bullets13

It would take another civil war. Not going to happen. Our biggest cities (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, etc.), with the most people (and most potential troops in said civil war), are fairly liberal. Also, I'd say that the strongest push for secession is from the middle aged to elderly white male, the majority of which would be well above the age of being able to reasonably fight the war it would take to seceed. Considering how great things still really are for most of us (sure my insurance has gone up, and I'm upset about it, but I'm not signing up to kill other Americans over it), you're going to have a hard time building an army of Texans big enough to be any real threat to the US army.

This is an interesting debate, to be honest. These are not guys that "identify" as women. They were born with two X chromosomes AND a Y. I totally agree that it's not fair to the women they compete against, as they produce more testosterone. It's also not fair to them to ban them, as they were born with female anatomy. I tend to side with being fair to the majority in this situation, as there are gender divisions in sports because of the obvious advantage that testosterone creates, but this is certainly a far more complicated issue than simply saying "a dude just won the 800".

[Hidden Content] i read this article today in the enterprise. I'm curious about your feelings on the subject of Doctor-assisted suicide.

Giant Asteroid 2016!

Through my job I can attest that many folks get free housing, free cell phones, free food, free daycare,and free healthcare. I think that would qualify as "free stuff". Now, I'm not one of these people that thinks that all of these services should be disbanded, with the poor left to starve in the streets, but there is gross abuse of these programs, and a major overhaul is needed.

His arms weren't subdued. Arms being subdued would mean they were cuffed behind his back. With two officers on top of him, he continued to struggle, and they were unable to gain control of his hands, one of which was inches from the gun you're still trying to say he didn't have or didn't have access to.

If someone were so inclined, and had the resources, they could compile MILLIONS of dashcam videos of men of all races who are still alive after resisting arrest and attacking cops. If officers shot and killed every person who resisted arrest and struggled with them, there would be tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people shot and killed by officers EVERY YEAR. Cops show tremendous restraint every day all across the country. That being said, every situation is different, and some situations dictate that the officer shoot the man who's struggling with or attacking officers.

It happens. It just doesn't make the news. Ironically, I read an article the other day (Washington post, I believe) that had links to two studies that stated that African Americans thought they were more likely to be arrested by African American cops. Doesn't really fit the narrative, does it?

I agree that no unjustified police shooting is acceptable. What I don't understand is why there is such a disparity in outrage over 4 or 5 questionable cop killings a year versus 4 or 5 THOUSAND black on black killings. According to BLM, and social and mainstream media, police killings are the biggest threat to young black men out there. The actual facts render that assertion completely false.

I wasn't there, but based on what little evidence is available, I tend to believe it was because he got mad about a local neighborhood watch guy following him, and instead of continuing on his way, he decided to assault a guy who ended up being armed with a pistol. That being said, the civilian in question has proven to be a loose cannon, and was possibly trigger happy. There's also no doubt that he was suspicious of Martin because of his race, although the fact that Zimmerman knew his neighborhood's residents well, and didn't recognize him surely played a role as well. That's unfortunate, but it doesn't make following him to see where he was going a crime, and there's no way to prove that he instigated a physical confrontation (which I find unlikely anyway, simply based on physical disparities) with Martin. a question for you as well: what purpose is served by having the mother of Dontre Hamilton, who beat a cop over the head with a baton before being shot, speak at the DNC?

There was a scuffle inside the car as he struggled with the officer for his gun and was shot in the hand. He then started to run off, and the officer ordered him to stop, with his gun drawn, at which point he turned around and charged the officer. This was the officer's story, and blood evidence at the scene corroborated it. The witness who originally stated that brown had his hands up saying don't shoot also changed his story when he realized that he was facing jail time for perjury when the evidence didn't match his lie. The DOJ wanted very badly to prosecute the officer, but were unable to do so because the evidence showed that he had done nothing wrong.

I worry some kid is gonna go in the wrong back yard trying to catch a Pokemon and end up catching a couple of hollowpoints instead.

Did a little research: Dontre Hamilton was killed after taking an officer's baton and hitting him over the head with it. Jordan Davis was murdered by a private citizen, who is serving life without parole. Hadiya Pendleton was murdered by gang members. Her mom should actually have a message that people need to hear.

I'm not familiar with every name on that list, but I see the mother of a man who was killed when he tried to take an officer's gun after committing a strong arm robbery, the mother of an overweight man who had a heart attack after resisting arrest, the mother of a woman who committed suicide in jail after assaulting a cop, and the mother of a young man who died under unexplained circumstances after being killed by a Hispanic civilian. I'm not really sure what purpose any of those folks are serving by speaking.

The Ferguson shooting was 100% justified. The fact that you still think it wasn't after evidence proved it was is not surprising. Just curious, what do you think should've happened to the officer after he shot the man who tried to take his gun and then charged at him again?

I think if he'd used his pedestal to encourage citizens to wait for the facts, and then defended the officer when they came out, instead of going along with the incident being a racial issue, and then had he addressed the situation when it was proven not to be, it would've gone a long way to settling things down. Instead it became a launching point for growing hatred and rage, much of which is misguided. I don't pretend to know what it's like to be black, and I certainly don't pretend that there aren't still situations where black men are profiled and hassled by cops because of their race, but I do know that treatment of African Americans by police is fairer than it's ever been, and continues to improve. I don't know that that will continue if cops continue to be ambushed and assassinated. More likely we're going to see more situations like in Baltimore, where crime skyrocketed because police are not out beating the pavement stopping crime, and only responding once crimes are committed. Ironically, the same people that blamed police in Baltimore for hassling young black men are now complaining because the lower police presence on the streets has led to an astronomical rise in crime.

And I work in inner city Beaumont, and while I'm comfortable there, I have been targeted and harassed there because I'm white. So I guess that works both ways.

Numbers are unreliable, but i saw a statement of 990 last year that was published in a BBC article today. That seems remarkably low to me, considering there are approximately 800,000 police officers in the US dealing with criminals on a daily basis, many armed with weapons and resisting arrest. I'd be curious what he says, but TVC has been a law enforcement officer for 30 years, and has never shot anybody. I'm willing to bet he's had dozens, if not hundreds of incidents where he could've done so legally. The vast majority of officers show tremendous restraint when it comes to use of deadly force, and some officers have been killed because of that.

He's honored criminals such as Michael Brown before the facts came out, turning them into heroes when in fact they were common criminals who were rightfully killed by police. This has lead to unjust anger, which has led to violence in some instances. There are still A LOT of people who think Mike Brown is a hero who was murdered for no reason, even though conclusive evidence has come out that the officer did nothing wrong, and that the killing was completely justified. Before that evidence came out, Obama spoke out on his behalf, spearheaded a biased government investigation into the issue, and even sent representatives to his funeral. Through his words and actions, he essentially blamed a white cop for the murder of an innocent black man. This helped fuel the flames, and ignited anger. When it came out that Mike Brown brought the killing onto himself, Obama never said another word about it, and many of the folks who he moved to use Brown as a rallying cry against police brutality never quit believing the original false narrative he put out there. That pattern has continued to repeat itself.

You edited that into a different post after I posted this, but I addresses that ridiculous comment as well.

The only effect statements like that are having is spreading lies that are inciting nut jobs into attacking innocent police officers.

There have been as many or more cops killed in these two ambush shootings than there have been black men unjustly murdered by police in the last two years. The fact that you read a statement saying that it happens daily, and "whole heartedly agree with it", is a perfect example of the biggest problem that law enforcement faces right now. You take statements like that at face value, despite the fact that statistics are readily available to dispute them. While no unjustified killing by police is acceptable, several hundred thousand police officers are under direct attack based on the actions of .001% of their ranks, and based on the skewed coverage of the actions of that .001%. Combine that with coverage of lawful actions by police that are portrayed falsely in the media as unlawful, and the appearance is that "roving gangs of insecure, undertrained, mentally weak, lying racist cops are murdering innocent people daily." Police make tens of millions of police contacts with African American males a year, many of which occur when responding to calls about violent crimes. Despite these tens of millions of interactions, only 258 African Americans were killed by police last year, the overwhelming majority of which were unquestionably justified. Sadly, the misinformation being given out by social media, as well as major media outlets, is causing hatred towards police officers, and a lack of respect and compliance. Ironically, that disrespect and lack of compliance means more and more people are failing to follow directives, and even attacking officers, leading to many of these police shootings.

Anyone who wants to call me racist on here hasn't paid attention to my posts over the years.

Yet a little over 40% of officers shot and killed in the line of duty are killed by black males. which falls in line with the fact that while black males make up only 6% of the population, they commit crimes at a disproportionately higher rate than the rest of the population (the reason behind this is worth discussion, but not on this thread). Common sense would dictate that if a certain sector commits violent crime at a disproportionate level to the rest of society, they will also have a disproportionate amount of violent encounters with police officers.

TVC can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's my understanding that, while Kevlar vests will stop most pistol rounds, it takes special armored plates to stop rifle rounds, typically worn by the swat team in special situations. Due to their weight, they're not worn by patrol officers, which would include the officers shot at the protest.