Lucius

I'm guessing you haven't looked at the case in any detail - nor read what I wrote, from this response.
 
Brown was shot once while allegedly wrestling with the cop - I mentioned that and noted that if true (and it is supported by the autopsy evidence), that was easily justifiable. However, that isn't what killed him - he then fled the scene, apparently lightly injured. The cop pursued him some distance (about a block) and fired another 10 shots (none of them at close range, according to the autopsy), killing him. That - again, if true: it meshes with both physical site and autopsy evidence - does not seem to comply with either the local PD's rules, nor federal law on the use of lethal force, both of which require a suspect to be considered an immediate threat to the community or officer in question. A priori, then, there seems to be grounds for a trial. Now maybe there's more evidence that argued against that - but so far none has been been presented. Maybe he was charging - maybe not. Without a trial, we'll never know .... which is kind of the point, no?
 
All the palaver about "show trials" is just you inventing things you thought I might have said, which you think might sound bad: I'm not in favour of show trials, and have never claimed to be. Nor am I "fixated" on the public order aspect of trials. But that is an important aspect of this case - as the riots so eloquently prove - and it's pure foolishness to ignore that aspect: as the riots also demonstrate. 
 
cheers, Mark

The only jobs they seem to NOT be doing is levying the most regressive system of taxation possible.  They've stopped issuing tickets and summonses.  They are still arresting for cause, which is generally what I thought they were for in the first place.  "To protect and serve and ticket and fine and stop and frisk" has made a lot of decent law abiding people hate the idea of interacting with the cops.  If they limit themselves to policing criminal behavior that would be fantastic.

Need me or not, I'm still here.

Where can I get one of those? I bet it's going to become a valuable collector's item, because I'm sure they're going to change the design very quickly and make the originals as scarce as they can....
 
Lucius Alexander
 
the palindromedary wants two

Four ministers take a canoe trip in the wilderness. One night around the campfire they decide to confess their sins to each other.
 
The first minister says, "My sin is avarice. I love money. In fact, I have never put more than a quarter into the collection plate."
 
The second minister says, "My sin is gluttony. Sometimes I will drive to a town where no one knows me and order a bucket of fried chicken and three large fries and sit in my car and eat the whole thing."
 
The third minister says, "My sin is lust. I keep a pile of men's magazines in a secret place in the basement and pore over them every chance I get."
 
The fourth minister says, "My sin is gossip. I can hardly wait to get home from this trip!"

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

Florida...
 
Woman Made 28 False Child Abuse Claims Because She Wanted To “Create Havoc”

Unfortunately however, after recent events, unarmed, peaceful civilians may also think they're going to get shot. With good reason. Thus negating one of the primary advantages of not being a violent felon.
 
Security footage from this most recent shooting has been released. It sucks. The action happens at a great distance from the camera, the people look like ants, and I don't see the perp ant do much of anything before the cop ant freaks out and starts shooting while falling backwards, then backpedals across the pavement. Cop ant was definitely scared s_tless though, so there's that.

Don't kid yourself. The us vs. them thing goes both ways. It's a vicious cycle that isn't going to be broken any time soon,  IMO.
 
This isn't to excuse the officers in any of the three cases mentioned here. I think they all could have been avoided. The Ferguson officer should have called for backup, the NYC officers should not have gone for the neck area in their dubious technically-legal choke, and the police who shot the kid with the Airsoft gun should have approached with more caution (and backup if they thought he was armed). 
 
But to claim that the police are somehow "safe" from harm is disingenuous. Police officers have deal with violent people day in and day out. You seem to have no idea how warped some people truly are (which isn't a bad thing), or how many of them we cycle in and out of our prison system continually.
 
I had a recent discussion with a young officer who came out in response to a noise complaint I made a couple of years ago. This is in a town of about 100,000, just north of Tacoma. So, very much more a suburban than urban setting. While I was standing next to him telling him what was going on, he kept edging away from me. The first time, I thought he was sliding over to get a better view at the area his partner was in. The second time, I got the clue something wasn't OK, so I asked him about it. He said that he was trying to keep a safe distance. Keep in mind, he's talking to a middle-aged white guy, who was the one who called in the complaint. I asked him if he had a lot of problems with that, and he said that he got jumped by people he was interviewing all the time. Granted, we had our share of spillover knuckleheads from Tacoma, but that was a bit surprising to hear.
 
Now, this kid was honestly fearful, and hadn't been on the job long. Someone had already failed him in his training, because he wasn't projecting any kind of authority, just fear. He should have politely and firmly asked me to stand back if he wasn't comfortable with the distance. Nobody had apparently given the kid any training in interpersonal communication skills. As an MP, do you know what my first level of force was on our use of force continuum? IPC: Interpersonal Communication. Now, given that law enforcement duties were only about a quarter to a third of what we actually were trained on and did, why is it that so many civilian police are so lacking in this area?
 
Take that kid a few years down the line: He hears about the Lakewood shooting of four officers, he gets into more scrapes with the local knuckleheads, etc. His training isn't from carefully developed protocols, but by the school of hard knocks and by jaded veteran cops who have also been to that same school. He'll either leave the job or harden up. He may be jumpy like the Chicago cops who came on too strong and killed the twelve year old.
 
The us vs. them mentality is founded in an unfortunate reality, and that is the reality that there are a whole crapton of "Them" out there. Even if only ten percent or five percent of the people you contact in a day are criminals, and only five or ten percent of those are in the "Them" category -- the don't-give-a-F***, YOLO, violent with no regard for common sense but a whole lot of hate for "the Man" category -- then your average officer is still going to run into those types on a very regular basis.
 
The root problem here is the damage done to this country by slavery, by the dehumanization of a people as an attempt to keep them in chains, and by all that followed. There's no easy solution to the us vs them mentality that exists on both sides, because it's a hugely complex problem that's rooted in the origin of our country.
 
What we do need is to give our police better training, and better guidance. We also need to give them solid mental health support: It's a very rare person who can deal with the crap police have to deal with day in and day out and not be changed by it.  We also need to filter out the worse elements as well. There are plenty of people who take the job because of the authority. Habitual abusers of authority should be fired, not reprimanded. Police unions can't be allowed to dictate disciplinary policies. Unions can play an important role in making sure that such policies aren't abusive, but shouldn't be allowed to put up a wall against any discipline of a member by an employer, which happens all too often with police and teacher "unions" in this country.

Wow! Way to take an opportunity to recapture public good will and beat it to death with a nightstick.  Impressive really.

Tolkien's Ainulindale in comic book form: LINK

Great. Now I have a mental image of the villagers singing "In the Graveyard"
 
"We want you, we want you,
We want you, as a new recruit."
 
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Let's turn them all into palindromedaries
 

Anyone post this yet?
 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429996.000-the-fight-back-against-rape-and-death-threats-online.html#.VI5TYlJ0xdh
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary notes that if so, it's just been posted again.

Dead is one thing, torture another.

There is a site, vecna.com.
 
Glance at it, then consider what that name means in gaming ....
 
I cannot be convinced that it is coincidental.

Last night my eldest (7) took all his remaining allowance and birthday money (~$40) and put it in an envelope to give to the church. He said, "The church needs it more than I do. It will help."
 
My wife and I were absolutely stunned. He's had his eyes on a big set of Legos for a while and was saving for that.

,.......
 
Now I want to write a game in which villagers turn zombies into villagers....
 
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Turning into a palindromedary

Re: More space news!
 
A tale of playfull satellites:
http://www.gizmag.com/strand2/22752/

Only one in four clerics knows this weird secret that vampires are afraid you'll find out!

Re: More space news!
 

I do and don't simultaneously

Re: More space news!
 

Re: More space news!
 

 

*goes and looks*
 
*comes back and removes everyone from his ignore list*
 
Guys, seriously, I really don't say this often enough, but I love you all!

Fifty Shades of Gandalf the Gray

Have you tried RuneQuest?
 
And what do you mean by "too organic?" You want a religion grown with pesticides and fertilizers or prepared with artificial ingredients?
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary wonders how one defines "believable." There is no religion so incredible you can't get someone to believe it. And obviously, no religion so credible you can get everyone to believe it.