Thanks to the new immigration bill, the whole border with Mexico will become militarized, and will employ more people than the whole FBI, and will be under DHS. This is what the "war on terror" post-9/11 culture has created.
“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
81–90 of 428 posts
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
This argument is spectacularly stupid because based on the rise of exactly these kinds of incidents, you could justify the production and distribution of automated turrets to negate the use of current SWAT tactics. You can't just stop at the perceived consequences of your supposed equilibrium point, you have to follow it all the way to the logical conclusion. If this keeps up and/or accelerates, it's only a matter of…
> This argument is spectacularly stupid because based on the rise of exactly these kinds of incidents, you could justify the production and distribution of automated turrets to negate the use of current SWAT tactics. Then it's a good thing that most states have laws that prohibit owning fully-automatic firearms then. > You can't just stop at the perceived consequences of your supposed equilibrium point, you have to f…
An automated turret is not at all the same thing as a firearm with an automatic fire mode. An assault rifle with an automatic fire select might indeed increase the likelihood the operator is killed. An automatic turret on the other hand doesn't have an operator, making it potentially quite a good deterrent to thuggish humans jacked up on authoritarianism with guns storming an area.
I assume though since you're automatically painting opposition you don't understand with the same tired old bullshit labels typical of mainstream statist standard leftists, correcting your mistakes is liable to just annoy you with more cognitive dissonance. My apologies, I won't be replying again.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the crime involved is not violent and the suspect has no history of assaulting police officers (or perhaps any history of violent acts), it should basically be a criminal act for the police to initiate the use of force during the apprehension. You are making a huge leap from the presence of weapons to the use of violence against other people.
> If the crime involved is not violent and the suspect has no history of assaulting police officers (or perhaps any history of violent acts), it should basically be a criminal act for the police to initiate the use of force during the apprehension. I think I agree. > You are making a huge leap from the presence of weapons to the use of violence against other people. I think police officers has to put their lives on t…
The police officers are putting their lives on the line when they escalate a situation that does not require it. This is a non-violent crime. Send someone to take some pictures and arrest people later.
Without the SWAT team, this remains calm and less costly for the police and the taxpayer.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#84Is this really the America that America wants? The article mentions one case where a judge refused to issue a search warrant for a narcotics investigation and instead the police brought representatives from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and raided the place with a swat team to conduct an alcohol inspection. What did they find? Two sample bottles of beer that weren't labeled as samples and a bo…
Americans vote for those who are tough on crime. I think CATO estimated (on the high end) about 40,000 SWAT/paramilitary raids a year and the public perception is that the targets are all criminals. To them this is just "acceptable collateral damage."
The problem is the public thinks that those being targeted are all dirty evil criminals, and I also think America as a whole doesn't have an "innocent before guilty" mentality. It's not just the American leaders that have corrupt minds. It's also a lot of Americans, who are supporting this sort of stuff.
The media is also not helping at all, and making the problem worse, because they are usually on the government's side when it comes to such issues.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#85Is this really the America that America wants? The article mentions one case where a judge refused to issue a search warrant for a narcotics investigation and instead the police brought representatives from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and raided the place with a swat team to conduct an alcohol inspection. What did they find? Two sample bottles of beer that weren't labeled as samples and a bo…
Americans vote for those who are tough on crime. I think CATO estimated (on the high end) about 40,000 SWAT/paramilitary raids a year and the public perception is that the targets are all criminals. To them this is just "acceptable collateral damage."
Unfortunately this is more being dumb on crime. Just think about all the criminals they could have investigated insted of thus amatur rides.
Her in Norway its can sometime take 10-20 minutes just to get thru to the police if you have an emergency at night. I hope the local SWAT time at least is out chasing real cals and real criminals instead of shutting security guards and raiding the local veterans clubs for some $5 dollar poker fee.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Americans vote for those who are tough on crime. I think CATO estimated (on the high end) about 40,000 SWAT/paramilitary raids a year and the public perception is that the targets are all criminals. To them this is just "acceptable collateral damage."
The problem is the public thinks that those being targeted are all dirty evil criminals, and I also think America as a whole doesn't have an "innocent before guilty" mentality. It's not just the American leaders that have corrupt minds. It's also a lot of Americans, who are supporting this sort of stuff. The media is also not helping at all, and making the problem worse, because they are usually on the government's s…
The media's on sensationalism's side, and the mob's side.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#87Is this really the America that America wants? The article mentions one case where a judge refused to issue a search warrant for a narcotics investigation and instead the police brought representatives from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and raided the place with a swat team to conduct an alcohol inspection. What did they find? Two sample bottles of beer that weren't labeled as samples and a bo…
Sadly, yes, it is the America that America wants, as far as I can tell.
I think this is where efforts to fight these problems fall down. They're almost all based on the assumption that the populace doesn't want this stuff to happen, but that the government pushes it through by abusing power, subverting democracy, etc.
But from what I see, this is not the case. Most Americans want this. Whether it's gun-wielding maniacs, drug dealers, or international terrorist masterminds, they feel unsafe, and want the government to help. They like heavily-armed SWAT teams available at a moment's notice. They like the government spying on every communication they can get their hands on. They like x-ray machines and body scanners in airports.
There is a sizable minority where sanity remains, but it is a minority. I think that efforts to fight these problems need to recognize this, and realize that you have to convince the people as your primary action. Fighting the government won't help, because the people will insist that these things be done, as long as the majority feels this way.
No, I don't know how....
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#88Was he reading Dreaming in Code? For everyone unfamiliar with this book, the co-founder of Salon.com, Scott Rosenberg, wrote a book called "Dreaming in Code" that's basically about why writing software is so hard.
Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#89Wow that was some article. If these kind of things happened in my country, I would get the fuck out of my country. Actually, I didn't like the way the UK was going, so when the opportunity came about, I moved.
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Re: “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”
#90Isn't the first story in the article a clear case of entrapment? The cop encouraged the guy to do something and then killed him for it.
Entrapment seems to be a common tactic. The details of most of the arrests of would-be terrorists that they catch in the US are clear cases of entrapment. The FBI/NYPD/some paid informant finds some antisocial/inept guy who's floundering in his life and try to radicalize him and then give him a plan and tools to carry out some terrorist act.
Here's one case, but there are many: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/26/taliban-sympathi...
Pay attention to the details next time you read about a foiled terror plot in the US. A couple of them seem to have been legit but most follow the pattern.
[Edit] I became curious about what happened to this guy so I Googled him and found this: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/04/26/alleged-taliban-sy... looks like they threw the book at him and sent him to prison for 8 years for having fired a gun at a firing range. [/Edit]