Are_grits_groceries
Are_grits_groceries's JournalEx police chief Joseph McNamara addresses the new police mindset in this op-ed:
Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed. An emphasis on "officer safety" and paramilitary training pervades today's policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn't shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed.
Police in large cities formerly carried revolvers holding six .38-caliber rounds. Nowadays, police carry semi-automatic pistols with 16 high-caliber rounds, shotguns and military assault rifles, weapons once relegated to SWAT teams facing extraordinary circumstances. Concern about such firepower in densely populated areas hitting innocent citizens has given way to an attitude that the police are fighting a war against drugs and crime and must be heavily armed.
Yes, police work is dangerous, and the police see a lot of violence. On the other hand, 51 officers were slain in the line of duty last year, out of some 700,000 to 800,000 American cops. That is far fewer than the police fatalities occurring when I patrolled New York's highest crime precincts, when the total number of cops in the country was half that of today.
Each of these police deaths and numerous other police injuries is a tragedy and we owe support to those who protect us. On the other hand, this isn't Iraq. The need to give our officers what they require to protect themselves and us has to be balanced against the fact that the fundamental duty of the police is to protect human life and that law officers are only justified in taking a life as a last resort.
http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/main/2
The whole op-ed is from the WSJ. I'd have to subscribe to access it. I know I can probably find the whole thing for free. I am doing this while asleep and have little energy.
The move to a military mindset is being helped by the government. They are giving surplus arms to ODs around the US. If they have them, they are going to use them whether they are necessary. This also creates a quasi-government unit for activities they shouldn't be involved in.
In addition, having PDs with this mindset further separates them from the people they should protect and serve. This makes it easier to use them in what I consider unlawful ways. It hardens the US vs THEM mentality. There needs to be more communication between citizens and the police, not less.
The police and their resources are being spent in ways that do not benefit the areas they serve. They should be used for community policing for problems that are making the lives of people much harder instead of over the top actions against protesters. I am not saying they should not be involved in making sure protests are not out of control. As it is, they seem intent on breaking the protests and the protesters literally in the head.
It also seems that SWAT gets called out for jaywalkers. That is hyperbole but not by much. There is an escalating circle of violence. Some problems require SWAT. There are some that could use less force. However, as violence against police increases, SWAT is used more. The people who perpetrate the worst violence are a very small fraction of the population. Citizens minding there own business are caught in the middle. As a result, they and their communities become less likely to trust the police.
The police are no longer viewed by many as helpful. The escalating confrontational dynamic needs to change on both sides. I believe those with the power and 'legal' authority have to begin this. If those with that power don't show good faith, it will never end.
Pure, unadulterated joy.......
Irish rugby player Brian O'Driscoll visits a young girl in the hospital with the Heineken cup.
Oh to be able to make someone so HAPPY!
A Company’s Stand for Gay Marriage In NC and Its Cost
In the months leading up to North Carolina’s vote this month to ban gay marriage, most of the state’s business leaders were conspicuously silent. While some executives spoke out against it as individuals, not one Fortune 500 company headquartered in North Carolina, including Bank of America, Duke Energy, VF Corporation and Lowe’s, opposed it.
But one company did: Replacements Limited, which sells silver, china and glassware, and is based in Greensboro. Its founder and chairman, Bob Page, is gay. The company lobbied legislators, contributed money to causes supporting gay marriage, rented a billboard along the interstate near its headquarters, and sold T-shirts at its showroom. Its experience may explain why no other for-profit company followed its example.
Bob Page, chief executive of Replacements, Ltd., in Greensboro, N.C., received hostile mail after lobbying against the state's ban on gay marriage.
Hostile letters and e-mails poured into the company from customers canceling their business and demanding to be removed from its e-mail list. “I understand that your company donated $250,000 or so to the effort to ban the marriage amendment,” read one. “I am very concerned that with an increased visibility and acceptance of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, one of my children, who would have grown up and been happily married to a husband, could be tempted to the lesbian lifestyle.”
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/business/replacements-limiteds-stand-for-gay-marriage-draws-repercussions.html?_r=1&
Send him a message if nothing else. He deserves to know that he has a lot of support and respect.
Page certainly has more courage than the other huge corporate momsers. They have infinitely larger resources, but they are chickenshits.
Larry Sabato has a truly wicked thought about both the Dem and GOP conventions:
Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato)
5/25/12 10:54 AM
Think about it: FL in late August, NC in early Sept. It'll be a small miracle if a hurricane doesn't interrupt a convention.
Ha!
A Life Worth Ending - A son’s plea to let his mother go.
The era of medical miracles has created a new phase of aging, as far from living as it is from dying. A son’s plea to let his mother go.
On the way to visit my mother one recent rainy afternoon, I stopped in, after quite some constant prodding, to see my insurance salesman. He was pressing his efforts to sell me a long-term-care policy with a pitch about how much I’d save if I bought it now, before the rates were set to precipitously rise. For $5,000 per year, I’d receive, when I needed it, a daily sum to cover my future nursing costs. With an annual inflation adjustment of 5 percent, I could get in my dotage (or the people caring for me would get) as much as $900 a day. My mother carries such a policy, and it pays, in 2012 dollars, $180 a day—a fair idea of where heath-care costs are going.
I am, as my insurance man pointed out, a “sweet spot” candidate. Not only do I have the cash (though not enough to self-finance my decline) but a realistic view: Like so many people in our fifties—in my experience almost everybody—I have a parent in an advanced stage of terminal breakdown.
It’s what my peers talk about: our parents’ horror show. From the outside—at the office, restaurants, cocktail parties—we all seem perfectly secure and substantial. But in a room somewhere, hidden from view, we occupy this other, unimaginable life.
I didn’t need to be schooled in the realities of long-term care: The costs for my mother, who is 86 and who, for the past eighteen months, has not been able to walk, talk, or to address her most minimal needs and, to boot, is absent a short-term memory, come in at about $17,000 a month. And while her LTC insurance hardly covers all of that, I’m certainly grateful she had the foresight to carry such a policy. (Although John Hancock, the carrier, has never paid on time, and all payments involve hours of being on hold with its invariably unhelpful help-line operators—and please fax them, don’t e-mail.) My three children deserve as much.
And yet, on the verge of writing the check (that is, the first LTC check), I backed up.
<snip>
This is a long, candid and sometimes brutal look at aging and dying. The author not only considers his ultimate demise but also the state his mother is in and the downward spiral that has been her path. It is worth the time.
http://nymag.com/news/features/parent-health-care-2012-5/
Lawdy! Paul Begala is on a Twitter rant about Newt comparing Mittens to Ike:
Paul Begala (@PaulBegala)
5/25/12 7:44 AM
Newt: Romney is like Eisenhower. 'Cuz we all recall Ike making a quarter-billion from screwing working folks. Let's compare & contrast...
5/25/12 7:44 AM
Ike = Saved the world in WW II; Mitt = Saved $10 million for Bain by taking FDIC bailout.
5/25/12 7:45 AM
Ike = Created Interstate Highway System; Mitt = Drove on Interstate Highway with Dog Strapped to Roof.
5/25/12 7:46 AM
Ike = Sent troops to Little Rock to enforce integration; Mitt = Wants to amend Const. to force discrimination.
5/25/12 7:49 AM
Ike = Top Tax Rate of 91%; Mitt = Pays 14%. Wants even more tax cuts for the rich.
5/25/12 7:50 AM
Ike = Described self as "militantly progressive." Mitt = Described self as "severely conservative."
5/25/12 7:52 AM
Ike = Bald. Mitt = Ken Doll hair.
5/25/12 7:58 AM
Ike = Ended Korean War. MItt = Opposed end of Iraq War; opposes end of Afghan War.
5/25/12 8:02 AM
Ike = Balanced 3 budgets; Mitt = would add $3 trillion to debt thru cutting taxes for the rich.
5/25/12 8:08 AM
Ike = After public service bought small farm in Gettysburg; Mitt = After private equity bought 4 mansions; installing elevator for his cars.
*****************
Don't know if he's finished. He may be reloading.
Taking down Mittens 140 characters at a time.
Update: Where’d the big snake go? (Video) Columbia, SC
http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/25/2289368/video-whered-he-go.htmlOriginal post with pics: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002722919
Yeah, that's a job I want.
Going into that crawl space under the house.....
August vote on Right to Pray ballot in Missouri
<snip>
Wednesday, Governor Jay Nixon set the vote on the right to pray for the August 7th ballot. The measure would guarantee the right to pray in public places as long as it does not disturb the public. It also says that students may express their religious beliefs in school and do not have to participate in assignments that go against their beliefs.
<snip>
http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/321277/3/August-vote-on-Right-to-Pray-ballot
I would founded 'The Church Of Jesus and No Homework' so fast, it would be a miracle.
One person's religion may be another person's heresy.
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