Someone interviewed Dinesh D'Souza recently. Dinesh D'Souza, who besides being a wingnut liar has just been convicted of violating campaign finance law. Do you have any idea how hard it is to violate campaign finance law anymore? It's like running afoul of Bird Law.
You have to really want to set out to commit a crime to violate whatever scraps of campaign finance law still exists in this country.
At any rate, some idiot interviewed Dinesh D'Souza and he crapped out this gem:
“The common thread between ISIS and what’s going in Ferguson is you have these people who basically believe that to correct a perceived injustice, it’s perfectly okay to inflict all types of new injustices,” D’Souza said. “Behead guys who had nothing to do with it. Go and loot shops from business owners who were not part of the original problem whatsoever. And all of this is then licensed by the left and licensed to some degree by the media.”
Okay, so going forward, here is how journalists should handle someone like D'Souza:
When a ridiculous person says something ridiculous, just say: "You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you."
When you come in to work and find that your producer has booked Donald Trump and he starts telling you about his private investigators in Hawaii, just hold up your hand, look him right in the eye and say "You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you."
Think of the trouble that could have been avoided if, when Michele Bachmann first appeared on the scene and started babbling about investigating congress members with un-American ideas, the interviewer had simply said.
"You're a very silly woman and I'm not going to interview you."
When Lindsey Graham comes in to your studio with a list of reasons that we really really need to go to war with yet another country, just say
"You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you."
When Louie Gohmert or Steve King open their mouths to say anything,
"You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you."
So, if you're a cop, and you think maybe cops are getting a bad rap due to all the unarmed black guys they keep somehow killing and their generally thuggish behavior in Ferguson, what sort of an op-ed might you write?
Well, assuming you're not a moron, you probably wouldn't come out with something like this column in the Washington Post:
I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.
What the fuck? Are you sure this isn't the Onion?
Nope, WaPo!
Wow.
So who the fuck is this scumbag?
By Sunil DuttaAugust 19
Sunil
Dutta, a professor of homeland security at Colorado Tech University,
has been an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for 17 years.
The views presented here are his own and do not represent the LAPD or
CTU.
Really? The LAPD? The LAPD doesn't share this viewpoint? You sure?
A teenager is fatally shot by a police officer; the police are accused
of being bloodthirsty, trigger-happy murderers; riots erupt. This, we
are led to believe, is the way of things in America.
Well, yeah. All those things happened in America, so. . . yeah, I would say that this is the way of things in America.
It is also a terrible calumny; cops are not murderers.
Um, really?
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A
Utah police officer who killed his wife, their two children, his
mother-in-law and then himself received text messages from his wife just
hours earlier threatening to leave him and take their kids and
confronting him for raping her, new documents show.
Posted
Police Officer kills wife, son, himself in Boulder City
(CNN) -- A former policeman is on trial in Kansas,
accused of killing his wife and setting their home on fire more than two
years ago.
Well. . . .
Hardly Everrrr!!!
cops are not murderers. No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed.
Really? No officer? How many police officers are there in the US? I mean, there are about 2,000 in Atlanta and we're not even that big a city. So there must be several hundred thousand in America. And none of those cops are looking to shoot someone? Not one? You know how ridiculous people sound when they say that all cops are corrupt or all cops are thugs? Saying none of them are is just as ridiculous.
Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown, in the overwhelming
majority of cases it is not the cops, but the people they stop, who can
prevent detentions from turning into tragedies.
Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown? You do know a young man was killed, right? That's not some minor detail to be brushed aside. But regardless of your gross insensitivity, you sound like an abusive husband saying that it's his wife's responsibility to prevent him from getting upset enough to beat her up. In other words, you sound like a scumbag.
Working the street, I can’t even count how many times I withstood
curses, screaming tantrums, aggressive and menacing encroachments on my
safety zone, and outright challenges to my authority. In the vast
majority of such encounters, I was able to peacefully resolve the
situation without using force.
Why would you ever use force? There's no law against tantrums, curses or challenges. You're an American cop, not a member of Saddam's Republican Guard. You're not actually allowed to use force on people who hurt your feelings.
One time, for instance, my partner and I faced a belligerent man who had
doused his car with gallons of gas and was about to create a firebomb
at a busy mall filled with holiday shoppers. The potential for serious
harm to the bystanders would have justified deadly force. Instead, I
distracted him with a hook about his family and loved ones, and he
disengaged without hurting anyone. Every day cops show similar restraint
and resolve incidents that could easily end up in serious injuries or
worse.
Yes. There are many many good cops who do good work and are heroes. That doesn't excuse the ones who shoot unarmed kids for jaywalking, or choke a man to death for maybe selling cigarettes, ar kill a man holding a bb gun in Target. If you arrested Tony Soprano, would you listen to him tell you about all the Italians in New Jersey who weren't mobbed up? Would that make a difference? Because most Italians in New Jersey are not criminals does not mean that we should overlook the crimes of the Soprano family.
That's him, right?
Sometimes, though, no amount of persuasion or warnings work on a
belligerent person; that’s when cops have to use force, and the results
can be tragic. We are still learning what transpired between Officer
Darren Wilson and Brown, but in most cases it’s less ambiguous — and
officers are rarely at fault. When they use force, they are defending
their, or the public’s, safety.
No, we already know what happened. There were witnesses. It couldn't be less ambiguous. And if officers are rarely at fault, that does not excuse the ones who are.
Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line:
if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a
baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.
What?
Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t
stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me
and take away my badge.
Wait. You're saying that if I argue with you, ARGUE, you're gonna shoot me? You're gonna club me with your baton if I call you names? Where are you stationed, Tahir Square?
I am aware that corrupt and bully cops exist. When it comes to police
misconduct, I side with the ACLU: Having worked as an internal affairs
investigator, I know that some officers engage in unprofessional and
arrogant behavior; sometimes they behave like criminals themselves.
WHAT??? You just now said that you would behave like a corrupt bully if I argued with you! Threatening to throw me down and pepper-spray me if I call you names is pretty much the epitome of unprofessional and arrogant behavior.
And you don’t have to submit to an illegal stop or search. You can
refuse consent to search your car or home if there’s no warrant (though a
pat-down is still allowed if there is cause for suspicion). Always ask
the officer whether you are under detention or are free to leave. Unless
the officer has a legal basis to stop and search you, he or she must
let you go.
Unless that cop is you. Then you will tase me, pepper spray me, beat me and shoot me for daring to question your authority.
But if you believe (or know) that the cop stopping you is violating your
rights or is acting like a bully, I guarantee that the situation will
not become easier if you show your anger and resentment.
So, in other words, when your rights are being violated, you just smile and take it, bitch!
Save your anger for later, and channel it appropriately. Do what the
officer tells you to and it will end safely for both of you.
If you're white.
And not occupying anything.
Community members deserve courtesy, respect and professionalism from
their officers. Every person stopped by a cop should feel safe instead
of feeling that their wellbeing is in jeopardy. Shouldn’t the community
members extend the same courtesy to their officers and project that the
officer’s safety is not threatened by their actions?
Yeah, all you have to do is just put your hands up in the air, and. . . oh. . . Right. . . Never mind.
Eric Holder put out a sort of open letter to the people of Ferguson, MO today which seems to indicate that he does indeed have a pulse after all. Naturally, it was pathetic.
It includes such gems as:
The Justice Department will defend the right of protesters to peacefully demonstrate and for the media to cover a story that must be told.
Um, really? Then go ahead. Do some defending. Send in Federal Marshalls to keep the local cops from going all goon squad on peaceful protestors. Or, I don't know, do. . . something? Anything? It's easy to say "we defend the rights of protestors" it's like putting an "I support the troops" sticker on your car. It means nothing unless you do some actual supporting. So far, the justice department has done exactly nothing to support anyone's rights in Ferguson.
At the same time, good law enforcement requires forging bonds of trust between the police and the public. This trust is all-important, but it is also fragile. It requires that force be used in appropriate ways. Enforcement priorities and arrest patterns must not lead to disparate treatment under the law, even if such treatment is unintended.
Yes, the bond of trust is so fragile. So easily broken. I mean, you murder one defenseless kid, and all of a sudden people don't trust you anymore.
In order to begin the healing process, however, we must first see an end to the acts of violence in the streets of Ferguson. Although these acts have been committed by a very small minority — and, in many cases, by individuals from outside Ferguson — they seriously undermine, rather than advance, the cause of justice.
Hmm, and what about the police? Should they maybe also stop committing acts of violence? Or are the violent acts all being committed by this small minority of outsiders? Nope. Nowhere in the letter does Holder mention at all that the police are beating, gassing and shooting peaceful protestors and reporters (the people whose rights he pledges to support) on a nightly basis.
If this is what Holder comes up with when he does finally stir, I'd just a s soon he went back to being comatose.
This article ran this morning in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the headline
"Officials Trying to Learn From Tragedy."
By SHARON COHEN
The Associated Press
They've lined the streets with police in riot gear, brought in a new black commander with an empathetic manner, imposed a curfew, lifted it and deployed the National Guard. But violence is still erupting nightly in Ferguson, Missouri.
Yeah, wow, what a mystery. How could violence still possibly be erupting after all that? Gosh, no matter how many people we beat, tear-gas, and pelt with rubber-coated bullets, there still seems to be violence occurring!
And are we really going to pretend that the violence is not coming from the cops?
Yeah, these guys look like they're just trying to restore peace and order.
Let's see, one guy is armed with a rifle, the other with a posterboard sign.* Who do you think is instigating violence? Apparently, it's a mystery. At least to Sharon Cohen, who is officially part of the problem.
*And, now that I look closer, seems to be a lady wearing pajamas.
Gross ex-cop Bo Dietl was on some piece of crap show to defend a cop shooting an unarmed kid a bunch of times while his hands were raised, and this is what he came up with:
“When you’re in a shoot-out, and you’re firing away, and you stop, and you’re shooting the torso, you’re trying to stop somebody,” Dietl continued. “I don’t know how he got hit in the head, but bullets go that way. He was trying to stop this guy obviously.”
Um okayyyy. . .
That might be a valid point, maybe, if the cop had been in a shootout. Then, yeah, maybe you could say that bullets go every-which-way and hey, what are ya gonna do? but THERE WAS NO SHOOTOUT! Even the cop has never claimed that the kid had a gun. Do you know what a shootout is? There has to be at least two shooters, otherwise it's just someone getting gunned down.
Have you ever seen a Western movie? They have shootouts in them. Notice that there is always more than one shooter in every single one of these shootouts. Otherwise, it's just Wyatt Earp murdering all the Clantons while they try to surrender which would be a really shitty movie.
Hmm. . . or would it?
I know that for some reason (racism? Nah!) the same people who usually are wetting their pants over the specter of "Jack-Booted Government Thugs" feel the need to defend this particular government thug and his jack-booted compatriots who are militarizing a small Midwestern town, but holy fuck, Dietl, do you even listen to yourself? Are you even trying?
