All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Yesterday, watching the news in TV, one person who was interviewed suggested defunding the Police. Saying that instead of paying Police, the monsy shoudl go into community programs.

Okay, I understand the hostile feelings towards the police, but what do you do when there is a real need for them? Without police, wouldn't that just leave the door open to all sorts of unchecked crime?

I think there has to be a middle ground, starting with changing the recruiting, training, and cultural mindset of the Police nation wide.

[worstblogever]

Cop shoves down old man walking with a cane: https://mobile.twitter.com/bubbaprog...08354821206016

Seattle PD used pepper spray on a nine year old girl.



America is the Stanford Prison Experiment on a national scale right now.

[worstblogever]

Yesterday, watching the news in TV, one person who was interviewed suggested defunding the Police. Saying that instead of paying Police, the monsy shoudl go into community programs.

Okay, I understand the hostile feelings towards the police, but what do you do when there is a real need for them?

No no... you defund the budget they're using on military equipment. When you saw a cop sitting atop a mobile artillery carrier with a sniper rifle at Ferguson and the reports of police using LRADs on the crowd... THAT budget.

That's not to protect and serve anybody. That's military-grade weapons to conquer someone.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Yesterday, watching the news in TV, one person who was interviewed suggested defunding the Police. Saying that instead of paying Police, the monsy shoudl go into community programs.

Okay, I understand the hostile feelings towards the police, but what do you do when there is a real need for them? Without police, wouldn't that just leave the door open to all sorts of unchecked crime?

Some people are more interested at lashing out than thinking through the consequences of their actions. Anti-intellectualism isn't only on the right, either, which encourages this type of thinking.

I think there has to be a middle ground, starting with changing the recruiting, training, and cultural mindset of the Police nation wide.

Agreed. Organisations like Black Lives Matter are on the right track, but it's going to take more than them to create the impact required to make that change.

[Gray Lensman]

Yesterday, watching the news in TV, one person who was interviewed suggested defunding the Police. Saying that instead of paying Police, the monsy shoudl go into community programs.

Okay, I understand the hostile feelings towards the police, but what do you do when there is a real need for them? Without police, wouldn't that just leave the door open to all sorts of unchecked crime?

I think there has to be a middle ground, starting with changing the recruiting, training, and cultural mindset of the Police nation wide.

In some places the police need a little defunding. In Minneapolis, the police department takes up 36% of the city budget, making it the 9th most bloated police budget in the country (as a % of the total city budget). Chicago is #2 at 40%, and Oakland comes in at 41%. Imagine over those cities only spent 20% or under, and used the savings to improve the infrastructure where it was needed most.

New York City, which is I am pretty sure has the biggest city police force in the country, only spends 8% of the city budget on the police department.

[CaptainEurope]

Yesterday, watching the news in TV, one person who was interviewed suggested defunding the Police. Saying that instead of paying Police, the monsy shoudl go into community programs.

Okay, I understand the hostile feelings towards the police, but what do you do when there is a real need for them? Without police, wouldn't that just leave the door open to all sorts of unchecked crime?

I think there has to be a middle ground, starting with changing the recruiting, training, and cultural mindset of the Police nation wide.

Maybe something like "denazification" in my country after the war, just done more thoroughly?
Get warrants to go through EVERY cop's social media and browser history. Interview minorities they dealt with professionally and privately. Fire every racist you find and ban them from working in security or law enforcement for at least 20 years. Build a new force from the skeleton crew you have left.

No no... you defund the budget they're using on military equipment. When you saw a cop sitting atop a mobile artillery carrier with a sniper rifle at Ferguson and the reports of police using LRADs on the crowd... THAT budget.

That's not to protect and serve anybody. That's military-grade weapons to conquer someone.

... and that.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Chris Simcox, a primary challenger to Sen. John McCain in the 2010 elections who ran to McCain’s right, particularly on the issue of immigration. Simcox did so because he just so happened to be a co-founder of an anti-immigrant militia group known as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (the other half being mass murderer, Neo-Nazi, and aspiring Arizona state legislator J.T. Ready). Simcox, prior to running for office, was interviewed in a documentary called “USA Under Attack” where he openly talked of revolution, and lynching politicians in Washington, D.C. He also accused John McCain, of all people, of having ties to ACORN, and was a frequent guest of Alex Jones on InfoWars and J.D. Hayworth on Newsmax to rant about McCain’s supposed soft stance on immigration. His campaign came to an abrupt end, however, after Simcox went on the lam from law enforcement, after he was accused of molesting three little girls, one of them his ten-year-old daughter. He was arrested in 2013, and was found guilty, being sentenced to prison for quite a long stretch.


It was in both 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Tennessee State Senator John Stevens, who shortly after South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from their state capitol, was dismayed to hear a small minority of Democrats in the Tennessee state legislature then begin debating whether or not the state should change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park, named after the Confederate general who went on to be the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Stevens went ballistic, and said it would lead to a slippery slope that would lead to people acting like ISIS, saying, “I’m certainly not going to defend Gen. Forrest. I just think it’s a slippery slope when you start changing names and taking down statues. What separates us from ISIS? Because that’s what they do, they go around and tear down history in those nations that they’ve conquered. If that’s what America is about now, then it concerns me.”

Alright, let’s unpack that a little, just for giggles. Comparing any dissenting opinion to the worst of humanity, be it ISIS, Nazis, or terrorists of whatever kind… is just terrible discourse in that whole Godwinn’s law vein. But that’s not even quite correct, in any aspect. ISIS destroys historical landmarks of religious significance, as part of their radically perverted views of Islam. So for anyone to be attacking Nathan Bedford Forrest, he would have to be held as some sort of figure of revered spiritual significance. Unless Stevens was saying he felt Bedford was that sort of icon…

Anyway, John Stevens has been involved in some of the most ridiculous legislation to come out of Tennessee the past several years, including voting to bring back the electric chair as a method of execution, voting for TRAP laws to try and shut down every abortion clinic in the state, voting for a highly unconstitutional measure to make the Bible the state book, trying to block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the state, and voting to allow for firearms to be carried in parks around the state.

Wouldn’t you know it, Stevens was re-elected to a second term in 2016 on the benefit of getting to run for re-election unopposed. He continued wasting time and money on quests that are… well, of a bigoted nature. In March of 2017, he became one of a few Tennessee State legislators to file a lawsuit against the federal government, trying to use the Tenth Amendment and claim “State’s Rights” like Republicans do… because they’re upset that the state will have to resettle Syrian refugees. In August of 2017, he tried to re-write language in state marriage law to better gain footing to attack the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, and not recognize same sex marriages. Just in January of 2020 he tried supporting “religious freedom” legislation that would allow adoption agencies to deny adoptive rights to same sex couples based on their ”religious beliefs”.


This homophobic, Islamophobic, Confederate monument defending nitwit will have to only defend his seat in the 2020 elections against relative unknown challenger Casey Hood, and then survive in the general election against Independent candidate Yahweh Yahweh… whose name is the Jewish word for “God” twice, so... we think unless it’s the actual lord above, he’s a long shot, and John Stevens will remain in office until 2024.

[Tami]

CHAOS AGENTS EXIST: This is the man who was firing hunting arrows at protesters. He was stopped & assaulted by a group of white protesters. It was WAS CAUGHT ON VIDEO. Observe how easy he claims it was Black men & that he was there supporting them. NOTIFY POLICE OF ARMED PEOPLE.

Twitter Link

[sammy_hansen]

This is America.

@chadloder, via Twitter.

“National Guard marches through a quiet residential neighborhood in #Minneapolis, screaming at citizens to get inside.

Soldiers stop to point their guns at residents on their balcony.

They yell “LIGHT THEM UP” as they fire riot control rounds at them“

https://t.co/NAsCxmeBlp

Edit: more and more accounts of journalists being targeted by the police.

[Tami]

One of our @latimes colleagues, attacked by police in Minneapolis after identifying herself as a journalist. One of many journalists injured, accosted or arrested in the U.S. tonight while trying to do their jobs.

Twitter Link

De Blasio just now on NY1: “If those protesters had just gotten out of the way, and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle we would not be talking about this situation.”

Twitter Link

I’m hit in the leg by a rubber bullet but am fine. State Police supported by National guard fired unprovoked into an entirely peaceful rally

Twitter Link

Journalists have been targeted by both police & protesters: @KaitlinRustWAVE
shot w/ pepper balls in Louisville, @knxpete punched by a group of 5 in Los Angeles. What does this mean for press freedoms?

Twitter Link

[shooshoomanjoe]

We have the police attacking/arresting the free press and now this:

Police Vehicles Plow Into Cordon of Protesters in Brooklyn

Two police SUVs plowed into a cordon of protesters who had been blocking the vehicles and peppering them with debris in Brooklyn on May 30.

The incident happened during demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd. In this video, filmed near the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and St Mark’s Avenue, an NYPD SUV can be seen blocked by a row of protesters behind a barricade. Various objects are thrown at the vehicle before a second police SUV pulls alongside.

Both vehicles then accelerate into the group of demonstrators, knocking several people over. Separate video of the same incident shows some protesters being thrown back several feet following the initial push from one SUV.

At a press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the media that the footage was “upsetting”, but it was also “inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers.”

Protests and riots erupted in cities across the US following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25. Credit: @chieffymac11 via Storyful

I can understand the stress and frustration cops must be going through right now but to drive two SUV into a crowd of protesters? Things are getting out of hand.

[worstblogever]

We have the police attacking/arresting the free press and now this:

Police Vehicles Plow Into Cordon of Protesters in Brooklyn



I can understand the stress and frustration cops must be going through right now but to drive two SUV into a crowd of protesters?

That's a Charlottesville move. And the defense the ***hole who drove into the crowd claimed at one point, from the mayor.

Unacceptable.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

There were several protests under the Obama administration but they weren't widespread nor so chaotic as what we've seen these two days. I remember Obama was unifying the nation during those protests. I don't see trump doing that. I see trump doing the opposite. I can't help but wonder if these riots wouldn't be like this if we had a different president.

It’s no secret race relations in this country are at an all time low the likes of which haven’t existed for well over a half century, and yeah, Trump is fanning the flames with his endless rhetoric. I was only a child and too young to remember the race riots of the mid to late 60’s, but this sure has that same nightmarish feel. Meanwhile, there is no one in the upper echelons of government (i.e., the White House) who can take to the airwaves and plead for calm from the populace, Trump damn sure won’t, he clearly doesn’t give a ****, not after his having parroted that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” diatribe. It’s up to local governments to do all they can to settle the waters, because we ain’t getting that help from Washington.

[babyblob]

The thing is Trump does not have the mental capacity to try and calm things down. As president it is his job to try and heal the country and bring people together at a time like this. But that is not in his wheelhouse. He sees this as a chance to attack people he views as his enemies and try and push his agenda. I would not be surprised if deep doewn he is happy about what is going on. I wonder how many programs that Trump and his ilk are going to try and push because of this to hold people down even more.

[kidfresh512]

Maybe something like "denazification" in my country after the war, just done more thoroughly?
Get warrants to go through EVERY cop's social media and browser history. Interview minorities they dealt with professionally and privately. Fire every racist you find and ban them from working in security or law enforcement for at least 20 years. Build a new force from the skeleton crew you have left.



... and that.

It sounds extreme but honestly I think something like this IS necessary to end the entrenched systemic racism. And root out the racists in civil service. Outside parties not tied to the unions or beholden to the departments themselves. We wouldn't have known there were 18 complaints against Chauvin prior to him Killing George Floyd.

Derek Chauvin in custody; other 3 Minneapolis officers lie low

They don't police themselves, the known racism isn't an automatic disqualifier for the job like it should be. Changes to recruiting and training, racial bias etc are one step. But, anyone can fake going through that and still get these jobs.

The thing is Trump does not have the mental capacity to try and calm things down. As president it is his job to try and heal the country and bring people together at a time like this. But that is not in his wheelhouse. He sees this as a chance to attack people he views as his enemies and try and push his agenda. I would not be surprised if deep doewn he is happy about what is going on. I wonder how many programs that Trump and his ilk are going to try and push because of this to hold people down even more.

Trump loves this. Look at all the news coverage and headlines now compared to before George Floyds murder. Coronoavirus death toll, government inaction isn't the main headline. The completely inept response was hitting his poll numbers than anything else. But now race wars and mass destruction riles up his base they have the old narrative that "liberal cities" are crime ridden and will bring that to the rest of the country if you elect more dems.