by Simon 551 Replies latest social current
America is awash in violence. We are a warring nation that teaches that violence works. Its the go to response to threats. Yet other countries and societies have found ways to live differently, how can we do the same here, what do we need to change. The answers are staring us right in the face like they do elsewhere we just have to learn.
How is the American Retributivist view of Law a contributing factor in preventing us from being like other advanced countries with lower overall violence.
How can the USA get all deaths by gun violence reduced to the level of countries like Australia or Japan or the Netherlands at .02%.
Why even those wild and crazy Canadians to our north have gun violence stats 80% less than their across the border neighbors.
We are only wild and crazy for hockey and poutine. I don't get it - both just make me sleepy.
No other country has such a combination of paranoid and fearul citizenry combined with mass gun ownership and piss-poor political leaders who can't agree on or accomplish anything to control things. Even a no brainer decision such as "check the background of someone who wants to buy a gun" is impossible.
All the time the flames of fear and outrage are being fanned by idiots. What could possibly go wrong ...
glad the protest is continuing - shame that a few are looting and vandalising. Awesome pics of traffic on a motorway being brought to a halt by protestors.
I agree chas
There was definitely not enough evidence to convict Officer Wilson. That said, it's very unusual for a grand jury not to indict, and even more unusual for a prosecutor to act like he doesn't mind that an indictment was not returned. The whole indictment process was probably a charade, and if not for the public scrutiny the prosecutor' office probably wouldn't have brought these charges.
The civil rights lawsuit is surely next, and I would be surprised if the family doesn't get a sizeable settlement.
This particular incident may have actually been an appropriate time to use a Tazzer to effectively stop and subdue Brown as he was trying to flee.
"With Liberty and Justice for All". I say that Pledge of Allegiance now as an xJW but I also know it is an unfullfilled promise.
What message would I have taken away from my last trip to the Voting Booth a few weeks ago if I had been turned away because I am of 'mixed ancestry'.
What does it say when 30 States have passed Voter Restriction Laws in just the past 2 years targeting minorities.
Look at the signs held by the peaceful protesters tonight, they are tapping into a vein in America 2014.
glad the protest is continuing - shame that a few are looting and vandalising. Awesome pics of traffic on a motorway being brought to a halt by protestors.
Why? These protests achieve nothing positive for any 'cause' but undermine it. How does inconveniencing and threatening citizens going about their lawful business help anyone? It's more than a few looting an vandalising - they are only able to do that because of the people manipulated into supporting a cause for bogus reasons.
This is a gang of thugs, nothing more. If they want to act like animals they should be put in cages. Really? Throwing rocks at the head of a female reporter?
This particular incident may have actually been an appropriate time to use a Tazzer to effectively stop and subdue Brown as he was trying to flee
That works great if you a) have a tazer and b) have time to use it. It isn't appropriate in every situation and it's not fair to armchair quarterback the police. Tazers are also not without risk and the evidence is that tools intended to be non-lethal end up being used way more frequently as a result which is often worse than having a dramatic escalation (shooting) in a far more limited number of cases.
yes I agree finkelstein. I'm wondering if the police are shooting to kill more now because of new anti terrorism initiatives and somehow the police are losing their perspective on what constitutes such a threat as that requires a shoot to kill policy and what does not constitute such a threat. The problem imo is to do with too much emphasis on security. Even Steven Pinker did not think that terrorism was as great a threat as it is made out to be. I guess I will have to wait and see if there is a link between the two.
I think Britain is heading that way too but i think the fact that the elections are looming is implicated in putting too much emphasis on security. Some voters have gone crazy with fear and are seeing terrorists around every corner.
edit: my heart goes out to those who are caught up in the protests that have become violent
What message would I have taken away from my last trip to the Voting Booth a few weeks ago if I had been turned away because I am of 'mixed ancestry'.
Were you? No. So why are you saying it? What if someone else had been turned away for not being black enough? Same nonsense.
What does it say when 30 States have passed Voter Restriction Laws in just the past 2 years targeting minorities.
It says you have a poor government, a poor systemof government and a stupid electorate that allows it all to happen.
Look at the signs held by the peaceful protesters tonight, they are tapping into a vein in America 2014.
Tapping it, but not in a positive way. The way to achieve something is at the election box. You are trying to imply that has been denied but it has not.
Waving a few signs achieves nothing and will be quickly forgotten once people wake up to the reality of what has gone on.
No doubt Micheal Brown will be added to the list of names that the Benjamin Crumps of the world will list off as "proof" of discrimination even though it's been debunked.
There is a good TED talk about the use of non-lethal equipment - it doesn't work as you imagine, slightly counter intuitive:
Pepper spray and tasers are in increasing use by both police and military, and more exotic non-lethal weapons such as heat rays are in the works. In this talk, ethicist Stephen Coleman explores the unexpected consequences of their introduction and asks some challenging questions.
https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_coleman_the_moral_dangers_of_non_lethal_weapons?language=en
Ferguson looks like it's being burned to the ground. Sad. The community was used.
Again we keep hearing the same complaint / accusations being made: "this is an example of how black lives are not valued"
I think people genuinely don't understand and seem unable to comprehend that something can happen to a black person and it actually notbe because of their color.
We've seen it with Michael Brown, we saw it with Trayvon Martin. In both cases the reason for their death was attributed to their blackness when it was actually due to a combination of stupidity, aggression and criminality. They died because of those things, not because they are black. But their names will still be read off as examples of the latter.
So why do they believe it's due to color? It doesn't help when there are leaders and representatives repeating these lies over and over again and kids are brought up indoctrinated with it.
Until these racist attitudes change and people stop insisting on viewing everything through skin color then I think black peope will continue to make their situation worse than it should be. Interpreting every incident and determining guilt and innocence purely on the colors of the actors involved is why support for the issues among non-blacks is low and they are possibly mistrusting of the motivations and sincerity behind some of the claims.
