Posts by Marvin Shilmer

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

It's sad that young kids have to exposed to such treatment so young.

I winced when I heard the bikini gal crying that she wanted her momma. But you know what? She should have listened to the officer and followed his instruction to disperse. It would have taken her only a few seconds to do that. But what does she do? She meanders around. Takes forever. Has to be instructed to leave multiple times. Then when she has nearly left the scene what does she do? She turns around and starts walking right back to the scene.

I'm sorry that she found herself in a harsh circumstance reduced to crying for her momma. But she was asking for a dose of reality and she got it. Based on how she responded to authority in this instance, my best guess is that her momma failed to give her reality lessons earlier in life. Now she's got a dose, and I have news for her. I don't care what color your skin in, or what your nationality is, or what you gender is, life is full of cold hard realities for 99.99 percent of earth's human population. We cannot live in a self-centered world and expect everyone to just put up with us no matter the circumstance. Police officers are not social workers and they are not baby sitters. When someone asks for their presence on the emergency line they respond accordingly for public safety. If nothing else, the bikini gal should have just shut up. But, no. She just could not do it. Then she met a harsh reality that everything is not about her. And she cried for momma. I hope she does that some more, and I hope this time she does it in momma's direct and immediate presence so this time momma can hopefully offer her some good advice and help her realize there are consequences to actions no matter who we are.

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

However with respect to how the officer escalated the event we can surely conclude that the outcome was in spite of the officers actions, and not because of them.

Maybe, maybe not. And there lay the conundrum. The officer at issue was one of several, and all of them looked busy to me. They were running one way, then another. There were people everywhere, several of which were blatantly ignoring requests by policy to leave or sit down. Oh, and any one of these individuals could have been packing a weapon, something law enforcement is well aware of.

Remember the bikini gal? Watch her in the video. How many times did she have to be instructed to leave? How long does it take someone to leave the scene? Why does she find it necessary to start walking back toward the scene? What is wrong with this gal? If she does not want to be confronted by police then she needs to stop confronting the police and just leave.

So did this scene end well in part because of this officers actions, or despite his actions. I can't say for sure and no one can. What I can say is that based purely on the video I don't find his actions particularly disturbing. More disturbing to me is what the misbehavior of those teens and adults tells me about the society we live in today. It's no wonder people want to have gated communities!!! It's no wonder people are getting fed up. Where are the parents? The police office at issue is not the one who started this thing. He was called to help mop up behind someone else who started a melee. This is the kind of crap we're thrusting our police officers into the middle of, and it's only getting worse because of population density.

Clue: If a police officer says sit down then SIT DOWN.

Another clue: If a police officer says leave the scene then BACK OFF. Keep your camera rolling if you have one. But BACK OFF.

Law enforcement is not called to the scene to babysit whinny "I-want-my-momma!" teenagers. Law enforcement is called to a scene to maintain safety and keep order.

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

If you review the video again you'll see that when the officer turn towards the boy that ran up to him the boy quickly starts to back off ...

Watch the video in real time. This cop was reacting. He was not analyzing and choosing a course. When he felt his personal space being invaded by someone other than a uniformed officer he reacted immediately to preserve his own safety.

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

So is assuming that because of that rabid officers actions, there was a safe outcome where everyone went home alive.

No assumptions from me on that point. I'm sure the same end result could have been achieved by an infinite number of sequences of actions. We just happen to know part of the sequence in this case (the part videoed) and we know the outcome was that no one was seriously injured of killed.

I'll add that, based strictly on the video, I was impressed that the officer reacted as quickly as he did to an immediate threat approaching him from behind. I was particularly impressed that his reaction had him pull his gun yet apparently never place his finger on the trigger. He didn't have time to analyze anything. He only had time to react. He reacted to preserve his safety, yet to also refrain from the next step before firing a round, which is placing one's finger onto the trigger.

35

My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

by cappytan in

so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

Marvin Shilmer

I felt betrayed.

And for good reason. All JWs have been betrayed by the Watchtower organization, if for no other reason than this:

Watchtower taught us there were valid, rational reasons for answers (doctrines) that it imposed upon us all under pain of its organized communal shunning policy, and we believed this was true. Yet we find out when Watchtower is asked hard and precise questions designed specifically to learn the reason for a specific doctrine/position the result is a non-answer, no-reason-given response.

That's betrayal.

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

It is just as likely that the situation would have resolved itself peacefully and without further incident...

That is commonly known as Monday morning quarterbacking.

Officers engage in lots of training because in any given moment reaction occurs rather than analysis.

The end officers want is resolution without injury if possible.

Had the then present teenagers and full-grown adults (it was not just teenagers present in the video!) acted promptly to police request to either sit down on the ground or leave we'd have not seen the bikini gal tossed to the ground and we'd have not seen an officer draw his weapon on multiple males aggressively entering his personal space from behind.

Law enforcement officers are not baby sitters. We pay them to deal with messy stuff, and to keep themselves and the public safe. When we call the police via 911 we are not asking for someone to come counsel teenagers; we are asking someone (in this case) to come intervene in a dangerous situation that involves a whole lot of individuals, any one of which could have a concealed weapon and often do have one.

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

During the video officer Casebolt is seen using his radio just moments before the incident with the bikini clad gal and the males approaching him from behind followed by drawing his sidearm. To my knowledge this radio transmission has not be released to the public, or any other communications with dispatch. Have I missed something or has this bit of audio been released and I'm just unaware of it?

305

McKinney Texas pool party?

by Marvin Shilmer in

so today i was asked my thoughts on the pool party incident in mcminney, texas.

my response: it shows a clash of expectations.

i saw police officers who expected citizens to listen to and follow instructions.

Marvin Shilmer

Just because a bunch of teens are being disrespectful doesn't mean the cops should start pulling guns.

I didn't see a policeman pull a gun because teens were being disrespectful.

I saw an officer pull a gun because he was being approached aggressively from behind by multiple males moving into his personal space, one of which moved his hand behind his back where weapons are often retrieved from.

35

My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

by cappytan in

so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

Marvin Shilmer

I talked to my Dad about what I had found. He said, "Son, we have to ask ourselves, do we have faith that what the Bible says is true? If archeology conflicts with the Bible, we have to side with the scriptures."

More often than not that bit of advice represents a false bifurcation. In the case of Watchtower's chronology it's not as simple as either we accept the Bible or archaeology because Watchtower's interpretation of biblical text could also be wrong. The 607 notion is based on a biblical statement about 70 years, yet when Watchtower wants it asserts that stated periods (e.g., 70 years) are general and not intended to be precise when in text and context the period is presented as though precise.

You know this already from your research I'm sure, but I see this false piece of reasoning offered all the time to JWs doing the hard work of research so I was compelled once again to keyboard it out.

35

My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

by cappytan in

so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

Marvin Shilmer

I decided to study the book with a passion, confirming everything from independent sources so I could inculcate the teachings with conviction to my student.

At one time the Watchtower organization instructed its appointed elders they should not only know answers to the "study questions" but should know the reasons for the answers.

That cause problems when elders started attempting to do that and found what you found.

Watchtower subsequently stopped giving the instruction to elders that they should know the reasons for the answers.