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Why Doesn't Nightly Care About Baltimore?


Pong Messiah
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I definitely get the fatigue angle.

 

I know so many people who haven't been able to think about anything else all week. Any time new information comes out that shows how bad the Baltimore police are or have been in the past, the choir announces it like a dead-horse corner paperboy.

 

Now I think there are plenty of things about police forces in general and Baltimore police specifically to be disgusted with, but I'm seriously starting to get the vibe that "If you're not jumping up from your desk sputtering mad, spinning in circles every 15 minutes at each new report and calling for a socialist revolution, you're a backward thinking, down-punching jerkoff." and it's getting on my nerves -- classic "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" high-horse back-patting. Dudes, I think every reasonable person can agree that some really crappy things have happened and are happening, and in more places than Baltimore... not sure everybody wants to rage about this all day every day, though.

 

Course, I am not regularly harassed by police on the way back to my safely not-on-fire home, either!

 

:eek:

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It's heartbreaking and outrageous. We need reforms to police hiring and training, We need to lose our entitlement as a culture. Yes, that feels like a stock response. I almost feel like saying it that way too.

It comes off like a stock response because there have been problems with police hiring and training and behavior (and then covering for it) for so long... even if something is true, it gets kind of dull around the edges when you have to repeat yourself ad infinitum and nothing changes.

 

By the way, I'm not actually sure police are getting worse. If I had to bet, I'd say they're just getting caught more often doing what they have always done 'cause everybody has cameras now. Authoritarian brains often have a hard time adapting to change.

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Who cares? I hope all the businesses like cvs close up shop and pull out of these places for good.

 

Plus the mom who beat her son up at the looting needs to offer parenting classes to all the other parents in the area and end the hoodlum mentality of the youth.

 

They also need to to track down the anarchists who are stirring most of the violence in these protests.

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lol that is awesome. Wish I had caught it in time to have fun with it.

 

I guess in this case, "You people" means movie buffs, gamers, self-actualized sci-fi/fantasy nerds, and the occasional neurotic.

 

BUT IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT IT COULD MEAN SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT!

 

:eek:

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I think people are mostly tired of the " lower end " of society messing things up. If I may quote Chris Rock. "Who's more racist white people or black people? Black people. Why? Because black people hate ******* too. ******* fuck shit up for everybody!" And that goes for all races. How do you ask for end to police brutality by responding with violence? Go ahead. Give the police another reason to reason to be weary of minorties.

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Who cares? I hope all the businesses like cvs close up shop and pull out of these places for good.

 

Plus the mom who beat her son up at the looting needs to offer parenting classes to all the other parents in the area and end the hoodlum mentality of the youth.

 

They also need to to track down the anarchists who are stirring most of the violence in these protests.

Yeah, let's completely write off everyone and leave them to rot 'cause some people are breaking stuff! Makes perfect sense.... On Planet Pigfeet!

 

Btw, how do you feel about the police and its history of churlishness toward the community is is supposed to serve, or the fact that the ride Gray allegedly received had a specific name?

 

IMO, even if you condemn setting businesses on fire (which is perfectly reasonable), and even if you support the police and/or think they "do a hard job and are misunderstood" (not my opinion, but you can make a reasonable argument for this, as well), you should still be able to have some understanding, perhaps even empathy about why people are so pissed off.

 

:eek:

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Now I think there are plenty of things about police forces in general and Baltimore police specifically to be disgusted with, but I'm seriously starting to get the vibe that "If you're not jumping up from your desk sputtering mad, spinning in circles every 15 minutes at each new report and calling for a socialist revolution, you're a backward thinking, down-punching jerkoff." and it's getting on my nerves -- classic "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" high-horse back-patting. Dudes, I think every reasonable person can agree that some really crappy things have happened and are happening, and in more places than Baltimore... not sure everybody wants to rage about this all day every day, though.

Boy, you're not kidding. You just described my facebook newsfeed perfectly. And not just about police brutality either. A half dozen or so issues cycle through with dizzying regularity, all geared to inflame progressive outrage and victimhood: wealth inequality, homophobia esp. in religion, women's issues, republicans, global warming, minimum wage, the stupidity of Christian (and ONLY Christian) zealots, so on and so on. I don't know how they sustain this day in and day out without their heads exploding. I'm with ya Pong - I find it very draining and tiresome. I think they're ultimately on the right side of things, more or less, but the obsessive fanaticism makes even causes I really do sympathize with - trade unionism and so on, harder and harder to swallow. It's time to unfollow even close friends and family now. Enough already.

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Nope I have no sympathy for people who break the law by looting, rioting, etc...

 

Zero sympathy.

 

Now if you want to peacefully protest then cool but if you want to act like a wild animal then you should be treated as one. The thing is there was no reason for rioting in this situation because the police openly admitted wrong doing in this case and it was only a matter of time before charges were filed.

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Nope I have no sympathy for people who break the law by looting, rioting, etc...

 

Zero sympathy.

 

Now if you want to peacefully protest then cool but if you want to act like a wild animal then you should be treated as one. The thing is there was no reason for rioting in this situation because the police openly admitted wrong doing in this case and it was only a matter of time before charges were filed.

Surely you realize that one can be against looting/crime/etc... while understanding the history, how, and why of the situation, and that it's perhaps a bit more complex than people simply "acting like wild animals" and needing a good beatdown?

 

:eek:

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I can understand the need to riot. I can understand why people would want to smash some shit, and in some ways I would even expect it and/or tolerate it. What I don't get though is why you would trash your OWN neighborhood.

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Nope I have no sympathy for people who break the law by looting, rioting, etc...

 

Zero sympathy.

 

Now if you want to peacefully protest then cool but if you want to act like a wild animal then you should be treated as one. The thing is there was no reason for rioting in this situation because the police openly admitted wrong doing in this case and it was only a matter of time before charges were filed.

Surely you realize that one can be against looting/crime/etc... while understanding the history, how, and why of the situation, and that it's perhaps a bit more complex than people simply "acting like wild animals" and needing a good beatdown?

 

:eek:

 

"I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non­-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results. But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.
Now every year about this time, our newspapers and our televisions and people generally start talking about the long hot summer ahead. What always bothers me is that the long hot summer has always been preceded by a long cold winter. And the great problem is that the nation has not used its winters creatively enough to develop the program, to develop the kind of massive acts of concern that will bring about a solution to the problem. And so we must still face the fact that our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nations winters of delay. As long as justice is postponed we always stand on the verge of these darker nights of social disruption. The question now, is whether America is prepared to do something massively, affirmatively and forthrightly about the great problem we face in the area of race and the problem which can bring the curtain of doom down on American civilization if it is not solved."

 

- Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Other America", March 14, 1968. Given just three weeks before his assassination. Emphasis mine. Amazing how words spoken nearly 50 years ago can still be so applicable to our times. It's also sad, as it shows how little has actually changed.

 

Nope I have no sympathy for people who break the law by looting, rioting, etc...

 

Zero sympathy.

 

Now if you want to peacefully protest then cool but if you want to act like a wild animal then you should be treated as one. The thing is there was no reason for rioting in this situation because the police openly admitted wrong doing in this case and it was only a matter of time before charges were filed.

"You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative."

 

 

- Dr King Again, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", April 16, 1963. Swap out Baltimore for Birmingham, and it's also amazingly applicable
Yes, the riots are wrong, but they are emblematic of deeper problems in our society, problems we ignore and we refuse to address. And when the disenfranchised, those who suffer because of those problems, are not listened to, when they ask us for decades to do SOMETHING to redress their grievances and we turn away deaf to their complaints and struggles, they inevitably feel that violence and destruction are their only recourse, the only way they can make their voices heard. Make society PAY ATTENTION. We as a society need to stop being so complacent. We need to stand up and start paying attention, do something about the issues plaguing society, about the ills that are choking the life out of us. It's the only thing that will stop what's happening in Baltimore, the only way to make riots unnecessary.
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Most of the people in this thread, including me, aren't equipped for this debate because we don't know what the fuck we're talking about. But even with as little as I know about the situation I can tell the amount of ignorance on display here is disgusting.

 

For instance, anybody talking like this is an isolated incident that can only be considered, talked about, and solved based only on the details of this specific case ... leave this thread now and go talk about something simple you can handle. I suggest comic strips. They're more appropriate to your attention span.

 

I don't believe in the concept of white privilege but Jesus Christ I'm starting to see how the term came about

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