changes. It’s the only way you can get the public to trust you again.
None of this matters so long as police unions continue to exist. Qualified immunity is another issue, but thats just about Civil litigation.
Bad actors such as the coward of Broward County will get rehired and receive backpay due to union rules.
PHATJ wrote:According to local NBC media, the fire starters in the Twin Cities are white Antifa members.
There are also a lot of posts on far right boards about going in and “getting their loot on,” setting fires, or starting a boogaloo.
I don’t think anybody knows exactly what the mix of forces in Minneapolis is, besides the actually angry locals, but I do know that there are a hellllllllll of a lot more white nationalists within 500 miles of Minneapolis than there are antifa members.
And whoever these people are, they ain’t flying in.
