(no subject)

[gwydion]

* I suppose I ought to say something about the LAPD thing. I am absolutely against going around shooting innocent family members of people you are pissed at. I am generally not okay with solving disputes with guns. That goes for Dorner. That goes for the LAPD going around randomly shooting at innocent elderly Latinas even though their truck didn't match the description. Take a moment to think about that. They didn't identity themselves. They didn't give the elderly Latinas a chance to surrender. They opted instead to randomly spray them with bullets just in case they might have been a 6'2 black man. As the LAPD is clearly more dangerous to the general public than the mass murderer they were hunting, who was at least picking specific targets instead of randomly attacking civilians, and given the LAPD's long history of extreme racism, self serving lies, and violence as an institution, I am having a hard time believing a damned thing they are saying about the fire or the grievance that led to the fire. I am not saying I believe they are lying for sure, just that given their history I have no reason to think they aren't lying. That is their usual modus operendi, after all. As far as I can tell, the LAPD is a massive criminal enterprise no more trustworthy than any other form of organized crime. I absolutely thing law enforcement needed to stop the shooter; I am just not convinced the LAPD counts as law enforcement. Caveat: I am not from LA and have never been there, but I grew up in a major city with a notoriously corrupt and violent police force that still murders trans folk and covers it up and performs other acts of violence against innocent civilians. I am used to police that operates on a system of nepotism, bigotry against a variety of groups, and a willingness to beat innocent people into submission for getting in the way or just looking at them wrong. My distrust comes from a place of experience with this sort of police force, and having watched the LAPD operate from a far for a couple decades. I will believe they've cleaned up when they demonstrate they have. Randomly shooting civilians isn't going to convince me they've changed.

* The GOP ramps up their War on Voting:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* Marco Rubio "rebuts" the President's speech by attacking things he didn't say as if he said them and attacking him for not saying what he did. Someone needs to tell the GOP that straw man arguments are not something to aspire to:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* "Missouri bill redefines science, gives equal time to intelligent design:" http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/02/missouri-bill-redefines-science-gives-equal-time-to-intelligent-design/

* "Chiune Sugihara: The Hero Who Didn’t Walk Away:" http://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2013/01/24/chiune-sugihara-the-hero-who-didnt-walk-away/

"The exact number of Jews saved by Chiune Sugihara is not known but estimates put the number around 6,000. By comparison Oskar Schildler saved around 1,100 to 1,200 lives."

* Stephen Colbert on the RNC rebranding:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

* Lewis Black on the absurdity of Action Hero actors being taken as authorities in the gun debate:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

* Stephen Colbert's take on Joe Arpaio and Steven Seagal's plan to send gangs of armed pedophiles and other violent felons into schools:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

* The dizzy is winning today. I did plant the seeds, but didn't get any further. The first batch of Luprcalias came, but I'm not well enough for cataloging. The cough is a little better, but still there. I am three antibiotic pills in. Tomorrow I am meant to turn up online for a Valentine's event, but if I feel this bad, I don't think I can do it.

* Note to self: never put Mother Shub's Stygian Nougat on right after a shower. Ouch. Ouch!!!

* I've been captivated by the Friday Society, but failed to write a review that describes it better than this: http://slatebreakers.com/2013/01/07/review-the-friday-society-by-adrienne-kress/

* "InCryptid Q&A, Part II: Cuckoo to you too.:" http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/494667.html

* "DC responds to criticism over hiring known homophobic, shitbag waste of space, Orson Scott Card:" http://big-wired.livejournal.com/318769.html

* My friends are about $500.00 short on their kickstarter and running out of time: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sheilaruth/rekindling-the-fire-rathas-creature-graphic-novel/posts/404666?ref=email&show_token=46175412f1beedf1

* The Dragon Cave:

Comments

[tibicina]

The LAPD is much better than they used to be. That said, how bad they are depends a LOT on a) which precise division you are dealing with and b) the other circumstances in the world/city. Normal every-day, day-to-day stuff, they've largely cleaned up. But any time they're on heightened alert they start slipping.

On the other hand, criminal orginzation at least in part isn't all that far from the truth. During prohibition the Mafia and the other Organized Crime groups never made much headway in LA because the police were the ones running the booze and they didn't like the competition. And there was a significant period of the 80's when they were supplying a lot of the drugs in the city as well. (Granted, some of that was that Oliver North had helped set that up to use the money from creating a cocaine problem in LA to fund the Contras, but... yeah... anyway.)

[gwydion]

Thank you for the history tidbit. I don't know a lot about West Coast Prohibition, though what I've heard about Seattle is fascinating.

With Philly, NY, and Chicago it's a matter of pay offs going back into the 19th century and drawing the cops from the same populations that populate the gangs. Close relatives end up doing favours across the line. If the brother or cousin of a cop is under investigation things tend to slide. The police just generally function like another gang. The history is a little different with LA, obviously, but watching them function they look pretty fucking familiar. I had heard the day to day is cleaner, but given how often these ugly things happen, it looks cosmetic to me. I don't have any clever ideas for changing the culture of corruption and bigotry that comes from generations of operating a certain way. I wish I did.

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

Last I heard and read, 90% of cops who busted gang members were corrupt. It could be higher. I don't have any respect for the LAPD.