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[mainiac]

When I get angry at someone for wronging me, my immediate reaction is to find a random bystander, beat them up, and jack their stuff to feel better about it.

So the second kind, the kind of conservative who shits on the poor to feel good about themselves but was silent while the powerful abused their power.

Anyhow, this isn't some sort of class war, this is a mob of idiots (a large portion of whom could care less about police brutality and just want to steal shit) turning Baltimore into Detroit.

Lolno, B-town is still gonna be the best damn city in America when this is over.

[GreatJustice]

I don't tend to bitch about the police here because it's unnecessary, everyone else is doing that already. I generally won't post my opinion unless it actually adds a different perspective or information, and "Yeah, American police are overly violent and protected from prosecution" isn't adding anything new besides creating a circlejerk. Pointing out that rioting and looting isn't a great way to handle that problem actually brought something new to the discussion, since apparently its taboo to condemn rioting or something.

Also, I know plenty of people that still think Detroit is the best city in America, but those people don't actually have to live in Detroit.

[mainiac]

Ah yes, the highly original opinion here is of priceless value to anyone who doesn't have access to reactionary sentiments through other sources.

When I get angry at someone for wronging me, my immediate reaction is to find a random bystander, beat them up, and jack their stuff to feel better about it.

God knows it's hard to find people describing angry urban youths as thieves on the internet.  You are really expanding the horizons here.

Also, I know plenty of people that still think Detroit is the best city in America, but those people don't actually have to live in Detroit.

I'm sorry but Maryland stacks too much paper for me to listen to people from whatever craphole you are from.

[Sheb]

This thread is reminding me more and more of FOOF.

[scriver]

Fallout Overhaul Framework?

[Sheb]

Dioxygen Difluoride

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Redzephyr01]

Lolno, B-town is still gonna be the best damn city in America when this is over.

As someone who lives a few minutes away from Baltimore, no it is not. It was terrible before this and it's gonna be even worse after it.

[smjjames]

This thread is reminding me more and more of FOOF.

What do you mean by that? The incredible instability of that compounds?

[FearfulJesuit]

I'd prefer not to have a flamewar, yeah, thanks.

[Sheb]

Yeah, mainiac and GJ were looking like they were just about to react in a rather exothermic manner.

[Zangi]

People get abused/taken advantage of by authority figures regularly.
Courts actively protect the authority figures from legal backlash.
Nobody who gives a damn is able or willing to do anything about.
This continues on for years.

It is a pretty effective recipe.

[SalmonGod]

From eyewitness Dan McGregor

"I want everyone to know what's happening in Baltimore.

I rolled up to Penn and North at 10:30 AM. There was a massive clean-up effort organized to start at 10 AM. When I got there, everything in the public realm was already cleaned up, and people were cleaning up the legendary trash piles that are strewn randomly about the city (if you live in a poorer city or a poorer neighborhood, you know what I'm talking about, the piles of trash that are just around town). The end result was a west side that was going to be cleaner than it was to begin with.

There were 100's of people out, all races, all ages, all demeanors. Totally peaceful, quiet. It was amazing. Everybody was working hand-in-hand to clean up the city, spread out along North Ave and its immediate side streets. People were talking about what was happening and why. People were expressing themselves. This is ideal.

At around 11:30 AM, there was a large-scale police mobilization at Penn and North. No idea why. A bus, an armored vehicle, several vans, several cars. A medium-sized police force, in full riot gear, with automatic weapons, some National Guard troops. The vehicles were all Anne Arundell County and I'm guessing the cops were too.

The cops showed up and shut down a couple of blocks. They cut people off from their residencies and places of work. They stopped people from cleaning. They formed a line and inched forward, telling people to get off the street, that this is a State of Emergency so this street has to be shut down.

Why? Why were the cops there? Why were they shutting down the street? Why did they stop a community effort to clean up? Why did they disrupt the daily business of residents and employees? Why did they arrive in full riot gear to deal with 100's of people armed only with shovels, brooms, trashbags, and gloves?

This is agitating. This is belligerent. This is picking a fight. If the cops hadn't come, nothing would have happened beyond people cleaning and going about another day of their lives. Now that the cops are there, trying to intimidate and agitate, there's a risk of things exploding again.

You know what I saw? I saw police yelling at people, intimidating people, making moves without provocation. And I saw gang members calmly, reasonably asking people to move, asking people to play along, asking people to stay calm and not to provoke the police.

The media won't tell you that. The police state is REAL. This shit HAPPENS. The police are NOT here to protect ANYBODY right now. They are BRINGING THE DANGER WITH THEM. They are BRINGING THE VIOLENCE WITH THEM.

THAT IS REAL, DON'T LET THE NEWS TELL YOU OTHERWISE, THAT IS REAL."

[Reelya]

If you have a heavily militarized police force, that's a lot of budget and a lot of financial vested interests in the status quo. People trying to get along better without the government forces? Well you've just made a lot of highly paid people redundant. And Baltimore exploding will be a huge lever for them to get more funding and more riot gear. Do you really want to ruin things for the cops by getting along too well? Right Now? When they have all that extra funding up for grabs? Heave a heart.

It's no different (and actually tied into) to the privatised prison system and kickbacks to judges. The law enforcement thing becomes this huge industry, and huge industries don't like to see their reason for existence challenged. Non-government crime prevention and getting along better sounds great, but it's a huge threat to certain people's profits and police jobs. You're threatening people's profits by being too nice to each other and cleaning things up, which is "Broken Windows" policing, but you've cut the middle-man out. Think about it, you go around fixing windows for free, then you put the glassmakers out of business, which won't make them happy. They'd rather have the windows stay broken to keep the profits rolling.

[Sheb]

Well, at least you don't have private cops yet...