Comment Re:Obviously (Score 1) 368
"Person."
"Person."
Yeah, he was walking down the middle of the street, blocking traffic. That is a weird and dangerous thing to do, and is obviously a matter of public safety, which is exactly the kind of things cops are supposed to look after.
I have the attention span of a housefly. I had heard and already forgotten about two of them.
Citizen? They use the word "civilian" like it's something we are and they aren't. They're civilians, too. They're not in the military.
I'm still furious about the flashbanged baby thing.
The entire circus around Michael Brown was media-generated. Perhaps I need my tinfoil hat adjusted, but I think deliberately so. It's like it was purposely pushed to make black people get up in arms, when clearly, most people looking rationally at the case can wish it didn't happen, but can hardly blame the cop. Brown wasn't innocent; he robbed a store. He wasn't just minding his own business until cops hassled him because he was black; he was walking in the middle of the street. I want cops to stop people walking in the middle of the street and ask them wtf they're doing. He was not an "unarmed teenager;" he was a 300lb man who punched the cop. What the hell? When you drive that story in the media, people like my father who don't think police brutality is a problem take notice of the story, say "this is what the liberals are complaining about? They're morons!" it confirms his biases and he goes right back to ignoring the problem.
Where's the outrage and the marches and protests and media helicopters over flashbanged babies? SWAT teams busting down doors at 3am to serve search warrants? "Overwhelming force?" Budgets that rely on "civil forfeiture" which is literally highway robbery? No, the media pushes the non-story of Michael Brown. Muddies the issue. Ignores the real problems.
It's a conspiracy. A C-O-N...spiracy.
Not that they were necessarily "better" but I think the attitudes of police towards the public have indeed changed over the past forty years. Forty years ago there weren't SWAT teams. The cops did not bash down your door, throw in flash bangs and shoot your dog to serve a simple search warrant. They....knocked on the door.
Did they always lie (well, they have to and there's nothing wrong with that so long as it's not under oath), plant drugs on people, shoot black people? Yeah. But damn if they weren't more polite about it.
The "us vs them" mentality wasn't so readily apparent. Maybe it was there and we just didn't notice because there weren't cell phone cameras, and they were mainly doing it to black people. Still, I don't remember cops 15 years ago driving APCs, in body armor, all black, and referring to citizens as "civilians." Now I hear that routinely. If we're civilians...what exactly are you? And what exactly is our relationship?
(I know, but whenever I see 'black and white' in a ST context, I reflexively go to Frank Gorshin.)
Ya know, to be honest, that wouldn't be that bad. So long as the cause was somehow noble, and they had to use their brains to find a sneaky, non-violent solution to a problem instead of just blowing shit up...
I'd prefer exploration and maybe a suspenseful first contact, trying to understand a truly alien species before conflict erupts. But anything where they don't just immediately jump to photon torpedoes and punching would be a step up.
Historically, that is correct, but the term is still in use, and its meaning has shifted. To whit (sp?):
"B movie noun
: a movie that costs little money to make and that is usually not considered to be very good"
No, the Matrix was a work of art. The last thing I want is for them to ruin it with a sequel. Thank God they never made any.
He's probably one of those stupid hackers that will be so scared about dropping the soap that he refuses to take the shower.
C'mon, it's just as likely that he's too fat to bend down that far if he drops the soap.
Maybe call the timelines with names appropriate for them, or at least non-racist terms. I'd hate for them to settle on something as stupid as "Star Trek White" and "Star Trek Black".
Wait, are you asking for a grim and gritty reboot of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso