For one second, imagine the head of a teacher’s union blamed a school shooting on George Bush. In hours, how long would the union continue to exist? How long would that person have a job? How long would it be before the person’s entire family had been doxxed and Malkin or the Orange Avenger Johnson was outside their house?
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[…] For one second, imagine the head of a teacher’s union blamed a school shooting on George Bush. In hours, how long would the union continue to exist? How long would that person have a job? […]
Politically Lost
Come on. It’s just not the same. Unions are bad.
Hungry Joe
Blaming Bush for a school shooting would at least have some connection to reality, since he and his Whole Sick Crew have been in the NRA’s pocket for decades.
I more than suspect that this senseless, tragic event will be dragged out and tarted up as proof that police have to shoot first and ask questions never.
Corner Stone
Just like they used reports of rape (some legit concerns to be sure), to discredit Occupy, they will all use this nutso to discredit any protests for justice/accountability.
srv
Each party has their own Union Thug mantra.
Just different unions.
Maybe they should think about that.
burnspbesq
Imagine the head of a miner’s union who didn’t come out immediately after an accident in which several of his members were killed, without waiting for even a preliminary investigation, and accuse the company of criminal negligence. How long do you think he would continue as head of the union?
Your refusal to understand why Lynch does what he does is mystifying. Maybe you’re so angry you can’t think straight. Maybe you’re just throwing out click-bait. Neither reflects well on you.
forked tongue
@srv: This equivalence would ring a little bit less false if one of those unions didn’t seem rather noticeably more thuggish.
Botsplainer
I keep wondering that if Rosemary Clooney was so mad at Bing, why is she sitting around yukking it up while watching him appear on TV?
And why would anybody from the ETA give enough of a shit about a cashiered and doddering two star to give up Christmas at home?
Just Some Fuckhead
The good news is that the folks ostensibly on our side are pushing back hard*.
Rep. Gregory Meeks said Lynch’s comments were “unfortunate”. NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said Pataki’s criticism “is simply not fair.” Haven’t seen anything from deBlasio yet. He’s probably still too enraged to speak equivocally.
*ly
D58826
@burnspbesq: All other ‘both sides do it’ issues aside, neither the teachers union or miners union members have the power of judge/jury/executioner over the rest of us that the members of the police unions have.
bk
@burnspbesq: you are really an idiot.
RSR
ha, here’s what one reporter wrote about a caucus in the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (and we like this reporter; my wife has worked closely with him on a number of articles): http://citypaper.net/news/philly-teachers-hatch-a-militancy-plot/
Philly teachers hatch a militancy plot
PurpleGirl
The NYC police have a significant segment that is racist. And a history of not showing respect to certain mayors. Remember the rally/riot that Rudy Guiliani spoke at where the police were referring to Mayor Dinkins as the “restroom attendant”. And RG didn’t reprove them for calling him that. I’ve never forgiven RG for that incident.
(ETA: While no one official cares what I think, it is something I’ve held against RG because so many people lauded him for what he as did as mayor if he was a miracle worker.)
scav
@D58826: Moreover, the police do not have “the power of judge/jury/executioner over the rest of us” by agreement, rather they have self-appointed themselves as creators, definers, enforcers and executioners of the law and smile as we execute it and serve you officers of allmightylegalpower.
sm*t cl*de
The important thing is that no-one politicise the tragedy by suggesting gun control.
jrg
“Hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie. Now two cop’s families will have their first Christmas without them. Way to go, social justice warriors!
I especially like the other comment threads on this topic, where “All lives matter” was met with “Fuck off”. Why don’t you clowns go back to just calling people you dislike “sociopaths”, and stop pretending to justify any of this crap with “thought experiments”?
raven
Rob Ryan is a dickhead, Go Falcons!
raven
@jrg: You’re a motherfucking idiot.
Elizabelle
Granted, it’s the Village Voice, but they published a list of NYPD PR blunders Friday, before the murder of Officers Ramos and Liu.
The bad guys — including despicable Patrick Lynch — are making it harder for the good guys out on the street.
The problem is not “cops”. It’s “bad cops.” Those are not the same set.
D58826
@jrg: Of course the Garner family, the Brown family, the family of the guy shot in the stairwell and the guy shot at Walmarts are all going to get together and celebrate this first Christmas without THEIR loved one.
Mike J
I am 100% against burning kittens to death.
Baud
@jrg:
All lives do matter.
You should fuck off.
Karen in GA
@Botsplainer: What a passive-aggressive, unprofessional diva.
“I don’t wanna do the song! In fact, I don’t think I wanna be in the show!”
“You shouldn’t mix fairy tales with liverwurst and buttermilk!” (Bing: “WTF?”)
Takes off without telling anyone, leaves a note.
Seconds before the curtain rises on her new gig in NY: “Let’s not do the song we rehearsed. Let’s do something else.”
Ditches NY. Was her NY contract for one night only?
And the producers/directors/stars of the show in Vermont don’t know she rejoined the show until she walks out on stage during the performance.
And don’t get me started on the conniving gold digger of a sister: “Who cares? They’re BOTH famous!”
These are our Christmas heroines, ladies and gentlemen. I love that movie!
Karen in GA
@Elizabelle: I think the problem may be a culture that makes it impossible for the good cops to speak out against the bad ones. Do the bad ones turn on them the way they turn on any politician who doesn’t kiss their asses? What’s it like to be a good cop having to work with bad cops?
sharl
Earlier today I heard a public show To The Best of Our Knowledge. This week’s episode was “Fearing the Other”, addressing the widespread fear of black men, and the consequences of that fear.
The segment with LA attorney Connie Rice – second cousin to a more notorious C. Rice – specifically addressed the fear of black men by white cops. She got results by suing the hell out of the LAPD, to the point where LAPD eventually brought her in to mange a group of 50 police assigned to one neighborhood. That 13-minute audio segment is here (with a link there to download the .mp3 for later listening).
It was clearly a long and hard slog for her – far too much so for a society that generally considers itself advanced and “civilized” – but she’s gotten good results in that neighborhood, especially compared with where they were before the program (no murders in three years, vs. a weekly murder count before then, and huge neighborhood support for their local cops).
Not everyone is won over. One skeptical gang task force cop called it “women’s policing”; Ms. Rice’s response: ‘well,… get your skirt on.’
JordanRules
@Elizabelle: I’d like to hear more from that other set. I’d like them to turn their backs on Lynch, not DeBlasio and emphasize what you said – their bad brothers in blue are making it harder for them, the communities they serve and the country. Step out, be righteous and courageous against the culture that keeps them silent. Be creative, write op-eds, affirm your existence as that other set who represents the ideals of a respectable profession to protect and serve.
I’d love for them to be vocal and start to change things from within.
wilfred
Overcooked rhetoric gets people killed, or tortured, or both. How about just stopping it?
M. Bouffant
@burnspbesq: Understanding why he does it (He’s a pig is the shortest reason.) doesn’t mean what he’s doing is right or should be done.
another Holocene human
@burnspbesq: bs example, more like blaming Steve Beshear or Obama rather than the company.
These fucks hate Deblasio for political reasons, it’s as phoney as that phoney war on coal.
MattF
I don’t think it’s too complicated– Lynch is doing what he promised the NYPD union members he would do. And doing what Lynch promised he would do is why he has kept his job as union prez. That’s not to approve of what he’s doing, but what he’s doing and why he’s doing it should not be regarded as mystifying or surprising.
Just Some Fuckhead
@M. Bouffant: This is Burns you’re talking to. He doesn’t understand morality because he never went to school for that.
Xenos
How could “hands up, don’t shoot” be a lie?
I saw pictures of heavily armed cops drawing beads on peacefull protesters. Like a lot of people I never claimed to know what was the truth reharding Brown and Wilain. But I sure as he’ll understand the police behaviour afterward, and it was bad enough that the entire force should be shit canned and the town should rebuild the police force anew.
It is clear that my saying this means some cops and cop apologists think of me as their enemy. Fuck it – if they want me to be their enemy then I will be their enemy. I insist that crooked, murderous cops face judgment. I will support any politician or political movement that will do this, because this mishegas is worse than any crime wave.
another Holocene human
@wilfred: Too true. Palin never paid a price for instigating the Giffords shooting, yet Deblasio was NOT the anonymous internet commenters foretelling the assassination of “coproaches”. They literally are going after him because of their fantasy land beliefs that “stop n frisk” (racist policing) “keeps us safe”.
another Holocene human
@JordanRules: That won’t happen. That’s not how human psychology works. That’s why violence was never the answer. But people love to talk trash and there’s always that one unstable person. …
M. Bouffant
@jrg: Funny, I thought the lie there was “Witness #40”.
Elizabelle
I liked this Frederick Douglass quote, found in a Christian Science Monitor essay on police issues with the mayor.
Notice anything not addressed?
Like “honest questions” about the prevalence of guns and people ready to use them out there? Why can’t we have that discussion too?
divF
@Hungry Joe:
Nice Pynchon reference. But the Bush crew was infinitely sicker, as we’ve seen from the torture report.
Elizabelle
@Karen in GA: It does not take many bad apples to poison an office. Have seen that time and again.
@JordanRules: Yes. I’d like to see some pushback by good cops as well. They don’t want Darren Wilson to be the face of their profession.
And if you’re a family member of a police officer: do you feel your loved one is safer when Patrick Lynch is the face of police response? When cops turn their back on the mayor, whom citizens elected, and recently? Those idiots are dressing your officer — who may not share their views in the least — in a meat uniform.
Hungry Joe
@divF: Back when I climbed aboard the ‘Juice train I almost went with “Benny Profane” instead of “Hungry Joe.”
Can’t wait to see “Inherent Vice.”
JordanRules
@Elizabelle:
If twenty 100% innocent, perfect victim, white middle class children being killed couldn’t force this discussion then I’m afraid killing brown folks (there are no perfect victims) surely won’t…..actually I think it’s being use to embolden the other side. We surely need more guns now, ‘the other’ is mad, we’re more fearful and whatever sacrifices must be made will. It’s thoroughly depressing.
divF
@Hungry Joe: I’ve read the book, hadn’t known about the movie.
Imagine trying to make a movie out of his early work (V, Gravity’s Rainbow).
chopper
@jrg:
“serve and protect” was a lie. now a bunch of black folk’s families will have their first christmas without them. way to go, cop supporters!
sharl
@sharl: Ooh, speaking of Connie vs. Condi Rice, I just listened to the former on Tavis Smiley’s radio show, trying – very uncomfortably so – to explain why her cousin countenanced torture during the Bush Administration.
Connie the Attorney didn’t justify any of it, but did try to put in context of the politics of the time. She sure is uncomfortable about discussing her cousin’s role though. At least she was good in jousting with some National Review wingnut (Deroy Murdock – never heard of him), where she pointed out that torture is ineffective as an intelligence-gathering tool, let alone on its immorality and awfulness.
AndoChronic
So are they saying that they’re going to war against the public or continuing the war against the public as “wartime” police?
another Holocene human
@Elizabelle: You are right about bad apples and police work freaking attracts those sorts.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq: Jeeze, for a smart guy, you can really, really be a fuckhead so often.
Hungry Joe
@divF: It’s hard enough to imagine making a BOOK out of “V” and “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
Villago Delenda Est
@JordanRules: FDR was right.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
The current parasite overclass believes strongly in maintaining the fear. To divert attention from their parasitism.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle:
More and more it seems they’re not part of a profession.
They’re part of a gang.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
Assuming facts not in evidence, counselor.
gogol's wife
This thread resembles almost any given gun-control thread, in that strange never-before-seen commenters show up to say stupid stuff.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
As others said yesterday, it’s pretty fascinating to see that when a crazy white guy shoots a congresswoman in the head along with 10 bystanders, there is no larger lesson to draw about political rhetoric, but when a crazy black guy shoots his ex-girlfriend and then drives from Baltimore to NYC to shoot two cops, it’s directly related to political rhetoric.
Anyone feel like articulating why Al Sharpton is personally to blame for the shooting of these cops but Sarah Palin was totally innocent in Giffords’ shooting?
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife:
Who are you again?
Villago Delenda Est
@sharl:
Torture is great for a propaganda generation tool, and for getting the Dark Lord’s dick hard.
Mike J
Has anybody seen anybody publish the name of the girlfriend that was shot? There’s another victim here, but she was just a woman, not a cop.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: Isn’t she the one that married Gogol?
Botsplainer
@Karen in GA:
And all these guys show up while Waverly notices nothing.
The light colonel who was his aid passing in the info that “it’s snowing”, divining it like Kreskin.
Snows for 10 minutes for a light crust, and somebody already has the horse sled out…
Just Some Fuckhead
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, like he could ever be that fucking awesome.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike J: Well, she was likely blah, too, which means that her death is just totally unimportant.
At least to racist shitstains like Lynch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Botsplainer: Oh, come on. This is CLASSIC Hollywood.
If the plot demands a suspension of disbelief, the audience is supposed to deliver.
You know, like cops in NYC always being able to park right in front of the building where they’re about to ask some questions…
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’m not sure as I left the ceremony before he arrived.
Bad pork, I think.
Tommy
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): I just got off the phone with my mother. She said what the hell is going on. I said I don’t know mom. Working on it but I don’t know.
skerry
@Mike J: Per local Baltimore reporting
sharl
@Mike J: The last I checked, her name hadn’t been published. Given what I’ve seen happen to women in other, less violence-soaked scenarios, e.g., women game developers who dared to voice opinions, I hope she stays unknown for as long as possible, especially given the serious gunshot wound she needs to recover from; the fewer nasty distractions, the better, and I doubt she has a PR and security staff to protect her from unwanted attention.
Of course, her name will come out eventually, by leak if nothing else. From all indications she is totally innocent in this, and who knows, she may have been shot for threatening to go to the police with what she knew was coming. None of that would stop assholes from doing their asshole thing to her, because they’re, y’know, assholes.
ETA: Just saw Skerry’s comment with her name after hitting post. Well, shit; good luck, m’am.
Les Nessman
Stillers got in….end of the World.
Botsplainer
@Villago Delenda Est:
And bad guys ALWAYS like to verbally spar with cops before calling their lawyers.
Karen in GA
@Botsplainer: Hell, once the movie starts and we see the show Bing is putting on for his fellow soldiers — including a stage, painted backdrop, and band — among bombed-out ruins in a war zone where the fighting is still going on, you know this is going to be about as believable as Moonraker.
And what a whiny General.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): My priest was in a barbershop quartet, high tenor. They performed at local festivals and were always in high demand and they were good at what they did. Once they performed at an event at my high school and they were not well-received. I do not know why.
satby
@Just Some Fuckhead: Notoriously tough crowd, your high school.
Just Some Fuckhead
Jesus, JJ Watt should get to take Flacco home after this game. He won him.
pseudonymous in nc
@burnspbesq:
You seem to forget lots of things.
Lynch has a history of incitement — and privilege — that goes back years. The police are part of the public. Their powers are invested by the public. They are not feudal knights.
Just Some Fuckhead
@satby: I was not a member of the tough crowd but I sometimes did their homework for them. Underneath their rough exteriors they were regular people like you and me. I never did figure out why they hung out in the bathroom.
Mandalay
Logic to make your head spin: a couple of weeks ago Giuliani actually managed to lay blame for Eric Garner’s death on the Teachers Unions:
So…..Teachers Unions are preventing blacks getting a decent education, and that’s why they end up being choked to the death on the street by cops. Got that?
LT
Who did the police turn their backs on when the RW gunfuck targeted and killed THREE Pittsburgh cops? There was ZERO outrage from conservatives when that happened.
Mandalay
@LT:
They probably viewed it as a tragic instance of friendly fire.
gwangung
@pseudonymous in nc:
Hm…isn’t his union the same one with the representative the rookie cop called, instead of an ambulance, when the rookie accidentally killed a man?
bk
@Villago Delenda Est:
Facts not in evidence is correct. One who tries to make it appear that he or she is the smartest person in the room usually is not.
gogol's wife
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Gogol was never married. I keep waiting for somebody to remember that. It’s a story by Tommaso Landolfi.
ruemara
@burnspbesq: I normally don’t get the hate your comments engender, however, in this instance, I do. Which leaves me with only the response of invective.
There isn’t an acid filled, spiked dildo large enough for you to go fuck yourself with. So fuck off, fuck off some more, and keep fucking off until you’re back and fuck off again. This is also for srv & jrg & anyone else with comments in their vein.
Just Some Fuckhead
@gogol’s wife: Honestly, I don’t even remember gogol. I’m terrible with names. Was he the one that kept emailing John with complaints?
sharl
@gwangung: Yep:
Baud
@ruemara:
Remind me never to engender your hate.
Jeffro
Great point John and one I will keep in my back pocket as the various (cranky, old, white, Fox-News-consuming) relatives stop by over the holidays…
Kay
@jrg:
“Black lives matter” doesn’t mean other lives matter less. It’s not like there’s X amount of “matter” to go around and they’re taking some of yours. It’s not a finite supply that we’re portioning out.
srv
Nearly 23 years later, I think we have an answer.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I assume like many of you, my local NPR station plays a bunch of olde-timey radio shows on the weekends. “Dragnet” is in the rotation now.
It really is startling to hear those “true life” dramas and compare them to life these days. I think that far too many of our fellow citizens think that police are still like Joe Friday and that too many of our policemen think they are modern-day Joe Fridays, too. Except (in their minds) the communities where they work have turned into hostile territory… And at least a few police departments don’t seem to want bright candidates, and a court says that’s Ok. :-/
Police unions are different from teachers’ unions in several ways, as some others mentioned above. One would take remarks from, say, the Association of Old Crows, criticizing the President much differently than, say, the Screen Writers Guild, even though they both have some union-like characteristics…
Haters gonna hate. We should Shun more, I think.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Other Chuck
@burnspbesq:
Massey was found culpable. I think John had the right idea when he tried to drive you off the last time. You’re the reason we laugh at lawyer jokes, you worthless parasitic piece of filth.
Baud
@bk:
This. I’m the only one I know who’s been able to pull it off successfully.
Corner Stone
I’m sure it’s been mentioned somewhere by now, but the guy’s fucking name is “Lynch”. For fuck’s sake.
ruemara
@Baud: It usually takes a long, long time of giving the benefit of the doubt. But I don’t hate anyone here. That much energy requires a personal connection. That’s just anger. Besides you have more sense than Burns.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Baud: That was awesome.
bk
@Baud: This. I’m the only one I know who’s been able to pull it off successfully
Corner Stone
@The Other Chuck:
When, and how, was that?
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Al Sharpton is rabble-rouser. He made his name with the Tawana Brawley incidnet. A lot of people have never forgotten or forgiven him for his role in that. (OTOH: there was one election for Senator (?) when he was on a Sunday morning TV show and he was the most mature of the three running in the Democratic primary. I voted for him.)
Baud
@ruemara: Thank you.
@Just Some Fuckhead: Thank you.
Baud
@bk:
I think your blockquote tags are backwards.
Mandalay
@PurpleGirl:
Put me at the very top of that list. He is completely unrepentant for the evil he did. How can you forgive someone who refuses to admit they did anything wrong?
bk
@Baud:
Yeah. I’m trying not to be the smartest person in the room – how am I doing?
Baud
@bk:
Excellent. I was totally fooled.
The Other Chuck
@Corner Stone:
I tried to have the comment deleted, but oh well…
Cole made the same comment I did some years (?) back, about the deserving target of lawyer jokes. He obviously doesn’t have to ask people to leave, but it was pretty clear he was sick of burnsie’s shit that day.
So am I. The boot licking of burnsie, the violence fantasies of VDE … I’m just sick of the toxicity. I’m not claiming to be above it, I know I’m even contributing to it. So that change I’m looking for has to start with me, so GBCW at least for a few months.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: I tried to use the Wayback Machine to find it for ya but I got sidetracked reading my own old comments. Christ I’m funny.
Mandalay
@The Other Chuck:
I see your point of view but it’s a bit rich since you just called another poster a “worthless parasitic piece of filth”.
Not that your comment bothered me in the least, but you are throwing stones from a glass house.
Bystander
Another hard hitting editorial from the NYTimes says it’s time for DeBlasio to hold us all together, presumably in his big stwong arms. The comments from Lynch are to be dismissed as reactions of profound shock and grief.
They really have it in for the guy. Pwease be our Superman. If you don’t, you’ll get all the blame for what the evil Lynch and his minions are doing.
muddy
@Mandalay: Possibly you did not read the further 2 sentences after your quote?
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@Kay:
It’s never been “Black Lives Matter” more, it’s that people have to be reminded more often that “Black Lives Matter”. Because it’s a simple thing that most people seem to believe the opposite of.
AxelFoley
@Villago Delenda Est:
We already have a fuckhead here. One is enough.
AxelFoley
@ruemara:
Damn. Just damn.
Consider this stolen. LOL
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@scav:
Looks like someone was suckered by his high school history teacher’s lies.
No SCAV, the police were always about keeping The Others in their place. Back in the 19th Century it was the Irish and Germans, now it is Blacks. It was only the Progressive in the last half of the 19th Century who pushed to make the police about law enforcement and not just the street gang of the 1%.
It’s no accident the NYPD is acting the way it is acting right now.
scav
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Do I really need to be more obvious about tongue placement on BJ? I thought that was a given, along with the snark font.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav:
Phrasing!
liberal
@Corner Stone: LOL, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Corner Stone
@scav:
Yes…please do.
justdale
Six months ago two Las Vegas cops were executed. The perpetrators had recently spent time in the presence of a certian deadbeat welfare rancher who was openly advocating armed resistance. I don’t recall the wingnut echo chamber pointing out the blood on his (or their own) hands.
AxelFoley
@scav:
Was already beaten to it, funny choice of words. ;)
Pooh
@burnspbesq: You’re smarter than this, I would think. A wonder the NFLPA didn’t come to Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson’s defense with a “had it coming anyway” rationale, by your logic.
Mothra
I have thought about this a lot, actually. When I hear of an abusive and/or law breaking school psychologist, it never occurs to me to view their firing or arrest as a sign that the police or the mayor or the governor don’t support my profession-it’s a sign that they support children and the laws that protect them.
I cannot believe that the police are in such a state over “one of their own” being criticized for chocking someone to death.
Matt McIrvin
More to the point, if some mentally ill person murders DeBlasio, will the police union president be blamed?
D58826
The shooter had an arrest record a mile long. Why did he have access to a gun? Maybe the blame lies with the NRA????
Howlin Wolfe
@burnspbesq: #1, we wouldn’t hear about the miner’s union head’s remarks because MSM figures don’t give him any credence; but even if he did, and the MSM reported his remarks, it isn’t the same. The mining accident would me very directly related to the safety issues involved in the accident, said issues under the direct control of the owners, and said union rep might have an actual idea of the unsafe work environment. So, no he wouldn’t be fired, but it’s not the same thing. #2, we’re talking about the teacher’s union, a favorite Conservative bugbear. You really don’t think that a teacher’s union head wouldn’t be hounded by the assholes of the Bush maladministration? Maybe that head would resign, maybe not, but the outrage from the right would be ugly, and W and his henchmen would undoubtedly make it hard for him/her. So, I don’t think you can so smugly dismiss Cole’s thought experiment. You don’t know any more than he does.
Howlin Wolfe
@jrg: Fuck off, sociopath.
Howlin Wolfe
@jrg: And furthermore, you come here calling something a lie, with no proof, just your tribal belief, and expect respect in return? You are an asshole.