I was hesitant to wade into the George Lloyd riot thread, but I did. Lo and behold, it took all of three or four posts for this to happen. Perhaps I could have chosen warmer, more considerate words, but that’s not my style when discussing ideas on the internet.
Emotions are very strong. Especially right now. This is why I’d never have a conversation like this over facebook. There’s no benefit to being misunderstood, labeled, and shouted down by hyper-emotional people who get upset when you ask them to give a plain English explanation for what they believe should be done.
Maybe it is time to take a break from PWI. It is entertaining, but only when people can entertain good faith. Explaining that you aren’t a terrible person gets tiring.
Maybe that’s a decent take. I’ve only met one white guy from California I’ve enjoyed spending time with, and my sister married the guy. I’m sure there are plenty of great guys, gals, and non-binary folk out west. I just don’t have much patience for empty platitudes and meaningless expression from anyone these days, but especially white people who trumpet their status as “racial allies” loudly on social media, but ultimately do nothing and risk nothing.
If you want to impress me with your plan for dealing with violent people in a way that will satisfy liberals like my sister-in-law as well as your cookie cutter SJW, here’s an idea.
Show us how it is done.
Become a cop and lead by example. That will never happen, so I’m finding more and more perverse satisfaction in producing heated emotional reactions by asking cold questions in plain English.
In a thread with race as one of the relevant points, CA boy asked a poster who identified as half black how old he was, followed by the implication that said poster probably had erroneous/immature positions due to being too young. I had to jab at the CA thing.
I read the hot topics, because good points are made sometimes. And I especially enjoy reading stuff from people who are actually “in the field”. But I also determine the one trick ponies, the hammers that always see a nail, and I just skip past those or read them for amusement -yep, still the same, check.
The trick today is to post a link to someone else’s thoughts and expect people to respond point-by-point to their nonsense. It also requires you to either adopt the same assumptions the list-maker had or, if the assumptions are bad, unpacking them point-by-point. That’s a chore I don’t care to do. Not today anyway.
Funny story - I actually tried to do this in Portland prior to starting my current job. I scored a 99.xyz on the practical exam but failed the behavioral assessment by 1 point. They asked me to come back and retake the tests because my practical score was so high. Next time I scored a 98.xyz on the practical and while trying to game the behavioral assessment the second time failed by even more. Clearly, I am not cop material.
I used to lift with a police chief from one of our small towns. He was suggesting I join the reserve police force, but I don’t think I could pass the lie detector test. I did some deeds in the 90’s.
Besides, part-time bouncing taught me that I like an occasional scrap and an occasional shift where I’m tasked with responding to the behavior of people who are drunk and on drugs.
I only worked a full week bouncing once and I was sick of it by the third day. Dealing with the more extreme behaviors in my area is good for me in small doses only. I suspect police work would have been the same.
Fun to dip your toes into, depressing and stressful if done daily.
I was pretty okay with not making it through the initial screenings, as I too probably would not have passed the lie detector test. Never did anything evil, but I’ve broken some laws.
I watched a lot of the live feed from the protest last night. I actually know the reporter who was on scene after the peaceful protest ended and it was just the handful of folks who wanted to stir up a frenzy. Couldn’t imagine the stress of trying to be a good human during that time.
I’ve been talked into a somewhat hair-brained protest overwatch role with a friend of mine. I’m mostly going to make sure my friend with extremely strong feelings about everything going on right now doesn’t do anything stupid. He’s in healthcare and can’t ethically march so we’re social distance observing the protest under the notion that we’ll make sure our mutual friends have capable bodyguards to get them to safety, should things go south.
It should be more interesting than anything else going on around here tomorrow afternoon.
So the protest yesterday went fine and nobody needed to be tackled, which is good. There was clearly some level of professional organization, which was also good. Everyone got to be heard and nobody acted like an asshole. As far as I know the crowd didn’t linger into the early morning hours or do anything bad.
Social distancing went right out the window, so we’ll see what the pandemic fallout will be. I’m expecting a spike in cases, which I’m expecting will be met with more disproportionate reactions from our governor. Now that the municipality-level data are released, it seems clear that we went much too far for much too long, especially in the hundreds of small towns that had no cases at all.
I joined a local vigilante group yesterday. We have not deployed because there is no present need, but we do have some capable people in the area with community-focused intentions of making sure our little corner of the world stays safe. I’m glad to be a part of that network.
Also, 30 minutes of swings, squats and presses today.
Not that I know of. If things really get bad we’ll need uniforms or something. All of the mayhem’s going to be filmed and posted to social media, so we should look cool while we fight in the streets or whatever we end up doing.
It’s Maine though, so we’ll probably miss out on the more exciting events taking place in these interesting times.
@punnyguy I’ve been a fan of Curtis Sliwa since I learned about him after moving out east in 2000. I worked with a hard-ass Puerto Rican guy who was/is a member, which was a real trip for a white kid fresh out of the cornfields. I listened to his radio show a few times too.
The man walks the walk, no doubt about it.
@boyce79@T3hPwnisher Good suggestions, but I’ve already prepared my submission to the Vigilante Group Naming Committee.
Maine Force Patrol. A lot of us have been done with our Mad Max outfits for weeks now and the classic MFP color scheme would make for great-looking, high-visibility jumpsuits if we decided to go that route instead.
I must admit, it would be fun to cruise around the neighborhood in some 70’s-era beaters painted up like that. Maybe a hint of woodland colors and a moose rack mounted on the grille, too.
My instructor’s instructor has been getting woke scolded on social media for offering free training to all active LEO’s. This starts now with social distancing constraints and begins in earnest when the gym can re-open. No strings attached, any active LEO of any skill level gets a free membership as long as they are active LEO, period.
Some of the complaints include…
It will make Maine law enforcement even more oppressive than they are right now.
It should instead be offered for free to anyone who is black.
It should also be offered for free to anyone who is black.
Mat time should be used for woke lessons on race.
A multi-year path of discomfort and rather challenging training is “reward” and a “gift”.
Okay, the last one is me being unfair. The wokescolds probably think that these abilities are gained over the course of a few weekends, or likely hold similarly misguided notions of what is being offered. This is not like cops are getting a foot massage and a box of candy, while black people get nothing. Nor is it even something that is helpful to think of in that kind of framework.
Cops are being offered training for free because the core complaint revolves around bad outcomes in use of force situations. That should be EASY to understand, but not for the new Red Guard or whatever this is we’ve got shaping up.
I think the most frustrating part of, putting it broadly, dealing with other people currently, is that it’s a chore to be a person of reason. I can’t seem to get through a day without being subjected to rationalized far left/right marketing lunacy.
Makes me want to grab someone by the shoulders and gently shake them while just saying “think!”.
