Morphy wrote on Jun 10^th, 2020 at 9:39am:


If he really needs my stuff that bad I’ll see if I can pencil him in in a week or two. I want to make sure I don’t feed my dog for a couple of days beforehand so he’s nice and cranky.   If all goes well, criminals will soon be begging the police to come back.  Texas is already a  particularly tough place to be a criminal these days, so you might just recommend that the guy move to Baltimore or Chicago... or maybe ask Rat Man if there are any openings in New Jersey.

Bill Skinner wrote on Jun 10^th, 2020 at 10:16am:



I think that statement is the most USian PoW I read in a long time ^^ From this side of the pond, I don't think anybody would think of using an insurance company for delegating what is fundamentaly a State duty, monitoring the police force and ensuring it is doing it's job. I even think some may think along the lines of "more funding more controlled", but I'm what most of you in the US would consider a Dark And Evil Commy :p

I confess that the part about the insurance was sort of sarcastic.  However, if the police gets sued, the money comes from the taxpayer to pay for his lawyer and any awards paid to the complainant are also tax dollars, so the police department, the policeman and all his supervisors basically get off for free.

So, there is no real reason to actually change anything.  Do a little song and dance, the heat will die down and everybody will move on to something else.

BTW, the city of Minneapolis paid out 10 million dollars for a wrongful death in 2010.  Guess how the person died?  Exact same way, from the exact same hold as Floyd.

Well, no, probably not. 

Public officials have qualified immunity.  That's to prevent them from getting sued by everyone who disagrees with how they are doing their job.  That includes police. 

The problem comes in when qualified immunity starts getting abused.  You can use minimum force or you can dog pile the guy.  If you attempt to use minimum force, you can end up in a one on one fight where the policeman can lose.  And the person he's attempting to arrest now has access to his firearm(s), Taser, pepper spray, handcuffs, means of transportation, radio and phone, etc. 

Easier to dog pile the guy, cuff and stuff him.  Safer for the policeman, not necessarily for the person being apprehended.

I don't know about the rest of the world but the courts have supported quite a lot of force being used to apprehend someone in the name of "officer safety".  Same for using lethal force in a situation.  "Officer Safety" is apparently more important than citizen safety. 

Note I did not say civilian safety, in the US, the police are also civilians, in spite of the uniforms and rank structure.

Rat Man wrote on Jun 9^th, 2020 at 3:56pm:


I heard a story on the radio that was interviewing the police chief.  He had a interesting perspective and experience with this. He was fired with the rest of them and then rehired onto essentially the same police force. But because it was new, they had a chance to build it from the ground up and change the policing culture. His entire point about why it was better was that the police had legitimacy with the community. And because they had legitimacy, they were effective. They gained legitimacy by becoming part of the local community. They spoke with the community and asked what ways were the best ways to de-escalate. They got to know members of the community on a personal level. One interesting point he made was that their solve rate on homicides (I think) before the break-up of the force was 16%. After the reformation and reengagement of the community, it went up to 61%, because suddenly, people weren't afraid to talk to them. 

In my view, this is what "Defund the police" should mean, whether or not it is what is meant by others is another thing altogether.

lmao - first thing that came up wa s photo with someone holding up a placrad saying: 'the world is watching'.
hate to burst their bubble - But it really isn't.

It's even completely bypassed the bbc !

Okay - a sort of commune - looks like it'll just fizzle out.

UPDAT UPDATE. It is now called CHOP. lol

For the recordd Hippies are dirty. My experience with em anyway

Yeh. I spent a few months in that area. Where the user HUNTSMAN lived. But i just saw an article that there was 1 person killed in a shooting. Within the zone. Its a new generation of hippies. Worse then the old knid.