CONSOLIDATED - Police-related violence / shooting threads

[Swatter]

Let statistics speak. I'll leave it to you guys to draw conclusions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

What a total joke. Notice how they list the number of deaths with little graphics that look almost like grave stones? Notice how every time you reload the page, the death counter ticks up??

Notice more importantly that they don't tell you how likely you are to be killed by a police officer, even if you get arrested. The chances are infinitesimal. This is typical crap journalism. I have come to my conclusion, thank you.

[Swatter]

A BLM "march" shut down the key I40 bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis last night. The media is reporting it as a "peaceful" protest, but it dang well wasn't: they forced national traffic to stop completely, in total disregard of the rights of travel, endangering (though inadvertently) a child being transported to Memphis for a heart transplant among other things. The police had to bring gas, water, and food to motorists trapped in Arkansas with no way to continue east. (The protestors originally intended to shut down the outbound lane going west, but were blocked by police; but stymied police efforts to keep them off the bridge by swarming onto the offramp of traffic incoming from Arkansas instead.)

The mayor made sure the police protected their 'right' to shut down everyone else's rights to free travel, instead of forcing them off the bridge as a mob of criminals, which the protestors were pretty clearly trying to trigger. There are reports of the usual rhetoric of violence against police being chanted.

Mom, who's a total newshound, was surprised when I asked her this morning what she had heard about it: as of right this moment, 10:33am, she had heard nothing from Memphis news channels this morning, and not from their websites either.

FOX13 news was there -- a CBS affiliate in Richmond, VA (two whole states away) has an hour of c, b, and a footage gathered by the local Fox affiliate.

The (black) police chief helped keep the peace (in the sense of no violence between protestors and cops) by linking hands with the protestors and praying with them. He did work at trying to get them off the bridge. To put it bluntly, the crowd left around midnight to party on Beale Street. Memphis authorities assured people the situation was under control but suggested everyone stay away from downtown because things were so very under control there no reason, just because.  ::)

"Protestors" did the same thing here in St. Louis during the Ferguson riots. Local leaders, police officials, and the media had absolutely no idea what to do. All of those people were afraid to death of being called racists by actually enforcing the law and protecting the rights of others who were not protestors. Looting was allowed all over the city and the media went far out of their way to say that those people were the exception (when that clearly wasn't the case).

[JasonPratt]

I will say that I haven't heard about any looting yet. Possibly the fact that in TN non-criminals are a lot more likely to have guns, too, had something to do with that. ;) I sure wouldn't want to run riot in Memphis! -- or anywhere else in the state.

[Swatter]

Stefan Molyneux has a good breakdown of what's known so far and condemns the rush to judgement.

This guy is my hero. He strongly reminds me of my favorite philosophy professor from my school days, both in logical reasoning and appearance. This guy does the best deconstruction of climate catastrophe hysteria I have seen anywhere. His analysis of these two shooting is almost entirely spot on, although he doesn't focus enough on how the media is lazy and relies on narratives rather than investigative reporting to report stories.

[Boggit]

+1

I like Stefan Molyneux too for the same sort of reasoning. O0

[Boggit]

My, how the media are overdramatic. ::)

Unlike the Tianamen Square incident, Tank Man who was exceptionally brave in his protest had a good chance at the time of being killed, and who then "disappeared" after the event (read presumed dead).

Ms Evans on the other hand had little chance of being killed at the time, and much less chance of being subsequently "disappeared" by the authorities with her publicity stunt. For the media to claim a parallel is laughable. What a crock of... >:(

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-stunning-baton-rouge-protest-photo-nurse-mother-article-1.2706944

[JasonPratt]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437695/dallas-shooting-lefts-hateful-race-demagoguery-complicit

America has become the least racist multiracial, multiethnic country in world history. This drives the America-hating Left crazy. That's why they manufacture fantasies such as "microaggressions" — non-racist statements that the Left labels racist, foolishness like "White Privilege," and the dangerous rhetoric of Blacks Lives Matter.

To be fair, not everything at the NYT fits that assessment, as the author himself kind-of acknowledges in a backhanded way.

Just yesterday, the New York Times published the results of a study conducted by a black Harvard professor of economics that shows that "when it comes to the most lethal form of force — police shootings — the study finds no racial bias."

"It is the most surprising result of my career," said Roland G. Fryer Jr., the author of the study.

[Gusington]

There will be a Black Lives Matter march outside my office building on Thursday evening and I may have to stay late in case things get out of hand :/

[Gusington]

She's hawt.

[Sir Slash]

What kind of nurse uniform is that? Hugh Hefner Memorial Hospital?

[Sir Slash]

Grog Lives Matter!!!

[Gusington]

I hope so.

[Gusington]

I dig it.

[Swatter]

Facts have long ago ceased to matter when it comes to BLM, police shootings, and race relations in general. The "black lives don't matter to police" news media narrative is in full control. If a study comes out that speaks directly against that, they truly don't care because it is an emotional narrative and not something based in logical reasoning.

Speaking as a person who has put much thought into the racial problems in my city, I can say that as each day passes and this false narrative grips and tears apart race relations, I care less and less. Each day in the poor black neighborhoods of St. Louis, young black men engage in gang-related gun battles killing each other and innocents alike. Nobody cares about that (other than the ten second news segment that marks the end of another black life). I can only imagine in cities like Chicago where you can no longer cover each individual shooting or murder due to the sheer volume, the crime segment must be nothing more than a statistical summary. Where are the protests about that?

No BLM won't register on my radar until they focus on the real problems of the black community. Just yesterday I read an article where a BLM spokesperson pushed aside criticism about their lack of focus on the much greater numbers of blacks killed by blacks, by saying that all races murder within race at high rates. Yes, very true and makes perfect sense. Yet, African Americans make up 13% of the population, but commit 50+ percent of the murders. The real world result in the disparity between population size and total murders is poor black communities where murder is common and the simple act of walking down the street is dangerous.

This is the easiest way I can explain why I oppose BLM movement: Every night on the local news I don't see police officers shooting black people. It happens, maybe several times a year. In almost every case the deceased was armed and had a long, long criminal record or was actively committing a violent crime (usually a combination of all of that). On the other hand, every single night I see news stories of gang related gun battles, gang related murders, dead bodies found in trunks (probably gang related), and various other violent and property crimes. A vast majority of these things are happening in poor black neighborhoods. Random crimes. Large bands (50-100) of roving black youths boarding metro link trains randomly attacking people. Not long before Ferguson, we had a real problem with this. It was bad at one point and most of these episodes were caught on camera. The simple fact is that our crime problems in St. Louis are not a result of the police, they are a result of poor black youths engaged in crime. Not that every crime is in poor black neighborhoods, but well more than enough to destroy those communities (which is probably the most important part).

Thanks for listening to my rants. This is all I can do to sort this stuff out in my head.

[Swatter]

I must retract my statement that Stefan Molyneux is my hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RVIi6M7oM

I am all for an honest conversation about race and opening doors no matter where they lead in the pursuit of intellectual honesty, but they extrapolate way too much from IQ data. I have never trusted IQ tests as a measure of a human being's full potential, but only as an indicator of certain kinds of intelligence (and they could be biased). They lost me when they stopped talking about data and began to talk about theories that more properly belong in the 19th century. The theories they discuss are far more flimsy than a house of cards.

When someone is are going to break that far from the norms of intellectual discussion, you better be supported by strong data every millimeter you step. You can't enter the territory of racial superiority in such a superficial manner.

Edit- After some research, Molyneux is full into racial superiority theories. I fully support intellectual curiosity, but he is really buying into thoroughly discredited theories. He has a sharp mind, but even smart people can make idiots of themselves and that is my final word on the subject of Stefan Molyneux.