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I've a hard time understanding how this ended up on HN frontage. Maybe someone could enlighten me ?

by lta 1y ago

rootusrootus 1y ago
Not a lot of traffic, someone submitted and enough people browsing /newest upvoted it, so it will briefly be on the front page.
daave 1y ago
HackerNews - aka local news for residents of the Bay Area, Seattle & NYC I wonder what percentage of the world’s software engineers live in these 3 cities?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- consumer451 1y ago
  Accurate, but as OP, I didn't post this as "local news." I posted this because it is objective evidence against the arguments made by the current US federal government for sending troops into Seattle ~"to quell the violence." I believe that this threat is unprecedented since the mid 1800's, has impacts on the tech sector, how other countries behave going forward, and world history in general. If I am off-base here, I would genuinely like to hear the counter arguments.
  - prewett 1y ago
    The article pointedly does not go into why the decrease happened, or what the trend has been. It would be consistent with the facts in the article if the City of Seattle saw Trump's actions with other cities and said, "we don't want that, maybe we should re-fund the police." Or perhaps Seattle never actually de-funded them in the first place, and has just focused efforts on reducing violent crime, because they were wanting to do that anyway and/or because they wanted to avoid giving Trump any excuse to send troops to Seattle. I am appalled at Trump, but this article does not necessarily prove him wrong.
    - consumer451 1y ago
      > maybe we should re-fund the police. When I first heard "de-fund the police" as a slogan, I figured that phrase must have been run by Frank Luntz, just to make sure it made progressives (this includes myself, to some extent) sound as dumb as possible. I mean, he could not have focus-grouped a better phrase. It's hilarious, if you think that dark humor is funny. All that aside, the reality is: > In one version of the story, yes-ish. Parking enforcement and 911 call center response were moved out of the police department. Restructuring the 911 system has become an important step in many cities' efforts to reduce armed police response to civilians. Dispatchers are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system: They are tasked with identifying true public safety emergencies and deciding what resources—armed or unarmed—should respond. (Parking enforcement was later moved back into the police department.) > But in another version of the story, no. While the police department lost a little over 10% of its budget between 2020 and 2021 (mostly because 911 dispatch and parking enforcement were moved), it has been closing that gap since. > Tellingly, not a single sworn officer has lost their job or pay due to budget constraints. In fact, the department has consistently received more funding for hiring than it can spend. And yet, the myth that the police department was defunded persists, partly because budgets are convoluted and boring, and because it's an easy answer for the police departments' woes. https://www.kuow.org/stories/did-seattle-defund-the-police https://www.kuow.org/stories/did-seattle-defund-the-police It's crazy how hard, under Biden, that NPR station had to dance around the simple objective fact that: No. Seattle did not "de-fund the police." Actually, SPD got more money than they could spend.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
consumer451 1y ago
I posted this. Why? Because I was sitting on the shores of Lake Washington three weeks ago at my parents' house. We were talking about the fact that I was flying back to Poland, and how worried they were about the Russian army. I thought about it for a moment, while looking out the window of their house. I said: "The chances of me looking out the window in Poland in the next year, and seeing the military, are lower than they are sitting here, in Seattle." I stand by that assessment. It still blows my mind given the reality of the USA, and the objectively successful and peaceful city of Seattle. The fact that this made it to the front page suggests that I’m not alone in believing this kind of thought is not entirely disconnected from reality. Given the real threat of the US military being deployed to Seattle for 100% political reasons, if it doesn't stay on the front page... well.. what does that say? ___ edit: I will continue to assume that you all mean well, but we all suffer from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias Please take this into consideration when you come across seemingly insane topics like this one.

I've a hard time understanding how this ended up on HN frontage. Maybe someone could enlighten me ?

by lta 1y ago

I've a hard time understanding how this ended up on HN frontage. Maybe someone could enlighten me ?

Not a lot of traffic, someone submitted and enough people browsing /newest upvoted it, so it will briefly be on the front page.

daave 1y ago

HackerNews - aka local news for residents of the Bay Area, Seattle & NYC I wonder what percentage of the world’s software engineers live in these 3 cities?

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
consumer451 1y ago
Accurate, but as OP, I didn't post this as "local news." I posted this because it is objective evidence against the arguments made by the current US federal government for sending troops into Seattle ~"to quell the violence." I believe that this threat is unprecedented since the mid 1800's, has impacts on the tech sector, how other countries behave going forward, and world history in general. If I am off-base here, I would genuinely like to hear the counter arguments.
- prewett 1y ago
  The article pointedly does not go into why the decrease happened, or what the trend has been. It would be consistent with the facts in the article if the City of Seattle saw Trump's actions with other cities and said, "we don't want that, maybe we should re-fund the police." Or perhaps Seattle never actually de-funded them in the first place, and has just focused efforts on reducing violent crime, because they were wanting to do that anyway and/or because they wanted to avoid giving Trump any excuse to send troops to Seattle. I am appalled at Trump, but this article does not necessarily prove him wrong.
  - consumer451 1y ago
    > maybe we should re-fund the police. When I first heard "de-fund the police" as a slogan, I figured that phrase must have been run by Frank Luntz, just to make sure it made progressives (this includes myself, to some extent) sound as dumb as possible. I mean, he could not have focus-grouped a better phrase. It's hilarious, if you think that dark humor is funny. All that aside, the reality is: > In one version of the story, yes-ish. Parking enforcement and 911 call center response were moved out of the police department. Restructuring the 911 system has become an important step in many cities' efforts to reduce armed police response to civilians. Dispatchers are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system: They are tasked with identifying true public safety emergencies and deciding what resources—armed or unarmed—should respond. (Parking enforcement was later moved back into the police department.) > But in another version of the story, no. While the police department lost a little over 10% of its budget between 2020 and 2021 (mostly because 911 dispatch and parking enforcement were moved), it has been closing that gap since. > Tellingly, not a single sworn officer has lost their job or pay due to budget constraints. In fact, the department has consistently received more funding for hiring than it can spend. And yet, the myth that the police department was defunded persists, partly because budgets are convoluted and boring, and because it's an easy answer for the police departments' woes. https://www.kuow.org/stories/did-seattle-defund-the-police https://www.kuow.org/stories/did-seattle-defund-the-police It's crazy how hard, under Biden, that NPR station had to dance around the simple objective fact that: No. Seattle did not "de-fund the police." Actually, SPD got more money than they could spend.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

consumer451 1y ago

I posted this. Why? Because I was sitting on the shores of Lake Washington three weeks ago at my parents' house. We were talking about the fact that I was flying back to Poland, and how worried they were about the Russian army. I thought about it for a moment, while looking out the window of their house. I said: "The chances of me looking out the window in Poland in the next year, and seeing the military, are lower than they are sitting here, in Seattle." I stand by that assessment. It still blows my mind given the reality of the USA, and the objectively successful and peaceful city of Seattle. The fact that this made it to the front page suggests that I’m not alone in believing this kind of thought is not entirely disconnected from reality. Given the real threat of the US military being deployed to Seattle for 100% political reasons, if it doesn't stay on the front page... well.. what does that say? ___ edit: I will continue to assume that you all mean well, but we all suffer from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias Please take this into consideration when you come across seemingly insane topics like this one.