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Agent X

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Everything posted by Agent X

  1. It's become redundant. So, I'm pretty sure nothing is going to go down - at least involving me.
  2. No selective awareness whatsoever. I was very specific and I included the appropriate qualifiers. It's not what you want to hear but I don't care. Anybody with any objectivity can recognize that there was not enough evidence to support any definitive conclusion against the officer. It doesn't matter how much YOU are deeply affected by police brutality and YOU want to get rid of police brutality.
  3. According to some of the witnesses and the cop and supported as an explanation of events by the forensic evidence - Brown was moving toward the officer and his hands were not up with palms facing the officer as Brown's friend claimed. The officer claimed he was being charged at. Some witnesses agreed.
  4. I just glossed over what you wrote. You and I fundamentally have a different idea of what trials are for. Apparently, you are fixated on their use for Public Relations and think that a trial will meaningfully change public opinion. I think you are wrong on both counts. I don't believe in show trials and I believe confirmation bias says a trial wouldn't have changed anyone's mind. As to the particulars of the case, you are doing a very good job at ignoring WHY Brown was shot. Brown was shot because he wrestled and punched with a cop while the cop was in his car. He didn't get shot because he was big or black or because of cigarillos. Even witnesses who thought the cop was wrong agreed there was a fight at the cop car. If you start winning a fight with a cop he will use his gun to keep you from using it.
  5. You sound a little bitter. And you're dehumanizing somebody, you know, like some cops do to poor people.
  6. Are you being intentionally obtuse? He knew the trial wouldn't go anywhere because it's the Prosecutor's job to know what evidence he needs to get a conviction and it was obvious the evidence wouldn't provide a conviction. I don't buy your contention that trials defuse issues in the first place but I will emphatically say that the outcome of a "no guilty" verdict in a trial over this incident would have sparked as much or more violence. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing. If you are getting an impression of desperation from the cop because he didn't want to go to trial then you and I live on another planet. If I get accused of something I didn't do and I can quash it before it goes to trial I quash it. Trials are very hard on the soul and occasionally are mishandled. Of course, I won't go parachuting or bungee jumping either.
  7. Here's another one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMoTfLykVcA
  8. That's a pretty good analysis of where quite a few police are. Our system bends over backwards to provide any plausible justification. I remember watching a video on Youtube. A cop car is following a car with two African American males to a fast food restaurant very closely. The brothers (they are brothers) are very aware the cops were tailing them and look annoyed and puzzled by it. They go in to order food. The cops come in behind them and ask them what the problem was. They said they don't know what they are talking about. Eventually, the brothers ask the cops why they are there. The cops say to eat so the brothers turn around to order. Next thing, the cops are demanding ID. The brothers want to know why and the cops don't bother to tell them. Eventually, one cop puts his hands on the chest of one of the brothers and the brother brushes his hands away and steps back. With his hands now spread to a few inches wider than his shoulders but close to his shoulders, palms out, and making no move toward the officer - the cop punches him and then punches his brother. And then it's on. When it was reviewed by Detroit PD they said the officer was justified because when the young man reacted to being pushed by brushing the cop's hands away he assaulted the officer. So, if cops hassle you, get in your face, and start pushing on you WITH NO REASON - and you brush the hand away from your chest - they get to hit you. It's messed up. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMaB2OkU1TY
  9. Geez, just celebrate the win. There's no need to wish decades of hardship on numbnuts. He resigned to avoid being fired. Good. We don't need to tar and feather him and set the wolves on him.
  10. That's the sad thing. The witnesses didn't sound particularly credible to me. We've got the running buddy who was with him when he's shoving a small man around. We've got a couple of women who may have seen some or all of it and who changed their story immediately after the preliminary autopsy. This stuff wasn't hard to find but people's CONFIRMATION BIAS set in and they started tuning anything out that didn't fit with the bias. Michael Brown is a sweet, lovable kid (who is huge and commits violent crimes against a storekeeper). Michael Brown's hands were up (but other witnesses said they weren't). The cop tried to pull Michael Brown into the cop car through the window (which one really ought to visualize before they don't get a little skeptical). So you get knuckleheads making stuff up about what they thought they saw. Then you've got the Law and Order crew who ignore the fact that Wilson's explanation of why he got so close to Brown is... stupid. One of them decides to take it further and put out a pic of some other victim and pass it off as the cop. Meanwhile, everyone forms an opinion without doing any digging. If they want to push police brutality they go listen to MSNBC and read DailyKos and get the spin they desperately want. If they want to push a hero cop puts down a black thug they go to Fox News and read DrudgeReport and the Blaze to get the spin they desperately want. Eventually, when it all comes out, the wrong side (in this case the more wrong side) has invested too much and now they have to pretend they didn't screw up. So they chant, "Hands up, don't shoot!" when it's pretty obvious from forensics that scenario didn't happen. It's pathetic. Every few years somebody gets shot down by multiple cops without having done anything and without a weapon and it doesn't catch fire like this did, a case which should have had everybody be careful about jumping to conclusions as the first factoids dripped in.
  11. Does that mean you pick the wrong incident and portray it as something it isn't to make your point? Which destroys your credibility with people who aren't so invested in your cause that they think there are other things that matter too and makes you sound delusional when you circle around inconvenient facts. I want to rein in police brutality as much as anyone. I'm just not interest in making scapegoats to do it.
  12. Starlin had a thing for Super Space Opera. Might check out Dreadstar and DC's alien Starman. Could also look at the old Micronauts Comics for ideas. I wouldn't worry about a label. Build the characters the way they need to be built and design commensurate challenges.
  13. I tried to edit that post. I thought it was "short". For some reason, I couldn't. There is a massive incongruity with claiming you have a bias for justice. Your outrage toward the prosecutor just screams "grudge" to me. There was no meaningful difference in the autopsies. There were a host of witnesses who saw all sorts of things. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/newly-released-witness-testimony-tell-us-michael-brown-shooting/ Of course, some witnesses changed their story after the preliminary autopsy report, witnesses who had to tone down their description of what happened. We've got a young man who just threw around a store owner and is wandering down the middle of the road and a police officer who tells him to go to the curb to walk and it goes downhill from there. I know that a lot of people "voted" to make this incident the rallying point against police brutality, especially against minorities, and that gives everyone who desperately wants to change the system a motivation for endless special pleading against Wilson and for Brown. I looked into it and I can say I do not for a minute believe Wilson should have gone to trial. Oh, and I DO understand why people are so angry (and it's not about Brown and Wilson). That's why I can pick up on a lot of smart people willfully ignoring information they don't want to hear. I am not impressed with a militarized police force. I have witnessed shoddy police work. I was hassled by a cop for no reason other than being a teen. Once, I was an adult I thought that was probably over with. However, I discovered having a beard and walking on the sidewalk at 10 at night gives a cop a reason to hassle you as well. I've read up on cops who are too free using force. I've seen the footage of a man getting shot for following a cop's directions to produce his ID. I've read up on no-knock warrants on the wrong house leading to accidental death. I read up on the predatory policing in St. Louis and even talked to a friend of mine who lives in the area. I just wish people would have picked their incident more carefully.
  14. Okay, so in the name of public order you put an individual through a show trial that you know won't go anywhere AND you provide an expectation on the part of the aggrieved that "this is for realz" AND, you know, you sell it too. It's not like you can't charge him without claiming you have a strong enough case. So, when he is found not guilty and the riots REALLY BLOW UP - How's your public order?
  15. By the way, some of the witnesses against Wilson had already changed their story before the Grand Jury. Also, what witness holds more weight? The one that agrees with physical evidence or the one that doesn't?
  16. You claim to understand the legal system. Opinion: It is wrong to try someone for a crime when a typical prosecutor knows the burden of proof cannot be met. What I read is just talking in circles. Let me sum up your position as I understand it: It's okay to try someone for a crime the prosecutor doesn't think the accused committed. That you are doing the person a kindness by letting him exonerate himself. - Is that your position? Would you prefer an accusation against you to die with the Prosecutor or the Grand Jury or would you prefer for it to go to trial?
  17. I think that's twisted logic. If I'm a prosecutor and I know that the evidence does not support a trial but people are rioting because they think they know better, I don't go ahead and have the trial. I believe what the prosecutor attempted is called a "compromise". Bring all the evidence out in a Grand Jury hearing and let the chips fall where they may. Contrary to some here, a prosecutor is NOT obligated to put every weak case before a grand jury and stack the evidence to get an indictment. It's a no-win. If the prosecutor had just come out and said there wasn't enough evidence for a trial he would have been accused of a cover-up. He calls a Grand Jury to show the evidence to "regular folks" and is accused of being manipulative by not "loading the box" against the officer. It's twisted logic to me for someone to argue that it would have been better for the grand jury to be ignorant of counter-evidence and that's exactly what they are promoting. I've read up on the various witnesses and the physical evidence. It's pretty clear the officer could not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. What I found is that he was guilty of poor judgment. His own account makes it clear he's not the brightest bulb. Why would you, as a cop, try to get out of you car within reach of someone who was a possible belligerent? I think Brown annoyed him. I think Wilson thoughtlessly put himself within reach of Brown and then Brown assaulted him. Wilson, I speculate, put himself in a position of vulnerability which led to massive escalation. So, I'm happy he's not a police officer anymore. He didn't murder Brown but I believe a more competent officer could have avoided what happened. (Similar issues with Tamir Rice - What's with Cops driving cars right up to a suspect like that?)
  18. I don't think that's fair to the Prosecutor, that "wasn't man enough" bit. It appears, from his statements, that he was attempting to use the Grand Jury to communicate to the public that the evidence was properly considered. I think his view was that he was trying to minimize suspicion about why the officer wasn't going to be tried. Anyone who has read the physical evidence and the conflicting witness testimony knows that wasn't a winnable case for the prosecution. By the time the Grand Jury made its decision, propagandistic thinking had set into the camps. Everything would be interpreted in the worst light for the other side and the best for the same side.
  19. It's not hard to google up details about grand juries. If you like them so be it. I don't. While I am very unhappy with the state of police work in this country (and the legal system overall) I am not going to assume every time a police officer shoots someone they "planted" the gun on them.
  20. Some of you are starting to sound like Robespierre and we all know how that turned out. As for grand juries - I invite you to do some reading and find out how easy it is to be charged with perjury or contempt, etc.
  21. Hey there, long time no see. I can say there is a great deal of consensus that police training isn't all that great and that there are many instances when police choose to escalate when it is not demonstrably needed. There seems to be a divide with how to "feel" about this and how to view the nature of the average police officer's "soul". On the subject of the Greater St. Louis Area, I had read a long article about a fairly unique problem in the area. Evidently, Missouri law is fast and loose about the incorporation of municipalities. Over the decades, tiny little municipalities have been created as another option to "white flight". These little municipalities can't support themselves so they have moved to predatory policing a la the speed trap town - only it's a bunch of them right by each other - a recipe for disaster. As far as the Grand Jury in Ferguson. I am convinced the Prosecutor only called a Grand Jury for political reasons. He had the discretion to not prosecute without one but chose to call a Grand Jury to be more transparent. I'm going to throw something out there that some won't like. I am happy he let the Grand Jury hear so much of the evidence. I have never liked the notion that "A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich." I've always felt the Grand Jury system was rigged too much against the defendant.
  22. Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #2: New Combat Maneuvers; Objects As Weapons
  23. Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #2: New Combat Maneuvers; Objects As Weapons Looks like velocity will continue to add to damage in move throughs and move bys thus creating a time-honored balancing issue for character creation: the really fast, strong guy will often exceed damage caps.
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