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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   37527 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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On Sunday I speculated that the Dems will use a George Floyd-like psychological operation to increase Democrat turnout in the election. Today, Kamala issued a statement about Sonya Massey, a black woman killed by police whose body cam footage was released recently:

Sonya Massey deserved to be safe. After she called the police for help, she was tragically killed in her own home at the hands of a responding officer sworn to protect and serve. Doug and I send strength and prayers to Sonya’s family and friends, and we join them in grieving her senseless death.

I join President Biden in commending the swift action of the State’s Attorney’s Office and in calling on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that I coauthored in the Senate. In this moment, in honor of Sonya’s memory and the memory of so many more whose names we may never know, we must come together to achieve meaningful reforms that advance the safety of all communities.

The body cam footage shows two police officers answering a call from Massey about a prowler in her yard. Massey acts mentally unwell throughout the encounter, answers that she is on medication when asked about her mental health, and has a difficult time telling the officers what her last name is or retrieving her photo ID. The officers are somewhat friendly if impatient, but the vibe changes when Massey grabs a pot of boiling water after the officers requested she turn off the stove. The officers say they are stepping back while she grabs the boiling water (crazy people may use boiling water as a weapon, something that has lead Starbucks to ban giving patrons boiling water), and Massey says “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus”. Either because of this statement or because of a physical sign we don’t pick up on the body cam, an officer points his gun and demands that she drop the boiling water. She does not drop the boiling water but instead continues to hold on to it. Right before she is shot the body cam just barely picks up Massey throwing the boiling water toward the officers, with the water landing on the ground and steaming where it landed. I want to thank Twitter user Fartblaster4000 for turning that moment into a helpful gif.

Massey’s death is certainly not the preferred outcome of the encounter. Once the officers picked up on Massey being crazy, they should have mentally decided to leave her house if she did something like equip a plausible weapon. The three seconds that the officer gives for Massey to drop the pot of boiling water was insufficient — of course, the pot was in her hand and thrown toward the officer before the officer shot. Springfield is the third most criminal city in America, so perhaps the officers did not believe they had the resources to call mental health professionals in their place. In any case I do not think that the officers should have moved toward her but instead left the premises until they felt she did not pose a threat. Sadly, it’s not uncommon for crazy people to attack police officers with whatever is around, and it’s rational to be afraid of a crazy person who has a pot of scalding water in their hands, able to disfigure you for life.

According to a UPenn study, BLM may have been the political ingredient that shifted the election toward Joe Biden:

Mutz also notes that roughly 90% of voters reliably vote with their party, and only about 10% of voters are likely to shift their vote from one party to another. It was that group that she focused on, finding that as their awareness of discrimination against Black people rose, so too did their likelihood of voting for Biden. Interestingly, many voters who had voted for third parties in 2016 also shifted to major party candidates in 2020, and disproportionately moved toward Biden.

Concern surrounding COVID-19 caused voters on both sides of the aisle to favor their own candidate more, but it did not cause any significant vote change from Trump to Biden or vice versa. Nor, Mutz says, did factors relating to the economic effects of COVID. As levels of concern about COVID became increasingly partisan, the issue lost its ability to change vote choice so much as to reinforce it. Does that mean BLM decided the election? That question remains unanswered

If the relevant voters are swayed more by victimhood narratives than Covid, this explains why Republicans are bringing up the topic of migrant rapes. I predict we are going to see more victimhood narratives in the coming months!

Does it change anyone's opinion on the competency of the police to know that the officer who shot the woman had been employed by six different police departments in a span of 4 years?

https://apnews.com/article/sonya-massey-illinois-police-shooting-911-d311a177ceac567cac58f68be810df79

Looks like a bunch of these were part time. The article doesn't say if he got kicked out or what his disciplinary record was like. But if this is a problem cop, you'd think he'd get the cold shoulder before ending up with murder charges.

The downstream impact of BLM has been that it's hard to find cops. Despite pay and benefits nobody wants a job where you might get murdered or charged with murder.

Responsible non-criminal Blue collar workers have better opportunities than ever, young college grads have been inculcated with a hatred of police.

Recruiting is at crisis levels.

How much of this is literally just pot and debt?

Cops usually have to be squeaky clean and those things have been getting more prominent. It would seem like even as the pool of applicants narrows, departments are likely having to reject a higher percentage of them.

I suppose pot isn't covered by the qualifier non-criminal anymore is it?

Probably has a large impact! As would tattoo policies. Synergistic with Blue collar demand: CDL drivers and other jobs also need to be clean, and as that field narrows the pay improves.

Police departments also routinely have financial responsibility policies intended to prevent bribery- my suspicion is that they tend to eliminate candidates who like recreational gambling more than they actually work. But I know you can’t be a cop if you have outstanding title loans, a second mortgage, or too much credit card debt. AIUI sports gambling mostly works by getting people in debt, and with its rising popularity I suspect that police departments are kicking candidates out over debt restrictions.

That and obesity- the police may not be great at maintaining fitness standards, but they do have minimal rules to get in.

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