Florida’s population is 53% white, 17% black, and 26% Hispanic. This is important, because the Florida highway patrol did a study of the race and ethnicity of those who are pulled over by police. They found that 55% of those stopped where white, 22% black, and 18% Hispanic.
In other words, the claim that blacks are targeted for traffic stops by racist police officers is false.
Thanks to Big Country, I saw a story that came out yesterday about the Seattle Police Department no longer performing traffic stops. I met my wife after work last night- we went to the house of one of her friends. Another of her liberal teacher friends who was there was talking about this story with me. He is all in favor of it. I shot several holes in his argument.
His claim was that there is no reason for police to do a traffic stop when they can simply take down your tag number and mail a ticket to your house. Traffic stops, he says, are an escalation and almost ensures that the subjects of these stops will be nervous or scared, thus also ensuring that there will be some kind of violence that will end with the police shooting people.
I replied, “So you don’t think the cops should ever stop anyone?” He replied no, and I told him that as a paramedic who has responded to perhaps 25,000 car accidents in his career and seen hundreds of fatalities as a result, that I disagree. People would soon drive even worse than they already do. He replied that people mainly have any good driving habits because they are afraid of getting a ticket, so mailing out those tickets would have the same effect.
This was where I laughed and said, “I will just remove the license plate from my car and never get another ticket in my life. After all, if there are no traffic stops, without a tag, you have no idea where to send the ticket.”
His reply was that, of course police would stop you for no tags. I said, “Oh, so SOME traffic stops are ok?” He says yes, in cases where there are no tags, or for safety reasons. So now I move on to- what about suspected DUI? Yes. What about someone speeding? Yes, but only if someone is 25 mph or more over the speed limit. What would prevent the police from simply lowering speed limits by 25 mph? What about the kid who gets hit by a car going 44 mph in a school zone?
So then he moved the goalposts. He said that his problem was that the police use traffic stops to profile people. His daughter (white, liberal, purple hair and many piercings) lives in a ghetto, all black neighborhood and drives a red, lowrider Honda with dark tinted windows. She “gets pulled over all of the time” they question her and then “let her go because she is white.”
I said, “But profiling works.” He replied: “What?”
“Look, you are a cop. You are trying to prevent crime, or at least catch a criminal. It’s kind of your job. Which scenario will likely accomplish that- Stopping a 60 year old man driving a Lexus in a neighborhood of half million dollar homes, or a red Honda with dark tinted windows and a coffee can muffler being driven by a couple of white kids in an all black neighborhood that is notorious for drug sales and random drive by shootings?”
To his credit, he admitted that the Honda is most likely. Then I said, “Could it be that they let your daughter go because they could see that she wasn’t breaking the law, and not merely because she was white? Is it possible that they let black people go without a ticket as well?”
Then I had to let it go, because my wife was giving me “the look” for grilling her coworkers.
The fact is this: Florida did a study of traffic stops. They found out that blacks are not stopped in numbers that are out of proportion to the population of the areas where the stop is made. That is, in areas where all of the residents are black, police stop- mostly black people. Not because they are black, but because that is who is driving in that area.
A website is being used to produce and distribute child porn. I assume all of the web hosts like AWS will deplatform them. Or are they all to busy trying to keep Donald Trump from saying that China caused COVID, that the election was rigged, and that Biden is a senile fraud?
Slate takes a few minutes to attack Brett Kavanaugh. Typical liberal hit piece.
The quote of the day comes from Rolling Stone magazine:
“When safety is on the line, you want the absolute best product in your hand”
Of course, they aren’t talking about guns. The funny part is that some of their advice can get their readers tossed in jail. One of their quotes:
A stun gun, Angorn explains, is an easy — and legal — way to carry protection without having to carry an actual weapon.
So a Taser isn’t a weapon? This would reinforce the belief of some people that using a Taser on someone isn’t really that big of a deal.
Their “weapons expert” is an idiot. Some states, like Florida define a stun gun thusly:
“Electric weapon or device” means any device which, through the application or use of electrical current, is designed, redesigned, used, or intended to be used for offensive or defensive purposes, the destruction of life, or the infliction of injury.
“Dart-firing stun gun” means any device having one or more darts that are capable of delivering an electrical current.
This becomes a problem when you look at the laws concerning the carrying of electric weapons:
(b) A person who willfully and knowingly possesses any electric weapon or device, destructive device, or other weapon as defined in s. 790.001(13), including a razor blade or box cutter, except as authorized in support of school-sanctioned activities, in violation of this subsection commits a felony of the third degree
I am assuming that the readers of Rolling Stone are not any more familiar with the maze of laws concerning the carrying of weapons than are the people who advise and write articles for them.
Watch the first F-16 fighter jets to be owned by American citizens, remember that an American billionaire is building and launching missiles, then tell me how dangerous is it that private citizens own machine guns.
Or does the Democrat party want to tell us that they are the party that represents the little guy, while they ensure that only Billionaires get to own weapons?
With this picture, we now know what this civil war’s uniforms will be:
It’s won’t be blue versus gray. It will be Masks versus MAGA hats. That’s right- the COVID mask is the left’s version of the MAGA hat.
A Federal Judge says that the CDC doesn’t have the leagal authority to halt evictions, but since they have a good reason for doing so and landlords are minimally affected, the CDC can keep on doing it.
Today, I watched a video from BLM/Antifa called “what to do instead of calling the police: building community empowerment” Why did I watch it? So you don’t have to, but can still benefit from the intel. If you still want to watch the video, I will put up a link to it at the end of this post. Let’s start with an intro:
First thing that jumps out at me: haven’t they been saying that “defund the police” doesn’t mean getting rid of the police? Anyhow, let’s look at some of the people on the “panel” narrating this video:
Eliza claims to have been a social worker for over 10 years, who just graduated college with degrees in women’s studies and history. Brinley is a writer and yoga instructor. Sandra’s experience is as an “organizer” of students while she was in college. Katie has degrees in education and gender studies. This intro just reinforces the stereotype that the people pushing this movement are doing so because they have no real job or life skills, and their time in college was wasted complaining and protesting instead of earning an actual, marketable degree.
The video starts by telling the viewer to NOT call support groups for things like domestic violence, because the support groups just turn around and call the police. They are claiming that punishment is not the way to go with a “crisis.”
The video then goes on to say that psychiatric hospitals, foster care, and homeless shelters don’t work, then they list the reasons why. So what is the solution? Community. Yes, the community should solve its own problems.
Then they advocate that each person set up safety plans where they will learn to handle and respond to triggering events. Part of this plan should be to “deescalate” and attempt to calm the person down, so they can navigate through their own crisis, the one that is making them want to be violent.
“Do you need to do anything about someone shoplifting from Target? No, it is none of your business,” the narrator says. What to do if it is YOUR stuff getting stolen, she doesn’t say.
The video then spends 30 minutes asking for donations.
Every one of the people in this video are displaying a complete lack of understanding of human nature and the evil that lives in some people. It is obvious that they have all led sheltered lives. They all think that everyone is good, rational, and will respond to a good talking to.
They believe that if we all just work together, that no one will ever try to take more than their share, and that everyone just wants to get along. This is the biggest flaw with communism- the people who advocate for it assume that everyone will always try their hardest, and no one will take advantage of anyone else.
This is pure wishful thinking and shows that none of these people has ever had to live in the real world. They have spent their entire lives living on campus or in Mom’s basement.
What they don’t realize is that, once police are gone, they can pass all of the rules they want, no one will listen to them. Outlaw machine guns? Nope. Tell me to pay taxes? Nope. Shoot women’s studies members in the face? No one to stop it.
Idiots.
