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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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In this NYT article, race isn't mentioned, so I assumed it was either a black-on-black or black-on-white killing, but apparently it was white-on-black! It's unusual for the NYT to not mention race in such a situation. Could it be that they're finally downplaying all races in their

crime reporting, and not just the ones that it's offensive to speak negatively about? That sounds too good to be true, but I want to believe.

The only things we know that aren't wish casting is the guy who was restrained had an active felony warrant for assault out for him, and "40 interactions with police", whatever that means. We also know a black, a hispanic and a white spontaneously bonded into a group to restrain this guy over whatever he was doing.

I have few thoughts about how this will shake out in court. But I'm on team "They made the world a better place by one unit" no matter the legal outcome.

Edit: Actually, I noticed a third thing. You know what we usually hear in one of these videos? A crowd of people shouting "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" "STOP IT!" "YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" We hear none of that. Presumably everyone around saw what went down and thought to themselves "Yeah, that's about right."

So far as I know, there has been exactly zero progress towards a permanent cure for schizophrenia, or towards some treatment or procedure which, administered in childhood, would prevent its appearance.

In my opinion, it is this (as well as some way to switch off the "addictive personality" which deserves as much of a research budget as can be managed. Once these defective brains can be fixed, once and for all rather than with a pricy drug which must be taken every day and has nasty side effects, then our cities can be livable again.

To be honest, I don't expect this within my lifetime, perhaps not within a hundred years. But it must be possible.

I didn't KNOW that there were 3 guys, let alone that only one of them was white! Damn!

I have few thoughts about how this will shake out in court.

My thoughts are that with what's apt to qualify as a "jury of my peers" in New York City, I'd be thinking very hard about whether I have a way to quickly move to a country that won't extradite.

Yeah. You saw my claim below about what the legally correct thing to do in this situation is. Here's a commenter from NYMag asserting basically the same thing, and he clearly things it's a good thing:

It’s basically New York law that if you encounter someone on the train that is mentally unwell and/or unhoused that you either help or you walk away.