Random Politics & Religion #07

/kicksdirt

That was my initial thought when Nik told me to pick a side.

I was going to say "well, given the white/hetero/middle class/male nature of my being...I don't think I'd survive very long in an active riot. They generally don't stop to ask where your sympathies lie. Herd mentality, ***."

Well the thing is, I get what Nik's saying, too, but sample size and statistics are not the way the majority of people think.

Yo seha I respect the people of Italy but your the exception

it's like you want there to be some kind of diplomatic tension between the US and Italy

I strongly suggest you learn history of the liberation of your nation from Benito Mussolini that the US contributed from our north african campaign.

If you have not realized the United States government has entered the realtor business on a whole bigger level instead of creating homes we are destroying homes with drones and missiles. Instead of helping foreign governments we are destroying governments with internal coups. We have capitalized on a term called " spreading democracy " on nations who do not follow our corporations policy's. And Weapons manufacturers like Haliburton are always incentivizing lobbying gifts to representatives who will warmonger for them for the sole contract of arm supplying for the invasion.

Your very fortunate I do not agree with the business as usual as is going on right now in Washington DC.

And you tell me all this because...........?

The ones that aren't are making a world of trouble for everyone involved.

I don't think the Police Force believes itself answerable to the Public in the first place.

I know it's weird coming from me... but the perception doesn't meet the reality and we need to get to the real problem which is who is creating this perception and why?

Because of a long string of police shootings before this one, the United States Department of Justice had already initiated an investigation into the APD. On April 21 APD officer Jeremy Dear shot and killed 19-year-old Mary Hawkes as she ran away from him.[50] She was suspected of stealing a car.[51] Dear was fired for not turning on his camera and is appealing his termination.

City records show that between 2009 and 2014, Albuquerque Police Department officers were involved in 47 shootings. Deaths resulted from 32 of these. The Department of Justice reviewed 20 shootings from 2009-2010 and in its final report said that a majority of them were not constitutional.[52] Police Chief Gorden Eden attributed the situation to "systemic failure in our ability to track employee misconduct," and said that he believed "there are people on the force who shouldn't be on the force."[53] However, he said, because union rules make it difficult to discipline officers retroactively, "we may be stuck with them."[53]
Department of Justice Investigation

US DOJ released a scathing report on April 10, 2014 which said in part that "Albuquerque police officers often use deadly force in circumstances where there is no imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to officers or others." It cited an incident in which officers Tasered a man who had poured gasoline on himself, setting him on fire.[52]

The report said that “Supervisors marked as ‘reasonable’ almost every use of force report form we saw,” and that officers were almost never reprimanded for failing to turn on their cameras. The report also cited a pattern of violence against people who were mentally ill or unable to comply due to their mental state, One developmentally disabled man was Tasered, kicked and beaten, yet never charged with any crime.[52]
History of wrongful death litigation

Civil lawsuits have cost the city 23 million dollars as it has lost wrongful death case after wrongful death case since 2010. This figure includes $7.95 million paid to the family of Kenneth Ellis, who was shot as he held a gun to his own head, and $900,000 to the family of Alan Gomez, an unarmed man shot with a spoon in his hand by Sean Wallace, who had previously shot two other men in the line of duty.[54] Wallace was not disciplined and has since been promoted to sergeant and elected to the police union board.[55] On October 1, 2014 Wallace received an award for outstanding service.[56]

One of the officers responsible for the shooting, Keith Sandy, faced criminal charges in 2007 for receiving payments from a private security contractor while working for the State Police. Then-Deputy Chief Mike Castro said Sandy would not be badged nor allowed to carry a gun.[42][43] That case against Officer Sandy was later dropped as no charges were filed against him. He joined the Repeat Offender Unit, considered an elite assignment. No video of the Boyd shooting was recovered from Sandy's camera.[44]

Albuquerque police officer Keith Sandy was allowed to retire from the Albuquerque Police Department in November 2014; however the investigation by APD internal affairs continued.

I know it's weird coming from me... but the perception doesn't meet the reality and we need to get to the real problem which is who is creating this perception and why?

Who does all this chaos benefit?

ok so lets break it down.

Who does all this chaos benefit?

ok so lets break it down.

Who does all this chaos benefit?

doesn't mean I caused the BREXIT

We'll see about that... *investigates*

We'll see about that... *investigates*

If we're going to throw out logic and reason and statistics then you guys are on your own!!!

I know it's weird coming from me... but the perception doesn't meet the reality and we need to get to the real problem which is who is creating this perception and why?

why is the media creating a false illusion that white cops are out to get black people?

What are the statistics regarding the police and the black community? Because this issue about the racial disparity in the way law enforcement treats citizens.

Is there an actual source for these outside of this woman's book?

About the Author

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.

A non-practicing lawyer, Mac Donald has clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, has been an attorney-adviser in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a volunteer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City.

The New Jersey State Law Enforcement Officers Association conferred its Civilian Valor Award on her in 2004. She was awarded the 2008 Integrity in Journalism award from the New York State Shields. She was also the recipient of the 2008 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration from the Center for Immigration Studies and the 2012 Quill & Badge Award for Excellence in Communication from the International Union of Police Associations.

Her writings have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, The New Republic, Partisan Review, The New Criterion, Public Interest, and Academic Questions.

Mac Donald received her B.A. in English from Yale University, graduating with a Mellon Fellowship to Cambridge University, where she earned her M.A. in English and studied in Italy through a Clare College study grant. Her J.D. is from Stanford University Law School.

a decade of support from law enforcement.

In a study by the NYPD, black officers in the New York Police Department were 3.3 times more likely to use their guns at shooting scenes than white officers.

I think that lends her even more credibility.

Preface: I'm not presenting this as taking either side, it's an honest curiosity on this statistic: is this because black officers are more likely to be assigned to beats or respond to calls in areas where there's more likely to be violent interaction?

You'll have to dig into these yourself if you don't like what you hear, but here are some interesting stats that have been reported by Heather Mac Donald, an author of a book about cop killings:

In a study by the NYPD, black officers in the New York Police Department were 3.3 times more likely to use their guns at shooting scenes than white officers.

Twelve percent of all whites and Hispanics who die of homicide are killed by police officers. Four percent of all blacks, homicide victims, are killed by police officers.

A police officer is 18-and-a-half times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is likely to be killed by a police officer.