Minn. officer acquitted in shooting of Philando Castile

[Speaker to Animals]

Racial demographics don't mean that much when you reach a certain level of affluence. Two people who both make $200,000 a year and live similar lifestyles will have more in common with each other, regardless of differing races, than they will with someone making $40,000 a year of the same race.

Bravo!! The truth about race is that it's actually all about class.

Most cops have better things to do than make sure bears and citizens don't accidentally run into each other,

Possibly cops not in an affluent NJ exurb. They were thrilled to have something to do that they didn't have to create themselves. What StA puts aside in his idea to bid up the job till you get smart people, is that smart people don't want a job that's mind numbingly boring in most places. I'm sure we've all heard the stories of guys who get their application rejected for being too bright.

Honest question: would our constabularies be better or worse if we required applicants to be active service veterans. I can think of arguments both ways, but that doesn't mean they have equal weight.

It's an easy quip to make and helps you to cognitively avoid uncomfortable subjects, but the facts just don't support it. The biggest fallacy in it is the assumption that all whites must therefore not be poor, which is demonstrably false. What's more, if your assertion were true, we should see the same draw-dropping murder rate amongst the poorest whites, but we simply do not. There definitely is an effect and poverty certainly is correlated to an increased risk of criminality, but that effect is very small compared to the huge amount of crime that correlates to racial demographic breakdowns.




What's even more concerning to me is the fact that many police departments (and most often the media) deliberately try to obfuscate the data by recording nonwhite criminals as whites. This happens with hispanics very often. The hispanic guy who got high and plowed through a crowd of people in Times Square was previously arrested for crimes in Florida and his race was recorded as white, as one example.

At some point, a realistic approach to our problems requires us to accept that these police chiefs have their own interests and they are selling a story that does not (and probably never will) comport to the truth. An adequate strategy to fight crime in the United States requires that we actually understand what is going on. I'd venture to guess that most police departments are grossly overmanned, and probably more than half of their daily activities account for revenue collection and harassment.

It's true that you don't need high standards for a guy parked in a ditch and collecting ticket revenue for the local corrupt city government, but when you actually need this guy to understand a situation, and be able to clearly express commands that don't lead to shootings in a high-stress confrontation.. well, the job requirements just shot up real fast. I suggested that we reduce the number of cops by eliminating the barely legitimate revenue collection aspect of the job and increase entry requirements by quite a lot. The police chiefs need a lot less toys and other bullshit, few officers, but much higher quality officers.

Look at the video of this Castile shooting. That man died because of a communication breakdown between the two of them. The cop's stress level compromised his ability to communicate clear commands as well as his ability to accurately assess what actually was happening.

Here's another example of police making ambiguous/impossible commands that lead to an innocent man being killed:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/unsealed-ar ... el-shaver/


This isn't a racial issue. This is a quality and training issue. If you want these kinds of things to stop, you have to be realistic about the job, its requirements, and especially the nature of crime in this country. We are currently all over the place with incompetent officers being thrown into the communities armed and dangerous, and police chiefs making up bullshit stories to increase their budgets, and local governments wanting more police to feed off the public like vampires.


edit:

And I readily admit most of this applies only to suburbs and small towns. The cities, such as they are, likely will require an army in the near future to keep them functioning.

[MilSpecs]

It should not be easier for an LEO to kill an American Citizen than it is for a US Soldier to kill a threat in a War Zone, but it is.

Perhaps the best, most succinct line I've heard on the subject.

[Ph64]

How dare you break out such racist/bigoted/xenophobic statistics!! /sarc

[MilSpecs]

What's even more concerning to me is the fact that many police departments (and most often the media) deliberately try to obfuscate the data by recording nonwhite criminals as whites. This happens with hispanics very often.

I don't disagree with much of what you wrote except for this part. "Hispanic" is not a race. By definition it is multiracial: anyone who shares the common culture that is a fusion of indigenous American and Spanish; i.e., Latin American. Many Cubans and Argentinians are, in fact, genetically wholly European. Some Cubans are wholly African or mixed African/Spanish. Guatemalans are mostly indigenous American. Some countries are almost entirely mestizo (mixed), like El Salvador and Paraguay. Dominican Republic: mostly African. Mexico and Puerto Rico are all over the place: indigenous, European, African and any mixture of the former.

To muddy the waters even more, some Hispanic countries have a class system. Does it make sense to classify a Cuban doctor with a laborer from El Salvador with a Mayan farmer from Guatemala with a mailman from Puerto Rico? Statistically, it wouldn't be very meaningful. It would be like classifying a meth addict from Appalachia with a stockbroker from Greenwich. Technically they're both white, but it doesn't have much statistical meaning.

[Speaker to Animals]

What's even more concerning to me is the fact that many police departments (and most often the media) deliberately try to obfuscate the data by recording nonwhite criminals as whites. This happens with hispanics very often.

I don't disagree with much of what you wrote except for this part. "Hispanic" is not a race. By definition it is multiracial: anyone who shares the common culture that is a fusion of indigenous American and Spanish; i.e., Latin American. Many Cubans and Argentinians are, in fact, genetically wholly European. Some Cubans are wholly African or mixed African/Spanish. Guatemalans are mostly indigenous American. Some countries are almost entirely mestizo (mixed), like El Salvador and Paraguay. Dominican Republic: mostly African. Mexico and Puerto Rico are all over the place: indigenous, European, African and any mixture of the former.

To muddy the waters even more, some Hispanic countries have a class system. Does it make sense to classify a Cuban doctor with a laborer from El Salvador with a Mayan farmer from Guatemala with a mailman from Puerto Rico? Statistically, it wouldn't be very meaningful. It would be like classifying a meth addict from Appalachia with a stockbroker from Greenwich. Technically they're both white, but it doesn't have much statistical meaning.

They are a race. Mexicans are Aztec and Mayan, mostly, with a little bit of European mixed in there (but not as much as many people think).

But regardless of how you want to define them racially, to claim they are "white" is fucking absurd.

[MilSpecs]

They are a race. Mexicans are Aztec and Mayan, mostly, with a little bit of European mixed in there (but not as much as many people think).

For the last several years you've been insisting that European-Americans should break up as a country because we have little in common, but people from two continents and multiple islands should be lumped together because they're just alike.

[Speaker to Animals]

They are a race. Mexicans are Aztec and Mayan, mostly, with a little bit of European mixed in there (but not as much as many people think).

For the last several years you've been insisting that European-Americans should break up as a country because we have little in common, but people from two continents and multiple islands should be lumped together because they're just alike.

Mexico is literally Aztec, and the Mayans are right there in the Yucatan, not another continent or island.

The word Mexico is derived from the name the Aztecs called themselves, Mexica. Even the seal of Mexico is an Aztec symbol.

I am not sure where you think Mesoamericans are located, but here in reality land, they are all located in Mexico..

[MilSpecs]

They are a race. Mexicans are Aztec and Mayan, mostly, with a little bit of European mixed in there (but not as much as many people think).

For the last several years you've been insisting that European-Americans should break up as a country because we have little in common, but people from two continents and multiple islands should be lumped together because they're just alike.

Mexico is literally Aztec, and the Mayans are right there in the Yucatan, not another continent or island.

The word Mexico is derived from the name the Aztecs called themselves, Mexica. Even the seal of Mexico is an Aztec symbol.

I am not sure where you think Mesoamericans are located, but here in reality land, they are all located in Mexico..

You said Hispanic. Now you're equating all Hispanics with Mexicans?

[Speaker to Animals]

I said Mexican. You can see it in the post you quoted..

[MilSpecs]

What's even more concerning to me is the fact that many police departments (and most often the media) deliberately try to obfuscate the data by recording nonwhite criminals as whites. This happens with hispanics very often.