Pattern Ghost

One of the linked articles said that he hadn't actually tested his immortality power yet, and wasn't sure about it. Which is a complete 360 from what I remember from the early GLA appearances, where he died fairly frequently.

The show's supposed to be a comedy, so my guess is that everyone's the comic relief.

Aw, poor Monkey Joe.

From this article: What happened to Monkey Joe? Did they not want to explain why a squirrel was named Monkey or something? Monkey Joe seems to be a much funnier name for a squirrel, and it's a comedy. Was there a Tippy Toe in the comics, too? I don't know much about SG, and only know the one squirrel sidekick. Edit: Just watched the cartoon at the bottom of that page. Looks like Tippy Toes is part of her entourage there at least.

Well, she's not rail thin like a lot of actresses and can probably do the humorous bits. I'm just wondering why they have two GLA on the team. Is the change in line up from the comics or are they acting as mentors?

They'll probably find an unknown who will work for peanuts.

I almost went there earlier, but had to go to Costco before I could think of a good phrasing.

Now you're just confusing me.

Also, sorry. Screenrant annoys me sometimes and I'm mildly cranky.

So, just a restatement of the obvious?

Couldn't get through the bad writing to find the point in that. What was it?

Short article on officer's statements from that Seattle shooting. From the article: So, they're saying she went on the offensive. I still think they should have had better less lethal options available to use in the window before she went on the offense.

Lies. They don't know what books are.

Sorry to hear it, but just glad you're still with us. Life is a highway -- full of potholes. I hope you get past the bumpy parts soon.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Yeah, Wonder Woman has launched her firmly into household name status. I think we're going to be seeing her in a lot more stuff. (Speaking of which, I still need to see that spy comedy she did with Jon Hamm.)

Combining the division and the rank into the dnky little badges seemed like a stupid move.

Just got back from seeing it. It's about as close to a perfect super hero movie as I've seen. Some random thoughts: The two younger versions of Diana were well cast, IMO. Diana and Steve had really good chemistry. Their romcom bits seemed pulled from a 50s movie. I liked the way they worked some of her references in: Back story of being made of clay, then reveal of real backstory (retcon in the comics), her introduction setting up her secret ID name (which was spoiled by the trailers), Steve not being able to pronounce Themyscira, so just calling the island Paradise Island in a later scene, etc. Loved Etta. Got it just right. The crossing of No Man's Land was pretty epic. It seemed like a good example of a super hero at war. I was not expecting the force she hit the bell tower with when she took out the sniper. Dr. Poison was a good pick for the time period. Super-Chemistry via divine inspiration works well and fits the setting. Ares reveal was telegraphed the second the actor walked on screen the second time. Ares speech about being the God of Truth made sense in context. He was trying to show the other gods the truth (his version of the truth, but still), and War was just the means to his end. The one weak point in it for me was that while we get to see how twisted Ares' worldview was, we didn't see much of how it got that way. I'm OK with that, because he was really there to serve as a contrast to Diana and help her form her own views and grow into her own maturity. I noticed a few little glitches, but not so much any of the historical things. Mayyybe one or two, but not enough to throw me out of the narrative. And, of course, Gal Gadot was pitch perfect as Wonder Woman, from the comedic bits, to the action bits, to the range of emotion she can show with her face and body language. And f*** that reviewer who didn't like how she delivered her dialog. It's called an accent, FFS.

Regarding the uniforms, I found this article.

That wasn't in the least bit fantasy. It was probably skimming on your part. I was talking about baton options, not firearms. Trust me, I used to do the job, not just play one on TV. (Thankfully, I never had to do the job as a civilian, as they have it much worse.)

I heard a bit of the press conference on the shooting on the car radio today. Apparently, had the officers used less lethal options were they available, they'd have been in violation of department policy. Other bits from that radio segment: The woman apparently had been released from care by a mental health court. The police representative said she should not have been and that they believe it was a case of suicide by cop. He's probably correct on both counts, but a policy that forces officers to be used as tools of suicide instead of use their own judgment to help the person doesn't do anyone any good. Seems SPD has a long way to go from the top down.

That's one seriously twisted individual.

Pretty much as expected, thanks.

I never said it made it better. I said it made it something less than police brutality. The decision process that led to the death wasn't the result of malice or racism as far as I can see*, but due to bad policy and less than competent and confident officers. Competence is certainly the issue. The fact that they were allowed to let their incompetence put them into the situation is the core of the issue. They should never have been allowed to not carry an additional less lethal option. Here's how I understand the situation: The woman called them to her apartment, claiming there was a burglary. Apparently, she also made a claim that she had gone to the store or somewhere else. These were both lies, as evidenced by video camera footage from her apartment building. Heard that on local news while driving to the thing in Seattle earlier. Dispatch was aware that the woman had called police to her apartment the prior week and threatened them with a pair of scissors, so sent two officers. I don't know whether the officers responding were informed of the prior incident or not. When the woman answered her door, she was armed with at least one knife (the article linked in this thread says two, local news has only mentioned one as far as I recall) and used vaguely threatening language towards the officers. ("Get ready .... rest censored by news), The latter part referenced in the article linked above. The woman had two children in the apartment with her. The officers ordered her to back off. One of the officers asked the other if he had mace/pepper spray, to which the reply was no. After the woman failed to comply, she was shot. I don't know if she took any actions that weren't on audio. The news hasn't mentioned that level of detail. So, what do I take from this? The officers severely limited their options to respond to the situation. Had they been willing to take a small amount of risk and exercise basic teamwork, or even better interpersonal skills, they should have been able to resolve the situation either peacefully or without loss of life as a minimum. I think striving for "no loss of life" rather than "no loss of police life" is a pretty good goal, personally. But that's not how police in this country have been indoctrinated for a very very long time. I'm going to set that date as roughly the 80's and the war on drugs era. But back to the topic at hand: Retreat does not seem to be an option. The officers were (I'm assuming, though I haven't seen hard confirmation) dealing with an armed, disturbed woman in a doorway. Had she been alone, just walking away may have been a reasonable temporary response. But she also had two children in the apartment with her. So, I'm fairly certain the officers didn't judge that to be a situation where they were going to yield the doorway and let the woman lock the two kids in with her in an agitated state while armed. It's about the only sound judgment I can see that they may have shown. So, how do you deal with a woman armed with a knife in an enclosed space? First, you take a chance. Remember the guy who killed the people in Oregon? He probably didn't wave his knife around and talk trash at the people he stabbed. If he got all three in that short space of time, he almost certainly went to town with no warning. Most of the time people using a knife as a threat aren't quite ready to actually use it. This woman was mentally unstable, but I'd have taken the bet that since I hadn't been stabbed yet, that I had at least the option to extend the verbal phase a bit. Unless she moved to attack them, I think the officers could have put a minimal effort into talking her down, rather than shout orders in her face. I didn't see any mention of such an effort in the article mentioning the audio of the incident, just orders given. The officers (at least one, IIRC) were said to be trained in crisis intervention, but don't seem to have put those skills to use. Second option, you take her down. Which is what the SPD did. They did it with bullets. Pepper spray would have been great here, but hey, the other guy didn't bring it! Kind of f-ed up when the police of a large metro expect the other guy to bring less lethal options to the call. But since they had sticks and she had a knife, their reasonable options were severely curtailed. They may have had room to take a shot at her traps or collar bone (or noggin, which is technically lethal force but still better than a bunch of bullets), or they may not have. A thrust would have put them at risk against a knife. The knife in that space is strictly superior to their batons. If they screwed up, they stood a fair chance of getting cut or stabbed. Pepper spray or a Taser would have been better. At the very least, getting sprayed is going to be a huge distraction, letting the other officer take physical control. And if the officers eat some pepper spray blow back? Tough crap. They're trained to fight through it.** The last time someone hit me with the stuff, I disarmed the idiot and smacked them repeatedly about the head and shoulders. It's something any soldier has experienced (though with CS in my time), and it is not a fight ender if you know what to expect. IMO, police training needs a good hard look from the ground up, everywhere in this country. * So far. Who knows what will come to light after this is investigated. It's not like SPD has a great track record in that regard. **(Or should be. One of the articles Cancer linked made it seem like this training was new. But it was also pretty clear that the author had no prior experience, so I'm not sure which bits he mentioned were actually new. Every other state certification for pepper spray I'm aware of requires the person to at the very least take a shot in the face from it. I don't see why WA state would be different in that minimum standard since so much is copied/shared among states. Police training is actually fairly standard across the country AFAIK.) Edit Apologies if this seems a bit rambly. It's late for me. I tried to clean it up and keep it on topic as best I can.