I just became a parent for the first time 6 months ago and this was extremely difficult, as you said, I couldn’t watch it all in one go.
Few things
Family is suing the police force there for 10M - hope they get every ■■■■■■■ cent
One of the officers in particular hard to be on something surely? What possesses a human being to be that aggressive toward a pregnant woman?
This might even be worse, that officer’s fellow policemen did ■■■■ all with regards to try to deescalate their colleague, he was clearly out of line. They were mulling around like this ■■■■ happened every day.
And imagine the trauma of the 4yo. This is all wrapped up in the normalization of hate we are seeing in the US. People in power don’t feel the need to hide their true feelings. And the weaker among us have to go along.
Nothing to this extent but I had cops show up to my place ‘cause my neighbors ‘mistook’ my drone for a rifle. Had to do a lot of explaining to my daughter that the cops weren’t going to kill me.
While some places in USA have improved in terms of police action and racial profiling and hate, still many places are entrenched in last century.
On my recent trip to Europe, I listened to two long term cops, each with over 35 years on the job, one from Fort Lauderdale and other from Ottawa talk about issues of racial profiling and police behaviour vs staying alive ! These were both sane, reasonable people living in different countries with similar cultures agreeing on body searches for all school kids each morning and armed guards at every school. They told stories of guns in baby pushers and little old ladies pulling weapons on police. Seems to me the whole continent is somewhat at war.
I could not even comprehend their argument and just listened in sadness about how Police training is all about not getting killed first and fair treatment of citizens second. I was sad because it seemed the only way to operate to stay alive.
Made the mistake of watching Trump’s revealing interview(s) with George Stephanopoulos yesterday. He gave the ABC crew “30hrs of exclusive access”. Apart from all the lies, insults, vanity, and ignorance on display what made me saddest was watching this snake oil salesman (and his family) takeover all the things Americans view with respect and pride. The Oval Office, the White House, Air Force One. Each one of those was nothing but a venue for launching broadsides at foes (real and perceived) and the constant refrain of “no collusion, no obstruction”.
My wife’s aunt lives in a very upscale town in Southern California. Bucking the California trend, the town (and county) have always voted Republican (till the 2018 mid-terms). One of the aunt’s friends voted for Trump and said she did it because she was sick of “those people” (Obama) using all the perks of the presidency (specifically she was mad that Sasha and Malia got to go on Air Force One). Hmmm. I wonder how she feels now…
Do they? That’s interesting, as I thought Canada had far less shootings than the USA. I can’t really recall any Canadian school massacres, whereas it seems the USA has several a year. But that may just be reporting and perceptions.
Interesting article on Peloisi and where her views vis-a-vis impeachment of Trump may be from.
Key takeaways:
It is very much based on the experience with the Clinton impeachment
When it started, it effectively ended the Republican’s legislative agenda. So the talk became entirely focused on impeachment, nothing else.
There was a backlash against the Republicans because of impeachment of Clinton (they were the first opposition party since 1834 to lose House seats at the mid-terms)
Clinton’s impeachment had no impact on his approval ratings
There is currently no broad community support for impeachment
Also, another interesting article(s). The Supreme Court decided a person can be charged and tried in state and federal court for the same conduct without running afoul of double jeopardy because state and federal governments are separate sovereigns. This implies a pardon for federal crimes will not preclude State charges against the person pardoned.
I think Canada does have far less shootings, but this Senior Police Superintendent was talking about the number of guns at schools, and how easily available they are even in a country with strict laws.
The US has 4% of the global population and 44% of the guns. Being a cop there would be horrible. Every car stop would be a risk.
That said, it’s suicide where their gun laws really play out. Yanks are much more efficient at suicide due to access to guns in times of depression and desperation.
That isn’t surprising if true - while Canada has strict gun laws (I live just over an hour outside of Toronto), the majority of the populace lives within 100km of the U.S border which is how the guns seem to sneak through the borders. Toronto has had a few high profile shootings in my time here.
Just watched a video about air ambulance services in the USA. Venture capital firms have started to take them over and run them as for profit enterprises. None of the helicopter services are covered by insurance. Basically, you have a car accident, get air lifted and end up with a $30-100k bill no matter your level of health cover. Some have been charged $500k for a learjet flight.
Story told of 7 helicopters landed on a freeway all competing to transport a single patient from a serious accident so they could get the $$$.
In perspective, in Australian states where ambulance transport isn’t government funded, a helicopter flight costs $10k max if you don’t have $80 ambulance cover.
I was told by someone who would know yesterday that a Glock 17 can be purchased illegally in Melbourne for about $20,000.
I can buy one in Texas legally for about $600 and probably cheaper at a Gun Club or a Gun Show.
It is probably not that easy to smuggle guns into Australia and I don’t expect us to be flooded with automatic handguns. Must be a lot easier to get them into Canada though.
That’s a perfect example of how well our gun laws work. Plus the advantage of not sharing a border with the US. Hasn’t made it impossible, because that is impossible. But has made it prohibitively expensive, and you’d need to locate and establish the right criminal connections first.
That diminishes the capacity for harm of a lot of people looking to cause it. It also likely makes them visible to law enforcement if they try obtain that class of firearm.
