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Is it your policy...to routinely refuse to post comments that you don't agree with? It's your blog and I respect your right to do so, but I want to be clear on the point so I don't waste further time writing comments that never see the light of day.
Two days ago I left a comment on the video showing a cop versus an ex-boxer. From the tone of your remarks to others, I'm fairly sure you have the knee-jerk reaction most people do of supporting the police at all times - no matter what.
Without obscenity or any sort of personal attacks I wrote a very contrarian comment centered on the point that the police officer was man-handling the suspect initially for nothing other than speeding.
Hence my question: Do you routinely just dump comments from those you don't agree with?
Hi,
Short answer is no, I dont. My blog if full of comments that disagree with what I say. Right now for example, I'll be reposting and commenting on a comment regarding the Euro not being a good idea since this reader believes it will go down with the dollar. I believe that the Euro will go up as the dollar goes down, so his opinion is the exact opposite of mine yet I think we can all learn from the different views and opinons.
I want to make this clear; as long as its respectfully written and intended on making a point rather than insulting or with an agenda that has nothing to do with the topic, I post every comment. Comments on politics explaining why capitalism is the work of the devil and communism/socialist is an utopia, or religious ramblings on why we’re all going to fry in hell, I wont post those either, and I do get them form time to time.
Of course, spam with advertising links gets caught by the spam filtering program, and I dont post insults or ramblings either. You'd be surprised, but sometimes people clearly write under the influence of drugs, alcohol, maybe they are mentally disturbed but the comments make no sense whatsoever. Those I reject so as to not disturb the subscribers with trash.
When cops posts come up there's often cop bashing. I've written and experienced cop corruption in ways you can't imagine, yet I believe cops are indeed the thin blue line between thugs and the good guys, specially those that can’t defend themselves. Cops in USA are nothing like the ones we have here. They don’t demand you money every single time they stop you like it happens here. Police officers in USA,(there's always exceptions of course, but in general) are people doing their best to do their job right. Its not exactly an easy job or a very well paid one. They often put their lives in risk do they deserve a minimum amount of respect for what they do with their lives. Yes, even if there are minimum amount of corrupt cops, the good ones sure deserve that.
One of the cop comments I erased, maybe it was yours, said that cops are worse than ordinary gangs members. Cops worse than gang bangers? If I were a cop, I would feel very insulted by this, rightfully so. There another police shooting video that I will post soon. The police officer simply gets shot to death because he can't bring himself to shoot the man he believes to be mentally disturbed. That man left a daughter and pregnant wife. Same thing when people insult those that serve in the military, I simply dont post those either. I know good people, some I consider friends, that serve in the military and they wont read any of that bashing in my blog, same goes for police officers.
If your comment was the one saying cops are worse than gang members, then that’s my explanation. I think you’re the one with a knee jerk reaction, mostly because you assumed the worse. The boxer you see being man-handled is a prize fighter (different from boxer mind you) and he’s mentally disturbed and had not been taking his medications. I assume the attitude and verbal exchange between the two, combined with reckless driving (how would you feel if that guy runs over your kid while driving his bike?) was enough for the police officer to consider him a threat and try to handcuff him as quick as possible.
Final note regarding videos. I post them to analize the outcome of a real world encounter. If in doubt about wasting your time or not writing a comment, ask yourlsef if you're questioning the role of the police officer or studying the confrontation objectively as a self defense situaiton to learn from.
Hope that explains the policy I use for comments, and that you understand what others (cops and military that read this blog ) may feel about them. Their usually not the sensitive type that will write complaning about feeling insulted, but they will get the respect they deserve in my blog.
Regards,
FerFAL
15 comments:
FerFal, I love your blog, but have to disagree with you about the cop job.
Cops make considerably more money than the average American. They are represented by a public union, that bribes politicians to increase salary and benefits. Politicians love this, as they get tons of cash and votes from the union and they pay the union members with someone else's money.
You general cop salary is over $100k a year, plus golden health care coverage, dental, eye and every other insurance you can think of. Then to top this off, the majority of cops can retire after 20-25 years with 90% of their salary in pension (which they contribute between nothing and 3%)and full benefits. Plus, when they die, their spouse continues to collect. So when you work it out, with benefits we are spending about $150k per year per officer and you get 20 years of work and pay them for 50 years.
The only cops not paid handsomely are the junior ones. These are also the first ones fired. So when a city cuts back $150k in salaries they don't fire one senior officer, they fire four junior officers and the citizens get the least amount of benefit for the most money possible.
Bottom line, cops in the US are done for. It's not about what we think is right or wrong, quite simply put we don't have the money to continue paying them these stupid salaries. Cities and states are bankrupt. And along with the cops will go the teachers and firemen. All are represented by public unions who have worked hand in hand with politicians to steal every penny they could from the hard working American citizens.
Furthermore, the majority of Americans are now getting this. Anti public union sentiment is enormous and growing. We watch our loved ones and neighbors lose jobs while union workers get a raise.
Cops have now become first and foremost tax collectors. All you see everywhere you go is cops with cars pulled over. Working to get revenues for their broke city. Giving out $300 tickets for driving 10 miles over the speed limit. That's a great way to get the population behind you!
The number of American citizens who no longer trust or like the cops is large and growing. Then we can add on to this hatred the famous ticket or arrest for "Lack of Respect of a Cop." If you don't do what a cop tells you, or show him proper respect, you are going down, regardless of whether he is in the right or not. Try video taping a cop pulling someone over and see how long you can do that for. At least in Argentina they are only looking for a bribe, here they are looking to have you submit to them.
I dont find anything wrong with a widow of a dead police officer receiving full payment. If its such a fantastic job I understand people are free to go to the police academy if they so wish to. I do not envy their job.
One of the problems here in Argentina is that cops are NOT paid well, so I dont see that either as a disadvantage. Its a high risk job and should be well paid like any other high risk job.
Is it too high considering current times? People can change that with thier votes, calling your representatives.
I just rejected another cop basihng comment, sometihng I've clearly stated I will not allow here.
About Anon posts (wish people would sgin with some sort of name) I can only tell you that a cop should be paid accordingly to the type of job they do, which isn't exaclty a walk in the park. Busting your back in construction work is no picking either, but that's the beauty of people being free and choosing what they do with their lives.
FerFAL
Anonymous,
Where do you get your information from? Cops in Major Meto areas may make that kind of money, the senior ones, but bear in mind they have a job where they can expect to be shot at, spit at, stabbed etc.
"Cops in the US are done for?" I don't know about that. In the main, I think people still respect them.
And yeah, if you don't do what a cop tells you, you ARE going down. It's called resisting arrest.
The average US Cop salary is $53,000. The $100,000 number is true for a number of officers in New Jersey, but is not a "normal" number, and is pretty close for major city police like Los Angeles or New York.
Respectfully, I too must disagree with your assessment of current police and law enforcement practices in the USA.
Local police forces are coordinating their operations more and more closely with federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, CIA, DHS, BATFE, by means of regional “fusion” centers and shared data bases. They now have access to almost unlimited funding from a central government able to create as much money as it wants - at least for now. The police deploy high-tech military-grade combat weaponry, armored vehicles, and surveillance capabilities far superior to what the most feral of gangs possess. Police are loyal first to their own kind and second to the ruling class which funds them. They see themselves as exempt from the laws that govern the rest of us, and in fact they are, because politicians, prosecutors, and judges almost always and universally back them up. Their assaults, whether mistaken or intentional, on innocent people are now so frequent nationwide as to be nearly impossible to track, and, rarely and only in the most blatantly obvious cases, are they held accountable, let alone charged and tried, for the crimes they have committed. Good officers are now a minority and will typically close ranks with errant colleagues whenever misconduct is being “investigated.”
This is not mindless cop bashing, but a painful acknowledgment of a growing reality.
I do not wish to demean the individual officer in the video you posted or to defend the driver. Neither would I ever suggest that it is advisable to resist arrest, even when unlawful or brutal. However, a serious discussion of survival and freedom in the USA cannot even begin without addressing these issues. At the very least we must temporarily suspend our natural propensity, and cultural indoctrination, to assume without question that modern law enforcement officers are the benevolent public servants they they may have once been. .
Thank you your blog.
Jason Black
You should at least consider the words in this article written by a former military person, I hope you will read this:
Contempt of State – An Indispensable Virtue
"One of the most powerful things you can do as an American patriot is to laugh at and ridicule our presumptuous and lawless government.
When we contemptuously laugh at our government, it not only enrages the bureaucrats and state apologists, it unifies us as free and peaceful people.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski252.html
Jason Black, what would you prefer? A poorly trained and armed police? With less fire than "gangs"? Would that be a good police then. No, its not.
We have underpaid, poorly equipped and poorly trained, inneficinet police. Trust me you dont want that.
FerFAL
Next time you find yourself in trouble, don't call 911 for help. Call an anarchist instead.
Ferfal, great blog by the way but like some others i've got to disagree with you on this one.
You make out like it's an either or deal, US cops or Argentinian. It looks to me that both ends of the spectrum are detrimental to society and just because someone is willing to pick out inadequacies doesn't mean they are bashing the good police. Everyone wants good police and the only reason most people complain is because good policing isn't reflected in their own experiences.
I live in the UK and can say that most of the policing here is based on fulfilling quotas and has very little to do with improving society. Many good police have actually left the force and later complained that almost everything was focused on meeting targets and handing out fines.
Obviously I don't know what it's like first hand in the USA but from what I hear from people who do is that many of the police abuse their authority and don't treat the public with the respect they deserve.
I think you should be more open to other peoples first hand experiences and viewpoints. Obviously I would listen to your opinion regarding Argentinian life over my own having not experienced it and I don't see why you shouldn't do the same in regard to US policing.
I know that FerFAL has allowed several of my posts that I thought he would reject.
There is an issue in the USA with police officers thinking that anything they do or say is legal and that any disagreement is therefore illegal. An unbelievable number of cops in my area have a terrible God complex. The best example of this that I can think of is just down the road in Shreveport, LA when a police officer pulled somebody over for having a pro-gun sticker (and said that was the reason), searched the vehicle and found a weapon, and arrested the man. All of this despite it being perfectly legal to own/carry a firearm (especially as in Louisiana your vehicle is considered an extension of your home).
With that said, I'd much rather have our cops than, say, the South African police who told me that my suitcase was too large and I owed them a $10 fine for my "infraction."
And to respond to Anon who said teachers are making rocking money...I disagree. For a masters/doctorate degree I can start out at 35K a year and max out at around 50K (if I teach 20+ years). I do think 50K is an awful lot for a teacher, but my paycheck is by no means an incredible drain on the State's coffers.
Fernando, the "cop bashing" you see is a symptom of a much larger problem, namely the explosion of victimless crimes which have been both a windfall and a bane for "the police."
The drug war is #1. It has eviscerated the 4th amendment (the right to be free from unreasonable searches) and led to extremely dangerous no-knock raids, the kind of thing that didn't even occur during Prohibition. As noted earlier, it has resulted in militarization of the police and is the single biggest explanation for gang expansion in the USA for decades.
The drug war is an utter failure (people who want to get stoned will get stoned, even the current POTUS admitted in his autobiography that he smoked weed and snorted coke yet there he is, with a Harvard Law degree sitting in the Oval Office). Despite this, the profits draw in criminals, and the criminals get bolder, and the cops think they need to get tougher, etc., etc.
It is a vicious circle STARTED with the illegality of intoxicating drugs (except alcohol, which is one that makes people violent).
The "cop bashing" then comes from publicized incidents where the worst-of-the-worst (Prince Georges Co., Denver, Detroit, etc.) cops, sometimes playing to the cameras (literally, if COPS is filming them), act out their fantasies. These may not be the norm, but they understandably scare the hell out of Americans who prefer to think of cops as "the good guys."
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2010/08/showtime-syndrome-strikes-las-vegas.html
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2010/05/death-of-aiyana-jones-showtime-syndrome.html
People die every day from all sorts of stupid reasons. As you can see, however, it is not irrational to harbor misgivings about the military style, submit-or-die trend of policing in the USA.
I listen to everyone Tim, but I'm no stranger to USA either and every single police officer I came across during the many times I went (and lived there) over the years was nothing but friendly and helpful, (yes, even if I do have a Spanish accent when I speak sometimes)
Of course the uniform doesn't make the person. People can be good or bad no matter what uniform they wear but just like paramedics, or firemen, in my opinion they deserve that respect. Like somoene else posted, dont call 911 next time you need help. Call an anarchist and see how that works out, if he will run into a burning building to save you or get into a gunfight to protect you.
FerFAL
The purpose of the video was to evaluate a situation that turned volatile and someone had to fight for his life. This video answered questions that we have debated at length on forums. Is pepper spray effective at stopping an enraged attacker? Is a 9mm or 40 SW a death ray? Do people miss at point blank range under pressure? Is a gut shot sufficient to stop a threat? Is it wise to carry a backup gun? Is clearing a mal-function under pressure a simple thing?
The video shed light on all these questions and it showed how even a trained professional can get into really deep water very quickly.
Whether the cop man handled the suspect is irrelevant and it does not change the nature of the situation and the lessons we can learn from it.
For all the libertarian / border line anarchist, Lew Rockwell worshipers, get a grip. This is a priceless moment captured on camera to learn and discuss strategy and tactics. If you have nothing relevant to say about the strategy and tactics of this situation, do everyone a favor and clear the channels of noise.
Gallo@gta forum
It's Giuliani Time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima
ok guys, I'm closing this one. Everyone had their saying.
Please, next time I post about a cop shooting, lets analize the armed confrontation alone , ok?
Ferfal
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