Whose side are you on – the people of Baltimore or the forces empowering a militarized police?

THE THREE FACTORS THAT EXPLAIN BALTIMORE

1) Gun Culture: And the recent series of events that have been occurring in the USA.

Virtually every day it seems that there is another black guy being shot by a cop. Are we imagining this? Are the media just doing what they do –dramatizing a narrative to get ratings?  Or is there something seriously insidious going on and if so what is happening and why is it happening.

Let’s look at the numbers: I started by trying to look at the data for European Countries. This proved to be a problem because there appears to be no pattern of such incidences. Evidently British police fired off three bullets in the last year – no apparent deaths or injuries–so perhaps they were officiating at a track meet? There was a death in 2011 and there were headlines about British police being “Trigger Happy”. There may have been some recent European shootings of Terrorists – but beyond that I couldn’t find any pattern and the lack of a pattern is in itself a pattern – that being that fatal police shootings in Europe are not a meaningful issue. I wonder why?

The Rest of the World Compared to the USA. (Gun Ownership)

THE THREE FACTORS THAT EXPLAIN BALTIMORE

1) Gun Culture:And the recent series of events that have been occurring in the USA.

So that leads to the USA –and it will not take long to establish a pattern. Before we drill down consider that it is projected that sometime in 2015, Gun Deaths will become more ubiquitous in the USA than Auto fatalities— at over 30,000 lives per year. By way of comparison in the UK automobiles are 1,300% more deadly than guns (using 2011 data). The growing childishness of American gun culture can be seen quite clearly by analyzing school shootings.        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States_prior_to_2009

And of course the more Stupidparty the state, the sillier the gun culture gets –with obvious consequences:

           http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/firearms-death-rate-per-100000/

So Within this context we can now look at Fatal Police Shootings:

What is so remarkable is that there is no reliable data on police shootings—up until very recently at least. Yes the FBI tries and others, but the reporting requirements are suspect and not all precincts report. I guess the reason is that police shooting people has never been a big cause for concern. Well we are damn well concerned right now. Do we have good reason? To answer this we are going to have to be a bit more creative in order to get a true reflection on what is going on.

First it appears that we do have good data on violent crimes – and this is important because this will help put police fatal shootings into a more revealing perspective.

Note how violent crimes have halved over the last twenty years. This has occurred for numerous reasons. But this reduction has not occurred because of the presence of more Guns (a myth promoted by the NRA) –we know this myth is claptrap because the number of households owning a gun has not increased, so unless you are John Wayne in the climactic scene of the movie True Grit, one eyed, on a horse, gripping the reins in his mouth, firing off multiple guns at the bad guys—having fifteen guns in your collection will make little difference in your ability to defend yourself, your ability to shoot your irritating neighbor, or offensive spouse. But perhaps your kid’s exposure to an accident might be significantly higher.

Now we need to try and figure out what is happening with regard to fatal police shootings. I have had to access various different data bases – because I really struggled to find consistency, no surprise if no one is keeping tabs. But one would hope that with the police having to contend with half as many violent crimes – that the need to use a gun would also halve.

But what I discovered was that this was far from the case. I seemed to find some consensus on the following 1) Data seems somewhat easier to get in more recent years 2) Everyone seems to agree that the official numbers significantly understate the true numbers 3) Thanks to statistician guru Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight website we may actually have credible numbers since May 1, 2013 from a Facebook page titled  Killed by Police

I used three different sources Green US Department of Justice Red the FBI and Blue the Nate Silver recommended Killed by police. As per Mr. Silver’s recommendations, I took the Facebook data and multiplied by .85   I arrived at my 2013 number by increasing the 8 months of data by 50%. I did a similar pro-rated exercise to project a total for 2015 using data at March 18^th, 2015

I believe we have established the trends are not only disturbing but far worse than they appear— not only are numbers grossly understated but this is happening against a backdrop of a rapidly declining violent crime environment. An absurd gun culture is clearly evident. It is impossible to have an intelligent conversation about this because the NRA is not capable of acting in good faith, having been hijacked by the extremist nine member “nominating committee” and has become on odious organization as a result.

Want proof?—that the NRA does not give a damn about its members, the general public or law enforcement?

85%-74% of NRA members favor a waiting period for purchase of handguns,

82% of Americans support limiting the sales of military‐style assault weapons,

94% of police chiefs favor requiring a background check for all hand guns sales.

The following statistics rated true by Polifacts:

That poll found that 82 percent of gun owners were in favor of required background checks, including 74 percent of individuals with current or former memberships in the NRA.

PolitiFact identified two other 2013 polls of gun owners. A Pew Research Center poll taken of 1,502 adults from Jan. 9-13, 2013, found 85 percent of some 529 polled gun owners in favor of making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks — nearly identical to the Luntz poll. The gun-owner results had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. A CBS/New York Times poll conducted of 1,110 adults from Jan. 11-15, 2013, showed that 85 percent of respondents living in a household with an NRA member supported universal background checks.

2) Increasing Bigotry:

Now we need to look closer at the racial question that every one (capable of critical thinking) recognizes is an issue. Because this is done per million, the under-counting problem discussed above is moot for the below graphic.

But surely the Supreme Court just recently indicated that Race was a problem of the past and thus scrubbed laws that prevented states with a history of racism from indulging is racist voter suppression strategies. Voter suppression is born out of racism, because it is promoted on the back of inflaming fears of voter fraud. But since Voter Fraud is Mathematically Irrelevant is mathematically irrelevant, there is no case for voter suppression.

So what is up with the Supremely Stupidparty Court? 

“Chief Justice Supremely SP John Roberts we are seeing a textbook example of the myopia, lack of self-awareness, and narrow-mindedness that can result from attending the non-racially-diverse Roman Catholic grade and boarding schools in 1960s and 1970s small-town, rural, overwhelmingly-white Indiana….”

But if we are in post racial phase – how would the Supremely Stupidparty Court explain the following profile of Stupidparty supporters on issues relating to race. By way of example, if you choose be a birther you are choosing to reveal remarkable ignorance to the point of being a racist. I explain why Donald Trump is racist, since I can show that he himself is not interested in the facts— and that he is just part of inherent racism/bigotry within The Seven Pillars of Stupidparty Hate. Do we have a Party of Hate?

1)  49% Believe Acorn stole 2012 election. PPP 2012. (With no funding, Acorn dissolved in 2010)   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/04/acorn-republican-voters_n_2239298.html

2)  51% Are “birthers.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49554.html

3)  57% Believe Obama is a Muslim.

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/03/22/scary-new-gop-poll.html

4)  66% Believe Obama is a socialist.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/03/22/scary-new-gop-poll.html

5)  24% Believe he may be the Antichrist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/americans-believe-obama-anti-christ-global-warming-hoax_n_3008558.html

6)  90% Are oblivious to the fact that 95% of population had tax cuts at time of 2012 election.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/politics/19taxes.html

7)  Only 22% percent of SP  disciples believe Ferguson raises important racial questions.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/215413-ferguson-divides-public-along- racial-party-lines

8)  68% of Stupidparty voters believe the President should be impeached for????

https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/07/14/one-third-americans-want-impeach-obama/

9)  Only 11% of SP disciples believe Obama loves America. This is a reaction to Giuliani’s sad statements and pitiful record regarding his own “family values” —a man who has many lessons to learn from Obama in that regard Many young people don’t love America

10)  62% of SP disciples believe Obama is secretly trying to take away every ones guns

11)  44% of SP disciples believe that Obama is secretly trying to figure out a way to stay in office beyond 2017.

Racism, or at least the need to excite racists out of their caves, seems to have grown exponentially with Obama as President and the growth of the ultra-silly wing of the Stupidparty especially since 2010. This alongside the increasingly absurd gun culture appears to be leading to more shootings in schools, outside of schools and by the police.  But we are still missing one vital component.

3) The Consequence of absurd Income Discrepancy trends

Back to our police force that operate in and are clearly part of this racist context. Now we know that the Stupidparty loathes unions. But there is an exception –police unions. Historically, they have been in bed with the Stupidparty. The Stupidparty needs the police to enforce law and order. Why?

Stupidparty is totally beholden to the special interests that are determined to maintain the unsustainable income discrepancy trends by giving even more tax breaks to the wealthy whilst funding such tax breaks by cutting social programs. They popularize such measures by appealing to the easily stoked prejudices of their base. Populist politicians promoting poverty.

Creating an environment that can only lead to more social injustice, an environment where one can always find a justification for a police shooting.

Now see how Stupidparty reps distorts the situation and effectively sends the message that shooting someone in the back is OK.

Sean Hannity:

And his record I mentioned earlier — it has nothing to do with — you know, what happened in this case. I assume that it probably was connected to why he ran and his relationship with police at that time. I mean it’s pretty extensive.

You know there’s a simple solution in terms of for other people going forward is: don’t be involved in the sale of drugs, don’t think police are your enemies, don’t run at 8:30 in the morning when you see a cop, and certainly that is a part that he plays in this equation.

Cutting benefits, the safety net—because of the “47% moochers”—harping on about food stamps.  Stupidparty reps love to bring up food stamps –because the Stupidparty base is under the erroneous notion that minorities are the prime beneficiaries and that feeding lazy parasitic blacks is a waste of  taxpayer money. That base is oblivious to the fact that they will not be gaining anything by such actions. Additionally they are wrong on so many levels. It is Red States that are the “Moocher” States – because economic policies designed for the haves (trickle down) simply do not work as well as trickle up:

The United States is the only country in the world where the struggling class (aka middle class) has been duped into voting against their own economic interests.

Stupidparty Maryland State Delegate Patrick McDonough suggested last week that parents did not deserve to continue receiving food stamps if they refused to stop their children from protesting the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Now let’s dispel some more myths regarding Food Stamps.

http://www.cbpp.org/research/the-relationship-between-snap-and-work-among-low-income-households

 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/food-stamps-statistics-SNAP-economic-benefits

So let’s get this right – whilst we needlessly impoverish huge swathes of the country. Needlessly— you ask. The USA is the best right, the wealthiest country right?

So whilst the USA needlessly impoverishes huge swathes of the country, it now needs to find ways to “maintain order”. Well the “Stand your Ground” laws introduced and promoted by Who is Alec and Why should we Care (a front for a group of people trying to turn the country into an oligarchy) have effectively legalized the murder of unarmed black kids – as is clearly the case in the The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Now you have the spread of “open carry”- which is clearly a white man’s privilege. At the moment they are mainly accidentally shooting off their own appendages, often the very appendage that houses the Stupidparty brain. But we already have an adult Georgia man flaunts gun at local Little League field intimidating parents and childrens sporting event—and it will not be long before a “biased” referee gets what’s coming to him. This will be a white parent, because any black parent carrying a gun would have already been shot in the back by a police officer. These police officers now being appropriately armed and excused for over reacting in virtually any scenario:

The Stupidparty Praetorian Guards gets special perks:

As the National Review reports: “It’s Time to Take On Police Unions Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394743/its-time-take-police-unions-lucy-morrow-caldwell, law-enforcement culture has tended to place the interests of unions and officers above those of the community. Police unions have lobbied against greater transparency in day-to-day policing and against internal-review policies or public-records laws that would shine light on complaints filed against officers, among other proposals. Inevitably, the justification given in these cases is “safety of first responders” or the desire to “prevent community unrest.” But in reality, it’s an attempt to reduce the chance that officers, whether malevolent or simply negligent, will be held accountable for their actions.”

It might be a war out there–but these guys were not warriors. All unarmed, all fatally shot by the police, all in one year.

As the New York Times reports: “In recent weeks, Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois has traveled the state promoting his proposal for more than $2 billion in cuts to pensions for public employees. All public employees, that is, except police officers and firefighters….. Mr. Rauner was following the lead of other Republican governors in the Midwest who have imposed unwelcome changes on state and local employees in the name of saving money and improving services.

In 2011, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin introduced a bill that would roll back collective bargaining rights for government workers and require them to contribute more toward their own pensions and health coverage. He excluded police officers and firefighters from the legislation, known as Act 10, which he signed the following month.

In 2012, Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan signed a right-to-work bill, eliminating the requirement that private and public sector workers contribute dues to the unions that represent them, whether or not they are members. The bill included a “carve-out” for police officers and firefighters, which Mr. Snyder supported.

Mother Jones reports: Police use of highly armed SWAT teams has risen by 1,500 percent in the last two decades, and many police departments have cultivated an “us vs. them” mentality toward the public they ostensibly serve.

It would appear that the Police attitudes are getting out of control. The NYPD took umbrage when the Mayor had the audacity to question one of their many questionable actions. In unison, they turned their back on him during a funeral service and then proceeded to refuse to do their jobs via a work slowdown somewhat reminiscent of Great Britain in the 1970’s when the whole country was being held hostage by overzealous trade unions.

Regarding the confusion surrounding how Baltimore victim Freddie Gray died, let us put the police version in its best possible (highly improbable) light. He was not strapped into the ambulance because it is considered too dangerous to strap a “dangerous person” in. So that would imply a known risk factor to the police. If there is such a known risk factor –bring in a risk management specialist to solve the problem. For this reason alone the Baltimore police must surely deservedly face a lawsuit and heads need to role—may this be an abject lesson to all other police forces.

I am telling you this –the police are regularly unnecessarily and extremely foolishly shooting unarmed people all the time. ALL THE TIME.  This must stop.

Baltimore has arrived and for a week or so the media might pay attention and occasionally they might even ask the right questions. What should those questions be?

1)  Why has the USA gun culture gotten so absurd? – This is a fact and please stop tolerating the following notions:

1. Guns don’t shoot people
2. Good guys should have guns
3. More Guns = More Safety
4. The NRA is an acceptable organization. (For it is not)

2) Why is Racism still such a huge problem? We need to stop accepting the following notions:

1. Reverse Racism. People who make this argument are invariably desensitized to racism. If you want to experience racism how about going to an African country and get discriminated for being white —then you might have cause to complain.
2. That the inherent bigotry with in the Stupidparty is somehow acceptable.
3. It is OK for police to shoot/kill unarmed people.
4. It is OK for police forces to not represent the ethnic profile of the people they are policing.
5. It is OK for the police to cover up their malpractice.
6. The Supreme Court’s decision: Shelby County v. Holder, must be revisited/challenged. They were clearly wrong and have simply empowered racism. They chose to take the case at a time when they knew that we have a dysfunctional congress. John Roberts may not be a racist but his racial worldview is infantile. So he chose to change the rules knowing that congress would not be capable of acting intelligently.

 3) What is the logical end game if Income Discrepancy Trends continue their present course? Since Rand Paul is running for President now is a good time to ask the following question.

Where else can Ayn Rand unfettered libertarianism/capitalism lead, other than fascism?

The battle between the people (democracy) and the oligarchs is set:

The oligarchs have the Supreme Court (Citizens United, Shelby County v Holder), the paid off Congress and the Stupidparty base with its self-evident and carefully nurtured bigotry for the purpose of creating a false flag adversary, resulting in a mad hatter’s parallel universe determination to vote against their own economic interests.

The people through democracy still have the power to pressure their representative’s to demand campaign finance reform, end voter suppression, end gerrymandering and reverse income discrepancy trends and to stop pandering to bigotry

Whose side are you on – the people of Baltimore or the forces empowering a militarized police?