Baltimore cop not guilty in Gray case. Will there be riots?

It's tough when they're tasked with confiscating and then jailing people for drugs and prostitution and all the peripheral investigations that are required to police those sorts of crimes. When you've got laws designed to fuck with minority communities and the cops are the ones that are tasked with doing the fucking with... It's going to be cops are racist rather than making the connection between government laws being the evil in the equation. Government did a great job destroying the black nuclear family, making those neighborhoods dangerous and then cops have to police those laws. You could say well... Why'd you become a cop? And I would agree with you... But it's still fuckery on the part of the real evil.

Fair enough, but the problem is that despite them being in a dangerous area, the specific cases were talking about, the cops life was never in any kind of danger. They would have survived just fine with or without shooting someone. So why does someone end up dead?

Kind of an unrelated point, but they don't have to be taught to be 100% of the time overly aggressive either. There are a bunch of examples of this where people did die, but the first one to come to mind no one died... In metro Detroit one morning like 2 years ago someone shoplifted a bunch of stuff from Meijer. Like $500 maybe. The cops were right there and a high speed chase ensued. During rush hour. With thousands of other people on those roads. What I don't get is- just let them go. Go find them after the fact. You have them on camera, you have their license plate, why are you risking lives in the name of capturing this petty criminal? Use your damn head. It's not worth the risk.

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:Fair enough, but the problem is that despite them being in a dangerous area, the specific cases were talking about, the cops life was never in any kind of danger. They would have survived just fine with or without shooting someone. So why does someone end up dead?

Kind of an unrelated point, but they don't have to be taught to be 100% of the time overly aggressive either. There are a bunch of examples of this where people did die, but the first one to come to mind no one died... In metro Detroit one morning like 2 years ago someone shoplifted a bunch of stuff from Meijer. Like $500 maybe. The cops were right there and a high speed chase ensued. During rush hour. With thousands of other people on those roads. What I don't get is- just let them go. Go find them after the fact. You have them on camera, you have their license plate, why are you risking lives in the name of capturing this petty criminal? Use your damn head. It's not worth the risk.

I agree with the Meijers example. I know LPD will call off a chase if it's deemed "too dangerous".

I don't think you know when your life is or isn't going to be in danger. Those situations change by the millisecond. One moment you could be casually handcuffing a suspect and within a second he's bashing you over the head with the cuffs attached to one wrist. So often times when they start wrestling just a little is the cue to go from 0 to 100 because if you just go from 0 to 10 there's a good chance his will to get out of being arrested beats your assumption that nothing bad will happen to you. Aren't police officers still within the top 15 most dangerous jobs in the US?

I don't think it is, no. Or at least, it wasn't in the top 10 last time I looked. I don't keep up on the dangerous job rankings like I should xsang.

I think your use of "good chance" is quite a stretch. I don't think there's a good chance of that at all. Or at least, I don't think there's a good chance that the cop is in any danger. The guy might try to run, but he's not about to go all hulk and kill you. But I agree, that is the cops mentality. I just think it's wrong and is part of the problem. We can't accept them thinking that every situation they are faced with is potentially life threatening and that everyone around them is out to get them.

Anyway, there needs to be a solution that leads to no one being dead. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert with all the answers or anything but there are definitely things that can be done. For instance, they could use their smarts (this is where we get to the pay people more thing) so that they can talk people down instead of options a b and c being "lock him up and throw him in the car." Everyone is going to be a lot better off if everyone is calm, but the trained professionals don't seem very good at or interested in calming people down.

I was looking at data from 2015, they come in at #13 (3x the national average for all occupations).

There's a huge difference in being a cop in East Lansing, MI and being a cop in Baltimore, MD. I do think you underestimate the danger that naturally comes with having to deal with the types of people that these cops are required to interact with all day, every day. They are naturally hated in many of these neighborhoods and when you're trying to control a situation with someone that already dislikes you for what you represent it's going to make it tough to get them to put their hands behind their back and get them in the car.

Like I said, just in little podunk Lansing in the dozen or so ride alongs I went on nearly every shift he was involved in a scuffle and was very professional up until the cuffs come out and then people start getting antsy and resistant and that's when the fist fights start. I don't know how many fist fights you've been in, Travis, but in virtually every one I've been in or witnessed the most aggressive individual comes out on top. Often times these guys are only making it out of fist fights because a partner shows up to assist. It's only the Leave It To Beaver jobs in those Leave It To Beaver towns.

What is natural hatred?

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:What is natural hatred?

Learned hatred would have been a better way to describe it. They are raised to hate cops, all of their friends and their parents hate cops. The entire community hates cops and I don't necessarily blame them because I kind of lean towards that view myself (not quite so far as to call it 'hatred', though). I meant to say naturally, they're hated. A comma can make a big difference.

xsanguine wrote:I guess when this situation arises it's always a racial thing and that's how it seems to be playing out in social media so I'm just trying to find a way to get that angle on you, Travis, but yer not biting. We can't argue over identity politics if you don't take the bait.

All politics is identity politics.

Turtleneck wrote:

xsanguine wrote:I guess when this situation arises it's always a racial thing and that's how it seems to be playing out in social media so I'm just trying to find a way to get that angle on you, Travis, but yer not biting. We can't argue over identity politics if you don't take the bait.

All politics is identity politics.

You know what I'm referring to, Leonardo.

xsanguine wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

All politics is identity politics.

You know what I'm referring to, Leonardo.

My name is Turtleneck.

Is that pronounced Don-uh-tell-oh?

Oh, I get it. The karate turtles. That show was racist.

Turtleneck wrote:Oh, I get it. The karate turtles. That show was racist.

Casey Jones was sexist. But yes, the appropriation of Japanese culture was pretty offensive.

It made green Asian people look like sewer dwelling pizza addicts.

Turtleneck wrote:It made green Asian people look like sewer dwelling pizza addicts.

Or hairy elderly mammals with a dirty tunic.

Looks like more trouble for the Prosecutors....

Surprise revelation threatens to derail latest Freddie Gray trial

There’s been a bit of a bombshell dropped in the trial of Ceasar Goodson, the police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray sustained his eventually fatal injuries. We previously discussed the decision by Goodson’s team to opt for a bench trial and allow Judge Barrie Williams to decide his fate rather than facing a jury, along with how that might impact his fate. Now, the early signs are that it might have been a wise choice. Williams is reported to have appeared “visibly angry” on the second day of the trial when it was revealed that prosecutors had intentionally withheld evidence which could seriously tip the case in Goodson’s favor. (ABC News)

Up until now, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has been under fire for mishandling this case from essentially the beginning, but it’s mostly been seen as an inept and potentially biased attempt to punish the cops and send a message to the community. The evidence seemed shaky and the list of charges appeared to be an overreach. But all of these factors could be written off as incompetence or the result of some sort of vendetta. This news, however, could change the entire flavor of the trial for the judge. If Williams concludes that the state has been intentionally hiding evidence in an effort to railroad the cops, the credibility of all the charges could simply collapse, along with what remains of Mosby’s career in law enforcement and politics most likely.

Ari Melber MSNBC ‏@AriMelber 22m22 minutes ago
Breaking: The police officer facing the most serious charges for death of Freddie Gray - including murder - acquitted on all charges.

wow.. breaking news: black lives are expendable in America.

never saw that coming.

let me get this straight.......

an Uncle Tom judge acquitted an angry black cop for killing an innocent African-American boy?

Murica!!

Toe wrote:let me get this straight.......

an Uncle Tom judge acquitted an angry black cop for killing an innocent African-American boy?

Murica!!

And they're all white racists according to lily white but deeply caring about the browns Bobby.

LooseGoose wrote:

Toe wrote:let me get this straight.......

an Uncle Tom judge acquitted an angry black cop for killing an innocent African-American boy?

Murica!!

And they're all white racists according to lily white but deeply caring about the browns Bobby.

Goddamn white privilege!!