Typical. Six posts in this topic automatically dismiss the tweets because they come from "Infowars", yet the QZ leftist extremists cannot bother commenting on the content of the tweets.[/QUOTE]
Obviously the tweets are deplorable. It's no different from people in the middle east who were celebrating 9/11.
But the bias of many on the right really shows when they're more focused on those tweets than on the police who are killing black people.
And of course the left isn't talking about the tweets and is just focused on the cops. It's just becoming all too predictable.
But alas, this is the product of a system polarized into only two political parties, where far too many members of the electorate are left with the impression that there are only two possible ways to think, leading to this constant low level hum of two distinctly different narratives offering no actual solutions.
Rinse, lather and repeat. Cue the next major shooting to happen a few days from now.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Panchgani wrote:[/b]
It would be nice if the cops could express remorse and admit over-reaction/negligence, but the crappy US jackpot American legal system precludes any expression of honesty.[/QUOTE]
There are countless stories like this, and no doubt the overwhelming majority of good cops are aware of them. I do not envy their position.
YourValentine · Member since
I accidentally watched of the murder of that black kid in a video on my facebook timeline. I don't understand how anyone cannot feel the hot burning rage and anger, I certainly felt it. But I am not the victim, I am not black and not American, so I could let my brain win over the emotion and I can think about such police violence without hatred and emotion.
However, I also saw a video of the black United States senator Scott who told his audience how he had been pulled over by the police in his car 7 times in a year, how police officers did not accept his pin that shows he is a US senator but asked his ID with "an attitude" and how many apologies he already received from superiors of police officers. There IS a racial issue in police and if you are black and if you live with the fear and the humiliation of everyday racism, you simply cannot be cool about it - you simply want to be accepted as an equal human being - finally. After all the police officers are paid with your tax money, as well and they are armed and a constant threat for you.
Of course there are other things: members of BLM can be aggressive and violent, police officers may live in fear, they may be underpaid and underfunded. There is the issue of 300 million fire arms in the country and that every officer has to fear that the citizen in front of him can pull out a gun any second. This is all true but it does not change the fact that there is a racial problem and a violence problem with the police. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to discuss it with all the emotions and the unsolved relationship between the races. White people simply cannot feel the endless frustration of a black person and they tend to talk down the issue with whataboutisms thus increasing the frustration and aggression. If only people could walk in the shoes of another person for one day, things would definitely improve.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]YourValentine wrote:[/b]
However, I also saw a video of the black United States senator Scott who told his audience how he had been pulled over by the police in his car 7 times in a year, how police officers did not accept his pin that shows he is a US senator but asked his ID with "an attitude" and how many apologies he already received from superiors of police officers. There IS a racial issue in police and if you are black and if you live with the fear and the humiliation of everyday racism, you simply cannot be cool about it - you simply want to be accepted as an equal human being - finally. After all the police officers are paid with your tax money, as well and they are armed and a constant threat for you.[/QUOTE]
It happens in Canada, too. A black city councilor was recently carded while standing at a bus stop by a cop who didn't know who he was. In Toronto over a quarter of carding incidents are on black males while they make up only 8% of the population.
Racial profiling is tragically still very much a thing.
Saint Jiub · Member since
The town where I work (suburban Geneva Illinois), has a history of AWB events (arrested while black). A few years ago, a group of four black men were arrested and taken downtown for carpooling to work from the south side of Chicago. Our manufacturing vice president had to go downtown and bail the four guys out of jail.
YourValentine · Member since
Now the murder of police officers in Baton Rouge - the same city where the kid had been killed. Like in Dallas the killer was an ex US army/marine member. Someone who learned to kill as a profession, someone who was told that he was doing a "service" to his country shooting people in a country that never attacked the USA.
What makes an ex-Marine shoot police officers at home? Does he feel he was used and lied to when he was risking his own life in a war that never concerned him personally? Was he angered like mad when he saw that black people at home were shot with no consequences by law enforcement whlle they were just good enough to risk their lives in Iraq - a country that never did any harm to his country?
We have to ask these questions to break the spirale of death, it has to be done with honesty. There must be an effort by the whole society looking into the issue with no prejudice and not trying to make a political gain out of it. It is vital to ask why people have come to stop talking to each other and only look at each other with a gun in their hands.
I just read in a paper that the Republican party has asked the governor of Ohio to stop the "open carry" rule for the Republican convention, they feel threatened by all these people with guns in their hands. It's so bizzarre, you would not believe it if it happened in a Hollywood movie.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]YourValentine wrote:[/b]
We have to ask these questions to break the spirale of death, it has to be done with honesty. There must be an effort by the whole society looking into the issue with no prejudice and not trying to make a political gain out of it. It is vital to ask why people have come to stop talking to each other and only look at each other with a gun in their hands.[/QUOTE]
There are millions upon millions of people who will say "but the gub'mint gonna come take my gun." And there ends the dialogue, full stop.
A friend of mine lost her brother to suicide, using the father's gun. The day after his son killed himself, the father asked the police - "where's my gun?"
THAT right there is what's wrong with America. This idea that the second amendment of the constitution is of any value, never mind being somehow comparable to your own child's life. It is so deeply ingrained in the culture that any change to the laws would likely lead to a full-scale revolution.
But the culture of fear is a thing. Even in the best cities, countless people walk their streets with guns with the feeling that the person walking past them might want to rob them or kill them. And for millions of people in poor communities, a gun is literally the only way to protect your family from the gangsters who live across the street. But my friend's dad wasn't one of them - he's a multi millionaire in Vegas. Yet he still feels he needs his gun too.
One has to ask how the US managed to acquire this mentality to begin with. There are so many things that make the US different from every other developed country. They have the highest incarceration rate in the world. They have virtually no public sector, and thus no regulations on anything from health care to leasing an apartment. And the religious right is so strong that it has come close to eliminating science in some states.
How did the US become so different? Few people know the answer to this question. But even answering it won't lead to anything changing.
The fact that this is the same country with magnificent national parks, the country who is a world leader in science and technology - it really does baffle the mind. I love visiting it and exploring it, but I get to leave, and I'm always happy to come home to a place where I can walk down the streets at night without being afraid of anything.
*goodco* · Member since
And what causes bombings in Syria and Pakistan and Turkey and France and Belgium, mass shootings in Paris and Orlando and..... stabbings in Germany, etc.
Ignorance and hate and brainwashing and mental unbalance and social media and..........
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]*goodco* wrote:[/b]
And what causes bombings in Syria and Pakistan and Turkey and France and Belgium, mass shootings in Paris and Orlando and..... stabbings in Germany, etc.
Ignorance and hate and brainwashing and mental unbalance and social media and..........[/QUOTE]
And the Bush administration.
By medding in middle eastern affairs (without UN approval, no less), they created ISIS. Before 9/11 the enemy was a small group of guys in a cave called Al-Qaeda. Now it's a giant movement of people who are stationed all over the world, and they are angry because they feel their way of life is under threat.
Had the US and its allies stayed out, things would not have escalated to this point. Being the world police does have its drawbacks, and we're seeing the results now.
YourValentine · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
There are millions upon millions of people who will say "but the gub'mint gonna come take my gun." And there ends the dialogue, full stop.
A friend of mine lost her brother to suicide, using the father's gun. The day after his son killed himself, the father asked the police - "where's my gun?"
THAT right there is what's wrong with America. This idea that the second amendment of the constitution is of any value, never mind being somehow comparable to your own child's life. It is so deeply ingrained in the culture that any change to the laws would likely lead to a full-scale revolution.
But the culture of fear is a thing. Even in the best cities, countless people walk their streets with guns with the feeling that the person walking past them might want to rob them or kill them. And for millions of people in poor communities, a gun is literally the only way to protect your family from the gangsters who live across the street. But my friend's dad wasn't one of them - he's a multi millionaire in Vegas. Yet he still feels he needs his gun too.
One has to ask how the US managed to acquire this mentality to begin with. There are so many things that make the US different from every other developed country. They have the highest incarceration rate in the world. They have virtually no public sector, and thus no regulations on anything from health care to leasing an apartment. And the religious right is so strong that it has come close to eliminating science in some states.
How did the US become so different? Few people know the answer to this question. But even answering it won't lead to anything changing.
The fact that this is the same country with magnificent national parks, the country who is a world leader in science and technology - it really does baffle the mind. I love visiting it and exploring it, but I get to leave, and I'm always happy to come home to a place where I can walk down the streets at night without being afraid of anything.
[/QUOTE]
I completetly agree with everything you say. It's really scary.
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
And the Bush administration.
By medding in middle eastern affairs (without UN approval, no less), they created ISIS. Before 9/11 the enemy was a small group of guys in a cave called Al-Qaeda. Now it's a giant movement of people who are stationed all over the world, and they are angry because they feel their way of life is under threat.
Had the US and its allies stayed out, things would not have escalated to this point. Being the world police does have its drawbacks, and we're seeing the results now.
[/QUOTE]
I'm sure you don't really believe its as simple as that. 9/11 was not the first terrorist attack on the US soil. Neverthess, are you suggesting the US should have, post 9/11, just taken a deep breath and let it go? Would that have made USA a safer place?
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
There's a big difference between taking "a deep breath and let[ting] it go" and "invading Iraq and destabilizing the entire region without any real justification". It's a little thing called "nuance".
