• Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I find that title to be wholly innaccurate.

    There were also women on the force, so it was 376 boys and girls in blue sat around and let 19 kids and 2 teachers die.

    Well, 375. There was that one asshole who shouted “Do you need our help?” to which a hiding child responded “Yes we need help!” and was subsequently shot by the gunman

    That person actively caused a child to die.

    • BassaForte@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Don’t forget the one cop that wanted to help but was held back and prevented from entering (I think his wife was a teacher or something)

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      “do you need help?”

      “Nah we’re good, call back next week maybe”

      What kind of idiotic ass fucking question was that?

    • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      boys and girls in blue

      How about we clarify that as: little boys and little girls in blue.

      Altho TBF, women in blue are typically at the bottom of the chain, and almost certainly deserve the least amount of critique here, whilst the highest ranking dudes unquestionably deserve all the shit in the world for directly ordering their forces not to make any meaningful attempt.

        • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Right on.

          Now this is just personal anecdote-- but one thing I’ve always been pretty surprised by (as a person with fairly severe health issues, haha not sure how that totally influences thigns) is how, when there’s a local emergency, the adrenaline just hits me and I spring in to action (as much as I can) to help out.

          Par example, three times now I’ve survived bad fires that way, and after comparing notes with an old friend over Uvalde, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that both of us felt the same way-- that we wouldn’t have been able to look ourselves in the mirror if we hadn’t made our best attempt to save the kids.

          Seriously, how do these BLUE people look at themselves in the mirror for either not doing their best that day, or on a national scale, for enabling this awful betrayal of public trust?

      • qevlarr@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s referencing parents who wanted to go in themselves to save their own children. I can’t imagine how horrifying it must b to be stopped by police. Police are the worst

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 months ago

              Tbf then there’s other people, like that one dude in France that went in and singlehandedly killed like 8 terrorists with hostages with guns with but a mere AR of his own. Or the church in texas, where the paritioner took a 45yd shot with his glock on a guy armed with a shotgun.

              In reality, who has the bigger gun matters much less than who can get shots on target quicker. These cops can hide behind the “well he had a scary rifle” all they want to, we all know it’s simply their cowardice and failure to act accordingly and follow their own procedures (which they had recently trained on and utterly ignored when push came to shove.)

            • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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              5 months ago

              Why are they so scared of guns? Do they think they were made to kill people or something?

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Nothing changed because Uvalde immediately re-elected the same republiQan slate that put them there. After that tragedy. There should be no more question that it’s a cult.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Uvalde immediately re-elected the same republiQan slate that put them there

        Sadly, the kids weren’t allowed to vote. Mature enough to get shot at. Not mature enough to select the police who stand idle while it happens.

        • BenLeMan@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Not yet, so the clock is ticking for Republicans to make government of the people, for the people, by the people perish from the earth.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Here in Denmark a crazed man attacked the Fields shopping center with a couple of hunting rifles. The first time something like this happened in a very long time.

    Danish armed police had a quick response time. Loads of dudes with in full body armour and MP-5s guarding every main exit while other guys went inside to clear out the civilians and hunt the shooter down.

    The sniper equipped helicopter circling the shopping center spotted the shooter coming out of a service door and he subsequently got caught.

    I think in total only 5 people died, which was from the short period when the guy started shooting.

    All the right wing gun addicts from America were chest thumping and table banging, shouting all over social media that this somehow was an example that gun laws don’t work. However, considering this happened within a short period after the school shooting in America, all it truly did was make American police look like a bad joke.

    • Mango@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s exactly because our police are a cult that we need armed citizens.

      • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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        5 months ago

        Yup. That’s why you never see public police brutality in the US. Couldn’t get away with that with all the armed citizens around.

        Oh wait, you just film it and post in on tiktok instead.

        Guess the guns are just for looking cool in walmart and shooting kids at schools afterall.

          • machinin@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Has there ever been someone armed that has stopped police abuse? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a case like that.

            • mathesonian@ttrpg.network
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              5 months ago

              The black panthers routinely showed up armed and arguably had that effect. Ironically, this then led to more gun control laws being put in place.

            • TauZero@mander.xyz
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              5 months ago

              One example: on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, during the protests after George Floyd killing, some police were driving around the streets in an unmarked van, shooting at pedestrians at random without stopping. They later claimed they were shooting rubber bullets to “encourage” people to obey the curfew order. Of course, if you are the one being shot at in a drive by from a mystery van, you have no time to determine what kind of bullets are being fired… One pedestrian shot back! There is a video of it.

              The guy was immediately arrested, miraculously without being shot to death in the process, and put on trial, but acquitted due to justifiable self-defense. The police did not drive around shooting randomly any more after that though. I see the guy even won a $1.5M lawsuit against the police now!

              • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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                5 months ago

                Nice job on actually finding an example. And it is a great one. I really don’t want to diminish that.

                But it feels like a rare case and I’m not a proof of concept.

            • Mango@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’m sure they don’t like publishing results that aren’t good for their goals.

            • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 months ago

              A lone individual is just going to get themselves killed, and probably cause the police to arm themselves even more. Which would be extremely counter productive.

              I’d also like to add that you don’t need fun to stop police brutality, and yet nobody is willing to stop it. Mostly because you’re just going to end up being the one police brutalitied in addition to the other guy.

      • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        Its not. No one needs armed citizen. All it leads to are the hundreds of shootings in your country. You need trained police and strict gun laws. Get rid of privately owned guns and the cops wont be scared everyone has a gun somewhere.

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Go train the police then. Let me know if they listen to you. Let me know if it goes fairly. Afterwards face reality. This isn’t Europe. We already have a police force cult and nobody is stopping them without force. Maybe you’d be right if you were starting a brand new country somewhere without displacing any natives and kept a strong border to stop smugglers.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                You do know that there isn’t a finite number of police and if you kill a few, they will hire more, right?

                • Mango@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Maybe we’ll be left with an essence of what used to be if we dilute the crowd enough.

                • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  5 months ago

                  If everyone kept killing cops and suddenly nobody would want to be a cop.

                  I also liked my bosses idea. Strap a paintball gun to a drone. Then every time a cop pulls someone over in this notorious speed trap you start shouting the cop with paintballs and fly away. Maybe then they’d find something more productive to do.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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          5 months ago

          No one needs armed citizen.

          You’ll learn the error of your ways. There’s no such thing as end of history, and all absolutes, including this one, are tried one after another again and again.

          That said, American police is crap.

        • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          What about countries that do have strict gun laws and only relatively recently started having shootings? What changed between then and now across the West?

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Necessary violence. You think they’re just gonna pack up and leave with an “oh right we’re the bad guys. I can totally see that now.”?

          • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Of course, the only solution then is escalation. You can make it, all it costs is are a few good people. Right?

            • Mango@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’ll literally take the fall myself. I don’t want to live in these conditions.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Cults are small. The police are much more dangerous than a cult. Don’t be afraid to use harsher terms against them, they’re a religion!

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Cops have a lower frequency of good people than the sum of everyone else. Wanna know what makes the difference? Cops are specifically people who sought out that power. This also applies to politicians, judges, and HOA board members.

      • LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Romania, the country that’s not even shengen yet (meaning you can’t cross the border without being checked by customs, EXACTLY BECAUSE it’s fucked)? Lol, you really showed Denmark xD

        Also saying America is doing “better” at combating crime is only true if you want to compare yourself to war torn counties. The US has a comparable amount of people in prison to China. COMPARABLE to a country where you get arrested for looking the wrong way. Yes, China has more prisoners, but it also has 4 times the population! America is failing spectacularly at keeping its monopoly of violence as a state. When a civilian shooting happens in the rest of the 1st and 2nd world it’s a tragedy that shakes the country, meanwhile in America half the population feels nothing, because it happens so often.

      • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Europe likes to shit on the US because of people like you making excuses and letting problems in America continue being problems.

      • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Tell me you know nothing about Europe, the EU or the Schengen area without stating so verbatim.

    • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      As much as ACAB, I can admit that sometimes an armed response is necessary. It sounds like you danes have a well trained force, rather than some 6 week academy psychos with a hard-on for violence.

      • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Cops aren’t really bastards in Denmark. Oh sure, you’ll find anti establishment types everywhere; there certainly is no love for the police in Christiania. However, the overall opinion of Danish citizens towards the police is positive. In Denmark people genuinely feel safer seeing a policeman on the street.

        Police in Copenhagen are also friendly; unless they’re in the middle of something, you can, as a citizen or a tourist, walk up to one and ask them questions.

        Police do carry pistols in Denmark, but someone just starting their career in law enforcement isn’t immediately given a gun until they’ve had a good job record and proper training for a few years. The amount of paperwork a cop has to go through for even suggesting they’ll pull their gun is staggering.

      • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        It isn’t any more complicated than that ACAB is an obvious US-centric exaggeration and that there are police forces out there that doesn’t suffer from the same systemic problems that according* to American media is pandemic in their country.

          • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            I stand corrected on that part then, it was wrong assumption based on the fact it seems like 99,9% of all negative news in regards to police I see is from USA. I’ll strike it out.

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 months ago

              Well tbf our cops do kinda suck a lot and we have some glaring systemic issues with our policing system lol, it’s not like the assumption is unreasonable!

              • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
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                5 months ago

                It’s maybe not unreasonable, but as someone living in Norway with only neutral/positive experience with police, it certainly rubs me the wrong way when people speak of it as if it is an universal truth. Especially as American online culture inevitably affects Norwegian kids’ view of society, which is very different from the American society.

  • snooggums@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    Holy shit, I thought it was double digits. How did they get 376 to show up without any of them roid raging their way into doing something other than dicking around?

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      How did they get 376 to show up without any of them roid raging their way into doing something other than dicking around?

      Some of them tried and were actively prevented from doing it by other Officers. The whole situation is actually worse than most people realize.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            5 months ago

            The fucking litter boxes. Was that meme planted so we could identify which of our friends and neighbors went off the deep end?

            • SuspiciousCatThing@pawb.social
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              5 months ago

              It seriously stresses me out how many people in my community have taken that seriously. In my own family, even. It is indeed one of the many possible indications of someone to whom I don’t want to give my time.

            • Mak'@pawb.social
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              5 months ago

              I’m no conspiracist, but… If I were a malicious—perhaps foreign—power and I saw how well that kind of fake news spread and how much staying power it had, despite it being totally far-fetched, and yet easily-verifiable, I’d be absolutely fucking giddy.

              It would be the surest sign that I could now spread any bit of disinformation, particularly anything not easily-verifiable, and absolutely tear the country apart.

            • fiercekitten@lemm.ee
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              5 months ago

              It really speaks to the issue of how many people get their news: secondhand from their family members who read a story (or listened to fox “news”), misunderstood some of it, then injected further biases while getting some of the facts wrong (purposefully or accidentally).

        • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          From one report, they didn’t know who was in charge because there were State and local units. So they did nothing while some in charge waited to hear who should be giving the orders. At least that’s how I remember it.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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            5 months ago

            Right because that can all be excused away with “policy issues” that leave nobody actually accountable and spits in the face of common sense. “I didn’t try to take down the shooter because I didn’t have anyone to tell me that’s why we were there in the first place”

    • halyk.the.red@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Because it’s a group of narcissists. They were too worried about themselves. None of them had the courage to say “I’m willing to not go home tonight so these kids can.”

      Actually I’d bet that a bunch said that, but didn’t actually do anything about it.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        This is what pisses me off the most. 376, and you can’t storm the room? 376? And you refuse to trade one for any of those children who needed protecting? These are supposedly the hard calculations they have to make and they all unilaterally chose themselves? Enforcers will always be useless to anybody but the property owners. They aren’t actually here to protect anybody. They should have made the call, and traded 20 of themselves so those kids didn’t have to die. Thats the hard call we expect these “hard asses” to make.

        • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          I can’t remember the study but basically the bystander effect is a thing. The more people there are in a group, the more likely it is that no one will do anything because everyone will assume that someone else will do something.

          This isn’t to excuse officers because they are specifically trained that they are that someone. The fact that they were held back from entering is willful, malicious, and negligent.

          The fact that the officers actually complied instead of disobeying orders especially when seconds turned to minutes, is cowardice.

          And a reminder that I believe the police chief and mayor of the town was reelected by the town.

  • Technus@lemmy.zip
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    5 months ago

    I scoff every time a cop on a TV show is like “I joined the force to save lives and make a difference” because it’s painfully obvious that this is pretty much never the case in reality.

    • Blackout@kbin.run
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      They joined the force because it has the best job security next to CEOs in the US.

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        I feel like CEOs are more like football coaches in terms of job security. As long as they keep winning, just about no form of misconduct can dislodge them. Stop winning though, and the hot seat can become very uncomfortable.

        • flerp@lemm.ee
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          But they make so much money and get huge golden parachutes so they have more money than they would need for the rest of their lives, and yet they still are able to get other CEO jobs. It’s a little club and once you’re in, you’re in.

          • mkwt@lemmy.world
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            Well they negotiate for those golden parachutes in their contracts precisely because of the hot seat effect.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      They didn’t specify “which lives” or “what differences”. We can make some guesses, but I don’t think we’d like their answers.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      Yeah but it doesn’t sound as good like, “I joined the force to get away with beating my wife after pissing my Punisher logo boxers at work.”

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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    What’s the point of all that military gear they’re wasting tax payer money on then? Fascist cosplay?

      • lemonsqueeze@lemmynsfw.com
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        5 months ago

        That makes sense. Those protesters are scary and can hurt a police officer’s feelings. Its protester <-> police.

        Where a school, there’s so many little kid bodies that can take bullets to protect our blue heroes.

      • medgremlin@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        Why does female anatomy always get used as an insult? It’s a prime example of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that non-male genitalia are so reviled as to be an insult against others.

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          You use whatever is gonna make the target mad as an insult. It’s why bad mouth little kids will go after your mom or say removed in comms. It’s the low hanging fruit. They don’t care about your mom and they’re not likely to be racist either. It’s about attention.

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          it’s only an insult to people who think dick size = status. try telling someone who’s butthurt about being called a pussy that it’s not an insult lol

  • Mango@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Too bad the shooter wasn’t black. The cops weren’t trained for this.

    This is a cop problem, not a gun problem. All the guns were working, including the shooter’s. The cops saw fit to take their lunch hour instead of working.

    • Mango@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Just saw a video. Hahaha, I’m gonna stop being capitalist cattle and switch to crime.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      This is a cop problem, not a gun problem. All the guns were working, including the shooter’s. The cops saw fit to take their lunch hour instead of working.

      This. Specifically it’s a “police do not have a duty to protect” problem, that stems from a series of court cases going back to at least the 80s.

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I think it’s a problem that cops are just hired employees rather than anything more significant than that.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          I mean, if it were up to me they would be paid better, required to insure both individually and at a department level against damages to civilian persons and property, and subject to much stricter civilian scrutiny.

          They would keep qualified immunity, but with much tighter reigns on the “qualified” part. Immunity only when necessary, with civilian oversight as to when that is. We would toss out the thing where police are not liable for damages done by them, they would be responsible for and expected to insure against it.

          The insurance thing is two tiered for a.similar reason - if the damage is deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by civilian oversight then it would be on the city and the city’s insurance to pay for it, if not then on the officer and the officer’s insurance. This eventually prices bad (but not quite criminally bad) officers out of the job.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      Really enraging to have all those Punisher logos juxtaposed with their cowering and pants pissing.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      Uvalde is majority-minority. If cops went in, more kids probably would’ve died.

      That’s tongue-in-cheek gallows humor but sadly not too far off from reality.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        I get what you’re alluding to, but actually the cops yelled out that they were there and for any children hiding to come out (obviously well before they’d neutralized the shooter) and the kids who responded and came out of their hiding places were shot dead because the cops were too cowardly (or busy checking their Facebook feed based on video evidence) to actually protect these innocent 5-10 year olds. I have a child in that age range and my blood starts boiling even discussing this topic.

        Let us not forget that these wannabe police even arrested parents who were willing to rush into danger to protect their children. That’s all they were good for on this day.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          5 months ago

          The guy that was checking his phone…his wife was one of the teachers in the school that died.

          I think if anything, that cop deserves a little slack.

  • Heikki@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I recall a conservative news segment where the “jounalist” and “expert” had discussed that the kids should have rushed the shooter and overwhelmed him. Doesn’t matter they were 6-7 they should have stepped up and stopped it all.

    Meanwhile, the actual people gained to do that wouldn’t, despite overwhelming numbers

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        5 months ago

        So grow up and make harsher gun laws?

        I think that’s actually one of the few ways that could work out well.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.world
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      Gaslighting or, pardon the pun, disarming what actually could be done in government to prevent this from happening in the future is despicable. It’s epitomizes the modern understanding of the US Republican party. The government can’t fix anything: it’s the citizens’ responsibility for systemic problems.

      Conservatives, what the hell happened

  • Nicoleism101@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    From all my internet lurking I discovered that America is a country almost beyond redemption, or at least some states.

    I always wonder if it is really that bad or am I just hearing the usual ‘my country bad’ talk like anyone does but the news point to the first one basically every time. I can only assume it is mostly true and sympathise.

    As someone who lives in middle eu capital city and has proverbial 4 houses it is all quite mind blowing. I feel like I live in completely different reality and I am grateful for it every day.

    It’s however very painful to hear all you just plain suffering. Maybe that’s why my mind goes ‘it’s probably exaggerated’ it can’t be that bad can it be?

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      It’s a strange contrast living in the US sometimes. My personal life is pleasant and I work to keep it that way. I like where I work and I see multiple good doctors on a regular basis. But I’ve had plenty of my own troubles over the past 5 years too.

      …but I also have eyes. I see the same crazy shit you do, and furthermore I have enough personal acquaintances to know that the crazies we both read about are fully serious and indoctrinated.

      So, I wouldn’t say that the suffering is exaggerated, just that it isn’t ubiquitous. It’s a big place. Millions are doing OK while millions of others are getting beat down by life.

      • Facebones@reddthat.com
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        A big caveat to this is that of the millions who feel they’re doing “OK,” millions of them are one missed paycheck away from homelessness. Only ~40% of Americans can cover a $1000 emergency, for example.

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          Yeah, a lot of people are misled or just used to the shittiness. And as I’m sure we’re all aware, a big chunk of the population has been continued to think that the people taking advantage of them are some kind of heroes worthy of worship.

    • fiercekitten@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      In some states, it really is that bad.

      And every insane and cruel story you hear about our heathcare system is true too.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      “If it bleeds, it leads”. Yes, we have some things that are just not right, and sometimes horrible tragedies, more often than a modern country should. But if we keep talking about it, it may seem even worse than it is. Like you, most of us haven’t been impacted by school shootings, but yeah

    • CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
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      There are clearly bad things that need fixing, but the badness varies from state to state and you’re probably getting a distorted picture regardless.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      So honest question. Do you know anyone who’s been threatened with gun violence? Because as an American my initial response was that it isn’t that bad, but then i thought about the fact that if you answer no to that that would probably be weird to me. Sure I’m rarely in such a position, but from time to time yeah I have to watch myself because I know crazy people who have guns or I know I’m pissing off an armed and violent person by doing something like helping their dv victim escape. The idea that guns wouldn’t be involved in such situations is more foreign to me than initially expected.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        So honest question. Do you know anyone who’s been threatened with gun violence? Because as an American my initial response was that it isn’t that bad

        I mean, I’m only in my 30’s and I know four people who have been shot. Two were robberies, one was a seemingly random act of violence, and the fourth was due to a domestic dispute. Three are still alive, but that fourth died in his girlfriend’s arms before paramedics arrived. It happened a decade ago, and she still has night terrors from it. And this is in a nice suburb, not someplace full of gangs.

      • Nicoleism101@lemm.ee
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        I never worried about anyone having a gun in my life at least not realistically so. I mean I live in pretty safe place. All the bad ppl left 15 years ago for the USA, Britain and so. We are the nation of religious, sometimes toxic hobbits. Worst is social ostracism as that can be really bad in the smaller places if you didn’t vote same as others or you dated same gender. Or didn’t go to the church…

        I wish everyone could be a nation of hobbits, that’s like ideal in my eyes

        Point is when I hear about knife fights in UK I am like wow brrrr.

        Biggest bad news lately in my capital was that some poor woman got sexually assaulted and died a month or three ago while returning from some party at 5 AM sunday which was very shocking. It really was the most disturbing thing.

        Everyone is very anti immigrant here though. Even the pro Democratic/leftish Party just legalized shooting at the border to immigrants (in case of aggression). Kinda crazy. I think at this point they simply wouldn’t get elected at all if they were pro immigration. One single, very left party pro immigration has 6% of votes.

        It seems that this change in narrative of the pro eu pro democrats helped them win over alt rights but like ya know it’s all super complicated morally. I guess almost 100% of people don’t want (Arabic) immigrants and it is long sailed ship.

        I am very conflicted about all it internally. I am not blind what happens when you let culturally and socially distant immigrants en masse but I don’t want those people to suffer either. I don’t blame them for trying to get where is much better place to live but I also don’t want to sacrifice myself for it…

        It’s super huge problem and we all gonna have some blood on our hands I reckon if we don’t already have…

        Also I remember there being lots of drunk homeless people once long ago but I haven’t seen one in such miserable state at least in a long while. Just realised it now. Long ago I was semi afraid to go to the liquor store because of all the types consuming high powered drinks. Harmless still but it definitely changed. For whatever reason. I hope it is for the good reasons and not the bad ones.

        Overall I think we are moving into interesting direction though slowly and a bit bloody at times considering the borders. they are only going to get worse and most have uncanny ability to forget about such things immediately when they accidentally hear about them. We all prefer to pretend it’s all cool and distant or whatever. I myself prefer not to dig into the horrors that must happen there uh

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        Any person in the U.S. that has interacted with a police officer has been threatened with gun violence. It’s implicit in that 9mm they carry on their hip.

        But yes, I know people who have been shot, shot at, and had weapons drawn on them too. By actors other than the state.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m in Canada and don’t know anyone I can say for sure has been affected by gun violence or threats of it. I’ve personally been in a situation where I was trying to make small talk with a wannabe gangster and apparently asking about jobs can be dangerous I guess when they make money from mostly illegal shit and he threatened me until my friend came over and convinced him I’m not an under cover cop. But even that threat was a, “what if I had a piece” rather than “I’m going to shoot you”.

        I only ever saw or shot bb guns until in my 30s when I did some target shooting in my friend’s back yard. He kept his guns all locked up when he wasn’t using them, ammo locked separately. Partially for the obvious safety reasons (even though he lived alone), partially because a part of the license is that police are allowed to come and inspect how you are storing your guns. I don’t know how often this is used in practice (don’t think my friend ever had it happen), but it’s a sign that the legal state of guns is very different across the border.

        I can’t even think of any robberies using violence or threats of violence I have first hand or second hand knowledge of. Theft, yes, but like the “car was left unlocked and someone noticed” or “someone picked an easy to pick lock”. That last one happened to me, I figured out who it was and just told him to stop coming around and I’d leave it alone and I never saw the guy again. It might have been a bit dangerous if I wanted satisfaction from the situation, but I think there might have been an equal chance he would have just accepted the L and paid be back for the weed he stole.

        Pistols require a seperate license that is much harder to get. For rifles and shotguns, you can get a license as a hunter, recreational shooter, or collector (amateur is fine but you do need to get your hunter license first before you can use it to justify a gun license). There was a gun registry but the conservatives scrapped that the last time they were in power.

        For pistols, they are limited to certain professions such as police officer, military (I assume), or professional hunter/trappers who work in bear territory and aren’t necessarily carrying a rifle or shotgun ready to go if suddenly confronted by a bear. I believe there’s certain self-defense scenarios that allow them (like a proven threat that is difficult to neutralize, like with connections to organised crime).

        It’s gotta be extreme because carrying anything for self-defense is generally illegal. Like if you have a pocket knife you use to open packages, that’s ok, but if you carry that same knife for self-defense purposes, it’s an illegal weapon. Some knives like switchblades or butterfly knives that can be deployed with one hand are always illegal.

        I think this is a bit much, because knives that don’t fold are ok and IMO the question should be more about what scenarios one thinks it is ok to defend themselves with a weapon than having had that consideration at all. That said, the situations where someone might think a weapon is called for but isn’t are probably more common that situations where one is necessary to defend oneself. But I digress.

        The pretty much ban on pistols I think is what makes the difference. In some states, the risky part of carrying a pistol is about if you use it or if you specifically shouldn’t have one (felony or something). In Canada, just carrying it runs the risk of losing it and catching charges, which means that situations where someone would use a hidden pistol in the moment are more likely to have a cool down period while they go get their gun and might realize that it’s not worth it or might not be able to find their victim again afterwards.

        There is some gang activity but I think even that is way more chill here and any violence is probably more related to score settling than turf control. I get the impression that the cops are more chill about non-violent stuff here, so that could play into the equation in that the risk differential is higher if violence is involved. Or I could be wrong about that because I’m not a minority (but I suspect it’s because police violence is investigated (and not just by themselves) and dealt with more consistently here, and the lower likelihood of getting randomly shot probably allows them to be more at ease).

      • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yes I do. In fact the couple was held at gunpoint by 2 men who robbed them, and then felt up his wife in front of hime with gun barrels in their faces.

        Cowards who hide behind a gun

    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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      From all my internet lurking I discovered that America is a country almost beyond redemption, or at least some states

      If America is a sum of its states, they are beyond redemption.

      If the world is a sum of its countries, we are all beyond redemption.

      Imho the whole system is broken and until everyone (worldwide) starts aligning then the world is lost. We aren’t there yet.

      • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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        I used to think a major global catastrophe will fix the system, like world war, or a hostile alien invasion. Then covid happened and we’re back to square one in the aftermath, if not worse. I realised there’s no fixing it. In my opinion, it’s not that we aren’t there yet, it’s that we will never be ‘there’. Having said that, when I say never I speak about our lives or that of our grandchildren, perhaps a few more generations. If humanity survives a few more centuries after that, if not millenia, who knows what could happen.

    • DeanFogg@lemm.ee
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      For some it’s an nightmare for some it’s just Tuesday.

      For the Tuesday folk that doesn’t mean they should sit idly and let it happen or even actively encourage it, but that appears to be what they think they’re entitled to.

      • Nicoleism101@lemm.ee
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        It is 8/10 where I live Public transport, edu, health, weather a bit too hot in summer because of city lacking green area but I have this small property 30 km away from city with just pure green everywhere and I smoke joints there and paint in summer.

        My flat is barely liveable in summer without AC as it is on the attic.

        People are peaceful mostly they just value not drawing attention to themselves and generally you can go alone at night with no problems. Only slightly worse as woman. Probably 50/50 if visibly trans - not sure but I’d wager it would be suprisingly rare considering how religious some ppl are. They will just tell you to fear Jesus or smh or maybe laugh or comment but most likely won’t do anything. Still if there is anyone that should be cautious it’s visibly trans ppl at night but then at night it’s harder to clock a trans woman so that’s that. I guess if you dressed like drag queen and went to the darkest places at night there would be 50/50 chance of some unpleasant or maybe dangerous situation but those bad places aren’t as many here as there were in the past.

        Nearest bad place near me got renovated and while we were drinking there extensively late at night in the past, we got tickets for our shitty ways. Most dangerous places seemingly disappeared as the drinkers disappeared and places got revamped.

        I guess now that I am on the other end of the stick that’s just pure win instead of „god there’s no more place to drink and make chaos in this neighbourhood, the end is near”

          • Nicoleism101@lemm.ee
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            Yay so that’s cool, not all that bad huh?

            From social media one sees the USA as a terrible, terrible place. I once even wanted to visit but after all I have read I no longer harboured that idea.

            Also I hate guns nowadays even though I liked them once but like I really hate that kind of culture

            • Malfeasant@lemmy.world
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              I live in Arizona, one of the more trigger-happy states (we allow concealed carry without a permit) but I haven’t been personally affected by any gun violence in 20 years. There was a shooting on the edge of my neighborhood a few weeks ago, but I didn’t hear about it until days later, just happened to see a news story. It was some sort of party situation, the people knew each other, not random.

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              From social media one sees the USA as a terrible, terrible place.

              I’mma be honest with you, that’s by design. The people posting/news/politicians want to make it seem more dangerous than it actually is because fear gets clicks and votes, which translates to ad revenue and “totally not bribes” excuse me, “lobbying.”

              In reality crime was on a steady decline from 1993-2016, had a slight uptick from 2016-~2022ish, coinciding with the pandemic and political unrest, and now it’s back on the downswing. In that time, it never rose above pre-1993 levels. It’s not as bad as the powers that be would have us (and by extension you and the rest of the world) believe.

    • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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      Yeah none of those guns were actually “in the school” because thin blue line means cops cowards above anyone else. They won’t risk their lives for you.

    • Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world
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      The Supreme Court ruled like a decade ago that cops DO NOT have a constitutional right to protect you. A cop can literally watch you get stabbed to death in the streets, and they are not obligated to help or stop it. Let that sink in.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        NOT have a constitutional right to protect you.

        Duty* actually. They can if they want but they don’t have to.

        Small, yet big, difference.

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      That should be obvious based on the fact that they only respond to crimes that have already occurred. By their own nature, they’re completely reactionary.

  • jaschen@lemm.ee
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    Cop’s first priority is themselves. If it’s convenient, they might help others.

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    5 months ago

    Cops refuse to show up on my methhead neighbors - they have weapons. But when my (then) husband wanted to evict my little unarmed 5’3” butt from the house I’d lived in for the past seven years, after physically beating me to the point I wasn’t really cogent, they sent a whole riot squad to pick me up.

    • EveryoneDiesAlone@lemmy.world
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      Well, they would be scared to deal with armed tweakers, and then they would have to arrest them and file a bunch of paperwork, show up in court, yada yada yada.

      Evicting you was just a fun thing to do that presented zero risk and had minimal paperwork.

      It’s crazy that police enjoy the massive public support they do. People are dumb, and police shows on tv do a number on dumb people.

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    Unironically, if we had 376 armed drag queens and furries instead, not nearly as many children would have died.

    • Dud@lemmy.world
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      I feel like the armed drag queens would have absolutely handled the situation expediently. Most I know adore children and have to be brave by default to publicly go against society in such a typically colorful fashion.