About Police Shootings (in America, Duh)

Silas Mercury wrote: Here's what Michael Moore has to say: (from Stupid White Men)

Isn't Michael Moore white!?!? :huh:

I have heard that more Black Americans are shot by Police than White Americans. So I did a quick search to see what I came up with. Here are a few sites that caught my attention…

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-08/breakdown-us-citizens-killed-cops-2016
https://www.allenbwest.com/michele/crime-expert-releases-shocking-new-statistics-about-black-men-killed-by-cops

I have NOT looked in to their numbers, where they got them or the validity of them. Nor do I support anything written on any of these sites. They are just sites that caught my attention and I thought were interesting enough to share. They could be complete Hog-wash. :blink:

What I have seen is a lot of finger pointing. Does anyone really want to know who is responsible for all of this? We are. You, me, all of us. And we keep feeding off negative emotions and spreading the sickness of finger pointing. :blush:

We need to address the issues at hand and correct them. Issues I have noticed that have led to where we are currently.

• People love sensationalism, so the media gives it to them.
  
• People feel the law enforcement agencies do not have the people’s best interest in mind.
  
• The police agencies are comprised of people and people make bad decisions and mistakes (either in action or policy), just like we do. You and me both.
  
• Relations between the people and the law enforcement agencies have been strained by actions of peoples on both sides of the fence.
  
• All people have a tendency to let their emotions govern their decision making processes.

In my mind, these are the causes of the issues we face. I would prefer to address these and not the symptoms which are a result of the causes.

Snowy Aftermath wrote:

Silas Mercury wrote: ...

Anyone can find a zillion bad things about anyone. But my boss is a white guy and a war hero. My secondary boss is an amazing father and one of the most genuine people I have ever met and he's a white guy. My uncle is a white guy and was a FANTASTIC cop.

And Michael Moore... he's a sensationalist filmmaker whose goal is to make back enough money to cover the cost of the movies he makes, plus enough to pay his bills for the next ten centuries if he can.

Never trust anyone with a stake in what they're telling you. He's a used car salesman. Use your brain, do a little research and check his facts. Don't just swallow it.

A 'ware hero' how do you define a war hero ? There are no heroes in war. A man who murders tens of Iraqis and Afghans to save one American is no hero.

And hey, if I find one spec of disrespect or hate for michael moore, PEOPLE WILL GET HURT. MICHAEL MOORE IS A LEGEND AND EXPOSED THE TRUTH TO EVERYONE HE IS AN AWESOME PERSON WHY ISNT HE BRITISH JUST WHY ??

I have a lot of disrespect for Michael Moore.

Technically it would be that I have a lack of respect for him. But on that note, I have a lack of respect for a lot of people. :laugh:

As to “war heroes”… I have never seen a soldier call himself a hero. It is his brothers in arms, his family and those that recognize his efforts that call him a hero. So you would have to ask them what defines a “ware Hero” in their eyes.

Silas Mercury wrote: And hey, if I find one spec of disrespect or hate for michael moore, PEOPLE WILL GET HURT. MICHAEL MOORE IS A LEGEND AND EXPOSED THE TRUTH TO EVERYONE HE IS AN AWESOME PERSON WHY ISNT HE BRITISH JUST WHY ??

i honestly lol'd when i read this

it looks like you take seriously what youre saying here, but i find the idea of respecting michael moore to be downright silly, and it tickled me when i read your comment

i was having a rough morning and you helped make it better, thank you

i have liked and respected silly people too, so please dont think im looking down on you, its a normal part of growing up, but i have to ask you; are you going to hurt me for voicing my opinion?

i think michael moore is a great capitalist; he applies his talents and abilities to a field which has made him millions of dollars and worldwide recognition

he likes to extol the evils of capitalism and capitalists, especially white capitalists, but that proves him a either a two faced hypocrite or an idiot, more than any kind of civic icon

so he is a great capitalist, but he is lousy as a journalist or social commentator because his work is always ideologically driven and willfully blind

its meant to fling mud and proselytize on behalf of an agenda, not to really investigate or expose real cause and effect relationships or pursue realistic and healthy ideas for cultural change

his fact checking is-- well he doesnt check his facts very well at all, or choose his words precisely based on facts, as the garbage posted above makes clear

he basically is a liar (in the sense that he presents situations in ways that are deliberately slanted) who (probably) believes himself to be (mostly) telling the truth, but is either not objective enough or just not smart enough to really do proper, unbiased research

michael moore is a leftist version of ann coulter or rush limbaugh (in the usa)

there are much better examples of journalistic courage and integrity to be found

Silas Mercury wrote: And hey, if I find one spec of disrespect or hate for michael moore, PEOPLE WILL GET HURT. MICHAEL MOORE IS A LEGEND AND EXPOSED THE TRUTH TO EVERYONE HE IS AN AWESOME PERSON WHY ISNT HE BRITISH JUST WHY ??

I don't know you very well yet so I'm going to guess that there are one of two things happening. 1) You're joking, in which case I love it. :laugh: 2) You're serious in which case I would recommend not threatening physical violence against the members here. The fact that you did threaten physical violence and put this in all caps though leads me to believe it was the first one. :laugh:

Now back to the subject at hand.

We must remember that the news gives us a teeny tiny snapshot of what happens in our world. I am not denying that minorities are being killed by police. I am not denying that it happens with more frequency than white people being killed by police. I am not denying that there are good cops and bad cops and good people and bad people. I am only saying that the media will tell you whatever they think will get you to watch/read/click them and as we all know death and racial tension gets those ratings higher than almost anything else.

We must also remember that for every person killed by police there are hundreds, even thousands of times that a person is stopped by police and everything goes smoothly. No one, police or civilian, gets hurt. A teeny tiny fraction of a percent of police stops result in someone's death, do not let the media tell you any different.

The biggest problem is that the media is perpetuating this "us vs them" concept and people are buying it. We are all people. People need to stop killing people. White, black, cop, civilian, mexican, muslim, European, man, woman, gay, straight, it does not matter.

The thing that upsets me more than any of this is the constant use of the labels to define the people. Every time a cop does anything to a person of any minority the headline starts with "White cop does x to [minority]" or they just say it was a cop but the story will say "They have not yet released the race of the officer(s)." It makes me sick. The media doesn't see anyone as people, they see them as a label that they can use to boost ratings and while that sucks it is their job to do so. We just have to remember that is what they are doing.

This image really stood out to me and I wanted to share it here.



The beauty of grace in the face of... aggression? fear? suspicion? I don't know the right word.

tzb wrote: This image really stood out to me and I wanted to share it here.

The beauty of grace in the face of... aggression? fear? suspicion? I don't know the right word.

I wonder what was behind her? Or behind the cops? Or behind the photographer? It is a powerful and beautiful image, but it is only part of the story. Are the cops protecting something behind them? Is she in front of a group of peaceful protesters? Is she in front of a mob and armed rioters? Is she there alone? Was this image staged? All questions that I want to know before I assume that either party is in the wrong.

It feels like this image was taken with the intent to show one side of the story and not both. It shows one lone woman and an army of police in riot gear. Maybe that's all there was to it, but that seems very unlikely to me.

Edit: I love how her dress is kind of billowing out around her.

Goken wrote: It feels like this image was taken with the intent to show one side of the story and not both. It shows one lone woman and an army of police in riot gear. Maybe that's all there was to it, but that seems very unlikely to me.

It's more likely the photo was just taken... because it just happened to be taken, not because it was set up with some kind of agenda aiming to show "one side of the story." It was taken by a Reuters photojournalist.

Anyway, if you want to know the story , or "the truth" as it were: the short version is that she was standing on a road the police were clearing by force, not moving or speaking, and the police rushing toward her in the photograph detained her — according to the photographer, other eyewitnesses and the woman herself. Sometimes there is only one side to a story.

Silas Mercury wrote: And hey, if I find one spec of disrespect or hate for michael moore, PEOPLE WILL GET HURT.

I'll give you my home address and you can come hurt me if you dare, Silas. Good luck.