Ferguson / Staten Island Decisions -- No Indictments

Who are you quoting on "crisis"? Did somebody say crisis?

We have a specific problem with police that can specifically be improved upon with body cameras.

We have a vague, general problems with schools that cameras don't appear to do anything to address.

So again, this is just another "look over here!" tactic.

 

Eric Holder has announced that the Justice Department will be investigating the Staten Island death.

OK. So, who is investigating the incredible streak of 150+ justified shootings that the FBI is in the midst of, dating back to 1993?

That's some streak. Are FBI agents going to wear body cameras?

 

Sounds like a good idea.

 

I'm intrigued by the shooting of Tsarnov's friend in Florida. Would love to see how that went down.

 

I was thinking specifically of the NYC Mayor when I used the term crisis:

"We're not just dealing with a problem in 2014, we're not dealing with years of racism leading up to it, or decades of racism we are dealing with centuries of racism that have brought us to this day. That is how profound the crisis is."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/eric-garner-bill-de-blasio_n_6264368.html?utm_hp_ref=new-york&ir=New+York


He seems to think the "crisis" involves racism, though I don't see any indication that what happened between the NYPD and Eric Garner had anything to do with racism.

I think you are also assuming that body cameras will specifically improve a specific problem. What's the evidence? Where's the study?

If Eric Gardner's death, which was recorded on camera didn't result in charges, why do we think body cameras, which will require the cop to turn on will change anything?

 

Can't you say the same thing about cameras in classrooms improving education? Cameras aren't going to improve squat at schools that suck.

 

Sure. But, what teacher would oppose them?

That's MC's logic with cops. Why does it only apply to cops?

 

The centuries-old "crisis" is racism, not the symptom of it that comes out in police use of excessive force. Body-cameras aren't there to fix racism.

You've basically more or less admitted that you're using a giant slippery-slope fallacy with the cameras in school things. It's a distraction, a ploy, not a serious argument. Par for the course.

 

I can only comment about my wife's old school, so take it for what it's worth. The school district built a new school complete with all the technological bells and whistles, including cameras (four) in each classroom. The new school combined three failing schools into one.

Four years later, it's one failing school instead of three. Test scores haven't gone up. Behavioral problems have not gone down. Parental involvement is still null and void. This despite having two (or three, I can't remember) rooms set up for parents to come and monitor their kids' classroom.

My wife have since left the school. She's much happier now, and that failing school continues to drag up the rear in our area. I believe it's on the verge of being taken over by the state, which is a shame because it's easily the best elementary school I've ever visited. The design and layout of the school, along with all the technological advancements, was something I'd never seen before.

 

In 2013, NYPD cops made 227 misdemeanor arrests. You know, arrests for more minor crimes, like selling loosies. (They made another 318,000 felony arrests.)

http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/arrests/NewYorkCity.pdf

How many of these arrests went down in a way that even approached what happened in the arrest of Eric Garner?

Garner wanted them to just go away, and leave him alone. That wasn't going to happen.

He was selling loosies in front of a store that legally sold cigarettes: http://bit.ly/1FVhPnM

The problem was not the arrest. It was how the cop took him down.

I don't see how that's racial or indicative of some bigger problem.

Eric Garner should not have died that night, but he was not singled out for living while black.

 

Not at all.

I can argue either side of the argument. There's as much evidence to support the idea that body cameras will improve policing and police/community relations as there is to support the idea that cameras in classroom will improve education.

 

So, fried chicken, a melon, and a 40 are placed in the street ahead of a protest march, and no one took a picture of this display?

The author doesn't seem to have seen it, and attributes its existence only to "activists".

I call bullshit.