We need to get specific. If bombings increase 10 times… that’s not a mob. It should be addressed via law enforcement. Ditto for 100 times.
In Charlottesville, we had a mob. And the antifa squared off against them. They didn’t just “Jump in”. Jumping into a mob is a terrible idea as you give your back to your enemy. Again, don’t do this crap without training.
Charlottesville did grievous damage to the alt-right. More video coverage of it would have been even better. Some of the alt-right perps were caught. But not all. This guy is still at large. Those with camera skills should be encouraged to use them. That is where we are I say.
Straight White Male.
Having viewed at least one riot, actually you can tell where things are going.
As for the nation, it is trending in an authoritarian direction, based upon other country’s experience with the same. But we need to be clear eyed about this; we need to see things how they are, as opposed to what we fear on the one hand or hope on the other. I believe it is appropriate to have these sorts of discussions now. We are not near authoritarian rule and on November 6th we need to keep it that way.
If you are buying a gun with the intent of using it to intervene on behalf of a third party, methinks you risk a prison sentence if you use it in that fashion without training.
Someone on Facebook commented that “this wouldn’t have happened” if there were armed guards. I pointed out that 4 cops with guns were shot yesterday and that shut him up.
FWIW there is an off-duty, uniformed policeman at the synagogue I attend on Friday night. He’s seated in the reception area behind a desk. I assume he’s armed, but I don’t consider him on a “hair trigger.” I guess there’s one on Saturday morning, too. I’ve been going to this synagogue for 20-ish years and I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t a cop or two there on Friday nights.
My mother has been trying to improve our shul’s security for years, full-time armed guards included. There wasn’t much interest. I think things may be different now.
The right is absolutely shit your pants terrified of “antifa” which, far as I can tell is the real life equivalent of Chopper from “Stand by me” (“The most feared and least seen dog in Castle Rock”) and yet have nothing to say about actual people shooting other actual people.
First, a pause to acknowledge that, yes, I recognize this as snark.
Next, a proper response to those who actually offer this excuse:
[QUOTE=Isaiah 1:15]
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
[/QUOTE]
So, where was Trump then? Just about exactly where Bush the lesser was when he had the chance to also go against the supporters of racist symbols. First Bush II appeared in a Parade Magazine interview showing the reporter a huge picture of Sam Houston in his office, the Texas Governor who refused to swear allegiance to the Confederate States of America, Houston had to be removed from power in Texas for that. For things like that Dubya said that Houston was his hero.
Then when the issue of the confederate flag flared up during his candidacy, Bush the lesser decided to toss his hero under the bus by saying then that states like South Carolina had the right to continue to keep it flying in their capitol. Showing that Bush had very little character.
Of course, finding that Trump has even less character than even Bush had is not a surprise, but it is more surprising to see even more Republicans do a three monkey act nowadays when confronted with that lack of character from their leaders.
Every time I hear someone say “If only someone with a gun had been there…” what I hear in my head is “If only I been there with a gun I would have been a fuckin’ hero!”.
Is it only me?
Speaking of the Gillum race, DeSantis is back to warning people about “Soros-backed activists” getting appointed to the state government if Gillum wins.
This stuff isn’t an accident for them, it’s a strategy. If people die along the way, it’s apparently perfectly acceptable losses if it means keeping power.
Every time I hear this sort of thing I’m reminded of some of the responses to the Long Island Railroad shooting (that if everyone on the train had been armed the incident would never have happened: at the first false move everyone would have drawn, taken aim, and blown Ferguson away).
Human nature being what it is, I have a strong suspicion that if that had been the case the result would have been something like this, resulting in a railroad car full of dead & wounded.
Look, I’ve never held or owned a gun. I have great aim, at video games and some archery, and I might have great aim with a gun. But I’m also a klutz with things that explode. Even if I get a gun, have the police teach me how to use, clean and store it, so what? I’m most likely the person to either drop it and shoot himself or even shoot the wrong person or even keep firing entirely because I’m scared.
Some people are good with them, I am sure that I’m not. Not willing to try it either. So when I hear “an armed person” could’ve taken care of something like this, I think it wouldn’t have been me! I’d be down the street like lightning yelling for help.
If I’d posted “there have never been attacks by violent racists with guns until Trump became President” then you might have an argument. But I didn’t post that.
I posted that Trump is radicalizing people. (Specifically, aggrieved white-supremacists and their ilk.) As indeed he is. This assertion contains no implication that violence was unknown to humankind before January 20, 2017. Not one such implication.
As I said, Trump has made violence against certain individuals and groups ‘okay’ and has given it the green light. This is from back in February and the numbers will only have increased:
Increases in hate crimes can’t be tied to Trump’s rhetoric with absolute, undeniable proof, because there are human beings we’re talking about–not mathematical symbols. But it would be foolish to ignore the evidence right in front of our eyes.
So, where was Trump in the lead-up to Dylann Roof’s crime?
Well, for one thing, Trump was taking out a full-page ad in the New York Daily News—no inexpensive proposition—to call for the state to execute five black teens who’d been accused of a rape. The teens were fully exonerated by DNA evidence.
They were innocent. But Trump has never apologized for calling for their deaths.
So that’s the sort of thing Trump was doing. What sort of message would a white supremacist like Dylann Roof take from that, do you think? ‘Kill them even if they’re innocent,’ maybe?
(Thanks, GIGObuster, for your excellent response to the same cmkeller post.)
And this extends to the people who brag about how they “carry” in places where it’s probably not warranted, necessary, or even legal. You just know that some of those ammosexuals are just salivating at the idea of offing a “bad guy with a gun”, especially if that bad guy is not white and/or Christian or Jewish. :mad:
I just heard on NBC News that Fred Rogers lived just a few blocks from that synagogue for many years.
Even if I get a gun, have the police teach me how to use, clean and store it, so what? I’m most likely the person to either drop it and shoot himself or even shoot the wrong person or even keep firing entirely because I’m scared.