I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
1–10 of 238 posts
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#2"Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler." From a norwegian standpoint, where police are not allowed to wear guns, it's fascinating to see how the answer to security problems is more police, harder prison sentences and more violence. What about increasing happiness? In northern Ireland they eventually got rid of terrorism after they started realising that happy people are much less likely to become terrorists.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#3"Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler." From a norwegian standpoint, where police are not allowed to wear guns, it's fascinating to see how the answer to security problems is more police, harder prison sentences and more violence. What about increasing happiness? In northern Ireland they eventually got rid of…
What they did in northern Ireland to make people more happy?
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#4"Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler." From a norwegian standpoint, where police are not allowed to wear guns, it's fascinating to see how the answer to security problems is more police, harder prison sentences and more violence. What about increasing happiness? In northern Ireland they eventually got rid of…
This is America (and specifically Philadelphia where the police is especially corrupt). The goal of police is not to stop terrorism or crime but simply to fill up the jails and create profit for themselves and others by reaching or passing their quotas and making high-profile arrests. And sometimes, ad demonstrated by recent NYPD events, they don't even do their jobs and still get paid.
Crime prevention and offender rehabilitation are not the goals of modern American policing and the modern American prison system respectively. Profit is.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#5"Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler." From a norwegian standpoint, where police are not allowed to wear guns, it's fascinating to see how the answer to security problems is more police, harder prison sentences and more violence. What about increasing happiness? In northern Ireland they eventually got rid of…
What they did in northern Ireland to make people more happy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_peace_process . There's no easy answer. It was a lot of work. I don't know enough to summarize the process.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#6"Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler." From a norwegian standpoint, where police are not allowed to wear guns, it's fascinating to see how the answer to security problems is more police, harder prison sentences and more violence. What about increasing happiness? In northern Ireland they eventually got rid of…
What they did in northern Ireland to make people more happy?
It wasn't specific to just the north. Ireland slashed the corporate tax rate, set up a global tax evasion hub, and lured thousands of very large companies to their shores, drastically boosting employment and skill development, which took their per capita income from half of Britain's to greater than Britain's in ~20 years. That significantly reduced the number of disgruntled persons, reducing the supply of terrorist-willing types and reducing the native support for such behavior.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#7I'm a bit worried about my trip to the US in the spring. I'm going to make a point of having a hair cut, not carrying any suspicious books, cultivate a super submissive nature against authority figures (of which I carry a well-deserved suspicion) and practive my TSA-smile.
Shouldn't have to be that way, but I really don't want to give any indication I am anything but White Bread.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#8Between this glaring infringement of First Amendment, and Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and the push to lock up the borders preventing easy egress from the US[1], it's really starting to feel like the United States is the world's largest prison. Sure, we (mostly) have freedom of movement and rights within the borders, but try to leave or come in and you end up harassed and detained for no reason.
[1] http://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/current/2015/01/23/119...
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
What they did in northern Ireland to make people more happy?
It wasn't specific to just the north. Ireland slashed the corporate tax rate, set up a global tax evasion hub, and lured thousands of very large companies to their shores, drastically boosting employment and skill development, which took their per capita income from half of Britain's to greater than Britain's in ~20 years. That significantly reduced the number of disgruntled persons, reducing the supply of terrorist-…
Don't forget the buckets of money "from the EU" (i.e. The UK). And the British jobs lured there by the artificially low taxes. Like Scotland, Ireland plays the victim card very well to extort money from the English.
Re: I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure
#10Yet another story from american airport. It kind of reminds me soviet countries, where people would get prosecuted for speaking English.
On other side author was detained for 5 hours. That is practically rounding error in __ANY__ country. I would argue there are other causes, more worthy money and effort.