There is risk associated with the job, but they’re not obligated to be stabbed in the face to avoid shooting someone in self-defense. A fireman has a risky job, too, but a fireman is not obligated to burn alive. This was a tragic incident and the cops in the States are also way too violent and militarized, but try and…

I know this doesn’t fit your preferred narrative, but a knife is a lethal weapon - from a legal standpoint, as well as a practical one. A police officer is charged with doing a risky job to protect people from criminals, yes. A police officer is not obligated to get stabbed in the face by someone.

They should have used nonlethal force, but the shooting wasn’t murder. The video makes it abundantly clear that the cops only fired in self defense. Before you go on some kind of tirade about how it was just a swiss army knife - no. You try getting stabbed in the face by one and then come back and explain why an…

And since when is finding female photographers difficult?

Classic example of victim blaming. As in Weiner pretending to be a victim, and then blaming the minor he sexted.

Civil Asset Forfeiture is I guess what they’d call this? It’s basically a legalized shakedown, and is predicated on the presumption of guilt. It’s bullshit.

Having three houses still isn’t quite the same as being a multimillionaire investment banker / Hollywood producer / media mogul.

Gift cards are like money, only less versatile and generate more waste. Unless you’re getting some kind of discount on the gift card, might as well just give cash. The stigma against cash, which somehow still holds that gift cards are good, is a testament to just how brainwashed we are re: brand names and materialism.

As usual, you frame these stories in a way that is at once humorous but also chillingly stark. Good article. Funny thing is I hadn’t even really spent much time considering that major corporations should be the ones trying to cajole cities, not the other way around. It makes so much sense.

It’s okay. He decided that God forgives him. Also we shouldn’t have separated Church and state. In a theocracy, he never would have murdered people for their money.

Yeah. Sounds not so much like he’s taken responsibility for his actions, but that he’s decided to offload his guilt onto his ‘Lord and Savior’. Finding religion and deciding that God forgives you is not, in my eyes, legitimate rehabilitation. I don’t support the death sentence but if I were sitting on a parole board I…

I thought BLM just wanted cops to stop killing unarmed black people, and for fewer black people to be unjustly harassed or mysteriously end up dead after being booked overnight. Did I misunderstand their purpose?

When Katrina hit Louisiana it was a Category 3. Weaker than a Cat 4, which in turn is weaker than a Cat 5.

They should also make your character post extremely snarky things about white people on Kinja blogs.

Whether or not she’s racist she’s definitely has a chip on her shoulder. Likely racist and sexist (against men) as well. Just a hunch.

A friend of mine met Gaga and ended up striking up a bit of a friendship, meeting her a few times at different shows over the years and hanging out backstage. She claims Gaga is just the coolest and really cares about her fans. Not what I’d expect from a high profile pop star!

Cat4 - Cat5, direct impact, you’re most likely going to lose your roof unless it’s some heavy duty metal shit bolted onto high-density concrete walls and foundation. Timber homes in an impact of that magnitude are TOAST regardless.

I’m from Polk County. Sheriff Judd openly advocates for the deportation of immigrants who are found guilty of felonies - however, these tweets aren’t part of some larger effort to ‘deport people’. Judd has always been a hardass when it comes to crime and criminals. His stance on immigration is largely tied to his…

You can’t breathalyze for it, but you can do a saliva swab test for it. They’re doing this right now in Australia, and while the goal is to catch people who are driving while high, the tests can actually detect usage within ~12 hours.

Long story short, a number of longstanding factors have led to our police being increasingly militarized and our rights being steadily eroded, even as actual violent crime rates have decreased. There are many areas ripe for review / reform, from how we equip police, to how we handle abuse of power / excessive force,…