"It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you"

[Chun Liroy]

if peaceful protests actually produced results, rioting wouldn't be a thing (other than those savage people who destroy property and local businesses after that guy they watched on tv lost the surf competition). fuck the media, let's look at it as it is.

Rioting wouldn't be a thing except for that time those white people lost some hackey.

[Sho]

That's nobody's fault but the people as a whole. The media is a business, rather than a service to inform people. If people think peaceful protesting is boring and don't watch it, it's not going to get aired. If that shit got the most ratings, it'd be whats covered on every channel. All the people who change the channel on a peaceful protest and tune in to every riot are the reason why it doesn't get aired.

It only reaffirms the world we live in. A world where common human decency is second place to corporate gains.

I find it more unfortunate that when it's all said and done, everything will return to status quo and this moment in time will simply fade into obscurity.

[Cream Soda]

So you think that news channels being a business rather than a service to inform people ISN'T a problem?

Would depend on their formatting really. Idk where they get their money from. Are they fully independent businesses? or are they "non profit organizations" or a gvt entity? If they're a personal, independent business, then no, it's not a problem. That's not their job. If it's one of the latter two, then yea, I'd consider that an issue.

[Chun Liroy]

It only reaffirms the world we live in. A world where common human decency is second place to corporate gains.

I find it more unfortunate that when it's all said and done, everything will return to status quo and this moment in time will simply fade into obscurity.

Return to status quo and then just occur again in 6 months. We'll hooplah about it for a week and then rinse repeat. It's a stupid fucking cycle that's going to come to a head sooner or later.

[Chun Liroy]

Would depend on their formatting really. Idk where they get their money from. Are they fully independent businesses? or are they "non profit organizations" or a gvt entity? If they're a personal, independent business, then no, it's not a problem. That's not their job. If it's one of the latter two, then yea, I'd consider that an issue.

Let me put it this way, I believe that black people in ghettos sometimes don't help themselves to improve their situation. HOWEVER, I am a believer in that the "system" is worked in such a way that it makes it unbelievably difficult for them to improve their lives. It's working against them to keep them poor, and perpetuates the ghetto and impoverished lifestyle within their communities.

The media does the exact same thing to perpetuate this. It seems like every few days there's another black man gunned down by police, and hey! guess what? The police do some shady shit and they get away with it. You don't hear about that on the news. The second a little white girl goes missing, there is 24 hour coverage dedicated to it. Do you see what I'm getting at?

[Xantavia]

It only reaffirms the world we live in. A world where common human decency is second place to corporate gains.

I find it more unfortunate that when it's all said and done, everything will return to status quo and this moment in time will simply fade into obscurity.

I think people rioting is part of the reason people will forget again. A legitimate issue comes to light, people riot and it gets coverage. The riots end, and so people think the issue is resolved. The reactions in the community become the story, instead of what sparked the incident in the first place.

[Xantavia]

The second a little white girl goes missing, there is 24 hour coverage dedicated to it. Do you see what I'm getting at?

As a white person, this pisses me off too. As if attractive white females are the only ones that matter.

[Cream Soda]

I see what you're saying, but again, as long as they're a private business (and I don't keep up w/ that shit, so if they aren't then disregard), then whether I agree with their decisions or not, they are theirs to make. And idk, word spreads pretty quickly now days. Every time there is a black man gunned down, I know about it pretty quickly, and I haven't owned a television since about 2006.

[Melena]

Well, in the nature of discussion, what sort of changes do you think we need to improve conditions and public safety for everyone, as well as transparency. Obviously, cost aside, body cameras are a huge thing and I'm hoping these situations will start to cause more agencies to use them. I also do believe there should be people that are not affiliated with law enforcement involved with IA's.

To go along with that, there should be more community outreach programs involving local government, first responders and local communities, as well as more money available for education and after school programs. It's not much, but a few small steps could hopefully lead to some much needed changes.

[Chun Liroy]

I see what you're saying, but again, as long as they're a private business (and I don't keep up w/ that shit, so if they aren't then disregard), then whether I agree with their decisions or not, they are theirs to make. And idk, word spreads pretty quickly now days. Every time there is a black man gunned down, I know about it pretty quickly, and I haven't owned a television since about 2006.

I think the first part is semantics and irrelevant.

The second part is exactly what I'm saying. You don't watch television, but you know about it through social media. The news doesn't talk about this shit, that doesn't mean other people don't.

[Chun Liroy]

Well, in the nature of discussion, what sort of changes do you think we need to improve conditions and public safety for everyone, as well as transparency. Obviously, cost aside, body cameras are a huge thing and I'm hoping these situations will start to cause more agencies to use them. I also do believe there should be people that are not affiliated with law enforcement involved with IA's.

To go along with that, there should be more community outreach programs involving local government, first responders and local communities, as well as more money available for education and after school programs. It's not much, but a few small steps could hopefully lead to some much needed changes.

I think body cameras do nothing until the DAs are completely separated from police. Who cares who is watching or who's fault it is when there are no repercussions. I agree with the rest. Police need to not make themselves the enemies, and community outreach should help that. Unfortunately in impoverished areas, the police are not well staffed nor paid well enough to do things like this.

[Cream Soda]

Which was my point. Word gets around when it needs to. The only issue with television are the people who support the programming. If they didn't get ratings, they'd either change what they reported on or go out of business. While I think they should be able to air w/e they want, they aren't entitled for people to support them. I certainty don't. If they're getting millions of views, then the millions of viewers are as much to blame as the station itself

[Chun Liroy]

Which was my point. Word gets around when it needs to. The only issue with television are the people who support the programming. If they didn't get ratings, they'd either change what they reported on or go out of business. While I think they should be able to air w/e they want, they aren't entitled for people to support them. I certainty don't. If they're getting millions of views, then the millions of viewers are as much to blame as the station itself

So, white america.

[notorious bum]

The news answers to their corporate holders and respective interests, first. This includes merchants of war (unreported 'experts' on the payroll of war contractors), the prison industrial complex (racism/xenophobia, disproportionate coverage of violence, disproportionately PoC), and finally whatever partisan agenda that station prefers to sway on governmental issues, which best suits their corporate masters.

[Melena]

That sadly goes into the whole budget issue. First things that always get cut when there's a deficit is education and public safety. Right after I got hired in the Sheriff's office, they had to cut about 20 million from the budget. A hiring freeze was immediately put in place, then vacant positions that needed to be restaffed were closed. Then came the cuts to staffing for community outreach programs, as well as programs to help rehabilitate low level offenders in jail to help them get a GED/High School diploma as well as lower recidivism rates. And at the same time this was going on, unions giving up contractual pay raises and such, county board of supervisors gave them all a nice 10% raise for "saving money". Local and state governments are just as much to blame for a lot of these problems as everything else.

As for body cameras, they sadly are only as useful as they are used. If they can be manually turned off at any time, they are useless. As for DA's being in the police pockets, that's not always the case. At least out here, it's all very political and they have no qualms about fucking someone over to make themselves look better for a possible election. A couple years ago, we had a deputy who was arrested and charged with raping his ex girlfriend. Guy rotted in jail for a few months, people screaming and bitching that he was on paid administrative leave. Eventually it was revealed that the whole rape was fake and the girl fabricated it to get back at him for dumping her. Luckily he had a job to go back to, but over zealous DA wanting to make a name for himself just deemed him guilty right off the bat.

Mehsherle is another whole can of worms. Should have been charged with Manslaughter from the beginning, but DA caved to public pressure, brought him up on Murder 1, and fell flat on his face when the jury found him guilty of manslaughter as it should have been. Even other bay area cops said it should have been manslaughter and the DA let it turn into a bigger media circus then it should have been. But that's politics in the bay area. Cater to whoever will give you a vote, fuck anyone else.

[Guitarman]

The media does the exact same thing to perpetuate this. It seems like every few days there's another black man gunned down by police, and hey! guess what? The police do some shady shit and they get away with it. You don't hear about that on the news. The second a little white girl goes missing, there is 24 hour coverage dedicated to it. Do you see what I'm getting at?

I understand the point you're trying to make, but if you really can't see the difference between the two you're completely blind.

[Chun Liroy]

The difference being that black lives matter less than white little girl lives?

[notorious bum]

The amount of missing black girls/women in this country is staggering, along with the disproportionate coverage we have become accustomed to seeing.

http://mic.com/articles/93780/64-000...hing-in-common

The numbers: Despite representing 12.85% of the population, black Americans accounted for nearly 226,000 — or 34% — of all missing persons reported in 2012. According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, the comparison with other racial groups is unfavorable: Whites and Hispanics are a combined 80.1% of the population, but account for 60% of missing persons.

[notorious bum]

Another teacher confirming that police entrapped students and stoked the flames: http://gawker.com/those-kids-were-set-up-1700716306

[Gokku]

Another teacher confirming that police entrapped students and stoked the flames: http://gawker.com/those-kids-were-set-up-1700716306

best quote:

white America is now shocked that a CVS was burned down and a baseball game postponed, so they don’t give a FUCK about the man killed in police custody.