“I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what’s being proposed here, he’d agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute.” - Chuck Schumer (D). Yet, Madison and Mason wrote the Bill of Rights, according to Sheila Jackson Lee, 400 years ago. Yup, it's a fact.
Beer Summit time.
Polgara, True, Detroit was right in line to be the Midwest's NY City, with the same level of culture and expositions and such, but it wasn't just the automotive, there was mining, lumber and any number of other industries large, active and profitable. Somewhere along the line, reality didn't stay on course with the ideals or the plan.
“That’s why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done,”, Martha McSally - Yeeesss!!
Elect a Democrat, get a corrupt FBI, DOJ, IRS . . . . .
I'm not making excuses for the rioting, I'm saying there is a cause behind it, however. The rioting isn't about justice and is not about Freddie, it is about thugs and criminals waiting to pounce, but they got their excuse through the misuse of police force.
If we want to solve the problem we have to reign in government and start addressing the reasons why the thugs and criminals can gain such large control over parts of our cities.
You know the time is right to take control, we gotta take offense against the status quo
Originally Posted by A. de Tocqueville
There was plenty of time for Baltimore to have launched a "HOMICIDE" investigation before this rioting. They should have quit stating that Gray "DIED" in custody and stated he was apparently the victim of a HOMICIDE. I don't approve of the rioting, but I know where it came from.
You should try to remember, ideas are conveyed by researching information, vetting sources, and confirming said information. Not by regurgitating talking points given to you by your "news" station.
Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful, but hate me all the more.
I've read a number of articles describing Detroit's decline into chaos, and if I recall, the beginning of the end started when they city started throwing money and promises at minority communities to address their lack of opportunities and high unemployment. To pay for these programs, the city started raising taxes on businesses. After the riots of '68, they made more promises, and increased spending. Tax increases soon followed, as the population began to recede.
Rather than spend money on improvements and to keep Detroit viable and interesting, they threw it into a dark hole of socials services payouts, and public employee pay and benefits. Eventually, most major businesses started to move out of the city to less costly surrounding cities, abandoning the inner city. From that, the die was cast. The tax base disappeared, people moved out, and what was once home to some of the most highly paid citizens in the country has turned into a set piece for Armageddon II.
Baltimore, and many cities across the country are poised to make the same mistakes. Rather than encouraging business and opportunity, the liberals running these cities will turn to payouts to buy votes from the "needy", and set in motion the same result. Downtown Los Angeles has teetered on this cliff for decades.
No, I think that the overuse of force, the questionable killing of another citizen by police, played into the hands of thugs and criminals. Looting and rioting in the manner it was done is not for Freddie Gray, it's not for justice, it's not outbursts of political emotion. It's criminal behavior, it's looting for the sake of looting, rioting for the sake of rioting done by criminals who wanted nothing more than to do exactly that. But it needed a spark, it needed an ignition source, and it was the actions of the police and the death of Freddie that provided that ignition.
it is true that if this were politically motivated and the people were against the government, then city hall and the police station and other government buildings would be the target, and its obvious from the looting and from who was hit that the violence and theft had nothing to do with it. But it is all one tangled web of non-linear differential response. Certain cities with high areas of poverty and crime have large numbers of these thugs and criminals who give no thought to anything and care for nothing more than the crimes and violence they can get away with. And in all the cities, these thugs wait. They wait for the government to do something they can exploit, they wait for police action that will cause massive protest or anything else they can use as cover for their desire to destroy.
We can't play into their hands, and while the rioters don't care one lick about Freddie Gray, they do care about opportunities to destroy. And that does mean we have to get our police in line BEFORE things blow up like in Ferguson and Baltimore. If we don't address the issues, each and every time this will just get worse. The thugs will see the rioting and looting of other cities and will salivate for the chance to do it to their own, and they will act quicker and with higher levels of violence each time.
You know the time is right to take control, we gotta take offense against the status quo
Originally Posted by A. de Tocqueville
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville