More apeaceful Protesting in Baltimore

Continue to ignore the other half of the problem and we will never get anywhere.

I don't think anyone disagrees that it would be easier if nobody was doing anything "wrong."

I put "wrong" in quotes because our laws basically make everything you do "wrong"
 
I don't think anyone disagrees that it would be easier if nobody was doing anything "wrong."

I put "wrong" in quotes because our laws basically make everything you do "wrong"

But where is the outrage against those actually causing these situations? Shouldn't there be an outcry clamoring for people to live in a more civilized manner.

I'm all for putting cameras on cops so that they don't abuse power and the ones that do should be penalized to the fullest extent of the law. It just seems so strange to me how the cops are somehow more wrong than the criminals. I'm sorry, I don't agree with that.
 
Because I guess the true meaning of anarchy is when there is no order.

We charge the police with maintaining order. When those charged with maintaining order (uphold laws ? ) abandon that charge ... what ensues is chaos. I would call a riot --- chaos
 
I put "wrong" in quotes because our laws basically make everything you do "wrong"

So, I guess if we make everything "right" then the problem goes away completely? There is such a thing as inherent malevolence.

And I'm just curious -- what, aside from drugs, does the government/legal system clearly over-prosecute on?
 
So, I guess if we make everything "right" then the problem goes away completely? There is such a thing as inherent malevolence.

And I'm just curious -- what, aside from drugs, does the government/legal system clearly over-prosecute on?

I don't know. I think I read something like 30,000 new laws hit the books at the start of the year.

I truly couldn't think of 30,000 things to get people in trouble for.

I got a nice little $320 ticket for rolling through a red light on a right turn at 11:30pm at night with nobody on the road. Good stuff right there.
 
I don't know. I think I read something like 30,000 new laws hit the books at the start of the year.

I truly couldn't think of 30,000 things to get people in trouble for.

I don't think people are being over-prosecuted (or even remotely inconvenienced) by not taking their trash in by 8PM or parking too close to a fire hydrant ... because let's be honest for a moment, that's what a huge majority of those laws are.

Yeah, getting a speeding ticket sucks, but you are carrying on as though there's some great freedom-sucking, life-constricting injustice omnipresent in our system of government, but ... there isn't.

Drugs are your belief system's strongest fallback, but even then you don't account for the ripple effects of trying to wean off of the way the laws have existed for ~ a century.

It's all just too pie in the sky for my liking. Pragmatism is good, or at least a start.
 
I don't think people are being over-prosecuted (or even remotely inconvenienced) by not taking their trash in by 8PM or parking too close to a fire hydrant ... because let's be honest for a moment, that's what a huge majority of those laws are.

Yeah, getting a speeding ticket sucks, but you are carrying on as though there's some great freedom-sucking, life-constricting injustice omnipresent in our system of government, but ... there isn't.

Drugs are your belief system's strongest fallback, but even then you don't account for the ripple effects of trying to wean off of the way the laws have existed for ~ a century.

It's all just too pie in the sky for my liking. Pragmatism is good, or at least a start.

The laws you're referring to aren't likely Federal, but that's not the point.

The point is, when you make 30,000 new laws a year, everyone is a criminal for something.

And regarding this statement:

It's all just too pie in the sky for my liking. Pragmatism is good, or at least a start.

It's really irrelevant if it's to your liking. You or some other human shouldn't have the right to tell me I can't do something with my own life (provided I don't hurt or steal from others). I've never done drugs in my life, and think most of them are very bad for you. But you may not feel that way - what gives me (the bureaucrat) authority over you?
 
The laws you're referring to aren't likely Federal, but that's not the point.

Never said that they were, nor did you.

It's really irrelevant if it's to your liking.

Well, it's not just not to my liking. It's also not to the liking of millions of people who readily eschew voting for candidates who espouse those kind of beliefs. I think that reason is because a majority of said ideals are nonsensical in a real world context.

But they do sound nice -- until you actually consider their implementation, etc.

You or some other human shouldn't have the right to tell me I can't do something with my own life (provided I don't hurt or steal from others). I've never done drugs in my life, and think most of them are very bad for you. But you may not feel that way - what gives me (the bureaucrat) authority over you?

It's a contract. I give you police, clean water & air, highways, international trade, access to food, etc. You live here, pay minimally for it, and follow the rules (which you very much have the right and liberty to challenge/amend). It's something that a lot of people agreed upon a long time ago. It's the foundation of our existence. And it works, very well.

Plus, honestly, freedom is relative in 2015.

Name me a place in this world where you are more free than you are in the United States (and that should consider everything from physical freedom to financial freedom [before you name somewhere in Scandinavia]).
 
Never said that they were, nor did you.



Well, it's not just not to my liking. It's also not to the liking of millions of people who readily eschew voting for candidates who espouse those kind of beliefs. I think that reason is because a majority of said ideals are nonsensical in a real world context.

But they do sound nice -- until you actually consider their implementation, etc.

It's a contract. I give you police, clean water & air, highways, international trade, access to food, etc. You live here, pay minimally for it, and follow the rules (which you very much have the right and liberty to challenge/amend). It's something that a lot of people agreed upon a long time ago. It's the foundation of our existence. And it works, very well.

Plus, honestly, freedom is relative in 2015.

Name me a place in this world where you are more free than you are in the United States (and that should consider everything from physical freedom to financial freedom [before you name somewhere in Scandinavia]).

I wouldn't call what I paid in taxes last year "minimal"

I also don't know what it's like living in many other countries - so am not educated enough to comment. I do know we lock up more people than any other country - so either we're really bad people or we're not as free as we think.

Maybe the NSA can chime in as they read this
 
But where is the outrage against those actually causing these situations? Shouldn't there be an outcry clamoring for people to live in a more civilized manner.

No.

Expecting criminals to not be criminals is naive. There will ALWAYS be crime. Always has been and always will. That is a fact of life and there is no way to change that. Acting shocked that a criminal engages in criminal behavior is silly.
 
I wouldn't call what I paid in taxes last year "minimal"

I also don't know what it's like living in many other countries - so am not educated enough to comment. I do know we lock up more people than any other country - so either we're really bad people or we're not as free as we think.

Maybe the NSA can chime in as they read this

It's minimal. Europeans pay 40-50%, you most assuredly pay less than 30%. Don't feel like you should have to contribute to the public coffer? Move to India, I hear they have a top notch public infrastructure. Social welfare? Who needs it.

Actually, Russians pay less than us. Well, some of us.

You like to trumpet out these statistics for what appears to be shock value, but I have to believe you know better than to lay 'highest incarceration rate in the world' out there and truly expect anyone with a sliver of objectivity not to protest.

How many committed felonious crimes? How many are citizens? How many are repeat offenders?

Have you ever considered the idea that Americans are just entitled capitalist pieces of ****? You know, maybe you don't have the chance to rob a liquor store when you are working 20 hours a day in a Mumbai slum.

You think you are free?

Under whose accord?

God?
 
No.

Expecting criminals to not be criminals is naive. There will ALWAYS be crime. Always has been and always will. That is a fact of life and there is no way to change that. Acting shocked that a criminal engages in criminal behavior is silly.

Dismissing all crime as natural is pretty ****ing atrocious.
 
Dismissing all crime as natural is pretty ****ing atrocious.

I don't think Carpe's doing that, but just stating his own spin on Murphy's Law.

Crime will in fact always happen to some extent, especially when you consider there may be financial incentive for one's own self-preservation for certain crimes.

Capitalism in the form we know it today, sort of induces crimes. And yes even if we lived in a hypothetical equal society, there'd still be crime. Just like there will always be pedophiles, rapists, etc. Still parts of human evolution that we have yet to move past.
 
Dismissing all crime as natural is pretty ****ing atrocious.

Not exactly what I was getting at. thethe said "Shouldn't there be an outcry clamoring for people to live in a more civilized manner."

Essentially my answer is, why should there be an outcry? What would it accomplish? Crime is not a new phenomena. That's why we have police in the first place.

Call me a realist, but I just don't find criminals engaging in criminal activity to be shocking or unexpected. That isn't to say that I'm not outraged by individual crimes or that I condone it.
 
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