Punishment
 

Until we make the punishment fit the crime, regardless of circumstances, we should plan on things just getting worse. Making the punishment fit the crime means that if someone tries to invade your life either a business or home you have and the responsibility to stop them by whatever means available including physical or shooting.This means the rioting will continue until we cease a cowardly approach and start protecting our rights and property! The question is not why are they rioting but rather why not. There are little if any consequences or punishments. I promise you that if they are held accountable for their acts thru profound punishment this whole mess will stop! The punishment includes anyone who is supporting their acts of war on your property or life. The police should be unshackled and permitted to use whatever force needed, not just stand with clubs
and take hits by stones and junk. We are demonstrating how weak we are and letting the police get injured so we can pretend that is the civil way to handle the
insurection going on. :ohdear:

Agreed

Sometimes
 

Sometimes it's not necessary to further define the logic regarding an opinion as it is done for you! There are those who will find excuses for acts of violence. There are no excuses to threaten or destroy another persons property or life unless it is to
protect your own. To justify it because of the supposed actions of another is just another excuse for those rioting and the terrible consequences of these acts. Does anyone actually believe that 99.9% of the rioters actually are doing it because of the sadness of the terrible killing of the Victim? They are thugs and if not stopped will be at your door next!:ohdear:

Wait a minute. Let's make the punishment fit the crime. Let's charge all the police officers who have murdered unarmed people with murder, and sentence them to life in prison, no parole. I don't condone the violence, but I understand why it is happening. When people have tried peaceful protests over these murders and their voices are not listened to, the top will blow off the pressure cooker. People of color are so mistreated in this country, if you think not then you have blinders on your eyes and plugs in your ears. I know very well a black Federal Judge, he is frequently stopped for no reason other than BBWD - being black while driving. He produces his Federal identification and all of a sudden the attitude changes, "Oh, sorry sir, we heard of crime involving a similar car . . . ", etc. He is fortunate because of his position, but I can only imagine what it would be without it, too many aggressive, power hungry, hate-filled people in this world.

:bigbow:

Sadly, the vast majority of those who need to read your excellent and factual post, and should think long/hard about it...won't bother.

Thanks for the admirable effort anyway. :thumbup:

Question for you. How many unarmed people have been killed by police officers in past few years? Seems like very few considering how many people live in the US.

Seems like it has been a few years since we had the last Black man killed by a policeman and in Ferguson he was up to no good with a rap sheet a mile long.

People should be free to protest but not loot and destroy other peoples property and get off scott free.

Since Jan. 1, 2015, 1,252 black people have been shot and killed by police, according to The Washington Post's database tracking police shootings; that doesn't even include those who died in police custody or were killed using other methods.
Eric Garner had just broken up a fight, according to witness testimony.

Ezell Ford was walking in his neighborhood.

Michelle Cusseaux was changing the lock on her home's door when police arrived to take her to a mental health facility.

Tanisha Anderson was having a bad mental health episode, and her brother called 911.

Tamir Rice was playing in a park.

Natasha McKenna was having a schizophrenic episode when she was tazed in Fairfax, Va.

Walter Scott was going to an auto-parts store.

Bettie Jones answered the door to let Chicago police officers in to help her upstairs neighbor, who had called 911 to resolve a domestic dispute.

Philando Castile was driving home from dinner with his girlfriend.

Botham Jean was eating ice cream in his living room in Dallas.

Atatiana Jefferson was babysitting her nephew at home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Eric Reason was pulling into a parking spot at a local chicken and fish shop.

Dominique Clayton was sleeping in her bed.

Breonna Taylor was also asleep in her bed.

And George Floyd was at the grocery store.

...just to name a few.

Also, there are three parts to what is currently going on.
There are the protestors who finally feel like they have a voice for change.
There are the people looting and damaging property (these people, if you have seen videos and photos, seem to be of a totally different and well organized group...bricks in the street, out of nowhere, for them to use...white people breaking windows with hammers and starting fires...it's a totally different element to this) and then people who are looting...the same people who will take advantage of any situation like this, black or white.

The other element to this is the frustration of not only police brutality and unjust profiling, but also the recent video sharing of black people having the police called on them for doing mundane things.........it needs to end. We all need to start acting like we are on the same team here. I mean, clearly those who are criminals/stealing/damaging property, etc...not on the same team...but, a change needs to happen.

The lies have started. I just saw an interview of the Missouri Attorney General on television. He said that they will arrest the rioters and looters and that they will be prosecuted to the "fullest extent of the law". In my opinion, that is a bald faced lie. Some of them may be arrested, but, if anyone believes that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, then I have a bridge to sell you. The courts may find them guilty, but they will be released with essentially a slap on the wrist. That is the way it happens and the reason why the rioters and looters will continue in the future. Why not just tell the public the truth?

Really
 

The classic enabler is "I don't condone the violence but understand why it is happening"! How can anyone understand rioters are killing people, destroying property and ruining those who are peaceful and working hard for their families. No,
I don't understand these thugs and believe they should receive like punishment. To equate these thugs to their acts having any right to do it is beyond my ability to even relate to the position. I am more than knowledgeable of the minority issues and the need to address them as I spent my life supporting them and helping in a small way to help them to overcome the problems they face. I will just say we are in some ways responsible for their plight BUT to say that does not mean thugs are justified or I understand their right to kill and destroy is another way to enable the thugs to kill and riot and steal. A judge being stopped is a rather small problem compared to the person of color under threat of being fired, or not being invited to some functions because of his/her color, or not being allowed to dine in some restaurants, or injustice in school, etc. etc. Our job is to overcome these injustices and raise our children to continue the need to support change. It is not to construct a world that
believes riots, killing, stealing, etc are fine and we believe there are excuses to allow them. There is a book that was published many years ago. It is titled "The Invisible Black Man". Everyone should read it to get an idea what the person(s) of color face. The misuse of authority by the police and police criminal activity is a separate issue from thousands killing and destroying communities. I have not seen or read of any mass rioting by police over the killing of
a cop although I also believe the punishment should be equal for anyone who kills or riots. These riots are not a justification for killing anymore than it is justified for a policeman to kill without justification!! To compare the two circumstances is an attempt to appear one justifies the other. That is as terrible as it sounds!!!:ohdear:

Well said

Statistically from 2017 to 2020 there have been more Whites shot by Police, for each of those years.

• People shot to death by U.S. police, by race 2020 | Statista

Steve

Total numbers mean absolutely nothing, unless the sole, sneaky intent...is to obfuscate and deceive. :oops:

Per 100,000 is a much more accurate measurement.

Imbalance by ethnic group (poke here)

Such impressive thinking -- I hope you don't mind if I borrow from this

Oh I so agree with you! So agree. That is the problem with our world people are not being punished and police have no rights anymore. People don’t get punished so that’s why they don’t listen to respect the police. They have lost all respect. And I blame the parents because I am 56 and was brought up with morals and respect. Kids have no morals these days, including all these protesting. Parents today give their kids whatever they want so the kids like the parents and with all this crap going on, kids are being encouraged to be their own person and going the wrong way. Protesting should not be allowed period!! It’s does no good and only causes more problems. And if you commit a crime so the time, but noooo parents say my child wouldn’t do that!

So many statistics...
 

Your post made me curious. Those statistics are misleading of course due to percent of population that are white vs. black. From there my curiosity took me to here and it shines another light.

Arrests by offense, age, and race

I have heard this over and over "we are tired, mad and upset" about what is going so that gives us the right to do what we want to do. Following that logic when you get mad and upset you have the right to burn down your neighbors house, beat up the kid that called you a poopy head, shoot the guy that ran the red light and almost hit you. If you in any way condone or "understand" violence and destruction of property you are part of the problem. If it is a few "outsiders" causing the problems, why do the thousands of non outsiders not stop them or use the wonderful phones they all have to take pictures and turn them over to police.

so what -- let's talk about all the gangs in Chicago killing each other -- blacks killing blacks -- I suggest you go to Chicago and try to be a police officer -- bet your pants would turn brown real quick

Great post. My son is with the KCPD SWAT Team and I have been up most of the last few nights watching Twitter from KC and getting texts from him as to what is going on. My wife and I were both LEO's and we have put our trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to protect him to where he can go home to his family every morning.

It's time to stop the looting and burning by whatever means necessary. The death of George Floyd was appalling and the Police Officers should be dealt with in the most serious consequence; these protestors doing this destruction are not protesting the death of George Floyd, they're doing it because they want to destroy businesses and steal everything they can.

Those statistics are actual numbers and have nothing to do with percentages.
Steve

If anybody murders some one beyond any doubt then they should be put to death. Period. They don’t deserve to be breathing 30 plus years, and that includes anybody.

Too many in jail for too long, at our expense, an eye for an eye.

There’s also a lot of bleeding hearts, too. There is NO excuse for what is going on.

Well stated. I agree.

The punishment should be HARSHER than the crime - that's deterrence. Chopping a hand off for theft ... that's one of the things the Muslims got right.

Maybe if they are white.

Unfortunately some people toss around the term murder without fully understanding what is means.

This officer has not been charged with murder and if found guilty of the crimes for which he is accused, he will not get life without parole.

And, as far as "we" goes, the definition and punishment for homicides are different in every state. We as a country have no authority to decide what the terms are for non federal crimes.

This kind of talk does nothing but fuel the fires that are already burning. There is no excuse for the actions of these rioters and looters.

Yes Thank You. And how many white people have been killed by police? Do we go and protest and break into stores? These people are using this to get free stuff. They don’t care about anything or anyone. People are not caring or compassionate. When you commit a crime, get in the police car and go to jail. That’s all he had to do! But they are cry I didn’t do nothin’ or run or fight with the police. Police can’t do anything now, why bother being a policeman? They have no protection.

So let's have anarchy. That's your answer? You need to stop watching cnn and msnbc.

As you know, the outcome of most statistics are based on how they slice and dice the information to further their narrative. I remember in Statistics class we had to prove that pigs could fly.

At first I thought you were referring to seeking justice for people murdered by racist cops, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Then I read the rest of your statement...

Agree with Sophie. Just ask yourself, would you change the color of your skin to black for $1,000,000? $10,000,000?
Would you be concerned for the safety of your child or grandchild if they were black?
We have to get this resolved, but unfortunately I don’t think it will happen in our lifetime😢

Amen. Well said!

Accountability
 

How about accountability for what started all of this - accountability for police killings of black men.

Remember MLK said "Rioting is the language of the unheard."

Well said and documented. Shows those who have lived among the white way to long what is going on in this nation. Thank you.! Well done.

Yes, yes, yes
 

This says it all, Sophie "gets it." Those who craticize the post just don't have a clue and need to get their heads out of the sand.

Catch and release only works in sport fishing

They make themselves at risk by doing criminal acts !!!!!

So then you agree that you don't condone police killing people, destroying property, and ruining those who are peaceful and working hard for their families.

Because if you include the "I understand why it's happening" part, you would admit to being an enabler.

George Floyd is not the only person this is about. It's just the spark that set off the current revolution (that's my word for it, I didn't pluck it out of a newsrag). Sophie's post above yours has a very short list of people who were, at the time of their murders, doing NOTHING violent when they were murdered. Regardless of the crimes they had committed (or believed to have committed) at the time the police got to them, they were NOT doing anything violent at those moments. Such as - being asleep in bed, at bedtime. Eating ice cream. Babysitting a nephew.

If you think you understand why it's happening, but don't condone it, then you are an enabler - according to your own standards.

Or do those standards only apply when the murderer is a minority?

While I do agree with all of your views I feel the need to interject this as well.
I see us all as human. I see us all as American or not. I do not see color. I see humans. There are vast inequities in our society and yes they ALL need to stop. I am viewed as white, not human. That is an inequity. My DNA says different. However my DNA does say human. Get my point? Now, from my DNA number ours studies have occurred to give insight as to “behaviors”. Particular races have emotional tendencies. Until individuals start getting help with behavior coping skills that are acceptable to a society there will be “flying off the handle”, “knee jerk” excessive reactionary behaviors.
We are all human race! It has always been my hope for the world that one day this race will wake up and take the race equation out EXCEPT for getting coping skills help- we all need help in one way or another and all the injustice needs to stop.

Making the punishment fit the crime should not mean every infraction is a death sentence. Someone destroying replaceable property should mean they lose their irreplaceable life.