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Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?

• mc32 11y ago
  It's an interesting question. I think there are two things which are in play, at least: Guns are readily available and we have "a right to guns" so police have to presume civilians of any kind are potentially armed. Second, we are not the only country with wealth disparity, nor the one with the largest, but... We sell people on the idea that everyone can achieve the dream of living a middle class lifestyle. When people see this opportunity unrealized they feel someone must be actively working against the promise. In some cases there is some truth to that, in other cases it's wishful thinking, but in the end, and on the whole thankfully people don't just assign their station in life to divine assignment and do feel disenfranchised, unlike other places where people might just accept their "fate" as predetermined, to great extent. So lack of opportunity by itself don't create strife. It's lack of opportunity coupled with a dissonant promise unrealized that creates strife in our cities.
• aidenn0 11y ago
  I agree, but if the cops in the US are put in a naturally more violent environment, then it is unfair to solely call out their policing tactics as the cause for the violence, when the underlying problem is much deeper.
• dionidium 11y ago
  Obviously! I'm only pointing out that the police are operating in this environment, as it exists today, too.
• panzagl 11y ago
  Compare the US to the EU, not any of the countries within it.
• bdcravens 11y ago
  * the war we wage on drugs * the war that drugs and alcohol wage on the impoverished * a large population that came out of the slave class and the long-lasting effects of poor integration * poor education spending and allocation Even if we put all our resources into fixing these issues, we're talking several years. You can't use that discussion as a talking point to deflect the violent realities that police in those environments face.
• lujim 11y ago
  Something about this argument bothers me. It allows criminals to be victims of "the system". In certain areas the economic machinery has certainly sputtered out, but this question seems loaded to imply that some fat cat banker or politician pushed a button that instantly sucked the jobs out of an otherwise flourishing area. This argument is just a way to inject a well trodden political viewpoint into what might have otherwise been an interesting discussion.
  • pelario 11y ago
    Nope, the question is indeed inviting to a political discussion, but is not suggesting any answer. It is you that attribute that intention to the parent comment; I guess to avoid an otherwise interesting political discussion
    • lujim 11y ago
      >"Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?" In my experience, anything that follows "Maybe the question you should ask yourself" is usually a statement not a question. Inequality is the cool thing to be frustrated with right now, especially with an election year coming up. Yes there is lots of inequality, yes it sucks, yes it's unfair. As far as blaming every social problem on the 1% or .1% that is where I'm ready to jump off the bandwagon. An interesting discussion would be something like "why did Detroit get left in the dust as globalization took off and what incentives could be used to help the next rust belt city from collapsing into an economic black hole?", or "what affect would offering more attractive small business loans to impoverished areas have?" An uninteresting discussion would be "If it wasn't for inequality we wouldn't have so many problems, our system sucks".