It would be great to write off the disgusting events in New York and Ferguson as the usual American racist police state in action. But then Halifax police need to go order new sniper rifles and the RCMP need to buy a tank to patrol New Glasgow. For what, buddy cheating on his scratch and win tickets? Maybe we should count ourselves lucky when police officers are in the news for drunk driving and not murdering unarmed black men and women. —Protect and served
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.
1)It’s not the R.C.M.P. , It’s the New Glasgow police force.
2)It’s not a tank; it’s a decommissioned Cougar A.V.G.P. – that means Armoured Vehicle General Purpose. It’s 76 mm high velocity gun has been removed. It has wheels, not treads and it’s aluminum armour might stop something as large as a 12.7 mm. machinegun bullet. It’s a 40 year olf Swiss design, based on a successful series of armoured cars designed initially for, you guessed it, urban policing. In fact, when the CF acquired them in the mid-70’s their battlefield utility was openly questioned, as was the fact that the purchase came shortly after the election of a separatist government in Quebec. . It’s no more a tank than a Volvo is.
3)People generally don’t turn down free stuff, whether they need it or not. Why should institutions be any different.
4)New sniper rifles for the Halifax tactical unit? Makes sense. Better to stay ahead of the technological curve. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have. I can remember when the H.P.D. made the transition from revolvers to semi-automatic pistols. A bunch of lefty yuppie journalists questioned the need for it. Nobody asked them why they felt they had to make the transition from typewriters to Apples, but then guns and people in uniform tend to frighten a certain progressive, pants-pissing demographic. Like most fears, it’s based heavily in prejudice and ignorance.
5)Which brings me to my last point. Cherry picking acts of individual malfeasance to depict entire institutions as being out of control and a threat to safety and liberty is a product of the same mind-set that ascribes negative qualities to an entire race based solely on the color of the faces you see doing the perp-walk on the evening news.
And that’s just downright nutty.
There is a difference , of course. Institutions can and are held accountable and change can be effected. Not immediately and not always to our satisfaction, but that says more about the nature of institutions in general and not policing in particular
.
But, if your ego demands that you beat your chest and bray about how “Them fuckin’ P!gs better not fuck with me or I’ll fuck them over some fuckin’ good, wha?” then by all means continue. And please continue to look down on those you consider to be ignorant fearful bigots because the irony is delicious.
And, one final benefit, in the long chance that you might possibly be a member of the New Glasgow unit of the Reds Brigades. – You now get the chance to make like Theo from Die Hard and say:
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. What have we here, gentlemen? The police have themselves an RV. Southeast corner.”
You should be ecstatic. Cinematic opportunities like that don’t come along every day.
“MURDERING UNARMED BLACK MEN AND WOMEN?”
“Maybe we should count ourselves lucky when police officers are in the news for drunk driving and not murdering unarmed black men and women.” Protect and serve
I don’t suppose you would have any evidence for making that assertion, would you? Both police officers were absolved by a public inquiry which, unlike you, had access to all the information. But I suppose for you that is irrelevant. And who, by the way, were those women they “murdered” or is this just another figment of your heated imagination? Write back soon.
Avatar #99: A CLOSE CALL
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
I think the problem can be summarized by the following facts:
1: Grand juries indict 89% of civilian cases and far far fewer of police shootings and police-reported “justified murders”.
2: An indictment was returned in 1 out of 81 grand jury-reviewed police shootings in Dallas, Texas.
3: Cited in the New York Times: “41 officers were charged with either murder or manslaughter in shootings while on duty over a seven-year period ending in 2011. Over that same period, police departments reported 2,600 justifiable homicides to the F.B.I.” I’m willing to bet a lot on the fact that the denominator is grossly under-reported.
I trust that BroTim will fail to draw any reasonable, rational inferences from these facts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/nyregion…
Cops or killers?
Killer Cops!
Kurtis Stryker vs Sonya Blade!
“Blue Thunder” used to do a killer version of “My Girl”
Dropping dope beats AND beating dopers. What more could you ask for.
A REVERSE INVALID EXTRAPOLATION
Sir MeowaLot (12/98,9:38AM)
I think the problem can be summarized by the following fact: The bitcher made an invalid extrapolation from an evidentially-unsupported assertion about individual police action in Jefferson and New York to the equally evidentially-unsupported general claim about the police habit of “murdering of unarmed black men and women.” In other words, the extrapolation proceeded, invalidly, from the particular to the general.
In contrast, you have made the reverse but also invalid extrapolation, from statistical (i.e., evidentially-unsupported) claims about the percentages of grand jury indictments of police shootings in general to the individual incidents in Jefferson and New York. In other words, your extrapolation proceeded, also invalidly, from the general to the particular.It is a matter of logic, not what you are “willing to bet.”
However, I trust that you will fail to draw any reasonable, rational inferences from this fact.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
A black man’s greatest enemy is another black man. They kill each other in far greater numbers than cops killing suspects of all colours.
RESP
: The Dribbling Half-Wit (10:12AM)
Willard, is that you giving me that “dislike” again? Is that all you can do? What a wanker. “Willard the Wanker.” I like the sound. I may substitute it for “The Dribbling Half-Wit.” What do you think, Willard?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
The police kill a black man in the states every 28 hrs, BroTim. Is that not a valid concern?
Just wondering if anyone knows how often police kill unarmed white folk? Also, if the person killed is half black/white then does that count as a white or black person for statistical reasons?
I am seriously in over my head here.
Furious – the every 28 hours stat makes a great soundbite but it needs to be clarified. It is based on an anecdotal study by something called the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement which, in itself is highly suspect. To be fair, i wouldn’t trust stats on black on white crime complied by The Invisible Order of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, either.
And the fellow trumpeting this statistic on CNN qualified it as “an unarmed black man” whereas the original study comprised cases of armed suspects,and alleged armed suspects, as well.
It doesn’t minimize the issue, but a serious problem is is no way served by hysterical and exagerrated falsehoods.
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/2661…
Forgot the link where I got my info. Sorry.
New sniper rifles? Good for them. Why do we need new ones? Well maybe the ones we have aren’t so good. Makes me think back to the shitty Korean war gear I used to hump back in the 80s…prick-25 anyone? Or how about ‘rain pants’ that keep the rain in (not that it mattered anyway if your job involved rolling around in the mud)? Or more closely related to sniper rifles, the ‘trusty’ M72 that didn’t work when it was too cold…
“A black man’s greatest enemy is another black man. They kill each other in far greater numbers than cops killing suspects of all colours”
I think that is the only soundbite I need for today, thanks. Think I need a break.
LOL Cranky – me Old Dad is ex Sigs and he definitely remembers the prick 25. Hell, when he joined they were still humping the Lee-Enfield #4 and the Bren Gun. He preferred the Bren to the C-2 in the squad automatic role.
In PMQ’s the only thing better when playing war, than the famous Johnny 7, was an M-72 tube. If your dad could score you one of those, you were the cock of the walk, baby
*last part spoken in Christopher walken voice”
Where’s Willard?
Uhhhhh, hanging out with Ben?
*cue saccharine early Michael Jackson tune while MM, scratches his head in confusion.*
I did not extrapolate from general facts (average tendencies for grand juries to indict civilians but not police) to particular cases (alleged police wrongdoing in NYC or Missouri), nor did I infer that these facts assign guilt to the officers involved in any particular cases. The figures I cited are, however, causing people to question whether the “rule of law” is upheld in cases of police wrongdoing.
My point is that growing public frustration regarding police accountability reflects the perception that police are currently insufficiently accountable to the laws that they serve to uphold. One measure of accountability is the rate at which investigations of police wrongdoing result in indictment.
Yeah, I scored a few m72 tubes in my day. Can’t picture kids running around PMQs with them today, though.
I remember when I mentioned to my dad how I read we had about 100 Centurion tanks pre-leopard (point being, we had less Leopards/tanks than before). He laughed, “yeah, 6 running and 94 for parts.)
It’s my duty to inform the OB that his/her attempt at linking the events in the US with Nova Scotia police upgrading their own equipment is extremely lame. I definitely don’t want him/her on my debating team. Righteous indignation does not score any points….especially when misplaced!
With regards to Nova Scotia police acquiring new equipment:
The police often confiscate high powered weapons from local criminals. Do you expect them to walk into those situations with air rifles? If we ever have a situation, as they did in New Brunswick, where someone is deliberately trying to kill people, and maybe next time they are just picking off the general public at random, do you expect the police to roll up unprotected in unarmoured squad cars and be sitting ducks as was the case in NB? And wouldn’t you want them to have sniper rifles that were adequate for removing the threat?
I’m far from being a law and order type but, if we expect police officers, soldiers, firefighters and so on to do a dangerous job, because we can’t or don’t want to, then we owe it to them to at least provide them very good equipement.
With regards to the situation in the US:
It is necessary to separate symptom from ailment. The police killings, while very unfortunate, are a symptom of a much broader and deeper societal ailment that has haunted the US since the days of slavery. Treating the symptom (rioting about police brutality) brings temporary relief but eventually they have to have that nasty ailment taken care of.
When in the history of policing in NS have we ever needed an armoured vehicle? Do you really think that it is in the public interest to have cops running around like urban combat soldiers? What the fuck is wrong with you people who defend this shit like it’s their right to have all this shit? Maybe, since the streets of New Glasgow are so unsafe, we should get ahead of the game and outfit them with assault rifles, granades, flame throwers, full riot gear, rocket launchers and batteries for interrogations as standard everyday kit. then when they pull me over they can jam a C-7 in my face when they ask “Where are you going and coming from at this hour?” At 1-fucking-30 on a Saturday night at a sobriety checkpoint. The militarization of our police force should not even be a blip on our (collectively, as a society) radar screen.
Meh – slap a pair of big fuck off speakers on it and go tear-assing through Fairview at zero-dark-thirty playing Inner Circle at full blast.
That’s the thing, though, we’re always planning and arming for the last war we fought. You think the RCMP doesn’t have a whole new set of SOP’s after NB?
Just like new tactics, arms have to be updated.
There was probably time when the police didn’t need helicopters and nightscopes, bet they’re glad they had them in NB.
hey!!! I LOVE inner circle!!!
( oh wait a minute – you just meant the cops theme song) shut up molly
LOL – between you and Mr. Meaty – I have a larger gay following than I probably warrant >: )
RSVP
: SirMeowAlot (12/08, 3:05PM)
Your first paragraph is factually incorrect. This is exactly what you did (incorrectly) extrapolate in both cases but I will not debate this with you since you clearly have a cognitive shortfall where matters of simple logic are concerned.
While the figures you cited may indeed, cause “people to question whether the ‘rule of law’ (note quotation marks) is being upheld in cases of police wrongdoing” this, once again, is not
relevant to my logical point. What was that point?
My point – it may have escaped you – was that it was not so much that there is a growing public “frustration” regarding the “perception” that police are insufficiently accountable to the law – but rather the fact that I do not deal in psychological states but in evidentially supportable assertions. I realize that that this is beyond your own inflamed psychological state.
The result that your conclusion, like your introduction, is factually false. To say that “one measure of accountability is the rate at which investigations of police wrongdoing result in indictment” pre-supposes that there is a simple algorythm in which the one can be objectively measured against the other. I would be very interested in hearing your explication of this algorythm which, as I strongly suspect, will not be forthcomng. Briefly, your “frustrations” and “perceptions” are irrelevant to the issue. But I know that you will not understand that.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
In order to make an extrapolation, one has to relate a set of particulars x to a set of general objects of interest X. This can be accomplished by way of argument or, if you wish, a properly identified system of equations and parameters. Given that I made no such attempt at relating x to X, it is impossible to attribute such an extrapolation to my comments. Any such attribution is your own invalid inference. What we are observing may be evidence of a mild form of age-related cognitive decline, if anything.
My latter statement (“One measure of accountability…”) can be simplified as: “one measure of Y is Z”. This statement does not assume away the possibility of measurement error (e.g. an arbitrary deviation between a metric of an object of interest and the object itself). Nor does it preclude the existence of other, superior or complementary, measures. I mentioned the indictment rate because of its popular usage in the media, not because I believe it is devoid of limitations.
A pleasure as always.
*wakes up to a loud spanking sound, coming form the Ouest*
A VACUOUS EXPLICATION OF EXTRAPOLATION
RSVP
SirMeowaLot (12/08, 9:50PM)
As I previously indicated (6:22PM) you have not understood my point whch was, to repeat, that I do not deal in psychological states but only in evidentially-based assertions.
As you pointed out yourself, you made no attempt at relating X (a set of particulars) to X (a set of genera objects of interest), apparently failing to realize that this was precisely what was demanded. The consequence is that your theoretical explication of extrapolation was un-anchored, free-floating and empty.
As with your previous “frustrations” and “perceptions,” your explication of extrapolation was vacuous. But as I also previously pointed out, I know that you will not understand that. Still, it was a pleasure chatting.
Avatar #100: An Inflated 100,000 Reichsbanknote of 1923
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
You have to be protected in New Glasgow when you’re trying to get your fast food fix….
http://gizmodo.com/5834365/fpsrussia-drive…
so when do we get snake guards at our fast food restaurants?? eh? it’s the new weapon of choice when someone’s crying over onions. ( I wonder which guy was the groom?)
http://globalnews.ca/news/1714538/snake-th…
WILLARD STRIKES AGAIN!
Willard (aka Edward Zipperhead), was that you giving me another “dislike” at 9:16AM?
Is there any truth to the rumour that you play the banjo in a bluegrass band under the pseudonym “Jimmy Dildo?” Write back soon.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Let me assure you OB…that contrary to what you perceive is a police state in US/Canada…it is not. NOT even CLOSE. Ive been to police states, military dictatorship states. Perhaps you should go to one to be able to see the difference and then thank your lucky stars you live where you live…sometimes people need that kind of smelling salt wake up call. Many people ive noticed just cry and whine because they arent legally allowed to do the things they feel they should be allowed to do…often complaining that by not being allowed to do whatever they want is a violation of their rights. well id also like to implore the OB to actually read what your rights constitute in this country…and then recognize that your ACTUAL rights, may or may not be similar or respected in other countries. Be thankful that you dont have the gestapo coming to dinner over an accusation by an angry neighbour….or being beheaded for an accusation of blasphemy like in pakistan