General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's EIGHT shooters, THREE, triangulated cross-fire from height, TWO, for sure, FOUR!
Um, police?
GET YO SHIT TOGETHER.
NBachers
(17,192 posts)Clue us in on your big revelation, will you?
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)every day.
People post totally random and utterly inscrutable stuff here. Good moderation would cut a lot of it.
Lately it's "Oh no I'm scared" posts.
Wolf Frankula
(3,605 posts)But the Elvis is NOT THE ELVIS.
Wolf
pintobean
(18,101 posts)Fla_Democrat
(2,547 posts)melman
(7,681 posts)Shit's chaotic and confusing.
Paladin
(28,290 posts)Most people realize the "chaotic and confusing" nature of news coverage of mass shooting incidents---except for the pro-gun militants, who treat any errors in the description of the make and model of the firearm(s) used as some sort of Evil Media Conspiracy. That sort of agenda-driven hysteria got old a long time ago.
melman
(7,681 posts)I totally missed that.
Paladin
(28,290 posts)Igel
(35,393 posts)Problem is, people know that they screw up but they're just human.
Police aren't allowed to be human. Because if they are, we might feel compelled to understand them.
They're like Jews in that respect. They're inferior morally, the stereotype goes, but superior in intellect and cunning. So with police--they're morally inferior, but should be superhuman. All they do is intentional because they're just bad, and they really have to be perfect and omniscient.
The thing about incomplete information, it's main distinguishing feature, is that it's incomplete. The thing about chaos, it's main distinguishing feature, is that it's chaotic.
The correct inference is to assume that humans make mistakes, take steps to avoid mistakes, and when looking at chaotic and incomplete information is to wait for order and more complete information. The error isn't theirs, it's ours for being impatient, demanding, and intolerant. Before you analyze data, you need to understand your data, and one part of that is knowing its strengths and weaknesses.
(Red Dwarf: "Marooned", because an RD reference is always appropriate ...
Holly: Well, the thing about a black hole - its main distinguishing feature - is it's black. And the thing about space, the colour of space, your basic space colour, is black. So how are you supposed to see them?
Rimmer: But five of them? . How can you manage to miss five black holes?)
Holly: It's always the way, innit? You hang around for three million years in deep space and there hasn't been one, then all of a sudden five turn up at once.)
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Charles Kinsey: "Why did you shoot me?" Initial response: "I don't know." But give it 12 or 24 hours, and we get three, four, five different explanations, none of which bear up under scrutiny. Why did they handcuff Kinsey? Nobody in the cop shop can explain that, even when they're given several chances to do so.
If we got the truth the first time out of our police, maybe we'd be a little more gracious and understanding? Trust and credibility is a two-way street. If you're square from the get-go, people are more likely to meet you halfway. But when the first response is always to close ranks, put the officer on paid leave and keep him incommunicado, and publish each and every peccadillo from the victim's past (as if the officer who shot him knew all that ahead of time), the police lose their credibility. The situation is actually pretty simple; chaos is introduced into it when the police dissemble, deflect, and deny the plain facts of what happened.
Say you fucked up. Just say it. "I made a mistake, I shouldn't have fired my rifle at that guy from 50 yards away." Well, that's something we can all work with. But when mistakes are never admitted, there's no way to improve the situation, because there's a hard core of people in authority who don't think there's anything wrong.
0rganism
(23,996 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Don't tease us, get your shit together!