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New York, 1:10 AM
Tue Nov 10
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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05/04/09
05/04/09
05/04/09
Its a pretty simple equation killer app or not - Cash Inflow must be greater then Cash Outflow - imagine that!
05/05/09
05/04/09
01/11/09
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01/11/09
1) the safety should have been on in a non-firearms confronting situation,
2) the officer's finger should have been outside of the trigger guard.
3) he should have said something tot he effect of "covering", thus letting the other officers know he was un-holstered.
4) you never use a gun like that in such a scrum.
5) I'll bet it was accidental discharge - or rather, stupid as shit discharge, resulting in jail for the cop.
01/12/09
01/11/09
Homicidal dumbasses.
01/11/09
01/11/09
"Further proof that most cops are profoundly stupid in addition to being seething rageaholics who get off on lording their power over other people."
It's hard to put in words how offensively stupid your comment is (oh wait, i just did). Keep making your sweeping generalizations about a bunch of people you don't know doing a job you know nothing about. Hopefully, you won't ever be thrust into a situation of dangerous activity where you will be able to appreciate first-hand how conscientious and courageous most police officers are.
01/11/09
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01/11/09
also: the number of injuries to civilians and to cops from high speed chases is ridiculous; they shouldn't do that. so a car is stolen, so what. it's just property. it can be taken back another time. no more 90 mph jaunts down highways in the wrong direction with head on collisions with innocent people; no more 60 mph racing through residential neighborhoods. it's real life, not tv. you know?
01/11/09
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01/12/09
if that's all you have to say, it'd be preferable that you say nothing at all. honestly. it's useless. there's nobody here in favor of police brutality. there are, however, people here in favor of having a reasonable discourse on the topic, and that's something that your statement makes impossible.
01/12/09
01/12/09
That's some sick fucking logic.
01/12/09
eh, nevermind. i give up. it is, apparently, impossible to argue that not every police officer fits Trixie's initial summation without angry people reading it as my attempting to justify police brutality.
sorry i tried. carry on irrationally judging an entire group of people based on the actions of a few.
01/12/09
01/12/09
And . . . So, what? What do those thousands that don't have to do with the dozens that do? I don't agree with Trixie's assessment regarding MOST cops (but I dare say, it does fit more than a few I've come across) but I also don't see how your quest for stats on the miraculously manslaughter-free (which would prove what, exactly?) contributes anything.
No need to martyr yourself.
01/12/09
Piss off.
01/12/09
01/11/09
That's the first thing that leaped out at me, even the cop that had him on the ground jumped at the shot. Accidental discharge?
01/11/09
Accidental discharge or not, he shot a guy in the back who was lying on the ground.
I really couldn't care less why he did it and I don't much see how it's relevant.
We spend way too much effort in this country trying to figure out people's intent when all we really need to do is judge the results of their actions. The problem with that mentality is that you can end up excusing pretty much anything. The mentality that says this guy should be excused because he "accidentally" shot a guy in the back as he was lying on the ground is the same mentality that says George Bush should be excused for torturing people, getting us into an unnecessary war and illegally wiretapping citizens because he was only trying to protect the country.
There's no mystery here. A guy was shot in the back as he lay on the ground. And we know who did it. End of investigation.
What ever happened to personal responsibility? You carry a gun, you are responsible for what you do with it.
01/11/09
Johannes Mehserle is a cold-blooded MURDERER.
That he wanted to Tase the man sounds and looks like a complete lie - this wasn't a split second action - he pulled out and aimed the gun and squeezed the trigger. And on a side note, we SHOULD NOT TASE people who are are not posing a serious threat. Tasing should not be a punishment. It should be last resort before pulling your gun.
Why didn't the other cops stop Johannes?
How many other instances like this were swept away because there were not civilian videos?
01/11/09
Dude killed another guy by shooting him in the back as he was lying on the ground with another cop's knee in his neck.
If you or I did that, we'd get the goddamn chair. What uniform a person is wearing at any given time has no relevance to whether or not they need to adhere to basic morality and law.
01/11/09
In New York, it's all about sucking up to your editor so you can get the cover and sucking up to other writers. The page-views system says you're answerable to your readers.
Do you still stand by that statement?
01/11/09
01/11/09
01/11/09
First off, let me say that I completely understand the need for page hits and how they are central to a business strategy. I understand that the cultural-media stuff doesn't always generate as many page hits as, for instance, a silly celebrity death story or something like that. I see that it's necessary to write stories that will be widely read.
Now, the way I understand the situation to be right now is that this attempt to widen the readership was done to pay the bills, and youre saying that the readers ought to just accept that and keep only to the posts that they like. Furthermore, you are saying that for a writer to try to indulge and pander to the segment of readers who don't like some of the posts that are being written would be "coddling." Okay, I accept that.
I agree that coddling should be out of the question. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care that there is more of an emphasis on celebrity news. I don't think that was the issue. I think the issue was finding the right tone in the article. Also, it is imperative that they are as well researched and fact checked as your Valleywag stories are.
Moreover, I hope for a level of decorum when dealing with grieving people. (This criticism doesn't just apply to you.) I'm a fancy jerk in that respect. It's embarrassing for me to be associated with a site that points fingers in mean ways -- I think that the message has been received, though, and that we can just let the issue drop. It's still all right, and encouraged, to point fingers in funny ways.
Thanks for engaging a little with us to try to explain what's going on here and make your position clearer.
On a completely unrelated note: Would it be asking to be coddled to hear more dirt about Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin and Cory Doctorow? That stuff is always gold.
01/11/09
Ever since 9/11 we've had to put up with chubby cops in dress blues with white gloves at baseball games singing Oh Danny Boy, and everyone blowing smoke up their ass about being 'America's Heroes'. It's like the Stanford Prison experiment writ large. A good number of them now think they are superman, and the law, rather than mere enforcers of the law...also subject to it.
This is what happens when society goes from anointing people a hero after they do an uncommonly valorous act, to slapdash applying it to a whole class of people because they wear a certain uniform, regardless of whether they are mere donut eating dolts, abusive assholes, corrupt, or an actual asset to their community.
01/11/09
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01/11/09
Your point was also good, though it was more vitriolic, which might put a bee in some peoples' bonnets.
I used to live abroad, and I can tell you that in Western Europe, the police force has a completely different view of itself. They see themselves as servants of the state, charged with the task of keeping the citizens from killing and stealing from each other, not as some badass cowboys who constitute "the thin blue line between law and disorder."
01/11/09
01/11/09
you cannot honestly argue police brutality, if a cops going to murder someone hes certainly not going to do it in front of a crowd of angry people with cameras. its disingenuous of people to use this as something to spark protest or riots. especially when it is the hostility towards law enforcement that plagues oakland communities that helps lead them to having one of the worst crime rates in the area. frankly they should be protesting themselves, their culture of tolerating thug culture is what gets them into such situations in the first place.
01/11/09
"frankly they should be protesting themselves, their culture of tolerating thug culture is what gets them into such situations in the first place."
What "situation" are you talking about? Oh yeah, getting shot in the back while laying face down on the ground.
You are making excuses because YOU simply cannot believe,comprehend, fathom that a cop would shoot someone in cold blood.Not possible! Has to be an "accident"! A mistake!
What I saw was a cop pull his weapon, aim and shoot a young black man,but who would ever believe that a cop would intentionally murder someone in front of others? I do.
01/11/09
01/11/09
you are stretching credibility to the breaking point, and insulting everyones intelligence if you believe that the cop didn't know he was being watched..filmed..and decided to murder someone in cold blood anyways. your entire argument is based on this absurdity. you might as well tell us that cops are so brazen that they'll rape someone in front of a news crew. give me a break.
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01/12/09
i'm sure being a cop is a lot harder of a job than i could imagine, but the suggestion that this trained police officer couldn't tell the difference between a taser and a pistol is... well, you know, fucking retarded.
01/12/09
01/11/09
You sometimes stretch a little too much from specifics to generalizations in your posts without the proper information.
01/11/09
01/11/09
Has the family issued a statement about the video? Did they request that it not be watched?
01/11/09
01/11/09
But, F.Y.I., clicking on the YouTube video won't generate page hits for Owen.
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