What I know about Ferguson

[BackInTex]

I can't think of any reason for a cop to shoot someone six times, ...

I can. If the first five shots don't stop an assailant's charge.

rec

[macrae1234]

When he pulled the trigger the 7th time it went 'click'

[ne1410s]

Can you get a change of venue for the inevitable civil suit?

[Flybrick]

In Wilson's testimony, he states that in each of the two volleys he fired, he believed Brown was hit at least once in each.

A 6'5", 280-ish pound man takes, believed at the time, two .40 hits and keeps coming? In reality, it was a total of five hits before the fatal head wound.

Wow. Puts paid the "death ray" belief about handguns.

[jarnon]

Officials: US Report Finds Racial Bias in Ferguson Police

As in many high-profile cases, just because somebody isn't guilty of a specific crime, it doesn't mean he's a saint. The Justice Department won't charge Officer Wilson, but their report on the Ferguson PD helps explain why the black community assumed the worst about the Brown shooting.

[BackInTex]

The police department has been criticized as racially imbalanced and not reflective of the community's demographic makeup. At the time of the shooting, just three of 53 officers were black, though the mayor has said he's trying to create a more diverse police force.

What they need to publish are the demographics of black vs white eligible to be peace officers (non-felon, high school graduate, etc.).

[Bob Juch]

The police department has been criticized as racially imbalanced and not reflective of the community's demographic makeup. At the time of the shooting, just three of 53 officers were black, though the mayor has said he's trying to create a more diverse police force.

What they need to publish are the demographics of black vs white eligible to be peace officers (non-felon, high school graduate, etc.).

Your racist assumption that Blacks are less-qualified than Whites to become peace officers is not valid, especially in Missouri, and has nothing to do with how many of each might want to become peace officers. If you view peace officers as the enemy you probably won't want to become one.

[littlebeast13]

If you view peace officers as the enemy you probably won't want to become one.

Only criminals and extremist groups would consider peace officers to be the enemy. Which of those descriptions do you think it would be fair to universally label the black people of Ferguson? I'll let you decide since you probably think I'm just as racist as BiT...

lb13

[Bob78164]

If you view peace officers as the enemy you probably won't want to become one.

Only criminals and extremist groups would consider peace officers to be the enemy. Which of those descriptions do you think it would be fair to universally label the black people of Ferguson? I'll let you decide since you probably think I'm just as racist as BiT...

lb13

Or those (such as my high school history teacher) who were frequently pulled over for driving while black. Or (as the Justice Department just found) were routinely rousted for minor offenses that would be ignored if committed by a white person.

Did your parents ever teach you how to stay alive during an encounter with the police? Mine never did. But I understand that this is a routine part of black parenting, including among middle-class or even upper-class parents.

I really think this view is startlingly naive. --Bob

[Bob Juch]

If you view peace officers as the enemy you probably won't want to become one.

Only criminals and extremist groups would consider peace officers to be the enemy. Which of those descriptions do you think it would be fair to universally label the black people of Ferguson? I'll let you decide since you probably think I'm just as racist as BiT...

lb13

Or those (such as my high school history teacher) who were frequently pulled over for driving while black. Or (as the Justice Department just found) were routinely rousted for minor offenses that would be ignored if committed by a white person.

Did your parents ever teach you how to stay alive during an encounter with the police? Mine never did. But I understand that this is a routine part of black parenting, including among middle-class or even upper-class parents.

I really think this view is startlingly naive. --Bob

What he said.

[Bob78164]

If you view peace officers as the enemy you probably won't want to become one.

Only criminals and extremist groups would consider peace officers to be the enemy. Which of those descriptions do you think it would be fair to universally label the black people of Ferguson? I'll let you decide since you probably think I'm just as racist as BiT...

lb13

If paranoia is justified, is it still paranoia?

Some police would compete to see who could issue the most citations to African-Americans, he said. Often the charges were trumped up, or fictitious. Police and city officials laced their emails with racist jokes, Holder added.

Here's the story. --Bob

[Beebs52]

Assuming the report is valid, at least 50 percent, and that's always questionable with this AJ, this is a horrible indictment on creepy ass crackers. And I say that knowing there has been bad shit that's happened in the past here where I live. I will not include current law enforcement.

[Beebs52]

AG, AG. Typing typing

[mrkelley23]

Assuming the report is valid, at least 50 percent, and that's always questionable with this AG, this is a horrible indictment on creepy ass crackers. And I say that knowing there has been bad shit that's happened in the past here where I live. I will not include current law enforcement.

I think that's the reaction of a lot of folks who normally wouldn't weigh in on this kind of issue. Right-thinking people want to support the police, as lb and BiT pointed out. Maybe part of the problem is that the job itself attracts creepy ass crackers. Just as the education industry has to carefully try to police itself against pedophiles, who are attracted by the opportunity to be close to kids all day, any police force should be wary of hiring people who are attracted by the power they gain over citizens, and then try to abuse that power.


I can't speak for Texas, but I do believe the CAC percentage is much higher on Midwestern police forces than it is in the general population. And when that concentration gets too high, as it might have in Ferguson, you create a culture of CACism. And that may be the message that the responsible black leaders (not the Sharptons of the world) are trying to get out.

[ghostjmf]

CAC-dom isn't just a red-statey phenom, either. There's a rag printed by some organization presuming to speak for the police of Boston which sometimes gets distributed on the same rack the library puts the Somerville Journal on. So I take it home & I'm reading...whaaaa?


There's lots of evidence that they put their rants into practise, too, sadly.


There's a Boston-area group of African-American police which I should google the name of which calls CAC-Northeast out on their every nutso rant. But this has been going on for nigh onto 40 years now. Before that, there weren't African-American police on the force to call them out.


On a completely diff note, can some board mavens turn off the evil computer routine that, even though I am currently on a real computer, won't let me put North & East together to form one word without decapitalizing the "E"? Usually autodestroyers give up after you type the same thing in many times, but this one doesn't on this issue. Can't blame this one on my tablet's autocorrect.

[Estonut]

On a completely diff note, can some board mavens turn off the evil computer routine that, even though I am currently on a real computer, won't let me put North & East together to form one word without decapitalizing the "E"? Usually autodestroyers give up after you type the same thing in many times, but this one doesn't on this issue. Can't blame this one on my tablet's autocorrect.

Your browser only communicates with The Bored's Server when you press 'Enter' or click on some other "action" button. Therefore, anything you type into the Post a reply/Post a new topic window is not seen by The Bored's Server until you press either 'Preview' or 'Submit.' I'm pretty sure that the editing you describe is being done because of a browser setting.

I'm not very familiar with various tablets, but you should be able to Google <browser name> autocorrect settings to get information about what can be adjusted. You may also need to specify <tablet make> and <tablet model> in your search string, but I'd first try without them.

[ghostjmf]

Browser is some iteration of Google, with a small "g". Same Google that keeps autocapitalizing itself here. My other choice is chrome, which of course is also by google. This is an Android tablet, what did I expect? I really don't have the option of installing another browser.

Thanks for the info on how the browser interacts with the board.

[Super Creepy Rob Lowe]

Where do I sign up to be a CAC? I like to leer at people of all colors...

[ghostjmf]

According to "ask me fast" its a tablet setting, not a browser setting. So I just found that & toggled it. I'm still getting "suggestions" but so far it hasn't auto"corrected" to any of them. NorthEast. Yay! It works. Screw their suggestions.

[ghostjmf]

Oh groovy I can turn off "correction suggestions" too. According to a helpful site, this stuff can get turned back on by any upgrades (one of which I just had); maybe why it was suddenly a lot worse than ever.

[Estonut]

According to "ask me fast" its a tablet setting, not a browser setting. So I just found that & toggled it. I'm still getting "suggestions" but so far it hasn't auto"corrected" to any of them. NorthEast. Yay! It works. Screw their suggestions.

Oh groovy I can turn off "correction suggestions" too. According to a helpful site, this stuff can get turned back on by any upgrades (one of which I just had); maybe why it was suddenly a lot worse than ever.

Excellent! What I often do when I find similar technical settings which I know I won't remember, should I need them again, is to note them into a Notepad document and keep them in a folder named "Technical." Does your laptop have a notepad, workpad, list or similar application? I've found it's easier and quicker to find stuff I've saved for myself than to go out and re-find the info on the web. There's also no guarantee it will exist on the web on any future date.

[ghostjmf]

Estonut:

There is indeed a notepad (I forget at this moment, being on a real computer, what it calls it) on the tablet. Problem is that typing one letter at a time is so tedious to me that I'm not included to print myself tech instructions there. I might well put them elsewhere (including paper) & type on the tablet notepad a short "see doc elsewhere" with a note to what its about.


What tipped me off to the markedly more invasive autocorrect being a tablet "feature" rather than a browser feature is that this creepiness crept in whatever tablet browser I used, & one of the browsers available on the tablet is Chrome; I've used Chrome elsewhere, though it isn't a browser I regularly use, & it didn't intrude itself into my writing from real computers. Could be that the version of Chrome set up for tablets is just unusually obnoxious, but turns out not to be true.


I find this stuff very wearying. Next thing I have to track down how to turn off, & then back on again, is the feature that rotates what you called up when you rotate screen. I used the "maps" & "navigate" functions a lot this weekend, except I want to use them like a real map; I'm dyslexic enough that it helps me to rotate a real, that is paper map so that I've oriented the map in the direction I'll be driving (or walking). Its easier to do that then to keep remembering that the map is oriented north-south but I'll be driving or walking southwest, for instance, & mentally rotate things. Well, of course, if you rotate a tablet screen, it rotates your map. Not so helpful. A friend tells me there is way to turn the rotation off on Android products. Of course, when I'm not looking at maps, I'd like it back on. Someone helpfully told me that on I-pads you click a physical button for that (makes me feel good to know I'm not alone in the universe in not wanting my maps to rotate); the only button this Android tablet is the on-off switch. So this is yet another thing that's buried in the "settings" somewhere. I hope.


Another unsettling feature, along with the likelihood of Android maps to rotate when you touch them (to get near & far images) as well as when you rotate the actual screen, is the likelihood of my particular tablet to show you continental North America instead of what I was looking for, roads in Holyoke Mass. Of course, I know where on the continent Holyoke is, so I could get to it. Its just unsettling.

[ghostjmf]

Turns out turning off "rotate" is not buried. Good.

[Bob Juch]

Turns out turning off "rotate" is not buried. Good.

I just updated my work phone to Android Lolipop. There are many differences.

[Estonut]

I just updated my work phone to Android Lolipop. There are many differences.

Looks like BJ has turned off his spell-checker, too.