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Police Officer Shootings
Aaryn...I do think you write a great column. But, when you logged onto the Reader website a while back and didn't own up to the fact that you were a CityBeat writer, as you attacked my blog and other aspects of the Reader, that was lame. You guys do the same thing on YELP and other sites (I know this, because one of your employees confided in me that they were paid to do this). You recommended a book to me, and some writing courses. So I sent you an email recommending the book Freakanomics, which talks a lot about the problems people have with adopted kids. And they talk about the misbelief that blacks are in prison merely because of crack cocaine. When you read that book, I'll read the one you recommend (your kid is cute...and I hope doesn't become a menace to society; i'm sure if the child does, it will be the cops fault for profiling)— April 20, 2009 10:46 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
continued: If you think CityBeat hates Republicans and is prone to conspiracy theories, it just shows that you either haven't been reading the editorials or you just aren't understanding them. Do we criticize some Republican ideology? Of course; we're liberals. But we've also expressed concern about the possibility that the Democrat-dominated City Council won't be able to stand up to the employee unions. We've also said that while we have trouble with many of Republican Mayor Sanders' policies, we nonetheless think extremely highly of him as a person and believe him to be genuine and honest. Meanwhile, we've gored Democratic City Council president Ben Hueso on several occasions. Do you even know who these people are? Have you really even read CityBeat's editorials, or did you just stumble upon one and then generalize recklessly? I WILL ADMIT, ON THE ABOVE, YOU GOT ME. I'VE SEEN EDITIORIALS WHERE YOU DO THAT. I JUST DON'T THINK YOU DO IT ENOUGH, AS THE DEMOCRATS SURELY DO MORE THAT DESERVES TO BE KNOCKED. You've also gone a bit loony on race. Who said anything about race? You kind of created that one in your mixed-up little head, my boy. THE RACE THING I BRING UP FOR A FEW REASONS: PREVIOUS BLOGS HAVE BEEN ON THAT. ALSO, IT USUALLY ENDS UP BEING A WHITE OFFICER SHOOTING A BLACK SUSPECT, THAT GETS PEOPLE RILED UP. AND, RACE WAS IN FACT BROUGHT UP, IN THE CASE IN LOUISIANNA, WHERE THE OLD BLACK MAN WAS SHOT BY A WHITE OFFICER. One last thing: I don't really care if you do research or not before doing your brain purges into your blog, but if you want it to have any long-term viability with a significant number of readers, you ought to consider it. Just a tip. I love reading well-considered arguments against our opinions; it helps me hone my thinking and become ever more nuanced. I'm just sorry that it looks like I can't count on you for that. STRONG ENDING. BUT NOT A STRONG POINT. AS I SAID PREVIOUSLY, I'VE CHANGED MY MIND ON DEBATES WHEN PEOPLE BRING THE FACTS THAT I WAS TOO LAZY TO FLESH OUT; OR BECAUSE I JUST GOT THE INITIAL STORY WRONG.— April 20, 2009 10:40 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
David, here's your post. I'll respond in ALL CAPS: It's kind of entertaining to watch this blogger spin and flail wildly. I TYPE 120 WORDS A MINUTE. ME WRITING A LOT ISN'T SPINNING AND FLAILING. IT'S RESPONDING TO POSTS. Al Sharpton, OJ, healthcare, homelessness, Obama, Republicans? Slow down, there, li'l fella, you're liable to hurt yourself. We published a moderated editorial that simply expressed a desire for police policies to be reviewed when a citizen dies unnecessarily, and it's got you in quite a lather. DO YOU REALIZE HOW IDIOTIC THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH IS? YOU'RE SAYING THAT YOU GUYS JUST "EXPRESSED A DESIRE FOR POLICE POLICIES TO BE REVIEWED WHEN A CITIZEN DIES UNNECESSARY." JUST THE FACT THAT YOU USED THE WORD "UNNECESSARY" SHOWS YOUR BIAS. AND WHAT IN THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK THAT THE POLICE DON'T REVIEW THESE POLICIES? I'D BET MONEY THEY DO IT ALL THE TIME. THEY AREN'T JUST SITTING IN SOME POLICE STATION GOING "OH WELL, ANOTHER PERSON SHOT DEAD. LET'S GO GRAB COFFEE AND DONUTS AND NOT REVIEW ANYTHING." It seems to me that you have a tough time identifying moderation, complexity, nuance and subtlety. I'm guessing that in your personal relationships, people have expressed concern about your excessive use of the words "always" and "never." Am I right? And do you have a hard time admitting you were wrong? C'mon, be honest. Do your eyes have trouble discerning shades of gray? ACTUALLY, TO ANSWER THE ABOVE QUESTION, MY FRIENDS LOVE DEBATING WITH ME ON TOPICS, BECAUSE I'LL ADMIT WHEN I'M WRONG. I REMEMBER A FRIEND OF MINE THAT IS A PROFESSOR AT BERKLEY. HE AND I BOTH AGREED WOMEN DON'T MAKE THE SAME MONEY MEN MAKE, AND WHEN I ARGUED THIS WITH ANOTHER FRIEND, HE QUICKLY EXPLAINED HOW THAT ISN'T THE CASE. AND WITHIN 30 MINUTES, I HAD SIDED WITH HIM.— April 20, 2009 10:39 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
Surfp: I was going to go back and read all these replies, but it just seemed a bit daunting. I did read yours, which was the second one. And you mention that police need proper training on dealing with the elderly and kids. Well, society doesn't really work that way. I've said for years (even contacted the cops and told them a good plan), that officers need better people skills. Often times, they make a situation worse with their attitudes. But, they are trained on dealing with people that have weapons. You can't say "Now, if it's an old guy, that's just standing in his yard spouting off because he hates the new taxes the President has implimented....you can throw all your training out the window on how to apprehend him. He's old." or "If it's a kid holding a toy gun, don't shoot him." I'm sure everyone agrees on that. But if you can't tell it's a kid, what do you do? Or, what happens if it's a Columbine situation. Those were kids, and they were shooting. What if a cop saw that Asian guy with a guy, walking to Virginia Tech. I'd like to think if he said "Drop the weapon" and the guy didn't, he'd be shot dead (which we know would've saved lives), instead of the cop thinking "This is some college student, or kid. He's probably just playing a joke on someone, so I won't shoot." Yes, of course it's sad when things happen like the story a few Halloweens back, where a black actor was dressed at a party on Halloween, and pointed a fake gun at a cop that showed up because of noise complaints. Well, that decisions ends up with that actor dead. And I sound like that jerk for typing that I don't have sympathy, whereas...yes surf, I'd like to say "Cops should know, that on Halloween, lots of people are wearing costumes and have fake guns." But just think about that, and how disasterous it would be to change instruction based on a holiday. Sure, banks have signs on Halloween that say no masks allowed. But, if you go down that route, then toy guns are banned (not that I'm against that), or anything remotely shaped like one. It basically comes down to society needing to use common sense when dealing with cops, and they'll be fine. And, this is all coming from a guy that had a cop lie, in court, about a traffic stop with me. Yet I still support the cops, because they put their life on the line, for not a lot of pay, and when they are involved in a justified shooting -- or one that isn't justified -- the get the crap end of the stick.— April 20, 2009 10:27 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
Do I think cops try to get away with things when they shoot someone? Abso-friggin-lutely. Why wouldn't they? But, they aren't shooting someone gleefully, and then happily trying to get away with it. They shoot someone, that was probably doing a lot wrong. And, they want to make sure the investigation into it goes their way. A perfect example is the OJ Simpson case. We can all agree that Mark Fuhrman was a racist scum bag. But Phil VanAdder (sp?) and the other cop, did nothing wrong. Well, apparently they did. They jumped OJs gate and searched the place before they had a warrant. And, I believe they LIED (in court), and said they feared OJ could be dead inside, so they immediately wanted to get onto the crime scene. Should these good cops lose their job for something like that? This, Spliff, is why I support the cops. Not because I'm an ass kisser, but because the idiots of the world have made so many laws that protect criminals, and screw over society (and police). And Kelly, I am a Democrat. I voted for Obama. I'm just a liberal Democrat that has a brain, and realizes that people have the right to own fire arms. I'm willing to listen when people talk that think differently. And I'm able to see that a person like Michael Moore is no different than Rush Limbaugh. Both lie and say what they want, spouting them off as fact. Just because I agree politically with Moore about 75% of the time, and about 10% of the time with Rush, to me, they are equally idiotic.— April 20, 2009 10:19 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
mel: yes, I want police held accountable for things they do wrong. What I mean is, there IS NOTHING THEY DID WRONG to be held accountable for. They shot a guy that they pulled over. And, it was INVESTIGATED, as ALL police shootings are. So, it bothers me when papers like CityBeat write that they aren't being held accountable, or that police need better training...yet, they don't say anything about how people in society should do what a cop says when they get pulled over. In Christopher Dardens book, he says during the riots in L.A. he happened to be driving his brand new Mercedes in a bad part of town, and cops pulled him and his black friends over with guns drawn. He did what they said, and there was no problem. Wow...interesting concept. You follow rules, don't do anything crazy, and you don't get shot. Even if you're black. Spliff: I have no problem with you calling me an idiot, but once you wrote the word "Amerikkka", you become someone that isn't worth the time. mike: We don't know that 99% of cop investigations benefit the police. But I would assume the number is rather high. And that isn't because cops are protecting their own. It's probably because...as sad as it is if a cop shoots someone with a water bottle, or a child that was holding a toy gun that they told to drop and the kid didn't...the fact is, the cop would THEN be justified in firing. If it's a dark house and he can't tell it's a kid, he just sees the "weapon" and he fires, why would that not be justified? Kelly: you can call it manslaughter, but I'd rather have cops out committing "manslaughter" then letting someone run from the law and committ more crimes. If you ever watch a show like Cops or anything like that, you'll see officers will have their guns drawn, and the criminals are still yelling and carrying on, often with something in their hand. And they aren't shot. And it amazes me the cops have that much restraint. Yet, the few cases that come along that turn out different, all the idiot liberals jump on them.— April 20, 2009 10:16 a.m.
Celebrity Idiots -- The Jamie Fox and Hulk Hogan Edition
Geez...English isn't interesting. It's friggin' insane! I remember in 8th grade, our history teacher telling us about a foreign exchange student they took in. His wife was telling the kid about how they are making hot dogs and beans, after going to a Padres game. They wanted a total American experience. The kid kind of looked scared, and they assumed he just didn't like baseball. He didn't want to eat the hot dog, and finally admitted that he thought it was actually a dog that was cooked.— April 20, 2009 12:40 a.m.
Big Bottoms
It's funny you bring that up, MsGrant. When I did a cover story about little league parents being insane when it came to their kids, the editors titled it "Soccer Moms Are the Absolute Worst." I thought that was the absolute worst title! And a few mothers called and complained, and I didn't blame them. Especially when the fathers are a lot worse than the moms, when it comes to being hardcore with their kids regarding sports. So, to answer your question, the sentence just flowed better to name one person (ie "mom traveling") then to say "mother and father". Although, I guess I could've easily had written "Parents traveling"...and that would cover them both. I'd be willing to bed when a baby is traveling on an airplane, either it's both parents, or just the mom, a helluva lot more often than it's a baby traveling with just dad. Do you disagree?— April 20, 2009 12:38 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
And a few last things, David. It was smart for you to put a link to the CityBeat piece. It'll probably garner you more readers this way than you usually get. And, I don't really care about putting links. My blog is where I'm just ranting about a topic. If someone wants to post the real story, they're free to do that. I'm not going to spend 8 hours researching a story and reading links before writing a blog. But I did just glance at your piece again. After reading the first few sentences, about how the police settled with the family for over $300,000 got me so angry, I didn't even care to go farther. Because, idiots like you feel that our taxpayer money should go to families that harbor dangerous people, once they get shot by the police. You probably also support those handicapped folks that purposely go to small businesses that don't have the proper ramp, or mirror in the bathroom, and sue and win money. Yet you'll bitch up a storm that we don't do anything for the homeless. Well, you got Obama in office. So, he should be able to take care of the homeless and all these health care issues that you guys claim the big, bad Republicans screw up. Let's see what he does.— April 20, 2009 12:29 a.m.
Police Officer Shootings
And if you had a family member or friend with Alzheimers, I'm sorry about that. You are correct, I've never had to deal with it. From what I've read, it's a horrible thing to deal with. Yet it still doesn't change anything. If weapons are involved, they need to be put down. For the safety of EVERYONE. You say getting shot in the groin is horrible. I can imagine, I've been hit there a few times in my years playing sports. But cops don't do things like a Bruce Willis movie, where the gun or weapon is shot out of the hand. They are trained to shoot the biggest target. If, as you say, they aren't supposed to use bean bags on old people, why were they cleared of the charges? You talk about the failure of health care and all that liberal bull crap. Which really has nothing to do with criminals, or insane people, carrying weapons. You sound as idiotic as Michael Moore always does when he distorts facts. To bring up that I misspelled Louisianna...who really cares. It's a typo. Hell, maybe it's not. But I'm writing a blog; this isn't something submitted to my editors. And to remind you of the point Mindy brought up...HAD the cops done what I would've preferred -- and what they sometimes do and get in trouble for -- this kid would've been shot the second he held the gun up and wouldn't drop it. Even if he was yelling "shoot me, I want to die." Yes, that's a suicidal person that needs mental help. But so what. We can't risk him pointing at a cop and firing. Or, as this kid did, shooting into a mobile home park (after all, we might accidentally take out one of Kellys relatives).— April 20, 2009 12:23 a.m.