Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

It kinda makes you wonder why they run ads for new televisions. If you're watching on a television good enough to tell how awesome the picture is, you don't really need a new one.

You watch commercials. You're smarter than that- and I have the ability to quantify how smart.

edit: we both have old guy eyesight now, so we don't need new ones BTW.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

A veto-proof majority of the City Council stood on a stage with the giant words “DEFUND POLICE“ in front of it and talked about dismantling the police department, and how the time for incrementalism was past. The notion that nobody was supposed to believe that they actually intended to defund the police is quaint, and if they were not being serious, the irony was lost on many:

“Last June, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members pledged to defund and dismantle the police department.”

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/10002...rm-have-soften

“Over three months ago, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to defund the city’s police department, making a powerful statement that reverberated across the country.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/u...nd-police.html

When everyone learned that there were no specific plans, and that nobody really even knew what “defund” or “dismantle” meant (thus plunging Minneapolis into this terrible limbo where many police basically stopped stopped doing their job), some members of City Council switched course, while one embarrassingly tried to argue that he did not see the sign and did not know defunding police was on the table. (In his defense, from his perspective, he may have thought he was attending a “ECILOP DNUFED” rally.)

There is a lot of blame to go around for how this opportunity for this whole situation was mismanaged, and to put all the blame at the feet of the City Council is unfair. But they did their fair share of mismanagement, in part because it was not a popular position to acknowledge both that 1) the Twin Cities has a long and horrific history of abusive policing and that prior efforts at reform have been half-hearted and ineffectual, and 2) despite this history of police abuse, there are vulnerable communities that rely on police to keep them safe. When we were discussing this issue probably a year ago, I talked being involved with a local domestic violence prevention organization. Many advocates there (many of whom are young progressive people of color) state that they believe they have a good working relationship with the police, and that while this was not always the case, they now largely saw the police as valuable partners who are able to respond effectively and with compassion and sensitivity to domestic violence calls to protect victims of domestic violence. It was probably two posts after this that Adder said, “It’s not like the police ever make anyone safer anyways.” I understand that this was just hyperbole on Adder’s part, but it was telling. And Adder is correct that the “Defund Police” rhetoric was distorted by a fear-mongering right who wanted people to believe that any attempts to rethink policing would result in a swift devolution to nihilism. But, to blame the failure of the ballot amendment on a “fear-mongering status quo” misses a whole lot of the story.

Right after Adder explained that police never make anyone safer I posted a news story about the Detroit mayor's request for white suburban "progressives" to stop coming into the city for BLM marches. See those marches required police presence as they did turn violent in some cities. so because D's police were baby sitting Biff's social statement marching there were fewer po po patrolling the largely black neighborhoods and shootings were spiking. So there was one way police were making things safer, until they couldn't.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Right after Adder explained that police never make anyone safer I posted a news story about the Detroit mayor's request for white suburban "progressives" to stop coming into the city for BLM marches. See those marches required police presence as they did turn violent in some cities. so because D's police were baby sitting Biff's social statement marching there were fewer po po patrolling the largely black neighborhoods and shootings were spiking. So there was one way police were making things safer, until they couldn't.

Did you see this one? It's too bad they'll be tied up and not able to do this kind of policing. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...al-type=earned

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Did you see this one? It's too bad they'll be tied up and not able to do this kind of policing. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...al-type=earned

I'm going out, so I only had time to read a little bit. In the part I read two young black men were shot to death for no good reason. Does the rest of the article get to proving we don't need armed police, because social workers could better handle this stuff?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I'm going out, so I only had time to read a little bit. In the part I read two young black men were shot to death for no good reason. Does the rest of the article get to proving we don't need armed police, because social workers could better handle this stuff?

Well, the rest of it compounds the tragedy by jailing three innocent kids while the guilty party goes off and kills again.

It wasn't my point, but if the question is can social workers do better, I would say, in this case, yes, but then again, it's so bad even lawyers could do better.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Well, the rest of it compounds the tragedy by jailing three innocent kids while the guilty party goes off and kills again.

It wasn't my point, but if the question is can social workers do better, I would say, in this case, yes, but then again, it's so bad even lawyers could do better.

Well the goal was to find and arrest an armed murderer, someone who shot a kid in a school. Some police detectives apparently went haywire, but if the investigation had been done properly I do not think I’d want to be the social worker going to arrest the actual murderer. Unless, maybe you don’t like social workers?

You can’t throw away police in a country that is this over-armed. We have to fix how they police, not eliminate the function. But hears a thought for those that disagree, keep a social worker’s number in your contacts and if someone is breaking into your home call that, not 911?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Well the goal was to find and arrest an armed murderer, someone who shot a kid in a school. Some police detectives apparently went haywire, but if the investigation had been done properly I do not think I’d want to be the social worker going to arrest the actual murderer. Unless, maybe you don’t like social workers?

You can’t throw away police in a country that is this over-armed. We have to fix how they police, not eliminate the function. But hears a thought for those that disagree, keep a social worker’s number in your contacts and if someone is breaking into your home call that, not 911?

Happy to be your strawman today.

Let me know if you'd ever like to know what I actually think.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Right after Adder explained that police never make anyone safer I posted a news story about the Detroit mayor's request for white suburban "progressives" to stop coming into the city for BLM marches. See those marches required police presence as they did turn violent in some cities. so because D's police were baby sitting Biff's social statement marching there were fewer po po patrolling the largely black neighborhoods and shootings were spiking. So there was one way police were making things safer, until they couldn't.

Your BLM marchers were largely white suburban progressives?? I was largely inside bcs pandemic last year, but in the past, that has very much not been the case here.

Anyway, here the police seem to have defunded (or more accurately double-funded) themselves by taking disability en masse (more than a hundred officers) over PTSD in a barely disguised sick out and we’re already on the hook for $111 million in misconduct settlements from last year alone.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Adder

Your BLM marchers were largely white suburban progressives?? I was largely inside bcs pandemic last year, but in the past, that has very much not been the case here.

you guys were ground zero, so not sure your snap shot is a good comp. From the film I saw at least half the protesters were white. The mayor (who is white) didn’t call out white suburbanites; He just said “people from outside Detroit.”

Anyway, here the police seem to have defunded (or more accurately double-funded) themselves by taking disability en masse (more than a hundred officers) over PTSD in a barely disguised sick out and we’re already on the hook for $111 million in misconduct settlements from last year alone.

well their apparent bosses publicly said they were going to be “defunded,” and they were all painted as homogeneously evil. Not sure I’d go to work potentially getting shot at under those terms either.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

... were all painted as homogeneously ...

I do see someone here painting a bunch of people homogeneously.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I do see someone here painting a bunch of people homogeneously.

I'm only painting you and Adder homogeneously.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I'm only painting you and Adder homogeneously.

Cool, well, again, if you ever actually want to know what I think about any of these things, feel free to ask a question, until then, I'm going to sit back and watch you write the fiction.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Cool, well, again, if you ever actually want to know what I think about any of these things, feel free to ask a question, until then, I'm going to sit back and watch you write the fiction.

You are authorized to tell us what you think. Not just on this topic, but any other.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Have y'all watched Summer of Soul on Netflix? Very enjoyable documentary about a musical event I'd never heard of. Also a reminder of how insane the late 60s would have been if social media and the 24-hour news cycle had existed...

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone

Have y'all watched Summer of Soul on Netflix? Very enjoyable documentary about a musical event I'd never heard of. Also a reminder of how insane the late 60s would have been if social media and the 24-hour news cycle had existed...

Loved it. I also had no idea the event existed until I read a review of the movie.