Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread

[Mrs Figg]

yep the old boys Eton network stinks alright. I hope there is a truly independent enquiry. and somebody squeals.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Yup and the whole thing is a stich up from the word go. The future governments of our country can be foreseen by simple looking at who is top in business, history, and the debating societies of the top two universities.
Our current shambles are prime examples, Cameron and Boris have been battling among themselves since their uni days for which woud be PM first. But that one of them would inevitably be was never in question, the paths to top political positions were already prepared for them. It was just a matter of seeing who wanted it more, or which would be destroyed by scandal first. And Gove (who if memory serves was dealing the cocaine in the group) and the rest of them were all there too.
And as for Labour, the one time party of the working class, its lead by a multi-millionare who graduated from Oxford. Its no less a stich up.
Just a big game for the toffs to play.}}

[Mrs Figg]

Starmer is in a different league, he came from humble beginnings and has been a human rights lawyer. I cant imagine him doing an Osborne or a Sunak. Actually I think Starmer lacks the essential killer instinct that Blair had, as Starmer was a defence lawyer not a prosecutor. Blair needed that instinct to destroy the Tories but it backfired as he started to believe he was omnipotent. Starmer is too 'nice' and gentlemanly, he needs to start to get his teeth stuck in, play dirty and stop letting the Tories get away with murder or he will be ousted.

But the absolute hypocrisy of Johnson having the brass-neck to order an enquiry about corruption and chumocracy is quite mind blowing. y'know considering him and his chums Handcock and Dido.

[Mrs Figg]

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Tory scum wagon just keeps on rolling- }}

'Health Secretary Matt Hancock owns shares in a company which was approved as a potential supplier for NHS trusts in England...Public contract records show that the NHS in England awarded the company a place in its Shared Business Services framework as a potential supplier for local trusts in 2019, the year after Mr Hancock became health secretary.
The MPs' register did not mention that his sister Emily Gilruth - involved in the firm since its foundation in 2002 - owns a larger portion of the shares and is a director, or that Topwood has links to the NHS.
The firm, which specialises in the secure storage, shredding and scanning of documents, also won £300,000 of business from NHS Wales this year.- BBC

[Mrs Figg]

slimy little fucker isn't he.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ So Chauvin was found guilty, quite rightly on the evidence, but still suprisingly given the past track record in the US of convicting police of offences.

Mind you watching the coverage on Fox news, and they keep going on about how it demonstrates how great the US justice system is and how only in America does someone even as hated as Chauvin get a fair trial and representation and held to account by a jury of their peers.
Do Americans actually believe they are only people with such a system? Or that they were even the first to do so?
The Trial by Jury system was made the norm in the UK in 829AD, the first trial by jury on US soil wasnt until 1603 and you were all still British colonists then, using our system of justice.
Americas myth making about itself never fails to amaze me. }}

[halfwise]

Well, you had to watch Fox, didn't you?

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ For some odd reason its the only US news network I can stream live. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Whilst the jury were deliberating their decison this happened in Ohio-

'An officer-involved shooting in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday afternoon left 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant dead...Hazel Bryant, who identified herself as the victim's aunt, said that her teenage niece picked up a knife to defend herself during a fight with other people in the neighborhood.
"Police rolled up, shot my niece four times."
Another Columbus police officer is facing a murder charge for a fatal shooting. Officer Adam Coy shot Andre Hill on Dec. 22 as Hill was emerging from a garage holding up a cell phone, officials previously said."

For me a huge problem in the US is the terrible quality of policing. Far to ready to use deadly force from the off, seem to have a tendency to aggravate any situation rather than to deesculate it.
Our police deal with knife thugs all the time, they dont shoot them dead, especially not 16 year old girls. There is no world in which that is the sane option to enforce the law.
Training for police should be far longer, it ideally should require a degree level of education and you shouldnt get a gun for several years after joining and you should first have intensive training in its use, and more emphasis, much more, needs to be put on nonlethal methods such as a tazer (more than adequate enough for a 16 year old girl with a knife) and how to deesculate a situation.
American police seem to go into a situation looking for a fight. Its madness. }}

[halfwise]

To be fair, American police are more likely to be sent into the middle of fights. But when you have veteran policewoman who can't tell the difference between a pistol and a taser then you know something is very off.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Almost every vid I see of american police in action they go in aggressive from the off. Often drawing weapons immediately, being confrontational and challenging, or outright sounding like they are the thugs.
The vid of the black sergeant being worngly pulle dover for a traffic offence is for me a classic example of all the American attitude to policing Ive seen.



Their entire attitude and approach is utterly wrong and can only ever make things worse. How a police officers gets through trainnig and comes out the other end with this idea of law enforcement baffles me, and speaks volumes to the issues at the heart of US policing.
By comparison heres UK police dealing with a mentaly unstable person weilding a machette-}}

[Mrs Figg]

To be fair if somebody was wielding a machete I would like a tazer

[Lancebloke]

I think this is where the idea of defending the police comes from. If the police are basically a military force then they don't have to think about other tactics to deal with a threat, they have more guns and bigger guns.

If you don't have that then you have to think of other things, like how to de-escalate a situation.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ The Tory dodgy deals for mates saga rolls and rumbles on.

Boris Johnson said he made "no apology for moving heaven and earth" to get ventilators during the pandemic, amid a row over lobbying by Sir James Dyson.
In text messages seen by the BBC, the prime minister promised to "fix" tax changes the entrepreneur wanted.

For once Starmer was spot on at PMQ's when he said "one rule for those who have the prime minister's phone number and another for everybody else. Every day there are new allegations about this Conservative government: dodgy PPE deals; tax breaks for their mates; the health secretary owns shares in a company delivering NHS services." }}

[Mrs Figg]

Dyson is a rabid Brexiteer but relocated his factory to Singapore. nice.

[Lancebloke]

On the police shooting people in the U.S. stuff, I have been doing a bit of my own research on the subject and it is clear that there are 2 things going on:

1 - There is undoubted over use of force by police on many occasions,
2 - There is very much a media narrative that is stoking the fire when they know that incidents they report are actually not a problem with police brutality. 

The term "justified killing" isn't a great one but there are examples where the media are using situations where the police shooting a black person would be considered justified but without all of the detail... in fact going as far as to portray it as another example of brutality. 

I would really encourage people to try and do their own research on a subject if they find it particularly distressing/offensive or whatever because the media, particularly the US media, are doing their best to push a narrative at the moment.

While there definitely IS a problem, this kind of clickbait reporting does not at all help get to the bottom of it. In fact I think itnturns a lot of people who do look at the detail off of supporting fix the real issues.

[Mrs Figg]

Just being a bit provocative here, but what about all the white guys these cops are shooting? ( I do dislike whataboutism generally but its the other side of the coin) I have a feeling in a lot of instances these cops are just seeing 'bad guys' and not the colour of the person. The cops feel threatened, the cops shoot, and in a few instances they shoot first because they are allowed to. its tragic when innocent people are shot, but if these guys have a rap sheet and are known to the police they may shoot thinking the other person has a gun. This is why having guns is crazy, innocent people get caught up in it no matter what colour they are. There are no doubt trigger happy nasty racist cops as well who need weeding out because sitting on someone's neck is murder.

[halfwise]

The statistics are different. It's probably a mix of two things: there is some racism, but many populations are also less likely to back down from a fight. And if you don't back down from a fight with police you WILL get shot.

[Mrs Figg]

I would DEFINITLY back down if someone had a gun pointed at me. This is not time to be macho. I would drop to the ground and play dead, just let them cuff me in silence. its not worth it.

[azriel]

Im very good at laying down, its a full time hobby, that, & sitting down.

[Mrs Figg]

[Lancebloke]

I would DEFINITLY back down if someone had a gun pointed at me. This is not time to be macho. I would drop to the ground and play dead, just let them cuff me in silence. its not worth it.

And that is how an authoritarian regime stays in power, regardless of what they do.

[halfwise]

Blacks in America pretty much have an attitude of they will not be cowed.

[Mrs Figg]

oh dear it looks like Mickey from Dr Who is a perv. Got to wonder why he got a gong with BAFTA knowing this.