In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In VA, the police raided me (for Reub)

[dualstow]

(In the context of the latest lone offender / terrorist attack)
"Still worried about bad cops?"
- Reub

More than before, Reub. More than ever before.
This is a good one.

I had conducted the same kind of raid on suspected bombmakers and high-value insurgents. But the Fairfax County officers in my apartment were aiming their weapons at a target whose rap sheet consisted only of parking tickets and an overdue library book.
..
When I later visited the Fairfax County police station to gather details about what went wrong, I met the shift commander, Lt. Erik Rhoads. I asked why his officers hadn’t contacted management before they raided the apartment. Why did they classify the incident as a forced entry, when the information they had suggested something innocuous? Why not evaluate the situation before escalating it?
Rhoads defended the procedure, calling the officers’ actions “on point.” It’s not standard to conduct investigations beforehand because that delays the apprehension of suspects, he told me.

--Alex Horton

http://wapo.st/1Ix9knY

[Libertarian666]

Sounds like karma to me.

[dualstow]

Sounds like karma to me.

That's a rather glib reply. Two wrongs* don't make a right, and don't see a lot of karma reaching the policemen.

*Using the term loosely here. Let's accept that you don't approve of the soldier's raids in Iraq.

[Reub]

A few rogue cops or bad decisions doesn't nearly equate to the risk to this country for Islamic terrorists or even Mexican drug cartels. Sorry.

[dualstow]

A few rogue cops or bad decisions doesn't nearly equate to the risk to this country for Islamic terrorists or even Mexican drug cartels. Sorry.

I agree, but if this forum has convinced me of one thing, it's that the militarized police problem is much more widespread than a few rogue cops.
I mean, you can't wave away starvation as a dire problem because a lack of oxygen is more serious. They're both something that absolutely needs to be dealt with.

[Reub]

Yes. As well as homelessness, bad roads, rogue teachers,, MRSA, jock itch, taxes that are too high. All of these are problems that need to be dealt with. Just not on the same level with existential threats.

[Stewardship]

A police state is an existential threat.

[Reub]

A few incidents that are not coordinated does not make for a police state. Now if you told me and could prove that there is a national or international group of ruthless killers that are promoting encouraging training and financing cops to go out and kill innocent people in a systematic manner then that would be an entirely different matter. Can't you see the difference?

[moda0306]

A few incidents that are not coordinated does not make for a police state. Now if you told me and could prove that there is a national or international group of ruthless killers that are promoting encouraging training and financing cops to go out and kill innocent people in a systematic manner then that would be an entirely different matter. Can't you see the difference?

Now this might piss some people off, but those "promoting, encouraging, training and financing "cops" to kill innocent people" is called the U.S. populace, and, as an extension of their priorities, the U.S. military.  Of course, it's more complex than that, with our national security state existing in a realm of mis/dis-information to said populace, but when we complain more about Duck Dynasty and Dukes of Hazzard being taken off the television than being lied to by our government about most things national security, we don't get to claim complete ignorance.

[Reub]

So police have killed 544 people this year?  How many people have been killed by non-police?

[Pointedstick]

So police have killed 544 people this year?  How many people have been killed by non-police?

The question more appropriate to the dichotomy you're setting up might be, "How many Americans have been killed by ISIS this year?"

[Libertarian666]

So police have killed 544 people this year?  How many people have been killed by non-police?

The question more appropriate to the dichotomy you're setting up might be, "How many Americans have been killed by ISIS this year?"

No, you aren't allowed to point that out! What are you trying to do, introduce sanity into this discussion?

[Reub]

I noticed that you didn't ask the question how many people worldwide have been killed by Isis this year.

[Pointedstick]

I noticed that you didn't ask the question how many people worldwide have been killed by Isis this year.

Bluntly, how is it relevant to America if non-Americans are killed by religious wackos 6,000 miles away whose goals are so nightmarish that they have succeeded in turning basically everyone in their local vicinity hostile?

[Libertarian666]

I noticed that you didn't ask the question how many people worldwide have been killed by Isis this year.

How many people have been killed worldwide by the US in the last 50 years? I'm sure the number is orders of magnitude larger than ISIS's totals.

But of course that's different!