US Politics: Is Obama Yossarian

[L.T.'s Sexual Healing]

LT,

I'm not and have never been a Republican. I don't support corporate welfare, at all.

Today's conservative is a neo-con or a member of the religious right. Libertarians are a different breed.

[MerenthaClone]

DG,

The case is in line with the Court's position that you don't have a right unless you positively assert it. In other words, it's crap. The position that you don't have a 5th amendment right to remain silent unless you are under arrest is incredibly stupid. How many people would risk a beating by getting up and walking out of a police interrogation, formally arrested or not?

Exactly.

"Am I free to leave?"

*no response*

"Okay, I'm leaving then."

*beats down person for resisting arrest and then, subsequently, assaulting an officer*

[TerraPrime]

[mod hat]

Let's cut short the bickering and focus instead on issues.

Thanks.

[/mod hat]

[L.T.'s Sexual Healing]

Exactly.

"Am I free to leave?"

*no response*

"Okay, I'm leaving then."

*beats down person for resisting arrest and then, subsequently, assaulting an officer*

Don't forget destruction of property when you bleed on their uniforms from said beating!

[Wee baby Shamus]

Exactly.

"Am I free to leave?"

*no response*

"Okay, I'm leaving then."

*beats down person for resisting arrest and then, subsequently, assaulting an officer*

That is some nice fiction.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

SYC,

That is some nice fiction.

So, police would never fabricate an excuse to hold someone or use force upon someone who has irritated them?

[Commodore]

too many crimes is part of the problem

if crime were limited to theft/violence, the relationship between law enforcement and the public would be less adversarial

I wonder what percentage of criminal justice resources are devoted to drug/traffic violations

[L.T.'s Sexual Healing]

too many crimes is part of the problem

if crime were limited to theft/violence, the relationship between law enforcement and the public would be less adversarial

I wonder what percentage of criminal justice resources are devoted to drug/traffic violations

But you're forgetting the cop welfare!

[MerenthaClone]

That is some nice fiction.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/15/1321904/-Ferguson-police-beat-a-man-and-then-charged-him-with-destruction-of-property-for-bloody-uniforms

'sup.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.

The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the predawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.

I hate autoformat. Here's another. The man in the wheelchair was charged with assaulting a police officer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QbFsPO00g

And while I can't find it at the moment, there have been instances of tased people being charged with assault and battery on officers, post-tase, because they're spasming.

But here's another link: http://articles.philly.com/2014-03-27/news/48599626_1_seizure-police-training-chester-police-officer

Based on legal inquiries it receives, the Epilepsy Foundation estimates that annually 400 individuals who suffered such seizures end up charged with assault or resisting arrest.

[TrackerNeil]

too many crimes is part of the problem

if crime were limited to theft/violence, the relationship between law enforcement and the public would be less adversarial

Yes, and if juries had the power to read minds, innocent people would never be convicted of a crime. We can speculate all sorts of things, but I don't see where that gets us.

[lokisnow]

too many crimes is part of the problem

if crime were limited to theft/violence, the relationship between law enforcement and the public would be less adversarial

I wonder what percentage of criminal justice resources are devoted to drug/traffic violations

Crime is at its lowest level in a hundred years.

The problem is not too much crime but to much police force and too much police discretion. Power is inherently corrupting and police are granted enormous unquestioned and unchecked power over anyone they contact, and human nature means abuses of that power will be the rule not the exception.

Human nature also means all those police who abuse their power will think of themselves as good people and that because they are soooooo good it's okay if they occasionally "stretch" a rule.

"Whoops I shot and killed a kid who looked like he might shoplift a pack of baseball cards, but I'm not to blame because I'm a good person inside, in spite of committing murder I'm really good, and I was afraid for uh my life or something. So it's okay what I did, totally okay and clearly as I've proven I'm inherently good and being inherently good absolved me for eternity from being responsible for my actions."

[Inigima]

lockesnow -- he's not talking about the incidence of crimes. He's positing that fewer types of acts ought to be crimes.

[TrackerNeil]

lockesnow -- he's not talking about the incidence of crimes. He's positing that fewer types of acts ought to be crimes.

I suppose that decriminalizing some acts would help, yes. We might also reconsider why/how long we incarcerate people. In my view, nobody who has not either harmed another human being or is a repeat offender should be behind bars.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Tracker,

I can get behind that.

[L.T.'s Sexual Healing]

The easiest change is eliminating mandatory minimums and three strike laws.

[The Notorious]

"Harmed another" as in physical harm?

[DanteGabriel]

The easiest change is eliminating mandatory minimums and three strike laws.

The prison industrial complex will fight tooth and nail. Any politician who signs on to such efforts will be smeared as soft on crime, and get Willie Hortoned to hell and back.

For-profit prisons are an abomination, but I don't know if we can stuff that genie back in the bottle.

[TrackerNeil]

"Harmed another" as in physical harm?

I'd rather see if you have something specific in mind to ask.

[L.T.'s Sexual Healing]

If I was the politician, I turn that on them in a second:

"Those who oppose prison reform are the individuals that are really soft on crime. They want crime to continue, so they take low level offenders and put them shoulder to shoulder with true harden criminals, and give them no means to reform their lives. These individuals pray for recidivism, and a for profit prison system, and they want you in their prison. Yes you!"

Mixed with:

"You want someone who is hard on crime? I'm your man. I'll go after the real criminals in this country. Not some poor kid with an inadequate education who steals a pack of gum, but the robber barons that commit white collar crime every day, crash our economy and make your family poorer."

[DanteGabriel]

If I was the politician, I turn that on them in a second:

"Those who oppose prison reform are the individuals that are really soft on crime. They want crime to continue, so they take low level offenders and put them shoulder to shoulder with true harden criminals, and give them no means to reform their lives. These individuals pray for recidivism, and a for profit prison system, and they want you in their prison. Yes you!"

Mixed with:

"You want someone who is hard on crime? I'm your man. I'll go after the real criminals in this country. Not some poor kid with an inadequate education who steals a pack of gum, but the robber barons that commit white collar crime every day, crash our economy and make your family poorer."

I wish I had your faith that such arguments would work, but a few decades of depressing electoral and legislative history tell me different.