Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 957 posts

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#301

Post by maxerickson »

Clubber wrote: post #281
maxerickson wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afghanistan is a fool's mission, not a war. If the US had the desire and stomach to wage total war against the people of Afghanistan (gladly we do not), there would not be a lingering quagmire.

It didn't work out that way when the Nazi's invaded Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisans >The partisans made significant contributions to the war by frustrating German plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, gave considerable help to the Soviet Army by conducting systematic strikes against Germany's rear communication network, disseminated political work among the local population…

Not even close to the same asymmetry in capabilities.

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#302

Post by JoeAltmaier »

geggam wrote: post #295
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distance has to be very great - 21 feet is often quoted as the minimum distance where a gun wins over a knife. And many barrooms are less than that. So in theory its a kind idea. But hardly ever significant in practice?

I would argue a sawed off double barrel 12 gauge with double / triple aught buck would reduce that down to a few feet. Problem would be how you train people to hold their cool

That cavalier attitude is what gets officers killed in bar fights. It takes a couple seconds to cross 21 feet. About what it takes to recognize the danger and raise the weapon.

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#303

Post by chongli »

samsolomon wrote: post #261
hnuser54 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rise of killer death robots like Boston Dynamics definitely changes this dynamic. A handful of people in charge of the robots could order them to murder whomever with little oversight or room for ethical qualms on the part of the "soldiers".

This is actually something I've thought a good bit about. As robots become more militaristic, an armed populace becomes less of a threat to their government. There's a good sci-fi story in there somewhere.

I disagree. I think robots will actually decentralize power. The key to all of this is software which, as we’ve seen, is effectively impossible to lock up. So I think what you’ll see is the proliferation of cheap, effective drones armed with explosives that are extremely difficult to defend against.

We’re seeing this play out in the Middle East, most recently with a drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil production.

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#305

Post by swebs »

davinic wrote: post #121
swebs wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problems are unrelated to gun ownership. If you were to plot the percent of gun ownership vs the crime rate among various states or even countries, you wouldn't find much of a correlation.

There are several studies on this that conclude otherwise. For example[1]: "Firearm prevalence is significantly related to total violent crime (B = .600, p [1]: http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/jpj_firearm_owner...

That's an interesting correlation matrix on page 13.

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#306

Post by threwawasy1228 »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #246
empath75 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were armed this would have been over a long time ago. China would have gone in with tanks and the army, or even air strikes. Once you take up arms against the government that’s not a protest, that’s a civil war.

> China would have gone in with tanks and the army, or even air strikes Thereby ruining the very thing they want to control and profit from. That's the thing that the " They'll just send in the army, LOL " folks don't seem to get: bombed out cities and a population under armed guard aren't very economically productive and, on top of that, you need to station military units there to keep a lid on things which is also…

I think that this is a very old perspective on Hong Kong, whilst before it was an integral part of their economy, now that is much less the case.

As this vox article states correctly, Hong Kong used to make up 1/5th of their entire GDP. But with expansion and growth in cities across the country, it is now but a minor component of their economy. In the grand scheme of things it isn't a large enough chunk of their economy that they couldn't afford to lose it. Especially not if the balancing act is, bomb this one city and regain political stability vs massive instability for the greater entity.

[0]https://www.vox.com/2014/9/28/6857567/hong-kong-used-to-be-1...

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#307

Post by baybal2 »

bhy wrote: post #260
baybal2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But another question is, what are the protesters supposed to do? But another question is, what people in Beijing supposed to do? Think of that. To many, it's very clear that men in black will not be content even if given suffrage. Then they will want places in legislature, own foreign policy, armed forces, and ultimately sovereignty. The popular sentiment that it's "poor HK kids" coming out at large out of desperat…

> Most of activists are children of very well off people Do you have data or reference to back them? Surely there could be rich kids among the protestors, but is that a majority of them?

HK is just across the river from me, and I lived enough on both sides to know how the social architecture of both countries works

The best proof of what I said is that all convenience stores and seven elevens are fully staffed, and running. Janitors, taxi drivers continue to work like nothing happened.

HK Poly is more or less preserving minimal functioning, but HK University is effectively defunct now. All kinds of banks, business services companies work in severely reduced capacity.

All of well of Hongkoners I know myself either: 1.) ran away to Mainland, 2.) ran away to Vancouver, 3.) are on the streets right now

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#308

Post by UIZealot »

pimmen wrote: post #191
UIZealot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The CCP control is being implemented which is what the protesters are against. Really ? How exactly is it being implemented? EDIT: Down-voters, can you answer the question? Or are you just going to try to bury it with down-votes?

The extradition treaty subjecting people to some mainland laws is a step in that direction.

The extradition treaty has officially been withdrawn as a result of the protests.

That alone should tell you that Hong Kong has been able to maintain substantial autonomy from the central Chinese government.

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#309

Post by [deleted] »

program_whiz wrote: post #13

Sure, the kid was swinging at the officer, and I suppose that warrants the officer acting in self-defense. But another question is, what are the protesters supposed to do? The government has all the power, and can simply snuff out any resistence. If you just stand in the streets, they really don't care, they are going to take your freedom. Imagine if the US suddenly had a dictator that just decided they were going to…

[deleted]

Re: Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

#310

Post by ivanbakel »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #233
Fezzik wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find this sentiment a little silly - if the US President went in to full dictator mode and had the support of the military, do you really think a militia of armed citizens would be anything but gnats against the windshield of the United States Armed Forces? And if s/he did not have the support of the Armed Forces, it would not be a very effective dictatorship and you would not even need guns for a rebellion.…

The US military is made up of Citizen Soldiers. Not clear that 'full dictator mode' would get anywhere.

The US military is made up of professional soldiers. Citizen soldiers are citizens first, and soldiers only when civic duty calls them up.
Post reply on HN