Non Political Current Events Thread

[Gaucho]

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

“Sadly, we do have to be there, I don’t understand it. There’s certain marches I do understand, this is definitely not one of them,” Ross said.

There are two things I miss about Philadelphia:

Cheesesteaks
Brutally harsh honesty bordering on unpolite or unprofessional

[shmenguin]

I’m gonna work from home for the foreseeable future.

[NTP66]

I’m gonna work from home for the foreseeable future.

You work far enough away that this likely won’t impact you much at all. These clowns will literally be at my front door.

[Trip McNeely]

God, this country truly is filled with idiots.

[NTP66]

This is the kind of absolute lunacy that hampers law enforcement/community relations.

[CBear3]

And before somebody has to say the cops need to be the bigger men, guess who will be protecting the marchers and keeping traffic flowing around the event.

[NTP66]

Just read this:

Meanwhile, there’s a flier being circulated promoting a “Free Maurice Hill” protest that starts at 6 p.m. Friday at Germantown and Lehigh. A source texted it to me Thursday night. I have no idea whether it’s a real demonstration or somebody’s idea of a practical joke. I’m hoping it’s the latter, because this is wrong on so many levels.

I called a blurry-looking number on the flier and had a 65-year-old woman who says she’s in poor health call me back to complain about her number being on it. She said she’s gotten more than 100 insulting or threatening calls since 6 p.m. Thursday.

“I have not slept. I do no know what to do,” she told me.

She said she’s not on social media and isn’t tech savvy, and asked me to do what I could to tell folks the 808 number listed on the flier is not connected to the protest.

Hopefully, it's a prank in very poor taste.

[CBear3]

Those are 6's

[Tomas]

Jeremiah Button vanished two weeks before trial. Here's the bunker where he survived.

https://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Insid ... 21981.html

[Troy Loney]

Yes, and the war on drugs extends beyond just bad policing. Bad local policy, bad small time prosecutors, and bad judges.

While there were problems with policing prior to the ramp-up of the "war on drugs" under the Nixon administration (particular in regard to interactions between the police and minority communities), the drug war massively accelerated the disconnect between the police and the general public. A “war” creates an “us versus them” attitude, and when the combatants in the war are the people living in your own neighborhoods, the police are driven towards a position where “us” is the police themselves and “them” is everyone else. I certainly deplore the actions of individual bad cops who do bad things, but that is not as serious as the systemic concentration of increasingly militarized police behind their “thin blue line.” That is not something the police did all by themselves. They were encouraged—if not driven—into that position by politicians.

Sir Robert Peel, who spearheaded the creation of the London Metropolitan Police Service (popularly known as “Scotland Yard”) is widely considered the father of modern professional policing, and under his leadership the London police developed the concept of “policing by consent” (as opposed to policing by force). The concept has been distilled down to the following nine principles. These principles represent a social contract for police behavior. When police follow this social contract, then more than a century of experience indicates that society (excluding the hardened criminal element) will generally view the police as legitimate and consent to the presence and role of the police in the community.

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.

2. To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

3. To recognize always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.

4. To recognize always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.

5. To seek and preserve public favor, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.

6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.

7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

8. To recognize always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary, of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.

9. To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

How many here think today’s militarized police consistently adhere to these principles? I certainly don’t. The main premise underlying the whole modern concept of policing is found in Principle 7: “the police are the public and that the public are the police.” Today's police sure don’t act like that. The “thin blue line” crap is directly contrary to that principle. The “no snitching” code of silence when it comes to police misconduct directly violates that principle. And today's police regularly violate other principles, such as treating people impartially, resorting only to minimum necessary force, and refraining from taking punishment into their own hands.

When the police don’t hold up their end of the social contract, then the public starts to view the police as less of a consented-to entity and more of an oppressing/occupying force. When we saw yesterday the people in Philly throwing both insults and objects at the cops, we were seeing that community withdrawing its consent to be policed. Is the blame for that 100% on the police? No, of course not. But if the police don't stop violating their end of the social contract, then no one should be surprised at the pushback they receive, and if we keep on the current course, it's only going to get worse. Policing is broken.

Well said.

I was just implying with very few words, that bad policing isn’t in a vacuum. The line between the war on drugs, to bad policing and mass incarceration all exist on the same chain.

[NTP66]

A 22-month-old girl has died after she was found unresponsive in a van outside a commuter rail station in Lindenwold, New Jersey, prosecutors said.

Last year was the deadliest year for child vehicular heatstroke in 20 years, with 52 children between 7 weeks and 5 years old dying after being left in cars.

This is both awful and disturbing at the same time.

[shafnutz05]

Honestly, I wonder how much smartphones and the increase in media/distractions has led to this?

[NTP66]

Uhh... what?

[shafnutz05]

Uhh... what?

I'm talking about the affect on human attention spans. Having a whole different thing to focus your attention on.

I'm not one of those peeps that blames technology for everything, but i can see people not having the attention spans they once had.

[PrinceOfRossTownship]

A 22-month-old girl has died after she was found unresponsive in a van outside a commuter rail station in Lindenwold, New Jersey, prosecutors said.

Last year was the deadliest year for child vehicular heatstroke in 20 years, with 52 children between 7 weeks and 5 years old dying after being left in cars.

This is both awful and disturbing at the same time.

Where are the pro-life ghouls on this?

[DigitalGypsy66]

7 or 8 years ago, I had worked a late-ish night (for me) and had to get up early to go to work. Normally, on these mornings, my wife took our then three year old to daycare. But as she had an early meeting, it was up to me to get him to daycare and then me to work.

The daycare is about 3 minutes away from my house; work about 7 minutes. I drove right by daycare - as he was quiet in the back - and went to work. I pulled into my normal space and he goes, “Daddy, am I going to work with you?” That’s about how close I’ve come to leaving a kid in a car - all it took was a slight deviation from my normal routine. (I also keep my satchel in the backseat, so I wouldn’t have left him in the car).

It doesn’t take much, and this was before I had a smart phone. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a study did say something about device distraction and these deaths.

[NTP66]

That’s not a device distraction scenario, though, but a routine deviation. I think it’s a leap to blame social media and smartphone for something like this.

[dodint]

Maybe if people bought vehicles that actually fit their lives instead of consumer grade school busses in the form of minivans and SUVs they would be more aware of the other living beings onboard.

[NTP66]

I’d be interested to see stats on something like that. I know this one was a minivan, but am curious to know if a majority are similar.

[shmenguin]

It was the hottest July ever. That’s probably a big part of it. If there’s a societal trend, it’s that we think we need to be constantly doing 500 things at once to keep up with the jones’ and get easily distracted. If I had a baby again, I’d probably do the thing where I put my phone under the car seat so I don’t forget.

[Freddy Rumsen]

A 22-month-old girl has died after she was found unresponsive in a van outside a commuter rail station in Lindenwold, New Jersey, prosecutors said.

Last year was the deadliest year for child vehicular heatstroke in 20 years, with 52 children between 7 weeks and 5 years old dying after being left in cars.

This is both awful and disturbing at the same time.

Where are the pro-life ghouls on this?

[AuthorTony]

Fantastic article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/opin ... xiety.html

We Have Ruined Childhood
For youngsters these days, an hour of free play is like a drop of water in the desert. Of course they’re miserable.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I'm a neanderthal on this. My kids don't have phones (and won't have until they are 16) and we live outside.

[shafnutz05]

Fantastic article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/opin ... xiety.html

We Have Ruined Childhood
For youngsters these days, an hour of free play is like a drop of water in the desert. Of course they’re miserable.

Agreed totally. Kids are not permitted to just be kids anymore. It's sad.