Hahaha. Not saying you all can't comment. You just have no idea wtf your talking about. Most foreigners don't understand how things work in the USA. Ya I'm from PA.. wtf does that matter? I'm not for or against whats going on. But how many of you know what this is even about?
This happends in a country were "Dog:bounty hunter" walks about macing people every day with a can a size I use to water plants with...appearently it's legal. Actually its true especially for police officers. They're (supposed to be) trained in de-escalation, and aren't allowed "excessive force" in most countries. Most police chiefs will distance themselves from excessive behaviour very rapidly. No, mace is considered physical violence. a four Hour debate? In this country...yes. That or they carry them away. Providing protesters stay peacefull, violence will not start from the police side. (well, usually) That's easy...if done by americans for americans (even to americans) ...everything is okay. Waterboarding is not torture Keeping prisoners for a couple of years without charging them is not a crime Invading a country because daddy forgot to finish the job is not a war The funny thing is, the rest of the world shuts up and agrees...we're just as bad/good But I'm drifting off As i just stated Now that IS true. This does however imply that a certain percentage idiots get hired (as they are in all professions)
I have lived in the US for all of my life and have no idea what this is about, am I free to make completely blind comments? I occassionally find Bit-Tech's Serious patrons to be somewhat armchair revolutionists (government is completely inept, everything and everyone is corrupt, only the power of truth can save us all) but at least everyone has an equal chance of educating themselves on a topic and discussing it. Just watch the videos linked in the thread and read a couple articles online and you're at a reasonable level of information regardless of where you're from. Now, off to go inform myself on the subject...
First off you say we can't comment on it and they you deny saying we can't comment. Wtf? Now, last time I looked Pittsburgh PA was hundreds of miles away from New York. Are you saying it's the same place? If someone from out of town can understand what's going on and can comment on it, why are you saying that someone from another country can't? Given that the whole idea appears to be based on what happened in Egypt not so long ago, I think that's a pretty naive statement. Is it perhaps because most people in America don't understand that the rest of the world actually knows what goes on beyond their own borders while they have no idea themselves?
I'll just leave this here... http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/222251/20110929/anthony-bologna-nypd.htm
That article continues a common trend I've been seeing in videos and articles about the incident. The fact that the protestors who were maced are female is frequently noted or mentioned. From the article: Why mention they were female? No mention is made of this fact effecting or causing the incident, it should be completely irrelevant. Or from the first video in Stewb's post why take the extra time to specify that they were female protestors? It seems to have no bearing on the events. I can't help but assume that the answer is a very simple one: to provoke a stronger reaction. As if somehow the officers' actions were worse because it was women who they maced. Who cares if they were peacefully protesting and got maced (in my opinion, the larger issue of the two), what matters to readers and viewers is some poor defenseless girls got maced, even if she [hypothetically] deserved it. Though none I've seen have outright claimed sexism (and I don't think it plays in) it does make me wonder how different some reactions might be if the protestors were male, or if their sex wasn't mentioned as prevalently. As additional food for thought, if the protestors were male it'd be interesting to see how much more accepted the "they were asking for it" or "suck it up, it's only mace" arguments might be. And now you've just made the same kind of unfounded presumption which you were scolding him for in the first place.
Well, um, I said "most people in America", not all. If you did a straw poll of Americans, how many would be likely to have passports, read/watch news about other countries, or even care what happens outside their timezone? Seriously, how many Americans will have heard of Tahrir Square before last week?
I love how misinformed you are sp4nky. This has nothing to do with what happened in Egypt. Do you know what it means to be a "Free Market Economy"?
So you claim to know what knowledge of the world "most people in America" have? That just as impossible. You have your own perception of what "most people in America" know and assume that you are correct. You also chose some interesting ways to show interest in other countries. Passports? Only two countries can be accessed by land and Canada, at least by land, doesn't require them. Most destinations outside the two bordering countries involve intercontinental travel, a more expensive and time consuming prospect. And while Canada's fresh in our minds we should consider how many Canadians have passports, what with their one bordering country and all. They must know nothing of the world! Reading and watching news about other countries is another interesting point. What you're likely thinking of is world news, something which is covered on most local news stations. Reading and watching news about a specific country is a totally different affair. How interested are you in, say Peru? What do you know about it aside from what you're no doubt about to look up right now? And if something is to happen there, what will you care about it after things are settled? There's a large difference between world news and genuine interest in a country. One takes interest in current events regardless of location, one takes interest in location regardless of events. Timezones gave me a little giggle to be honest. Never heard that one brought up before! I guess any Americans outside the East coast who care about the behaviour of the NYPD are just fictional. I suppose that doesn't matter, though. Americans are all bithering idiots, South America as a whole is Brazil (which in turn is all bikinis on the beach with rainforest in the background), Africa and the Middle East are a collection of things which you surely know everything about and Asia is some unpopular place you don't care about which separates you from China. Europe, of course, is your center of the world (as America is mine). Why fight it.
An economy where it is encouraged that base human necessities such as health provision is left to profit seeking private companies. Who are in the knowledge that people who are severly sick or require emergency treatment tend to be geographically immobile, who are also in the knowledge that healthcare is a relatively price inelastic good (since it is a necessity at some point everybodies life) so can consistantly raise prices while still gaining profit. With interlinking economic and Social problems following that lead to market failiure. An economy which lets people borrow large sums of unsecure and secure debt on the basis that the prevailing economic theory is so stupid as to think all people make completely rational choices as to how much debt they can afford. An economy that thinks some of its most pervasive social problems can be effectively dealt with by private enterprise which are most concerned with creating profits for shareholdrs by any means within the law. Not saying the uk has a clean sheet its got 2/3 of those problems and will eventully have all 3/3
Now don;t get me wrong, there's clear evidence of Police brutality and heavy handedness. But Jesus this video really makes me lose sympathy, that girl is one of the most arrogant and annoying people I've ever heard 'we are here in peace' 'we represent the people'....yes of course you do, now shut up and try to actually assist the situation rather than agitating it. The protesters very much helped the police to foster a siege mentality....you get out hundreds of cameras and scream abuse at cops on a mass scale then they are gunna group together and protect their own. That's not condoning what they did, the police were in the wrong and should be able to rise above it...but the protesters there have a slice of blame to take themselves for not helping to defuse the situation when it started to go south.
Nothing to do with what happened in Egypt? Nothing at all? So the whole "occupy Wall Street" isn't anything like the occupation of Tahrir Square, where 50,000+ people centred their demonstrations against Mubarak. Not even similar? Do you know that Adbusters, the group that initially called for OWS, says they were inspired by the uprising in Tahrir Square? Have you even visited their website or read their blog? Also, do you know what it means to have a free market economy? Living in the protectionist USA, I doubt it. Do you know how many import levies you have, prohibiting free trade? Sure, they were introduced to "safeguard US jobs" but it's hardly free trade, is it?
Well watching that video, the abuse people where giving the police the police handled the situation well. Always the same sort of people that go to these peacefull protest and look for trouble with the police as they want to make a scene of police brutality. Police could do with some of these http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6297149.stm gets a crowd back pretty quick with no harm done to the protestors.
I seriously doubt that. We seem too busy jerking ourselves off over the good we've done in Libya to pay attention any other ongoing protests.