Ferguson Shooting (Is my thinking on this all wrong.......)

by out4good3 229 Replies latest social current

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  DesirousOfChange

  Here's the problem. There are social issues in America that need to be addressed but the Michael Brown case is not the place to try to address them. Neither was the Trayvin Martin case.

  But politicians like the status quo. They have no incentive to change unless they are about to be outvoted.

  The 1% in control of the Gov't like the status quo (other than they want to pay even less taxes). They have no incentive to change unless they are about to be taxed more.

  America's "issues" won't change until someone in power is about to lose their job or a shitload of money. If there is enough "social unrest" the media will keep the pot stirred until the economy or the safety of community will maybe force some change.

  America's law enforcement has ZERO accountability to anyone. A barber or a manicurist has stricter state regulation and accountability. Cops are in charge of the oversight on cops. That needs to be changed. It will never change until it is a big enough issue to affect the re-election of the incumbents or economy of the rich.

  Doc
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  Simon

  They have no incentive to change unless they are about to be outvoted.

  You live in a democratic country. People need to vote on the issues and for candidates that represent them and not simply party / racial lines.

  First of all they need to register to vote and then go to vote. If people complain about how things are run but no one wants to volunteer to serve and the majority don't even bother to vote then is it "the system" or apathy / laziness that's the problem?

  People faught to get the right to vote, it seems incredible that people don't actually make use of it but then complain that the system is against them.
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  DesirousOfChange

  No politician will take a stand to hold law enforcement more accountable. It will be spun as taking the side against law enforcement. Law enforcement has huge political clout. Huge political action committees (PACs) with lots of money to throw around in political campaigns.

  Same with educators. No politician will oppose teacher tenure. It's almost impossible for a school district to get rid of a lousy teacher. Teachers' Associations have lots of money to contribute for or against candidates.

  It's how politics works here in the US. We have the best politicians and legal system that money can buy.

  Doc
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  Simon

  Forget national politics - that's all pantomime.

  What has more effect at a local level is local and state politics. This comes down to good old voter turnout and town-hall meetings.

  When people give their vote away blindly to a party then they are not getting much back in return.
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  designs

  What we see happening is Voting Centers on the outskirts of poorer neighborhoods and having closing times around 5:30.

  In our little town there were multiple polling centers, mine was around the block from my house.
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  Simon

  Surely if people have time to protest then they also have time to vote? Incredibly low registration points to apathy rather than timing issues on electrion day.

  I don't think the closing time is really too much of a hindrance although I think a truly democratic country would ensure that people had the ability to vote, not just the right. Making local elections a public holiday would be too much though.
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  designs

  Failing to cast your vote covers a lot of territory. A customer of mine who is LGBT did not vote in this last election although she felt strongly about inequality and discrimination. To busy with business I find a lousy excuse. Apathy, feelings of disenfranchisement with the whole system, feeling the system is rigged (Romney had a financial stake in a company that made voting machines). These are not good excuses to sit it out.
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  sammielee24

  There are always excuses why people don't vote and in the western world, that's all they are is excuses. If people want to vote, they will. If anyone wants to keep using the excuse that being poor stops you voting, then you become entwined in that excuse. Ditto cultural, environmental excuses etc. We all know people who are apathetic. I know people who have never voted in their life and never will - the majority of those have no faith in the political system nor faith in any leadership actually caring more about them and their lives, than they do the selfish quest for power and money. I find it's apathy - given the chance more people would rather sit and watch television, go have a beer or hang out than they care about casting a vote. If you believe your vote doesn't count, that you don't matter in the bigger scheme of things, and that the players are bought and the game rigged - you certainly begin to feel like you have been part of a problem and not a solution. sw
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  88JM

  Sorry to bump an old thread, but just read this on the US D.O.J. figures for Ferguson - certainly shocked me at least:

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-finding-from-the-doj-ferguson_b_6858388.html

  "In Ferguson -- a city with a population of 21,000 -- 16,000 people have outstanding arrest warrants, meaning that they are currently actively wanted by the police. In other words, if you were to take four people at random, the Ferguson police would consider three of them fugitives."

  
  
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  Simon

  Isn't it strange how "hands up, don't shoot" (claims that unarmed black kids were being shot by police for no reason) has morphed, after an extensive DOJ investigation, into "we think we are slightly more likely to have to pay traffic tickets". Far too much focus on percentages or different ethnicities for which there are many factors vs whether the individual convictions were fair or not.

  The real issue is not the police, it's their masters: the politicians who run the show and push them to bring in more revenue to justify their own existence.

  And yet the politician are not the masters when you live in a democracy - the electorate is.

  If as much attention was paid to the percentage of people who bothered to vote then change could easily happen. If 80% of the population doesn't like the way the town is run then someone run for office on the ticket to abolish it or change how it is run.

  There is often a lot of hype about "big government" but waste-of-space small government can be just as insidious and have a much greater impact on people's lives.

  I still don't understand why people can be so bothered to protest and want to demand change when there is already a process for change - it's called "an election". People won the right to vote and now don't want to use it. How are protests and mob chants supposed to be better?