No, it isn’t.
Yes, it is. That’s why we went to the trouble of creating a written constitution and Bill of Rights that’s deliberately near-impossible to amend - so that a mere majority opinion couldn’t derive people of their freedom.
Requiring a super-majority for a few things doesn’t mean that the system isn’t democratic, rather the opposite… and we’re not talking about depriving people of their freedom, but increasing that freedom, by removing an unnecessary and unpopular prohibition.
“Democracy” and “Republic” mean almost the same thing - government by the people.
Were it an “unnecessary and unpopular prohibition”, Congress would have acted on it by now.
Many Congresses and the equivalent have. By the end of the decade, the Federal one will.
Sheesh, some of you guys will take any position if it appears to support your world view.
Brown was a petty thug who would cause many Dopers who support him in this thread to cross the street if they saw him coming. He didn’t deserve to die but he danced with trouble and pretending otherwise is stupid.
Trying to compare him to Tsarnaev is more stupid. Tsarnaev purposefully targeted innocent people to die which is not something Brown–with all his faults–ever did.
And that’s the only one that matters. If and when they do act on marijuana I will welcome that decision.
Lesson being… it’s the innocent-looking white guys you really have to worry about?
It seems extremely unlikely to me that Wilson pulled his gun while inside his police car. If it were a standard sidearm, it would be awkward to draw and very difficult to aim from seated in a vehicle. LEO’s are trained to point their guns with their arms extended. Besides, what would be the point? Brown must have known that Wilson was a policeman and was presumably armed. How would brandishing his gun (something that police are specifically trained not to do) have helped Wilson?
**GAME TIME!
**
Fill in the blank:
Watching Smapti and Steophan argue is like _______________.
Winner gets a donut!
Nope. There is no “but.” He didn’t deserve to die. Period. And when that death came at the hands of an agent of a democratic government licensed to use deadly force in support of the public safety, it’s inexcusable. He is part of the public that that officer is charged with protecting.
There are no buts. There are no perfect victims. Just like in rape cases, it doesn’t matter at all what the faults of the victim are. You don’t examine his character. If what he did didn’t deserve death, then that’s the end of the sentence.
The tree was coming right for us!
Few people deserve to die but it occurs every day; shit happens. Brown was a petty thug who’s behavior made it more likely that he would be hit by shit. Don’t try to twist this around into blaming the victim by comparing it to rape. Brown’s actions before the shooting were wrong, unlike a rape victim. He was not a blameless angel.
Fuck “blameless angel.” Who ever said he or anyone else is s blameless angel? Who comes up with bullshit phrases like that? No one is a blameless angel. It’s irrelevant.
He didn’t die from failing to be a blameless angel. He does because someone’s intentional act of shooting him. That’s not some automatic unavoidable consequence of angel failure.
“People die every day” doesn’t apply to intentional killings by another person. It applies to accidents or acts of nature.
You are the one who said Brown didn’t deserve to die. If that’s statement is taken as true then that’s the end of it. There’s no “but” after that.
It’s a memorial, not a monument. Vandalizing it is like violating Brown’s grave.
If you walk into a biker bar and call them all pussies, I would say that you don’t deserve to die. But I wouldn’t be outraged that it happened since your stupidity was a big contributing factor.
I suspect that the staff of the Rolling Stone is behind this. They don’t seem to have any standards. Or maybe it was another conspiracy between Tawana Brawley and Sharpton. During the suspected time of the theft, has anyone established that no CNN minions were in the area, attempting to increase their viewership and revenue?
Yup. Brown didn’t deserve to die, but he did enough knuckleheaded stuff that sure made it a lot easier for Wilson to shoot him.
It’s like if you’re crossing a 40 mph rated street at a green light and you get hit by a car going 60 with a driver texting while he drove. Yeah, the driver was speeding and texting, but you’re the idiot crossing the street at a green light. Who’s at fault here?
Assault is assault. My feelings don’t change based on a perception of the victim’s faults, whether it’s stupidity or anything else.
See post #3835. Even an idiot should be able to have a memorial. We see roadside memorials to traffic-accident victims all the time and I daresay a far portion of them died of their own idiocy; it would still be in very bad taste, wouldn’t it, to vandalize those memorials?