DOJ: Ferguson PD descrimination against blacks is routine

wareyin said:
Just a friendly reminder, failure to clarify your meaning means you approve of any interpretation of your words.
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Gawdzilla Sama said:
Ed Zachery. My statement that there were always "good" excuses :rolleyes: seems to have gone over some people's heads.
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Is a "good" excuse still an excuse? Or a valid reason not to do something? Because from my experience, an "excuse" is a bad reason not to do something, whether it's a "good" excuse or not. eta: see "making excuses for behavior"

Of course, choosing to use vague terms while refusing to clarify meanings virtually guarantees one will be misunderstood, which certainly appears to be the desired outcome.
 
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One man's good reason is another's bad excuse.
Like the folks who say Gentle Mike Brown was just trying to take the cop's gun because he didn't want to get shot.

Which, to my knowledge, is the absolutely quickest way to get shot by a cop.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
One man's good reason is another's bad excuse.
Like the folks who say Gentle Mike Brown was just trying to take the cop's gun because he didn't want to get shot.

Which, to my knowledge, is the absolutely quickest way to get shot by a cop.
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It appears that you are in agreement that calling something a "good excuse" implies that it is not a valid reason, or can be seen by a reasonable observer to be saying that.
 
John Oliver did a piece on using municipal violations for city funding, featuring Ferguson.

(some NSFW language)
 
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Thanks that was hilarious and very scary at the same time. The man who was convicted of stealing a can of beer and wound up having to pay $360 a month to a private company that was "administering" his probation while he tried to pay off the original fine. When he fell too far behind he was jailed for 60-70 days. That 64% of the people in New Jersey who lost their driver's license for failing to pay fines reported having lost their jobs as a result.

There are people who think -- and I expect them to be here shortly -- that if you break the law, if you steal a can of beer, then it doesn't matter what happens to you. It's all on you, because YOU stole a can of beer.

Fortunately there are people who think about these things in more depth and believe the punishment must fit the crime or it's unjust. There are legal groups who are litigating to change the way the system has monetized minor offenses.
 
Upchurch said:
I don't know. It appears a lot of the interest on this topic has faded.

Which is precisely why systemic racism continues to exist.
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As I say over and over, based on something I was told - if you have money, everything is designed to make you more money, and if you don't have money, everything is designed to take your money.

This isn't quite like, say, the Charles Stuart case back in Boston in 1989, where the jerk shot his pregnant wife and then claimed a black guy did it (oh, that was a few months of racialized fun), but it does fall hardest on the backs of the poor, and the darker-skinned.
 
newyorkguy said:
Thanks that was hilarious and very scary at the same time. The man who was convicted of stealing a can of beer and wound up having to pay $360 a month to a private company that was "administering" his probation while he tried to pay off the original fine. When he fell too far behind he was jailed for 60-70 days. That 64% of the people in New Jersey who lost their driver's license for failing to pay fines reported having lost their jobs as a result.

There are people who think -- and I expect them to be here shortly -- that if you break the law, if you steal a can of beer, then it doesn't matter what happens to you. It's all on you, because YOU stole a can of beer.

Fortunately there are people who think about these things in more depth and believe the punishment must fit the crime or it's unjust. There are legal groups who are litigating to change the way the system has monetized minor offenses.
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What's the difference in recidivism? Will they be less likely to steal beer again?
 
Giz said:
What's the difference in recidivism? Will they be less likely to steal beer again?
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There's an excellent point to be made here.

We must weigh the cost of a few poor people having their lives ruined over a harmless mistake against the real possibility that the scourge of beer-stealing that plagues us as a society might be ended in our lifetimes.
 
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