bigbywolfe

10 Criminals Who Weren’t ‘The Brains’ of the Operation
 

I'm sorry, but it's not Apples to Oranges as you want it to be. It's at best Pear to Slightly dented Pear. 
 
You keep trying to make a square hole where there is none.  There is just as much generally bad behavior in any "culture" to say it is to blame. There's been plenty of evidence of misdeeds in Childcare, Prisons, Religions, Sports, Gaming, Murder Enthusiasts, Pop Music fanatics, Ravers, Corporations, Politicians, Students, Medical Profession, the Financial world, Gender Groups (for all six Genders) - Cops are no more a monolithic culture than Postal workers or Strippers. (Though they have more guns than the strippers)
 
Power Hungry Psychopaths and Low-Impulse Control Violent Hooligans flock to anywhere they can feed their delights, Police would clearly be a high choice, but so is Teaching, Politics, Maybe not Ditch Diggers. Drug king-pins Oh my God those guys can be violent. Bloggers! Less violent but still think they're Gods. 
 
You want to have the authority to rage against the authority but I just think you should be better than that. I know I'm being a dismissive asshole and this part will come across as patronizing, but I like you most of the time. Stuff like this is just kind of disappointing. I'm with you that we need to get rid of the bad cops. I understand there are problems with the justice system and beyond but when you paint them all like that I can't help but feel my broadsides against corporations are just as hollow. 
 
Basically this is about me. What about my needs? 

I said I didn't say anything to him about it. (If you recall, he was a bit of a monster guy.) It was mentioned to my superiors, but thanks for playing.
 
I know you don't like to admit when you're wrong, but I think you really need to learn how to do that. You're clever. You're not that clever. Nobody is always right.
 
YOU ARE WRONG. Period. End of story.
 
Put your broad brush away. Complain about specific incidents, individuals and even departments. Quit acting like an angry, ignorant child.

Man, you have to split a lot of hairs to keep your prejudices looking clean. I believe you that most guys don't go raping people. I also believe the vast majority of cops aren't suspect. Clearly you disagree there but I can give you just as many acts of civilian on civilian brutality. Man on woman, Man on child, woman on child, less women on men if only because it's not reported as often - or taken seriously. Yeah men don't choose to be men (although that's not entirely true but hey we'll leave transgenders out of this discussion, but they do choose their violence - much like the police you mistrust. So getting all defensive at women who throw the same stereotypes in your face about what other men do is EXACTLY how the cops (or former cops who probably haven't murdered anyone) on the boards feel when you spew your all encompassing hate and vitriol. 
 
All that said, feel free to judge groups as a gelatin mold whole, it's your opinion. But please excuse me if I continue the default that your arguments hold less weight because of it. 
 
I've known no German cops. The only one's I've encountered are the ones who pulled me over. The few I've had to call to my building when I was in a position of authority to do so, and the guy who was my older brother's friend in high school. 
 
(and our Board Members who are/were police officers, but never met them) 
 
And again, even if I had a personal experience with a dirty cop I've had personal experiences with three rape victims (2 female, 1 male) I've had personal experiences with numerous thieves (one man who held me at gun point when I was working at Taco Bell. Some jackasses who broke into my storage unit (I actually suspect the people who ran the place) Two Bank Robbers, An abusive father, an alcoholic uncle. Seven shoplifters (one being myself) and a guy who lied about being in the military.
 
Cops have made up an incredibly small slice of the humanity I've had direct contact with. Maybe you have had more - maybe you haven't. 
 
My major beefs are with banks (worked for one for dozen years) storage companies ( ) environmental bugbears (work for an asbestos/Environmental Engineering firm) School Bureaucrats (grew up in a family of teachers) and of course, Limp Bizcuit fans.  

You mean like all men are (potential) rapists, and all gamers are losers who live in their parents' basements? 
 
If you're going to paint a group with one broad brush in one thread, please don't get all bristly when your group gets thusly painted in another; it's unseemly. Unless, I suppose, you're raging against Doombots - let's face it there's precious little variation in their behavior.
 
I've met a fair number of policemen and women who have never been anything but decent, pleasant human beings. I've met a few who've been jerks; some sanctimonious, some not. Only violent people I've encountered were of the non uniform but rather inebriated variety. Perhaps  I've been pretty lucky. 

No, you shouldn't. I'm a former cop. Lapsedgamer was a cop. Not all cops are stupid and corrupt.

https://well.wvu.edu/articles/tips_for_preventing_sexual_assault
 
Honestly, it's pretty sound advice, but combined with an apparent absence of prosecution or even arrest for rape on campus, I can see why it would be infuriating.  It's the combination that's the kicker, here.  The college isn't going to do anything, even after the fact, including keeping reporting statistics for future use, so the onus is literally entirely on the prospective victims.
 
It's good advice.  Everyone, frankly, especially every girl and woman, should heed this advice.  But the social contract should include some sheepdog to guard against the wolves, rather than expecting the sheep to look after themselves.

The Ark was also supposed to be a divine weapon of antiquity. I'm not familiar with any works by Lovecraft in which an Elder God was carried around in a vessel and used by kings and generals to lay waste to armies on the battlefield. Moreover, I don't believe that the final scene with the Ark was intended to be interpreted as the unleashing of a Nameless Cosmic Horror From Beyond. If anything it was the Vengeance of Yaweh unleashed upon evil Men (the virtuous "heroes" at the scene, like Indy and Marian, were simply collateral damage).
 
But more important than any of that, the tone of the Indiana Jones series is utterly non-Lovecraftian.

Reaver:  George Temple was nothing more than a barely out of high-school museum security guard until the new acquisition from a battlefield archaeological dig began talking to him, telling him how much power was there for the taking...  Since he stole the eerie red sword, he has crossed blades with Jack Riddle, Scarborough Fair and the Brides of Adrian Messenger but so far has managed to retain his link to the sword while working as a super-mercenary.  
 
Powers:  Bullet and beam deflection, Regeneration of other injuries (but with an accompanying compulsion to draw blood), psychic link to his sword so he always knows where it is and can use it with expert skill, limited precognition, armour piercing melee attack.  He also wears some body armour.

Crimson Phoenix snarled at his fallen foe, the blood still dripping from his sword.  "Nobody, and I mean nobody, tries to screw me in a deal."  He ripped a length of cloth from the dead DEMON Morbane's robe and wiped the worst of the blood off the sword.  His own wounds were already healing at an incredibly fast rate.  He had gotten so used to his ability to regenerate that he didn't even notice it any more.  Ever since he had come back from supposed death a decade before, he trusted that nothing could truly harm him for long.
 
The DEMON initiates had fled while Phoenix was shrugging off the Morbane's magical attacks and slicing the back-stabbing jerk to pieces, but he didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary.   The authorities just might show up to investigate all the weird lights in the night sky, and Phoenix didn't want to have to slice his way through a couple cop cars to get them to leave him alone.  As Crimson Phoenix reached back to sheath his sword, he felt a pain in the middle of his back and winced.  That's right, he thought.  The Morbane had literally stabbed him in the back, and he never had pulled the dagger loose during the fight.  It took a swing or two with the sword to knock the dagger free, and it fell to the ground with a clatter. 
 
Shaking his head, he walked over to the stone altar and picked up the small oxyx skull DEMON had hired him to procure.  "I wonder what the heck DEMON wanted with you," he said, then shrugged indifferently and dropped it into his leather shoulder satchel.  "Whatever it is, I'll bet I can find someone else willing to pay me for you."  With that, he strode off into the night.

No, it's not really a great choice - it's an awesome choice.

Hermione Granger, the Pirate Queen
 

 
Don't judge me!

When there are vaccinations against venereal diseases, only anti-vaxers will have VD.
 
Which I consider to be delicious, savory, and thoroughly deserved irony.

Going to say something odd...
Disney cartoon Tailspin...

In my eyes, the costumes in Kick-Ass weren't cool -- they were outright dorky, and were probably meant to be.

From CC page 158:
 

That's the exact same level of complexity as Knockback.

Or are you referring to the Knockdown rules that only apply if both the optional Hit Location and Impairing/Disabling rules are in play?  Because that would be good to know going into the conversation.  If that's what you are talking about I find them less complex than the Impairing/Disabling rules themselves.

EDIT: Just saw you specified 5E.  I'm at work and don't have my 5E books with me (most of my PDFs are 6E), but I don't recall any significant change in Knockdown between editions.  If there is, my bad.

It looks a lot like the costume from Man of Steel in color, which makes sense to me. If this were on CW, you would get teen Supergirl, I wager. On CBS, you get adult, serious Kara.

it's a bit dark and muddy, but hey I'm fine with more superhero shows. I'm by and large FAR more forgiving of Hollywood's treatment of superheroes than I am of the treatment they get at their own comic book companies. Go figure. 

I've been poking at making a desert campaign setting that will probably use Al Qadim and Dark Sun for inspiration sources when it suddenly occurred to me that an Arabian Nights style campaign seems to be very much a Swords & Sorcery type of setting, maybe with a few more magic trinkets like a flying carpet scattered here and there. Heroes are usually warriors and thieves (like Aladdin and Sinbad) and the villain is often a sorcerer using spirits to work magic. Does that seems an accurate way to look at it?

Rose, I think we're talking past each other here.
 
 
 
Why don't we let him answer for himself if he feels the need to?
 
 
 
 
I don't see how his posting a link to the Pasco shooting applies at all, then. The Cops not only gave orders to the guy, they also attempted to tase him and the Taser prong didn't stick. And neither of these things is where they went wrong.
 
 
 
 
I would agree that in pretty much every single case of a killing by police in this thread, the deaths could have been avoided had better cops shown up to the scenes.
 
 
 
You don't get to decide that. The topic being discussed was whether or not police should be required to give warnings. The post wasn't meant to address the Pasco shooting AT ALL in the first place. Ragitsu brought that in. Neither of us can tell exactly what he meant by posting a link with no commentary.
 
In fact, that link was completely irrelevant because 1) a warning WAS given and 2) the man was very likely incapable of understanding any warning. Warnings weren't really the issue in that shooting. The fact that they went to a lethal level of force AT ALL is the issue. The fact that they murdered a person who wasn't in his right mind, and endangered many bystanders is the issue in Pasco. I hope to hell they hang for it, too.* The guy who got shot was the guy the police were supposed to be protecting, if only from himself.
 
Here's the bottom line: Police have to be entrusted with a certain amount of discretion in doing their jobs. They have to have a certain level of indemnity to be able to do their jobs without constantly second-guessing things. The unfortunate truth is that when you take a large number of people (ie, all law enforcement officers in the US) and give them a large amount of discretionary power, you will have many who will abuse that power. Even if the percentage is relatively small, the raw number is large. That's before factoring in various levels of institutionalized corruption and protectionism, particularly in several large departments. And something needs to be done about all of this.
 
 
 
 
*Actually, WA got rid of hanging some time back.

Sorry, Rose, you're missing the point completely.  You need to look at the context here.
 
Ragitsu seems* to be suggesting (posts 426, 430) that police should be required to give a verbal warning.
 
My post was a refutation of that. The example was exactly the correct one for the point I was actually making.
 
That point: You cannot require an officer give a verbal warning in every case. Use of deadly force and the use of force continuum are very well established. They work. They're ignored all too often by bad cops. This is a training issue, not an issue with the rules themselves.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*Seems to. He'll have to weigh in to be certain.

I dunno, the basic mechanics of building a character haven't changed really.  There are more options but its the same basic process.