Trump's 'Safe Policing' Executive Order Does Nothing To Address The Root Causes Of Police Misconduct
from the admin-staff-apparently-paid-by-the-word dept
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order in response to protests around the nation triggered by the cold-blooded killing of a black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
To be fair, it's much more restrained than the law enforcement-focused directive Trump released shortly after being elected. That one -- sent out under the misleading title "Law and Justice" -- basically told America disliking cops was wrong and possibly per se Unamerican. Here's a direct quote from the administration's opening shitpost, which has since been disappeared from the White House's site:
President Trump will honor our men and women in uniform and will support their mission of protecting the public. The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.
True to his word, President Trump has continued to honor America's cops, even when America's cops have shown they don't deserve the public's undying (or dying as it were...) support, much less the Leader of the Free World's. But the administration must know the public isn't buying what Trump is pushing on the cop front. It has buried this page and hit the archived version with a transitional popup directing users away from the Internet Archive's saved versions. Nasty stuff indeed and something that shows the administration will back the blue the most when the blue isn't embarrassing itself (and the administration) publicly.
Forced into doing something else than donning a Blue Lives Matter cheerleader outfit, Trump and his team have released a new executive order -- one promising to reform police departments from the outside using [checks Order] some paperwork cops will probably never fill out completely.
First, the order says cops are mostly good:
Law enforcement officers provide the essential protection that all Americans require to raise their families and lead productive lives. The relationship between our fellow citizens and law enforcement officers is an important element in their ability to provide that protection. By working directly with their communities, law enforcement officers can help foster a safe environment where we all can prosper.
Then it says some (but not very many!) are bad:
Unfortunately, there have been instances in which some officers have misused their authority, challenging the trust of the American people, with tragic consequences for individual victims, their communities, and our Nation. All Americans are entitled to live with the confidence that the law enforcement officers and agencies in their communities will live up to our Nation’s founding ideals and will protect the rights of all persons. Particularly in African-American communities, we must redouble our efforts as a Nation to swiftly address instances of misconduct.
So, how does the administration plan to address these instances of misconduct? Through reporting, mostly. There's nothing in here that's even remotely daring -- not like the Democrats likely-doomed plan to end qualified immunity and increase the likelihood of success when prosecuting bad cops.
The order says cops must have more credentials. Specifically named are de-escalation procedures and and use-of-force techniques. This doesn't include a chokehold ban, but that's likely because this sort of ban would have to be implemented at state level. However, it does make federal funding reliant on a chokehold ban, but it leaves a large loophole for cops to exploit.
…[P]rohibit the use of chokeholds — a physical maneuver that restricts an individual’s ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation — except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law.
Enter the "reasonably scared" cops who are too paralyzed in fear to do anything but choke someone to death. Not exactly the deterrent the current situation calls for.
But it does include a carrot, even if the administration isn't willing to cut a switch. Local departments will only be able to obtain certain federal funds if they are implementing these directives or "in the process" of seeking approved credentialing. The latter suggests cop shops can get federal money just by filling out procedural paperwork in lieu of actual credential work in perpetuity (or until the next regime change anyway).
A database of police misconduct will also be constructed, but it will be of very limited public utility.
The database described in subsection (a) of this section shall include a mechanism to track, as permissible, terminations or de-certifications of law enforcement officers, criminal convictions of law enforcement officers for on-duty conduct, and civil judgments against law enforcement officers for improper use of force. The database described in subsection (a) of this section shall account for instances where a law enforcement officer resigns or retires while under active investigation related to the use of force.
Here are the caveats. It won't be searchable. All information will be sanitized by the DOJ before publication, ensuring officers are separated from their misdeeds.
The Attorney General shall regularly and periodically make available to the public aggregated and anonymized data from the database…
Again, federal funds are tied to participation, but federal funds can be acquired in other ways that don't involve police departments sending out aggregated data for DOJ rinsing every so often. And while police departments will continue to release mugshots and personal info of those only accused of crimes, citizens won't be able to see even "anonymized" data on cops accused of crimes until they're "afforded fair process."
The order also won't demand cops decouple themselves from social problems they're ill-equipped to solve. There's no defunding proposal here, only a requirement that cops may eventually have to participate in some more training on handling these problems.
The Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services as appropriate, identify and develop opportunities to train law enforcement officers with respect to encounters with individuals suffering from impaired mental health, homelessness, and addiction…
The funding for this is discretionary but involves a tug-of-war between the Department of Health and Human Services and the DOJ. Who would win? The department the president thinks is partially responsible for the supposed coronavirus "panic?" Or the "law and order" side Trump always takes when the general sad state of policing is highlighted in the press?
The only confirmation you need that this mild "reform" effort won't actually do any serious reforming is the Sergeants Benevolent Association's (SBA) show of support for the new executive order. The administration burned a few hundred words budging the dial hardly at all and the SBA -- backer of the worst of the worst NYPD officers -- is happy to hear it. The SBA "commends" the White House for invoking a police-friendly dialog that suggests cops aren't really bad, they're just a little under-trained and underfunded.
This won't change anything. And that's exactly what this administration wants. The Trump Administration realized doing nothing wasn't an option. So it did as little as possible. Cops are still safe from accountability and transparency. All that hangs in the balance are unenumerated federal funds they can probably get by without. Business as usual with the veneer of change: that's the DC way.
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Filed Under: donald trump, executive order, police, police brutality, safe policing
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What are the odds Trump floats pardoning all police officers convicted of crimes committed on duty during his presidency before the November election?
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Well, one prevailing theory is that he really didn't want the presidency in the first place (he wanted a Hillary victory he could whine about for profit on right-wing media) and having finally found situations he can't grift himself out of would not want a second term, so the idea he'd do something to sabotage his reelection like that is not out of the question
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I could see how that might have been true the first go around, but I suspect that at this point he will be trying to win, as the job has got to do wonders for a narcissist like Trump(cheering crowds at rallies, the power of being able to staff government agencies with toadies, being able to tell the press to shut up when they annoy him...), and Trump very much is not someone mentally capable of admitting that he lost.
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I'm not for that. I'm for this: Let's pardon all US citizens that shoot leftists in the head, repeatedly. I mean shoot. Let's shoot them full of US values, US tradition, US culture and US RESPECT FOR POLICE! LET'S SHOOT ALL THOSE COMMIE LEFTIEST ASSHOLES FULL OF AMERICAN IDEAS AND AMERICAN IDEOLOGY! TRY TO STOP US! YOU CAN'T!!! YOU CAN'T!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
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Then you wonder why people think you're psychopath who probably should not have access to the weapons you will likely use for the next mass shooting, the likes of which never happens in civilised countries...
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Look, you're obviously british. The whole 9 yards of british. You can't see how disgusting you are to Americans. The last time we had to explain it we used the pointy end of a rifle with bayonet. Let's do that again, metaphorically. Talk more shit, asshole. Tell us how superior your British opinion is to that of a real red blooded American. Say it, for everyone to hear. I will cap your ass with a blue hat. I'm American, you are a faggot foreigner. Cry about it, please, you have many times before. Your tears are delicious, faggot. You're a lady in drag, aren't you?
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Why the homophobia? Bitter that Trump's guy just guaranteed them human rights?
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I take it you are one of those booger boys - amirite?
Myself and many others are more than a bit curious ... what are your beliefs, who are you going to kill and more importantly - why.
As if I would get the truth ... lol
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Fair question. Killing people is not a good thing. Unless they're bad people, of course, then it's good for society. Saves a lot of money feeding them and such other bullshit which they don't really need.
So, who are the bad people? Well, that's more complicated. Do they run from police? That's bad. Do they resist arrest? That's bad, too. Do they try to beat police to death with physical violence? OK, another strike. Do they point weapons at police with the clear intent to cause them bodily injury? Ok, then maybe that's enough reason to shoot them.
What do you think?
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The booger boys are there to counter protest people that are protesting the slaughter, this implies that the booger boys are pro slaughter. They want the slaughter to continue unabated, I assume.
Now, it is difficult to determine what, if any, benefit is obtained for the booger boys, perhaps they are just useful idiots?
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Interesting as a choke hold takes several seconds, or longer to incapacitate someone, and if you have that time, no ones life is in immediate danger, other that the person being choked.
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Well, and perhaps the person doing the choking, when you're a Police Officer, and you NEVER KNOW when some CRIMINAL ELEMENT ASSHOLE might be watching you choke his FRIEND or his ACQUAINTANCE or THEY DON'T FUCKING CARE and they KILL YOU and CUT YOU INTO PIECES and FEED YOU TO THE LEFTIE CROWD that is HUNGRY in PORK! Oh, wait, not Pork, it's something like that. PACIFIST. No, that's not it. CHOP! NOT PORK! NOT PORK CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! FEED THEM PIGS IN A BLANKET! FRY 'EM UP!
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This is just more paper in a drawer.
This is just more paper on a wall.
With a loophole big enough to drive a funeral procession through.
Doing nothing.
Useless, even if the underlying data were accurate, But, of course, there is no way to verify even that, so this is just more wasted bits on a rusty disk.
Tells you all you need to know, right there.
I'm not sure this even qualifies as a "veneer of change." After all, veneer is a layer of real wood, just very thin. This is more like Saran™ Wrap: completely transparent and applied with the object of preserving "as is" that which it is covering.
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I don't think this qualifies as news. Who expected trump to do anything more than come up with another pr stunt?
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Right. That last PR stunt really stung, didn't it? I mean when he won the election. The election by the American People, but LEFTIE GLOBALIST ASSHOLES that Frequent THIS SITE! PR STUNT!?!?! That's the FUCKING PRESIDENT of the UNTIED STATES, WHICH RULES THE WORLD! FOR ALL TIME! GET USED TO IT! BLM, my ass. BLM is so OVER! No one likes BLM. Fucking Black People DOn't even LIKE BLM! FUCK BLM!
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I thought his last PR stunt stunk rather than stung, as did most everyone else on this planet that had the misfortune of hearing about it. And then - of course - he lied about it.
btw, I do not believe your fake ranting as I think you are simply an immature troll.
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Ok, Mr. Equivocal, that seems to have NOTHING to SAY. I have to imagine WTF you are talking about, why again? Because you have NOTHING TO SAY? Could that be it?
Did you see the markets today? WOW! I love this President. WE ARE ALL GOING TO GET RICH! FUCK BLM! GET RICH INSTEAD!
One way in the election: BLM RULES
The other way in the election: I AM RICH, my FAMILY is RICH, and I AM LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!
Choices, Choices.
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One trick pony
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And like I said the last time somebody trotted out this line: neither is "Phoenix is hot in June," but my paper still reports the weather.
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The fact that all the current US president did in response to mass protests against systemic police brutality and murders is a PR stunt very much is news, even if it isn't at all surprising.
Sometimes what you don't do is just as worthy of attention, if not more at times, as what you do.
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Let me Tell you the Reason for Police Misconduct - FUCKING CRIMINALS!
Are you ready to Police your Fellow Citizens?
If not, then STFU!
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Yeah, we need to get the criminals out of uniform, glad you're on the same page.
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Yessireesir, that sounds right to me. Some percent of policemen are craven criminals. My life experience, for example. When I was in college, I was fucking this older lady with a really great ass. And her husband was a Policeman! Yes, he was. Homicide detective. But let me tell you one thing - when I was fucking her in my basement apartment, and I was imagining that he might burst in through my basement window and kill both of us in a blaze of bullets from his many weapons, WOW was that good sex! Sex and death, baby, that's the real turn-on.
Wait, what were you saying? Take policemen out of uniform? Right! You and me, buddy, we're on the same page. And I haven't fucked your wife (yet), so what do you say, let's JOIN UP with the Local BLM Police (do they take white guys?)
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How incredibly boring.
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OMG, do I know you? I swear I've seen you before. Are you a CRITIC? Really? Here? On the leftie tunnel vision special network?
Boring?
ME?
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have evidence to the contrary. I will win any battle that you choose to engage in. Pussy.
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Except the battle of not being boring.
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OK, you win the boring award.
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You sound like the only battle you would accept or win is whacking off to a mirror.
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We already saw what happened when you claimed to win the "Shiva Ayyadurai invented email" battle.
And what happen when you claimed to win the "Richard Liebowitz will sue anyone who disagrees with him" fight.
You're firing blanks, Hamilton.
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Dude is right up there with "David Mabus". Needs close supervision and help.
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The problem isn't criminals. The problem is the treatment of people who have not yet been convicted of a crime by a court of law as per their constitutional rights to due process.
There is a problem with the treatment of convicted criminals in the US as well, but the execution if black men who haven't been convicted is not part if that.
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OMG, you are so wise. PaulT, you know a LOT about the USA. You should RULE THE USA with your Infinitely Wise Wisdom!
Wait, are you another fucking brit speaking about something about which you know NOTHING? That could be it. don't we shoot assholes like you when you even attempt to appear in the US?
I'd like to take a metaphorically sharp instrument and PLUNGE it DEEPLY into your despicable black soul, if you had a soul, which you don't. You are such a deeply disturbed and obviously fake and disgustingly superior asshole that I want to Dance on your CHILDLESS GRAVE and SACRIFICE some ANIMALS at the ALTER of SATAN WHILE you BURN FOR ALL ETERNITY FOR YOUR LITERARY SINS!
Well,not really, but you know what I mean.
Your Friend,
Stephen T. Stone.
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It will always be a mystery why you think that the correct response to being told he's a psychopath it to confirm it beyond all question, but you do you. Unlike you, I believe you should have freedom if speech without the threat of deadly consequences.
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We already know that the police are fucking criminals.
Which means the police is breaking the law, which implies they also fuck themselves.
In other words, telling cops to go fuck themselves is redundant.
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Right! Let's YOU and ME go be cops, are you game? Or are you a leftie PUSSY that doesn't even know what a REAL LADY SMELLS LIKE?
Come on, man, grow some balls. YOU BE THE POLICE!
It's like marriage, man, like me and Paula. I'm the cop, I have the uniform, the cap, the stick, the WHOLE 9 YARDS! I have it all and SHE TAKES IT.
Wait, what? Oh yeah, you' re a non-fucking LADYBOY PUSSY PANSY LEFTIE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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This statement is redundant.
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I could write a script that trolls better than you do.
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Get fancy. Use botnik.
It'll be more entertaining, for sure.
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Hell, Baghdad Bob could use wolfram alpha or googlebot and come up with better argument lines than his current spate of all-cap "YOU SHOULD ALL DIE! Leftist! Liberal! wabble wabble!" hysterics.
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Trump's unable to lead.... in well anything
Trump has once again shown the world that he's unable to lead in anything that matters.
Trump has addressed one type of use of force, choke holds and nothing else. Even on that front he's left a police swat team sized hole. Trump's restriction on a use of force technique by the police is still allowed when an officer subjectively feels that his live is in danger. Which judging by how often our police forces in this country claim is the case must mean we have the most scared cops on the planet.
Of course Trump didn't speak about anything substantial, just one technique that he's heard about a lot recently (probably on Fox News). There's also the case of police running people over, and the ever popular shooting people. You know, shooting; beaten down homeless people, people sleeping in their beds, children, and the family dog. He might have mentioned something about that. Before I forget, there are the people fleeing cops, with or without a weapon.
Rayshard Brooks was running away from the police with a stolen taser. Remember, this is the same instrument that police have spent years swearing up and down is a non-lethal weapon (if you discount all those unfortunate cases of excited delirium of course). In the hands of a cop it's non-lethal, but in the hands of a young black man, well I am sure you can understand how it would magically transform into a lethal weapon.
If Trump was 0.01% of the President he thinks that he is in his own mind he would be backing the current Democratic bill in the House on police reform. He would express remorse, try to bring the country together and admit that the time has come for real reform in this country.
But who am I kidding. According to Trump, the real civil rights issue of our day, our year, our (large trumpian time span) is SCHOOL CHOICE. Yep, you heard that right. People have been matching in the streets (in the midst of a pandemic no less), not to protest systemic racism and a law enforcement that has oppressed people of all colors (non-whites most of all), but to protest for the right of elite members of society to siphon money from our public educational system (that provides the education for most of society) in order to subsidize the education of their already privileged children.
Of course, what was I thinking, it all makes perfect sense now.... not.
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Re: Trump's unable to lead.... in well anything
He also did not mention his booger boys getting in trouble.
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Re: Re: Trump's unable to lead.... in well anything
Ok, well, that's a strange comment. Did I mention that my dad was the state psychiatrist for the WHOLE state of Nebraska? Yup, that was him, with his crew cut and military manner and everything. Did you see Full Metal Jacket? Did you see that drill sergeant that got SHOT and KILLED by a MANIAC? That was my dad. Well, not really but he LOOKED LIKE and ACTED like my DAD! Can you imagine that? I did, for real, every day. So look, when you have a DAD like THAT, you LOVE TRUMP! I LOVE HIM! HE's great. What was your dad like? I'll bet he was different, because NORMAL SONS of MILITARY FAMILIES LOVE Trump! That's how he got elected! He's redistributing ALL THE WEALTH of the US to MEN LIKE ME and MY DADDY! (he's so good, I just love him) Trump, I mean. My dad sucked.
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Competent fathers enriching worthless sons... Yep, sounds like something Trump would be in support of!
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"Ok, well, that's a strange comment."
You would know.
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Re: Re: Re: Trump's unable to lead.... in well anything
Move your nose to the left!! You're blocking Hannity!
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I love that. Remember Seinfeld when they were in the gallery watching an operation and then Kramer tells the surgeon to move to the left and then he offers Seinfeld a junior mint and he says no and he says I know you want it and then they fight over it and the junior mint flies up in the air and ricochets off the ventilator and goes IN THE PATENT? I loved that episode. You mean like that?
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It went in the patent?
lol, does the patient now have to pay royalties?
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Hamilton's enough of a copyright fan that if he could engineer it, corpses would have to pay royalties for decomposing.
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Apparently, "safe policing" means "as long as the police are safe" ...still.
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Broken Policing Windows
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Dog Tubas
Aggressive strategies for tackling gang- and drug-related violence is still code for bringing the beatdown on blacks, browns and other undesirable minorities.
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Re: Dog Tubas
Hey, even you would agree with this. The root cause of crime is criminals. Eliminate criminals, problem solved, and the rest of us can go on with our lives. Institute capital punishment for resisting arrest, that'll take care of most of it. For the rest, burn the prisons after evacuating only the guards. There! Root cause addressed.
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???
I would agree with the root cause of crime is criminals?
No that's the math of simple apes who can't count their bananas.
The root cause of crime is law. Eliminate law and there are no crimes.
Rather than explain this in one go, Anonymous Coward I'm going to let you tell the class what we lose when we eliminate law.
I'm afraid without participation you might not follow.
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Re: ???
PS: Don't look it up in the Federalist Papers. That would be cheating.
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"The root cause of crime is criminals."
The same way lightning-struck trees cause thunder, you mean?
A "criminal" is someone who breaks the law. Ergo if the law is too restricting, more people become criminals. That, essentially, is why the law changes over time so that today black men walking around without slave brands and women discussing politics aren't criminal.
But you do you, Baghdad Bob. We've sort of given up on you ever managing to learn what should be obvious to anyone who successfully graduated from kindergarten.
I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised that you'd advocate that Shanghai, for instance, ought to "eliminate" people spitting on the sidewalk or have people in the US shot for dropping gum wrappers on the street. That's where your logic goes.
"For the rest, burn the prisons after evacuating only the guards."
Your suggestion that burning people alive is a suitable penalty for getting caught with a single weed cigarette in the wrong state is duly noted. Might I suggest that you'd be much happier moving to a place such as Iran or Saudi Arabia where the concept of law aligns closer to your opinion than that of the US?
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Not to nitpick, but...
“True to his word, President Trump has continued to honor America's cops...”
I dunno... more like “As usual, trump has continued to pander to America’s cops...”
The man “honors” one thing and one thing only... himself, and that’s it.
Everything else is a cheap carnival act designed to get people to buy tickets.
He’d turn on the lot of them in a nanosecond, like an rabid orange badger if they displeased him.
He says nice things to them because he wants his army of followers to be carrying as many guns as possible, so when he he squeals for their help they come running to his aid.
It’s purely transactional.
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right!
Techdirt writers are so right(wing)!
Its that bastard TRUMP!
(Certainly not these good people! militarizing, and sectarianizing US police!)
https://www.adl.org/who-we-are/our-organization/signature-programs/partnering-with-law-enfo rcement
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