Time spent on a bus is time spent not doing things I need to be doing, unfortunately, since many of them require my physical presence to do. The bus route from work is 90 minutes. Driving takes 30. Giving up 2 productive hours of my day is too high a cost. If I could telecommute on the bus and count that as work time, I could do it, otherwise it's a non starter.

That, by the way, is someone who doesn't like driving and will be first in line for self-driving cars (when they're affordable, not when they're toys for people with lots more money than me).

This is really important.

A buddy of mine posted an article the point of which was something like "never enact a law you're not willing to kill to enforce." Because, at the end of the day, that might be how you enforce it, and this is exactly that sort of case.

I don't care if this guy sells cigarettes. Seriously, of all the wrongs in the world, this is one I can't possibly care about. I don't want someone choked out because they might be selling cigarettes. I don't want them accidentally killed, for sure. Worst case, write the guy a ticket and go on your way. Best case, repeal the law and officially stop caring whether this some guy sells cigarettes or not.

I like the theory of "then vote their sorry asses out" but have come to the conclusion that the reason we still have a lot of these problems is that they really can't be solved without large, damaging changes to the entire system (we're basically trying to legislate to force people to stop being assholes).

I like the theory but have come to the conclusion that it doesn't work because people don't actually do it. People should have a list of things they demand of their officials, and vote out everybody who doesn't meet them. Few do. Some do, for issues like abortion, guns, etc, but a lot of people who vote vote for a party. And of course, a lot of people just don't vote at all.

You can't legislate people not being assholes, but you can legislate putting them in jail when they do it. That's pretty much the entirety of the criminal code, after all.

Telling your politicians what you think is never a bad idea. Do that, AND vote.

I blame your voters if said mayor is still there after the next election.

Seriously, people need to step up and take responsibility for having bad leaders. We put them there. Vote them back out. If no one decent is running, run yourself.

Officer: forcibly takes your phone

You're missing the point. If the police in these cases were following the law, there wouldn't be a problem.

Of course not. Not if there's a law that specifically says doing it is illegal. That's what laws do, you know. They define what's legal or not legal.

None of this circling the blue wall crap, and being on paid suspension. Fire the bastards.

No, stick to your guns. Firing is not enough. If you did this, you'd be prosecuted. When they do this, they should also be prosecuted. If that's not happening (which it isn't), then go up the chain until you find the elected official who can fix it. I assume that's the mayor. Fire him at the next election. Repeat until there are prosecutors who actually prosecute criminals who happen to be police.

Really? Here, they insist you remove the drivers license from the wallet and give them just the license.

Not necessarily large sums of cash, but "some cash". Lots of people don't have a lot of reserve in the bank. People staring unexpected unemployment in the face without a lot of money to fall back on take the severance package. It almost doesn't matter what it says.

I had the same concern with the mosquito-zapping lasers, which IIRC are only around 40W (which is still a LOT). It's a really cool idea until someone throws an aluminum can in my yard and a reflected laser hits someone in the eye. I'd think the power required to burn leaves off would be a lot higher than the power required to warm up mosquitoes enough to kill them.

Fair point, but I don't see it justifying sexism now. I have daughters as well as sons. Do you think it's reasonable to tell the boys that their sister gets to do something cool but they don't because someone entirely unrelated to them or me did something wrong so long ago their father wasn't yet in elementary school when it happened?

I'm completely for stopping all kinds of discrimination, but when you're taking things from the grandchildren of the people who actually performed the discrimination, you're doing it wrong.

I don't know that the justice system failed. I wasn't a witness, and I haven't reviewed all the evidence the grand jury saw.

IF the justice system failed, heck, even if it didn't and people wrongly think it did, I'm totally fine with them protesting. You can have a million man march for too much mayo on your sandwich if you want, that's fine with me. I just draw the line at busting up property (or heads) of people who had nothing to do with this at all. Burning businesses and looting is NOT taking action against the justice system, failed or not. It's just creating more victims. If people really care about justice, they need to stop turning innocents into victims.

According to his testimony before the grand jury, he did know there was a robbery (a "stealing" as he called it).

It's not even revenge. Revenge would be directed at the people who allegedly wronged them, not innocent bystanders.