(July 1, 2013 at 1:59 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/uva...04442.html

Quote:Felony charges were dropped on Thursday against a 20-year-old University of Virginia student who says she panicked when undercover agents from the state's Alcohol Beverage Control division mistook her water purchase for beer.

Quote:the agents—six men and one woman, all in plainclothes—approached suspecting the box, a blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water, to be a 12-pack of beer. One jumped on the hood of her SUV; another pulled out a gun, Daly said, as her roommates seated inside looked on in horror.

Frankly, this seems like a bit of overkill to begin with. Clearly, these fuckers do not have enough to do.

Even if it HAD been a 12-pack of beer, the actions of ABC in this case are way out of proportion.

Why would you pull a gun on a minor suspected of buying a twelve-pack of beer? To call that overkill is an understatement.

(July 1, 2013 at 2:07 pm)Faith No More Wrote: Why would you pull a gun on a minor suspected of buying a twelve-pack of beer? To call that overkill is an understatement.

Prior to that, why would you ambush a minor suspected of underage possession with 6 plainclothes cops?

What could possibly go wrong?

I repeat...the cops are out of control.

(July 1, 2013 at 6:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I repeat...the cops are out of control.

...so is crime...perhaps you prefer chaos.

(July 2, 2013 at 9:28 am)A Theist Wrote:

(July 1, 2013 at 6:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I repeat...the cops are out of control.

...so is crime...perhaps you prefer chaos.

I'd argue that crime is not out of control. In fact violent crime in the United States is at an all time low, as hard as the media tries to portray crime as out of control. I don't think the choice is between shitty police and chaos though. In fact I'd argue that bad cops add to the chaos, rather than detract from it. We live in a society where it is almost impossible to convict a cop of murder. That doesn't help law and order some how. The US is over policed. Canada has a much lower police presence, but they have much better police on average and their society is substantially more ordered and has lower crime. Obviously there are other factors, but giving a blank check to cops does not lower crime.

(July 2, 2013 at 9:28 am)A Theist Wrote:

(July 1, 2013 at 6:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I repeat...the cops are out of control.

...so is crime...perhaps you prefer chaos.

Even if crime was out of control, that doesn't excuse these cops of the way they have been conducting themselves. Many of them are worse than the criminals they arrest.

(July 2, 2013 at 9:37 am)CapnAwesome Wrote: The US is over policed. Canada has a much lower police presence, but they have much better police on average and their society is substantially more ordered and has lower crime. Obviously there are other factors, but giving a blank check to cops does not lower crime.

I think what would go a long way is better psychological screening for people applying to become cops. We need better tools to weed out the sadists and those that wish to become cops for the position of authority as opposed to those that truly want to protect the community.

(July 2, 2013 at 9:52 am)Faith No More Wrote: I think what would go a long way is better psychological screening for people applying to become cops. We need better tools to weed out the sadists and those that wish to become cops for the position of authority as opposed to those that truly want to protect the community.

Absolutely, also if we made it a more desirable job we'd get better candidates. I and many educated people don't want to be cops because it's not a very good job. It's only a good job to people who either have a strong desire to help people or much more commonly have a strong desire to bully people. There is little appeal to regular people. If we cut the police force (we really don't need as many cops as we have) and paid more to the remaining good police we'd be a far better position. For some reason though the idiot public can't understand anything other than "we need more cops"

(July 2, 2013 at 9:28 am)A Theist Wrote:

(July 1, 2013 at 6:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I repeat...the cops are out of control.

...so is crime...perhaps you prefer chaos.

That's horseshit. Something you specialize in. When cops can waste their time chasing college kids carrying water not beer - and have 7 of them jumping on cars like drunken frat boys themselves! - I repeat they are out of control.

You had best retract your head from your ass.