Violence in Baltimore

[Florida173]

It has nothing to do with the money. It has to do with opportunity.

lol.. right... like it had nothing to do with the trashcan.. my point stands.. it's not the only opportunity. Pretending the other students will never have an opportunity is nothing but self-victimization.

 

[TLDR20]

I think that it is hard for people in America to talk about racism, and things like privelege because they talk from a position of their personal experience. "Well there can't be racism because I'm bit racist", "privelege? I have had to work for everything I've gotten..." But that isn't the point. On average the system has racist tendencies. On average a tall white handsome male is more likely to succeed in life not based on merit. That is what I am talking about, those are systemic issues.

@Ranger Psych did you read the above? You basically did exactly what I said in your posts.

 

[Ranger Psych]

What's hard to talk about?
I'll tell you what's hard to talk about:


"The Fourth Estate has contacted sources who allege that Freddy Gray received spinal and neck surgery a week before we was arrested, and was allegedly receiving a large structured settlement from Allstate Insurance. The surgery is allegedly related to a car accident in which Gray was involved.

Sources allege that Gray also attempted to refinance his structured settlement into one lump sum payment through Peachtree Funding.

If this is true, then it is possible that Gray’s spinal injury resulting from his encounter with the Baltimore Police was not the result of rough-handling or abuse, but rather a freak accident that occurred when Gray should have been at home resting, not selling drugs.

The structured settlement from Allstate and Gray’s attempt to convert it into one lump sum payment has been confirmed by Howard County Circuit Court Records."

liveleak dot com/view?i=b62_1430261133 since the forum wants to make the sole photograph a media link instead of linking to the article.

 

[CDG]

Here we go again..... Nearly every time something like this happens, the "poor victim" is anything but. Yet there is a perpetual conversation of systemic racism, despite a lack of hard evidence. It's circumstantial, anecdotal, 2nd/3rd/4th/whatever hand stories, etc. And god help you if you're white and attempt to weigh in on the conversation on the opposite side of the "victim". Well that's ipso facto proof of racism right there! Explain how it's any different to automatically dismiss any argument from a Caucasian person based solely on the fact they're Caucasian and therefore can't understand how much the Man is oppressing everyone. You know what doesn't help get your paper any closer to inside the can? Standing on the corner selling drugs. Repeatedly.

 

[Board and Seize]

[Trigger Warning]Possible micro/macro-aggression ahead[/sarcasm]
Baltimore: Welcome to the New America

I'm a bit late to this party, but I'm going to wade right in. Those who adhere to the new orthodoxy espoused by the social 'sciences' aren't going to like what I have to say. And we have a few here on the board. But I think I can expect more intellectually conversation here, than where I am sitting right now. In fact, let's start there before circling around to southern Africa...

I am reaching the end of my second year as an undergraduate at a small, northeastern, elite liberal arts college. A real bastion of the new emerging orthodoxy (I'll get to that in a bit). One of my major fears coming here (to the point of nightmares) was that I would, in a moment of indiscretion, revert back to the modes of speech I developed as an enlisted recondo and be branded (perhaps even prosecuted) as a hate criminal. Not because I am particularly hateful (I don't think I am), but because of the casual way we used to play with racist slurs. Na'meen? I'm pretty much over that fear now that I've adjusted to 'polite' society and speech. I had a phenomenal class that dealt specifically with race, identity, privilege, and racism. It opened my eyes to many things, and really got me thinking deeply about the issues we now see daily in the news.

On to the Orthodoxy!

I want to relate two different experiences I've had here as a way to illustrate what I mean by a new orthodoxy:

1. Vignette #1, or Share the Love: we have a student organization here that showcases student art in a 'coffee-house' environment. It's primarily spoken word and music. As one of the few available alternatives to our sloppy greek/alcohol/idiotic-behavior scene it usually gets a decent turn out. It also tends to coalesce our, let's say 'alternative' crowd: racial minorities, LGBTQ, etc. The white/frat/straight/etc. population at my school is hegemonic, so all the various 'others' tend to coalesce together and show up. The stated purpose of this group is to provide a safe space (I wish we could unload that phrase) for students to share before a group. Okay so far, all good.
   
   Being friends with the founder and several participants, and as a student sound engineer, I've been to a number of these events. It's a cozy, loving environment. People sit where they can, snapping their earnest support as the performers spew some of the most vitriolic and hateful speech I've ever heard in my life. Most of this hate is explicitly anti-white, anti-straight, and anti-man. I mean, the filth that comes out of these kids' mouths is shocking - and that's coming from a Marine grunt!
   
   
   
2. Vignette #2, or Keep Your Identity out of your Politics!: Earlier this school year we had the largest protest in school history (I think). It started as a black protest against institutional racism, and quickly morphed into catch-all identity politicking. While the movement successfully kickstarted thought and conversation on campus, it was inherently hypocritical (like all contemporary identity politics). They espoused the goals of openess, inclusivity, and tolerance.
   
   They were an underground group that met and planned the protest in secret. They hid their identities and sought to obfuscate their connections to faculty in the education and social 'science' departments. Their core group was composed exclusively of minorities, or 'people of color'. They actively alienated anyone not fully in their camp and tried to paint the issues as binary, black/white, with-us-or-against-us, terms. Their demands included a raft of totalitarian policies that are actively intolerant of anything not 100% in line with their agenda. Again, I am (and already was) friends with a couple of core members of the group. They are decent people, who are genuinely trying to make things better. But they have been deceived.
   
   I wrote a response to the movement which I presented to some groups and circulated around. It generally got a good response, but sometimes it did not. Those times, the people I interacted with were experiencing an emotional reaction. If you ever want to win a debate that you are on the weaker side of, piss off your opponent. Similar to hypoxia symptoms (HAPS), when fight-or-flight kicks in, you lose the ability to produce new rational thought. Watch your opponent say the same thing over and over even when it makes no sense. (I've had this done to me several times by a scary smart Brother - it isn't fun to have it explained immediately afterwards...) This is the same reaction I often came up against when we changed decades-old TTPs at the III SOTG DA/CQT course. Try explaining to a guy who has invested his sense of worth and identity into his job performance that the old combat glide he spent so many hours mastering is a terrible, stupid, and ineffective technique. The rational brain shuts down as he perceives your 'attack' on the technique as an existential threat to his identity. Same story here. Thus, keep your identity out of your politics - if you can't maintain separation between yourself and the things you support, you can't engage in meaningful, critical, and intellectually honest discussion about them.

Etymology - orthodoxy comes from the Greek and literally means right or true belief. As in, this is the only correct way to think about something. Being in the military we've all encountered orthodoxy many times. I hope that we've all recognized the stifling effects on free thought that it has. Bureaucratic inertia, "If it was good enough for Chesty.... bla bla bla", "This is how we did it, back in the day", "Don't ask why! - just do it!". Man, if we could stomp out orthodoxy - imagine the whole DoD being as lean, agile, and innovative as SOF. Imagine shit that didn't float to the top. While orthodoxy is a useful tool for cohesion, group identity, etc. it is, in my opinion, the root of much evil.

So what is the new orthodoxy? You know exactly what it is. "Social Justice Warriors", identity politics, political correctness, tearing down of anything smacking of Western Tradition or Christianity, breaking up the atomic family, and so on. I have two major problems with this:

1. Any orthodoxy is inimical to freedom, innovation, and change. The problem with the new orthodoxy is that it is an orthodoxy.
2. The entire* ecosystem of movements pushing this agenda is inherently hypocritical. They espouse a set of values, and then seek to enforce them using means that are the opposite. Openess through secrecy and conspiracy. Inclusivity through exclusivity. Tolerance through absolute intolerance.

As for the goals, I broadly agree with a lot of them.
*This is painting with a really broad brush, I know. Generally though, I stand by this claim.

Southern Africa

I'm going to try and wrap this up - it's getting too long and taking too much time to write. Simply put, for those that subscribe to the new orthodoxy (in whole or in part), do you know the history of these ideas? They aren't new, nor original to the US. Most of this dogma was developed in southern Africa, linked closely with and often spurred by COMINTERN agents. Check out Steve Biko and Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela and the ANC were not the family-friendly folks they are presented as nowadays.

The New America
Also trying to keep it short. I believe that the rioting and general assholery we are seeing in Balitimore is a near-direct result of the new orthodoxy. The celebration of victim-hood, coupled with equivocated concepts of racism (individual or structural bias) and an outrageous sense of entitlement are all core to the new orthodoxy. You reap what you sow. Social 'science', you've largely won the culture. Baltimore is your reward. Thanks a lot.


(If I get more time later, I might come back to this and flesh out some stuff I kind of glossed over - I'm out of time!)
edit: I didn't even get into my whole rant on the pervasiveness of Orweillian Newspeak/Doublespeak in this movement. In fact, reading assignment: Read (or reread) 1984 and Brave New World in this context. Prepare for chills down your spine.

 

[amorris127289]

https://instagram.com/p/2EXdtSGIhT/

 

[AKkeith]

White men under the age of 25 are at the highest risk to be killed by police.

Evidence to support.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ard0309st.pdf

 

[nobodythank you]

White men under the age of 25 are at a higher risk to be killed by police.

Evidence to support.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ard0309st.pdf

Thank you, I could not find that last night.

 

[AKkeith]

So much privilege we even get the higher statistics in arrest related deaths.

 

[DA SWO]

It's CNN so feel free to ignore.

 

[TLDR20]

White men under the age of 25 are at the highest risk to be killed by police.

Evidence to support.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ard0309st.pdf

I don't think those statistics say what you think they do. While yes 42% of the total reported deaths by police were white, the population of whites is 77% of the population. The statistics say that although African American Males account for 6-8% of the US population, they account for 35% of the people killed by police. So, speaking on a true percentage basis, you are more likely to be killed if you are young black man than if you are a young white man.

 

[TLDR20]

It's CNN so feel free to ignore.View attachment 13149

Again, Blacks account for only 12.6 percent of our population, so the statistic is misleading.

 

[TLDR20]

To put it in perspective using the raw data from the chart @AKkeith posted. If you are a white male your chance of being killed by police is roughly 9.1x10^-6. For blacks it is 4.02x10^-5. That is an entire order of magnitude greater. While I am not a math whiz, I can see that I am a shitload less likely to be killed than a black man of my age group.

 

[nobodythank you]

I don't think those statistics say what you think they do. While yes 42% of the total reported deaths by police were white, the population of whites is 77% of the population. The statistics say that although African American Males account for 6-8% of the US population, they account for 35% of the people killed by police. So, speaking on a true percentage basis, you are more likely to be killed if you are young black man than if you are a young white man.

The statistics are not misleading. Digging deeper we find what we are looking for. You must not look at the overall population (as most are not involved in criminal activity), but at the percentage of crime committed.
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2012
Total crimes committed: 9,390,473
of the total crimes committed,
White: 6,502,919 (69.3%)
Black: 2,640,067 (28.1%)

 

[TLDR20]

The statistics are not misleading. Digging deeper we find what we are looking for. You must not look at the overall population (as most are not involved in criminal activity), but at the percentage of crime committed.
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2012
Total crimes committed: 9,390,473
of the total crimes committed,
White: 6,502,919 (69.3%)
Black: 2,640,067 (28.1%)

Why would I do that. The point of @AKkeith 's post was to point out that you are more likely to be killed by police if you are white than if you are black. That is not supported by the facts.

UPDATED USING THOSE NUMBERS*Even using that stats you just posted you are still more likely to be killed if you are black than white. The chance if you are black is 5.79x10^-4, the chance if you are white is 3.11x10^-4. So even if using your wonky statistics, you are incorrect.

 

[amorris127289]

I don't think those statistics say what you think they do. While yes 42% of the total reported deaths by police were white, the population of whites is 77% of the population. The statistics say that although African American Males account for 6-8% of the US population, they account for 35% of the people killed by police. So, speaking on a true percentage basis, you are more likely to be killed if you are young black man than if you are a young white man.

According to previous statistics posted, you are also more likely to be arrested for being of color. I believe that puts an individual of color at a higher risk, statistically speaking just because they are more likely to be arrested.

According to the video Rangerpsych posted, you are 42 times more likely to be raped than killed by a LEO. Where are the riots for rape?



If laws were obeyed, arrests would not be made and the whole situation would be avoided. Regardless of race, Integrity first and this would not be an issue. But everyone in a society does not follow the laws, And it will always be that way so there will always be profiling.
"When the power of love is greater than the love of power, then there will be peace."

 

[nobodythank you]

Why would I do that. The point of @AKkeith 's post was to point out that you are more likely to be killed by police if you are white than if you are black. That is not supported by the facts.

Because when you made the statement that you are more likely to be killed if you are black than white. That is not the entire truth. It is excluding crucial data that puts those numbers into context. The majority of crime is committed by those that are white, which as you mentioned are the majority of the population. No offense intended, but your statement is inflammatory and unsupported by complete fact.

 

[TLDR20]

Because when you made the statement that you are more likely to be killed if you are black than white. That is not the entire truth. It is excluding crucial data that puts those numbers into context. The majority of crime is committed by those that are white, which as you mentioned are the majority of the population. No offense intended, but your statement is inflammatory and unsupported by complete fact.

I updated my post above. You are still wrong, less wrong, but wrong nonetheless.

 

[AWP]

White men under the age of 25 are at the highest risk to be killed by police.

Evidence to support.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ard0309st.pdf

Again, Blacks account for only 12.6 percent of our population, so the statistic is misleading.

The entire report, much like almost all data available, is misleading. It lacks context and it lacks enough information to draw any conclusions. To be blunt: so what if XXXXX were the most likely to be killed? We don't know the contributing factors, only raw numbers. If someone said...F-16's were more likely to crash than B-52's. Fine. Whatever....but WHY? Engine failure? Pilot error? Poor maintenance?

If someone said "XX% of decedents died while resisting arrest. YY% were black, ZZ% were white..." then we'd have a more complete picture. "XX% were killed by an officer with less than 5 years of experience." Now we can look at trends. The data needed may be too granular but without it we're just spewing "black vs. white" crap when it could show meaningful trends that allow our society to fix the problem. Otherwise we're stuck on race and furthering America's racial divide...and that helps no one and solves nothing.

 

[amorris127289]

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/28925497/police-woman-makes-threats-on-facebook-to-kill-cops

"Police released part of her post to FOX 5. In it, she says “all black ppl should rise up and shoot at every white cop in the nation starting now.” Police said later on Dickens wrote, “I thought about shooting every white cop I see in the head until I'm caught by the police or killed by them. Ha!!!! I think I can pull it off. Might kill a least 15 tomorrow. I'm plotting now.”"