2 ms·

I saw a video of police breaking up looting by rushing in and hitting everyone they could with their batons. When that's the plan and the people in the charge

by treis 6y ago

I saw a video of police breaking up looting by rushing in and hitting everyone they could with their batons. When that's the plan and the people in the charge think it's a good plan that's the root of the issue. To send people out there to do that and then charging them with crimes if they go too far seems a bit hypocritical to me. It needs to be a top down change where the police use the least violence possible and have the least amount of confrontation possible.

jrockway 6y ago
I think the underlying problem here is that we accept the trade of hitting people with batons to protect property. It's priced into the insurance. To make progress, we have to move away from the mentality that this is acceptable. There will be pushback because a large amount of infrastructure is required. Everything that can be stolen will have to have a traceable serial number. We'll have to look for those serial numbers on things like eBay and the Amazon marketplace. Insurance costs will go up. The customer experience for people buying things will go down. Massive changes in how we think about the world will have to occur. But it seems like the direction we have to go -- we don't need to be damaging people's bodies (you only get one!) just because they're stealing a watch. Prosecute them. Don't let them make money from their crime. But we have to draw the line somewhere. (The whole arresting protestors thing also confuses me. Free speech is the foundation of our country. We should be celebrating people risking their lives to fight for an issue that matters in the middle of a pandemic. But instead, we "kettle" them, hit them with batons, and send them to jail. It's not good, and shows that our society has a LONG way to go. What's nice about being so far from the goal, though, is that small changes can have a big impact. The first 99% of the work is as hard as the next 1% after all.)
- JoeSmithson 6y ago
  I think GP's point was more that it's just shitty tactics. Compare the MPS de-escalating the protest in London today; https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1269315641217073152 https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1269315641217073152 Officers move in a clear way, they do not pre-emptively arm themselves, they do not get hung up on non-violent stragglers, they take their time. There have been two days of protests in London which are explicitly anti-police, have been very passionate, have had flashes of violence, but have NOT escalated. Aside from the racial aspect, a lot of videos I've seen from US recently have just been crap in a professional sense.

by treis 6y ago

jrockway 6y ago

I think the underlying problem here is that we accept the trade of hitting people with batons to protect property. It's priced into the insurance. To make progress, we have to move away from the mentality that this is acceptable. There will be pushback because a large amount of infrastructure is required. Everything that can be stolen will have to have a traceable serial number. We'll have to look for those serial numbers on things like eBay and the Amazon marketplace. Insurance costs will go up. The customer experience for people buying things will go down. Massive changes in how we think about the world will have to occur. But it seems like the direction we have to go -- we don't need to be damaging people's bodies (you only get one!) just because they're stealing a watch. Prosecute them. Don't let them make money from their crime. But we have to draw the line somewhere. (The whole arresting protestors thing also confuses me. Free speech is the foundation of our country. We should be celebrating people risking their lives to fight for an issue that matters in the middle of a pandemic. But instead, we "kettle" them, hit them with batons, and send them to jail. It's not good, and shows that our society has a LONG way to go. What's nice about being so far from the goal, though, is that small changes can have a big impact. The first 99% of the work is as hard as the next 1% after all.)

JoeSmithson 6y ago
I think GP's point was more that it's just shitty tactics. Compare the MPS de-escalating the protest in London today; https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1269315641217073152 https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1269315641217073152 Officers move in a clear way, they do not pre-emptively arm themselves, they do not get hung up on non-violent stragglers, they take their time. There have been two days of protests in London which are explicitly anti-police, have been very passionate, have had flashes of violence, but have NOT escalated. Aside from the racial aspect, a lot of videos I've seen from US recently have just been crap in a professional sense.