Jump to content

General US Politics


Ansem

Recommended Posts

3 minutes ago, Clear World said:

Not funny, but I actually do live in the area. The recent death of Daunte Wright due to a cop mistaken a gun for a taser only happened a few blocks away from where I live.

Yeah.  News is a lot easier to digest when your memories aren't telling you "hey remember when you were with your friends over there?" while the newscaster is talking about someone who died in the area.

4 minutes ago, Clear World said:

But as I said, only a part of me want that outcome. I rather see massive police reform & reduction, with money be allocated to other social services, without the need of riot/protest... but...

That part of you is natural, but it also needs to be sternly reminded that violence is the absolute last resort, not the first.  I'd rather see the police retrained as a de-escalation force.

3 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Sorry, what do you mean what happened? The backlash?

Police reaction to BLM was, uh, poor.  If I want to be diplomatic about it.  If we look at a truly organized riot from the left, it will probably end very badly.  I could go off about what's happening on the far right, but I don't think it's good for anyone's mental health.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 14.4k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

1 minute ago, eclipse said:

Police reaction to BLM was, uh, poor.  If I want to be diplomatic about it.  If we look at a truly organized riot from the left, it will probably end very badly.  I could go off about what's happening on the far right, but I don't think it's good for anyone's mental health.

OH RIGHT! Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. That slipped my mind. That would definitely end up as a detractor for some people, although if they felt like they would actually change anything I can see how they would do it anyway. But I guess that would apply to any protests/riots. And yeah, don’t do anything bad for your mental health.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, eclipse said:

That part of you is natural, but it also needs to be sternly reminded that violence is the absolute last resort, not the first.  I'd rather see the police retrained as a de-escalation force.

Of course I want the same, but this has been advocated within Minnesota area for decades now. We had a the president of the Minneapolis Police Department who was a huge opposition to any reform in the police department (like making it mandatory to have body cams), someone who is huge favor of 'Warrior training' and avid Trump support (he literally was on stage with Trump doing his rallies) with a lot of the police within the union who supported and fought to keep him in his position for the past six years (especially within he past year). He only just retired late Jan this year.

There are a lot of signs that does not bold well for police making any reform within themselves without a lot of external pressure forcing them to reform.

Edited by Clear World
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Clear World said:

Of course I want the same, but this has been advocated within Minnesota area for decades now. We had a the president of the Minneapolis Police Department who was a huge opposition to any reform in the police department (like making it mandatory to have body cams), someone who is huge favor of 'Warrior training' and avid Trump support (he literally was on stage with Trump doing his rallies) with a lot of the police within the union who supported and fought to keep him in his position for the past six years (especially within he past year). He only just retired late Jan this year.

There are a lot of signs that does not bold well for police making any reform within themselves without a lot of external pressure forcing them to reform.

Yeah, that's irritating.  I'm not sure how much we citizens can do, besides write letters to our lawmakers, vote out people who don't support police reform, or maybe get involved with political activism (but do a lot of research before diving into that).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched some of the prosecution side of the closing arguments yesterday and it seems like they have a really strong case for a murder conviction, but I am still holding my breath because the jury needs to be unanimous.

I am watching the news on television right now, so I am still waiting for the verdict. I hope he is guilty for all three charges. One of the reporters spoke to a local protester outside the court house, and she is clearly frustrated and upset, and you can really feel her emotions pouring out of her words. I hope George Floyd gets justice.

- - - ‐ - - -

Edit: Just heard the verdict on television.

Guilty on all three charges! I feel so relieved. I am glad for George Floyd's family to find justice.

Edited by XRay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Admittedly, it surprises me... but well, ain't complaining.

Surprises you? Why? I mean the jury was really diverse and there was the whole year of media coverage before then with the popular opinion (and so the one being presented the most) being very obvious. I thought this was most likely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Admittedly, it surprises me... but well, ain't complaining.

Yeah, I was afraid that there is that one juror who is biased for the police and is hesitant to send a white man to prison. Thankfully, that did not happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Sooks said:

Surprises you? Why? I mean the jury was really diverse and there was the whole year of media coverage before then with the popular opinion (and so the one being presented the most) being very obvious. I thought this was most likely.

One can never be so sure.

In any case, that's in the past now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I fear is, police using this verdict as an excuse to claim they are making progress in reforming themselves, and that him were just a bad apple, so that they don't need to make major reform within their program. This is what annoyed me while listening to the trial. The prosecution and many officers who testified claim it was obvious that what he did was wrong, but yet, there were 3 other cops at the scene the entire time who didn't step in. They instead allowed this blatant disregard of a human life act to happen. You can even argue, assisted with the act.

Sad thing is, my sister in-law  knows one of those 2 younger officers who was there. They went to the same high school and hung in the same social groups. Says he was a pretty nice guy, and the two of them got along. And I actually like my sister-in law so I don't think she is trying to lie for him. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Verdict was a surprise. Leftists and folks threatening/suggesting there should be riots if there was no conviction need to calm the fuck down and while Maxine Waters' speech on the matter was a little divisive, the GOPers looking to censure need to sit down and shut the fuck up.

  

28 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

But it is what it is, I guess. Only question is if the other three will have  same fate.

My money's on them getting no prison sentence.

Edited by Dr. Tarrasque
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

Well, it certainly makes one think twice about becoming a police officer.

 

But it is what it is, I guess. Only question is if the other three will have  same fate.

 

Annnnnd a newcaster is pissed off over the verdict.

Did you watch the video? He's not pissed off over the verdict, he's pissed off that this it takes this much effort to get justice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that was a pleasant surprise.  Was thinking that he'd be found guilty of at least one of them, but wasn't too confident on all three.

Can't wait to see how the appeals turn out.  No way the defense is going to take this one lying down - not with the media fervor behind it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

My money's on them getting no prison sentence.

I wish they would have stuck with the original plan with trialing all 4 of them at the same time. If they were all in trial at the same time with what happened in this trial, those 3 other cops would've gotten Aiding & Abetting for both Second-Degree murder & Second-Degree manslaughter (which can go up to 40 years of prison). If it was obvious that if was 'completely against procedures & against training' for one, than those three should've have also noticed that same issue as well.

Since they are being trial at a different time, I wonder if the prosecution will do the same in this case and will active officers say the same thing? One officer is easy to label as just one of those few bad apples. Claiming that all 4 officers who just happened to be at the scene to be all bad apples is appears problematic for the police force as a whole. I hope so, and I believe they will. I think they deserve Aiding & Abetting for both Second-Degree murder & Second-Degree manslaughter for their unwillingness to act. Police needs to hold their own colleague to a higher stander, and if they won't do that, then we need to hold them accountable for not doing so.

Though, I still feel bad for those two younger officers who got stuck in that terrible situation, but they should still get that verdict.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Sooks said:

Surprises you? Why? I mean the jury was really diverse and there was the whole year of media coverage before then with the popular opinion (and so the one being presented the most) being very obvious. I thought this was most likely.

Police never get convicted for murder on the job. This is really an outlier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Excellen Browning said:

Police never get convicted for murder on the job. This is really an outlier.

Yes I know, this could even be the second ever time an officer has been convicted for a death while on duty in Minnesota. But I still felt hopeful for this one, the massive media attention helped with the fact that there wasn’t a “he could have been drawing a weapon so I just shot and that was that” but instead a more horrific event of kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while he said “I can’t breathe”, reasonable doubt on this one would be very challenging imo. Plus they usually don’t even make it to trial, I mean if no one had been around to record his death we probably wouldn’t know how it actually happened.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know how the saying about bad apples go: a few of them spoil the bunch.

Bad apples in the police department can make even the "good apples" go bad, through peer pressure  and just becoming used to all the shit, or because all the good ones quit. It's also possible that the police department as it is designed is a "bad barrel" in which everyone who stays will go bad eventually. It's a term I learned in a psychology book that I hope I'm using correctly, but perhaps policing as it is -- with the way they're trained and how cops often "stick together" and how complaints against them are often dismissed or ignored and whatnot, cops' implicit or explicit racism and biases apparently being allowed to exist - might just make it inherently "bad".

(And just so it's clear, I'm not saying all cops are bad or that the idea of police is terrible. I'm saying maybe we're doing something wrong in the U.S. with how we've designed our specific policing system.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...