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Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

nytimes.com

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Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#51

Post by ianhawes »

MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #27
vinay427 wrote: post #2

"the police said some firefighters were reportedly having cinder blocks heaved at them as they responded to emergencies." That's pathetic.

And the cops helped start the riots by throwing rocks at protestors. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/police-throw-rocks-...

Let me help you out here. These were not protestors. These were rioters. HuffPo's coverage of the riots has been abhorrent at best. The gathering of people in the video consisted of teenagers organizing after school yesterday to cause mayhem and "create a purge".

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#52

Post by k-mcgrady »

SFjulie1 wrote: post #15

Northen America cities are really not geometrically in favour of law enforcement. L1 geometry + size of blocks gives an unfair advantage to the rioters. Which means law enforcement have to resort to excessive violence to squash demonstration, and the government to use excessive measures to protect social peace (such as spying their own citizens). Designing cities for cars and not the "humans beings" may have been a c…

Aren't North American cities generally grid based? wouldn't this make it easy for police to for lines, block off several streets, and contain rioters within a block or two?

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#53

Post by chippy »

feld wrote: post #5
vinay427 wrote: post #2

"the police said some firefighters were reportedly having cinder blocks heaved at them as they responded to emergencies." That's pathetic.

and their fire hoses vandalized, apparently

yep, they were slashed with knives live on CNN news.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#54

Post by k-mcgrady »

crusso wrote: post #43
akilism wrote: post #7

This is what happens when you have an above the law police force that preys on entire neighborhoods that feel like they have been cast aside.

It's not just about the police. It's about an entire society that has self-assembled into a caste system by treating some portions of the society as wards of the state. The wards of the state aren't expected to be independent and responsible. They're given handouts in exchanges for their votes, and over time you have a whole generation that can't take care of itself. That's when the state steps in to take care of its…

Yes let's blame poor people. You realise we don't have this problem in countries with even larger welfare systems because our police aren't so heavily militarised and given free reign with no consequences?

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#57

Post by cognivore »

stefantalpalaru wrote: post #33
Lancey wrote: post #9

It's unfortunate that it had to come to this, but I believe the rioters were justified in their actions. If the police departments in the United States do not account for their actions, or worse, defend officers that have committed acts that show an indiscriminate disregard for the well being of those they're sworn to protect, they should be prepared to face violent resistance from the people.

There is no justification for this kind of violence. And it's not even directed against law enforcement. Further more, in the near future it will be used as an excuse to further militarize the police, increase its budgets and reduce civil liberties even more - think Camden, NJ where drug traffic is an excuse to discourage white people to walk and black people to sit on street corners (VICE S02E12).

>> There is no justification for this kind of violence. This is what I'm talking about in my previous post. It actually ignores that it happened - regardless of how justified or wrong or morally outraged you might feel about it. The reality is it's going on whether you feel it's justified or not.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#58

Post by Lawtonfogle »

Mtinie wrote: post #48
rayiner wrote: post #3

My wife and I live in Baltimore, in Mt. Vernon. We were having dinner the other night in Bolton Hill (a quiet residential area), and four guys ran by the restaurant and tried to throw a chair through the window (chairs turned out to be heavier than they thought). People vandalized the Rite-Aid a few blocks from our apartment, and set fire to a building we could see out our window. Being from Bangladesh I'm not worrie…

> But it's a reminder of how fragile the social order is and how close we always are to its collapse. It makes me wonder if "civilization" really exists, or if we really are just small groups of self-centered "tribes" with sets of overlapping goals...until they aren't. Fiction writers have made extensive use of this tenuous balance as a plot point. "Under the Dome" by Stephen King comes immediately to mind as one rec…

>if we really are just small groups of self-centered "tribes" with sets of overlapping goals...until they aren't.

Look at criminals, especially those who violate moral standards we hold as sacred. Each of us is only a good citizen as long as our goals align, though those goals can be more complex than they first appear (such as altruism).

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#59

Post by engi_nerd »

MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #35
engi_nerd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I see you are advocating a new system where injustices are answered with further injustices.

A new system? This is how society has been since time immemorial. It is the basis of our capital punishment system. People only point it out as being some sort of new phenomenon when minorities are the ones lashing out.

I don't intend to argue, here, in favor of the capital punishment system.

What does offend me is your assertion that what I said had ANYTHING to do with race.

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