Preach it, Charles.

Word!

Hi Charles-

Was there a better link for "cheap economy"?

It just went to the Eric Garner post.

@3...

I LOOOOVE Seattleblues!

Such a reliably self obsessed, racist, misanthropic, misogynistic, anti-life asshole...

...rock on brother!

Damn Chuck normally your views contradict mine but I think that you are very spot on here. The deaths of Brown and Garner run a little deeper and are more than just cops being "racist" but there is no denying that the police forces in America are using tickets as revenue sources to offset budget cuts and in many cases that increase to ticket people leads to a general animosity towards those that are meant to protect and serve.

Spot on Charles

You're going to turn this into a feature, right?

Nicely done done, Chucky! I mean, the tinfoil hat king Sgt Doom agrees with you, so you MUST be right. You know, or just plumb crazy...

Absolutely spot on.

Andrew Sullivan cited a piece that talked about the "cheap" cop problem, in that those cops with a college degree (and therefore, I assume, paid more) had much fewer disciplinary actions against them then those without one. Unless we pay our civil servants salaries that are comparable to the private sector, we should expect to get crap results.

In my own, very anecdotal observation, I think you can see this difference between the Washington State Patrol and local police. The State Patrol usually seem way more professional (they're mostly paid more, and I'm pretty sure have much higher requirements for employment, like a college degree).

Anyway, the idea of the mall economy as a microcosm of society, seems to ring true. The soap is being watered down everywhere to the detriment of all of us.

@12,



Cops make good money. I'm willing to bet they're among the highest paid civil servants by virtue of their unions, which also ensure they can't be fired, and the law and order mentality in the U.S. over the past 30 years.



Even firefighters, who I'm also willing to bet receive more widespread support from the public at large, and especially EMTs don't get paid as much. Most firefighters in the U.S. work on a part-time or unpaid volunteer basis, and EMTs make slightly above minimum wage despite the fact that they need specialized training (that they pay for themselves).

This is The Stranger's only attempt to date to defend the appropriation of black outrage by white anticapitalist radicals.

Aww, poor Chuckles couldn't handle facts. So again- your angelic dead child was dumb enough to try to take a law enforcement officials gun. It's sad his juvenile stupidity resulted in his death, that he made a fatal error as opposed to his apparent usual delinquency. But the officer did what any rational person would do. It isn't economic. It isn't racism. It isn't any i f your usual excuses for bad choices or bad behavior.



Ask yourself, Chucky. If your case were put before a grand jury and no indictment resulted, would you want respect for the courts and the rule of law? Or do those things apply on a case by case basis?

Nailed it, Charles!

@15: "If your case were put before a grand jury and no indictment resulted, would you want respect for the courts and the rule of law? Or do those things apply on a case by case basis?"

That's funny. When the Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was constitutional, you didn't care about respect for the courts and the rule of law, because it was a ruling you disagreed with. And instead of simply denouncing the ruling and vowing to get the law changed, you decided you were going to break the law because you disagreed with it.

If people who disagree with the grand jury decision followed your lead, they'd be imposing vigilante justice on the officer involved. You talk up the "rule of law" plenty, but seem to consider yourself above it, you raging hypocrite.

@13 Cops may make good money in Seattle or other major cities with strong unions, but here in the South, the pay is for shit. I live in a small down in Louisiana where the starting salary for a member of the police force is about $20,000. Not much incentive to put one's life on the line for that kind of money. Not surprisingly, it is hard to attract, and even harder to keep, good people on the force.

@17 SB is also against the rule of law when courts rule in favor of LGBT rights or marriage equality.

So he's for the rule of law, except when he isn't.

Subhumanblues takes willful ignorance to a militant level.

Yes to most of this.

But it's racism, not poverty, that killed these black kids. The fact is, poor white kids aren't being hunted down by cops like this, likely because many of those cops grew up among poor whites.

The rising economic tide drowns most boats.
If thing keep going this way we're going to end up like Britian... full of cameras and a paternalistic police state.

And it's really ridiculous isn't it: Because there are people who want to work, can and do work, and there is plenty of work to be done, good work too. But the banking rules and actions around what we use as 'money' will fuck us every time, bcz everyone needs to be cheap, especially those who profit the most.

http://www.seattle.gov/policejobs/benefi…



I don't think a starting salary for a rookie cop of 70K a year is cheap.

it could be economic, but that doesn't explain the us vs them mentality fostered in police forces, military grade weaponry that's being handed out at an alarming rate, and the voluntary reporting system in place that tracks civilian deaths and shootings done by police. then there is civil asset forfeiture which cops abuse to steal from people under weak pretenses. it's a hard job but the police routinely break laws they are hired to uphold, abuse people and get away with murder, because they are privileged not because they are suffering from economic hardships