General News Thread

[Pendant]

- - - Updated - - -

New York continues to be handling this really really badly.

I thought Cuomo was epic and built for sex tho

[AsGryffynn]

I thought Cuomo was epic and built for sex tho

King Cuomo?

[asterism42]

[Twelveseal]

Yuuuuuup. He's been taking advantage of the protests to do otger shit.

It's particularly notable that this means companies won't be liable for the deaths of native wildlife, particularly birds, that happen to blunder into their toxic waste and other... things, anymore.

Bad week for the environment, what with Russia's massive oil spill on top of this.

[rxrx]

Everything is blowing up I guess.

[Altima of the Gates]

Unfortunately, he was looking to do this for awhile during the first two months where lockdowns, among getting rid of regulations that keep companies liable for awful worker practices on the premise of "not punishing suffering companies".
Just him and his buddies using chaos to do what they please. Pushing real hard for the payroll tax cuts is also another measure for low key getting Social Security and Medicare, plus just propaganda bit after propaganda bit. Thankfully no more roundtables of CEOs fellating Trump live on national television...yet, just his Press Secretary pulling up a notebook of damage control for twenty minutes each day.

Now currently he is trying to use the messaging of 'curb police funding' because some people are seemingly asking for abolishing police altogether. I would hope people don't fall for it and see that the real message for curbing police budgets is to allocate proper training and less usage of military acquisitions, I would rather an entire movement not be blamed because the messaging was just a tad rocky.
Things would not be so bad if someone actually smacked Donnie's hand away from the cookie jar.

[Pendant]

What if you are advocating for abolishing police altogether tho

[mAc Chaos]

minneapolis is going to abolish

[Twelveseal]

We'll have to see if that gets overridden. In the meantime, while we're bracing for a boom in Covid cases due to the various protests, we can also look forward to a looming outbreak among Conservatives and their families because Trump is determined to hold rallies in the middle of a plague.

Are we even going to have enough Darwin Awards?

Also, relevant to the policing debate, seems like someone tried abolishing the popo years ago.

I haven't read it yet, but abolishing the police feels like it would open the door for private policing among the rich and no protections for the common man.

[Laserman]

We'll have to see if that gets overridden. In the meantime, while we're bracing for a boom in Covid cases due to the various protests, we can also look forward to a looming outbreak among Conservatives and their families because Trump is determined to hold rallies in the middle of a plague.

First, the stupid protestors and now this, god.

[Twelveseal]

It's like watching a trainwreck. At least the BLM protesters were usually outdoors and masked. This, on the other hand...

Conservatives come from far and wide to see him, packed into stadiums and auditoriums like sardines by the thousands. They chant, shout, and praise him like a living god, and see masks and gloves as signs of the "enemy."

[SpoonyViking]

Reminder that Covid takes something like 2 weeks for its symptoms to appear, so the new outbreak will be mostly due to Las Vegas and other cities reopening early (not to mention Memorial Day gatherings, and so on and so forth).

I haven't read it yet, but abolishing the police feels like it would open the door for private policing among the rich and no protections for the common man.

Is that really any different from the current situation? But no, the idea isn't to replace one tool of oppression with another, it's to completely subvert the system. Of course, that's much easier said than done.

- - - Updated - - -

First, the stupid protestors

Indeed! Next time, we should ask the police to only murder people when it's less inconvenient for everyone else.

[Twelveseal]

It is, somewhat. But more to the point, I don't think you're going to find many people who think a total lack of sanctioned law-enforcement is a good idea. Except maybe those with enough wealth, power, or influence to be able to field private armies or cults. It ends up looking like 90's Somalia before turning into Gilead. The rule of law becomes moot without force to back it.

[LegalLoliLover]

Indeed! Next time, we should ask the police to only murder people when it's less inconvenient for everyone else.

See. One of those is contagious and is part of a foreign ploy. Also, abolishing the police: Isn't that just admitting to wanting anarchy?

[Twelveseal]

For a short break in American bs, it seems Burundi's President has died of a heart attack.

[SpoonyViking]

Guys. There's a vast gulf between "the State has a monopoly on violence" and "absolute lawlessness". This really shouldn't need to be said.

[RoydGolden]

Guys. There's a vast gulf between "the State has a monopoly on violence" and "absolute lawlessness". This really shouldn't need to be said.

Past a certain point though, how do you enforce laws except with at least the implicit threat of using force against those who refuse to comply with them? I sympathize with the police abolitionist cause (certainly in many communities the police are actively a net-harm) but it just seems naïve to say that all violent crime can be cured by compassionate social policies, which is the only way I can see the "world without cops" idea spelling out in practice. So yeah, I would actually say that the state needs to have a monopoly on violence to assert any kind of law, even if ideally that violence should be used as rarely as possible.

[Twelveseal]

@Spoony: So what's your suggestion as a model that would fit the US's needs?

[Toulou]

I can´t speak to much about how to replace the police because I am not well read in the subject, but one option its to vote every official for a district in their town hall. You can´t get rid of the possibility of a bad apple getting in, but you can easily vote them out if its needed.

Twelveseal already linked an article that talked about a city that changed how they do policing, if you want to look for another example you can read this.

[Mattias]

I'm pretty sure US sheriffs are elected by the public. Just no-one really runs those elections so they often end up unopposed.