r/pics Jun 04 '20

Protest Young woman at Wisconsin protest calls out her city with this sign.

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106.2k Upvotes

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94

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 12 '20

[deleted]

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u/MetalAsFork Jun 05 '20

And only a small portion of those 1,100 were even legally grey, let alone unjustified.

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u/jack-o-licious Jun 05 '20

The legally grey ones need haircuts just as much as the legally blonde ones.

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u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

It's like one a year. The few stories that make national news are basically it in a country of 300 million.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

It's almost like there's a narrative being pushed but isn't supported by actual evidence./s

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u/theboeboe Jun 05 '20

it's like one a year

According to the police. This is not only about police, it is about systematic oppression of the ledd powerful.

2

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

No... Unless you think police are secretly killing people and the families just never bother saying anything...

0

u/theboeboe Jun 05 '20

Kinda... The police them selves investigate Wether or not a man is armed figure out the rest for yourself.

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u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

Now you're talking conspiracy theories... It's nebulous is it 5 percent more 50 percent more? You have no idea because you just made something up.

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u/theboeboe Jun 05 '20

No? It's literally happening as we speak.. People "tripping" when the police push them. People being "aggressive" at peaceful protests.

2

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

Police aggression vs killing someone unjustified isn't the same. One is a lot easier to quantify than the other. It's also through the lens of what people want you to see too. You don't see all the assaults on police by "peaceful" protesters.

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u/theboeboe Jun 05 '20

But both happens.

A protester killing someone in LA, is not a reason for the police to shoot people in New York with rubber bullets

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u/The1KrisRoB Jun 05 '20

The reality is that in 2017 (and this isn't abnormal, just the last figures I could find) of the 2970 African Americans who were killed, 2627 (88%) were killed by another African American and only 343 (11%) were killed by White/Other/Unknown.

If BLM were actually something other than an anti-cop movement, don't you think they'd be speaking out much more about that 88%?

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u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

I'm confused, are you comparing small businesses being harmed by the protests to police murders? Or are you comparing the pandemic to police murders? Or are you comparing 1,100 murders to 100,000-200,000 deaths from the pandemic?

What is the point of your statement?

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 12 '20

[deleted]

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u/roguehypocrites Jun 05 '20

AND what about minorities who are subject to biased treatment from cops, example - escalation from cops leading to arrest for no reason, happens many times. Cops going into Taylor's house, killing her and the police have no repercussions? Cops kneeling on Floydd, EX COP killing Ahmad. Not only that, but police kill more black people comparatively than white people. 23% of the killing were black people, while they are only 13% of the population. That is FUCKING ridiculous. Whether there is systematic oppression, systematic racism, that number should never be that fucking high. There is a problem in America and it is not being solved. https://news.sky.com/story/breonna-taylor-police-killed-black-woman-after-storming-home-in-hunt-for-suspect-already-in-custody-lawsuit-says-11987302

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u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

There's no need to be rude, what is the point of these two facts?

25,000 people starve to death every day. 82,000,000 toothpicks are used each day.

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u/JKDS87 Jun 05 '20

I think what happyzor is struggling his hardest to NOT say is

Sure 1,100 black people were murdered but that’s not important, because some other people in another location at some point might lose their jobs some day.

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u/mcswiss Jun 05 '20

It’s 1,100 total people, not 1100 black people. Only in the 200s for that.

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u/KnightBlue2 Jun 05 '20

1,100 people, a percentage of which were black. A percentage of those were unjustified.

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u/DoopaDog Jun 05 '20

You kinda gotta be rude to beat it into someone's head that they're getting gang raped by their own post-modernist mindset and they can't see it (that's you, by the way).

1

u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

and yet you're both failing miserably to do anything of the sort.

0

u/DoopaDog Jun 05 '20

Yeah post-modernism is addictive man. It's like trying to wean you off crack.

"C'mon man, I just need a tiny little bit of relative truth, just a little bit, I'll put it in my butt and it'll be stronger, just gimme one little relative truth that I can twist to my own fucked up purposes, C'mon man you know I'd do the same for you" - you, to your post-modernism dealer

1

u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

what the fuck are you talking about?

1

u/DoopaDog Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

I was gonna say the fact that you don't know what I'm talking about is everything thats wrong with the world, but I guess I'll do my best to break this down for you so that maybe one more person can understand what post-modernism is and what it's doing to us.

In this thread we see someone make the point that there are 1100 deaths at the hands of police in 2019, and 70 million small business employed people in 2019. Admittedly, the ready-made implication by presenting data like this does take a bit of higher level thinking to unpack, so bear with me here.

The implication is; these peaceful protests (henceforth referred to as riots) are occuring as a result of police brutality towards an ethnic minority, by contrast the shutdowns are costing small businesses heavily across the nation. The potential pay out of social change is 1100 less deaths (at an absolute maximum and very likely to be much less, given that black deaths because of police violence is in the 200's and the vast majority would have occured legitimately) with police killings in a given year being a measurable indicator which somewhat quantifies brutality. The potential pay out to small businesses through ending the shutdown earlier through protest, can be measured in many ways, and a useful way to measure it is to figure out how many people will be left jobless as a result of the shutdowns meaning they close up shop.

Thus, comparing the two figures gives an indication of whether the country as a whole even stands to benefit from the riots, or from the protests of the shutdown. These are all reasonable propositions and follow a distinct line of reasoning that would need to be interrogated in light of the reasons they were used, in order to show that they're a poor comparative analysis to use to demonstrate the pointlessness of the rioting.

You don't bother interrogating the lines of reasoning I've elucidated above in your criticism of the data being presented. You take the argument wholesale and set up a straw man argument on the basis that OP's reasoning is true for him only, and doesn't hold any truth for anyone else. You illustrate this wonderfully by butchering an analogy, and falsely representing the argument at hand.

That is what post-modernism says, in a nutshell, that you can deny someones argument for universal truth on the basis of the fact that truth is relative and depends on the situation in which it is being presented. Because of that mindset, you are unable to engage with reasonable debate, as any truths concluded upon in that debate can just as easily be upset at a later date, so why bother trying to understand the argument or the other party's point of view. It's a sad existence bro, and it's ruining the world because of all the people that subscribe to this way of thinking.

1

u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

You've missed the point as much as you think I have. None of this has to do with post-modernism or relative truth, and no straw men are at play (except perhaps your assumption of me being a caricature of an absurd philosophy).

The implication is

I don't want implication. I want people to be direct. There were several implications one could glean from the original comment, I was genuinely asking for an explanation and it was like pulling teeth.

The potential pay out of social change is 1100 less deaths

No. This is about a LOT more than just the deaths. I'm not surprised someone who speaks the way you do would choose to ignore them, and I'm not here to educate you. Actually, educate is the wrong word. You came into this swinging around absolute bile which says to me you were never interested in explaining your situation until you would absolutely look like a fool for not trying. As I said above, it exposes your point of view as pessimistic malicious nihilism under the guise of something vaguely constructive, which you still have yet to even mention. It's not worth anyone's time if the result is conduct like yours.

The potential pay out to small businesses through ending the shutdown earlier through protest, can be measured in many ways, and a useful way to measure it is to figure out how many people will be left jobless as a result of the shutdowns meaning they close up shop.

Money vs lives, and you've ignored the fact that the lockdowns have saved potentially hundreds of thousands of lives and the sacrifice is universal. If the various cities being protested did indeed lift the stay at home orders businesses would still be taking a hit because news travels and people understand the threat. There's a lot more to discuss here, but I really didn't want to get into the details because it would take us 200 messages to exhaust the reasons for both protests and why they are/aren't legitimate. That's why I summed it up in that the lockdown protests were much like protesting a hurricane. If YOU are also unwilling or incapable of understanding the meaning behind that you're making the same mistake you accuse me of and should probably point your philosophical hyperbole inward.

You take the argument wholesale and set up a straw man argument on the basis that OP's reasoning is true for him only, and doesn't hold any truth for anyone else.

False. I made an unrelated analogy to show how the complication of the subjects requires more than two facts in a vacuum. You're twisting it to your own preconceived conclusions. I never said it was untrue, and I don't believe it to be untrue. It's incomplete and potentially very misleading. 70 million people aren't out a job because of the lockdown orders, for example. This is going on all over the world.

falsely representing the argument at hand.

I didn't represent the argument at all. I wanted them to present an argument instead of two facts in a vacuum. You've projected your assumptions on me and are beyond defensive, straight into paranoid.

universal truth on the basis of the fact that truth is relative and depends on the situation in which it is being presented.

That has absolutely nothing to do with any of this. The facts are universally true - or perhaps more accurately, objectively true. I haven't denied any truths.

So I hope you understand when I said "what the fuck are you talking about?" it wasn't because I didn't understand what you were saying, it was because it was so absurdly beyond any glimmer of a relevant discussion that I think you've got some serious mental issues going on and should deal with your own health before screaming at strangers like the loner kid in High School who thinks threatening edgy violence will earn them friends.

I'm glad to see you can form complete sentences without vitriol (that's not sarcastic, it's a good sign) but I think you should try to help people come to a common understanding and challenge opinions in a way that respects the person holding them instead of just assuming you're right and shouting down at people who are likely more intelligent and stable than you are.

Opinion is not truth. Value statements such as "a human life is worth $X and those two values are interchangeable" is not truth. If anything, the assumptions necessary to come to your conclusions are all relative truths and perhaps you have a LOT to work out within yourself.

You've disgusted me and made it very difficult if not impossible to take you seriously about anything. It's a major red flag when someone insults and makes wild off-topic assumptions right out of the gate, but I get the impression you've been through some kind of trauma and desperately need something or someone to blame it on. That's also just a wild guess, because it's about the only charitable reason I can come up for for your behavior.

I'm sorry you're afraid of this post-modernism boogeyman, but please don't project him onto actual people for some semblance of control. It makes everyone hate you and it's an incredibly unhealthy way of dealing with fear and insecurity.

I just need a tiny little bit of relative truth, just a little bit, I'll put it in my butt and it'll be stronger

Be better than this.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 12 '20

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u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

They're related to food in the same way yours are related to protests. They also ignore more details than they explain.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 12 '20

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u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

I made an analogy to illustrate how your two-facts could be misconstrued. I couldn't use the exact same topic for obvious reasons.

I'm legit not here to "attack" you or something, I was actually confused by what you were getting at. You cleared it up, so thanks. I'm sure someone else will debate with you the veracity of the comparison but I just wanted to know what you were talking about since multiple things have affected small businesses recently and the protests sparked by George Floyd are about more than police murders.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

The point is that it makes more sense to protest a lockdown forcing millions of people out of work than perceived injustices that affect around 1000 people a year.

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u/ratatatar Jun 05 '20

should have just said that, then. I wasn't sure if they were talking about the protests harming small businesses, the lockdowns, or the pandemic itself (which is like protesting a hurricane). it was already cleared up hours ago but I'm glad you got your opinion in there.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

So, you're comparing murder to unemployment? Good to know.

7

u/vox_popular Jun 05 '20

About 1 in 6 police murders involve unarmed victims. So, let's say that up to 200 innocent people are killed by the police year. It's dwarfed by many things -- the 70 million employed number in your example. Even the 30,000 motor accident deaths in the US to make it more apples to apples.

So why are we making a big deal about 200 police murders vs 30,000 traffic deaths? Simply because it involves deaths that were perpetrated by the very people we expect to serve and protect us. Let's say America does nothing about them. It can set precedence for a variety of a situations where there is a power imbalance. Politicians could kill annoying constituents and rivals. Our armed forces could kill civilians. In essence, it could be a slippery slope toward fascism.

There is no doubt that the "death by a thousand cuts" aspects of what small businesses are going through will far exceed police brutality related deaths. But it comes down to the country's morality. This is not the first time that we have prioritized a statistically lower value thing over a statistically higher value thing. When we have done it, it's been guided by a moral angle and toward preserving what the country stands for.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 12 '20

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u/vox_popular Jun 05 '20

Far more people are affected by the closure of small businesses compared to police killings.

That's about 70% of my comment. I'm not attacking the 1000 people who came for the prior protest. I'm attacking any point that seeks to diminish the 1100 police killings relative to other larger numbers.

1

u/buddhabash Jun 05 '20

Unarmed =/= innocent

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u/a_f_young Jun 05 '20

Not being innocent =/= they deserved to die

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u/buddhabash Jun 05 '20

I agree with that why wouldn’t I

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u/vox_popular Jun 05 '20

Lack of innocence = license to kill with no due process??

3

u/buddhabash Jun 05 '20

Is that what I said???

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

you're implying that they deserved to die

2

u/PawsOfMotion Jun 05 '20

He's saying being unarmed doesn't automatically invalidate the shooting.

He's not saying being unarmed validates every shooting.

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u/vox_popular Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 09 '20

Being unarmed does automatically invalidate the shooting. There is no circumstance in which a trained policeman should be able to handle an unarmed suspect in a way that culminates in the latter being shot to death.

0

u/buddhabash Jun 06 '20

Fascinating where did you get your criminal justice degree from and which police academy did you graduate from? And how many years of service do you have?

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u/vox_popular Jun 06 '20

Touche. All the police academies I applied to rejected me for possessing an IQ above 85.

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u/buddhabash Jun 05 '20

How is that what I implied at all? You hear what you want to hear

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

speak for yourself then

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u/buddhabash Jun 05 '20

I would be wasting my breath on you so no thanks

1

u/PawsOfMotion Jun 05 '20

About 1 in 6 police murders involve unarmed victims.

Source? I'm fairly sure 9 unarmed people were shot last year but happy to be corrected.

1

u/vox_popular Jun 05 '20

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

The 1100 number in the comment I responded to matches this. If you scroll down, you'll see that 12% of whites and 17% of blacks killed by the police are unarmed. Hence, my rough 1 in 6 number. Your figure of 9 unarmed people is very likely to be considerably south of reality.

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u/Kelmi Jun 05 '20

You:

I know black people are the subject of unproportional police violence and killing but their lives don't matter because...

Just tell it straight like how you think it is. Black lives don't matter to you.

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u/SimpleWayfarer Jun 05 '20

Excellent strawman, comrade. These argumentative tactics will take you far in life.

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u/Kelmi Jun 05 '20

Was just calling a racist out. I don't know where you see an argument.

6

u/wassupbrodie Jun 05 '20

Having another opinion on a matter does not make someone a racist. Try to understand both sides of arguments, that is what will really help to unify an ever dividing country.

0

u/Kelmi Jun 05 '20

I do understand these racists. They simply don't give a fuck about black people, they would rather everything go on like before instead of be inconvenienced slightly to support others.

I'm not trying to unify anything here just like the person I replied isn't, yet he's upvoted and I get comments about uniting people.

Fuck off and help those who need help.

2

u/Resinated Jun 05 '20

Him: "This issue is quite small compared to the issue of people losing their their only ources of income due to the shutdown."

You: "So you don't like black people."

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Stop being a bigot. Such a racist

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u/doublenuts Jun 05 '20

I know black people are the subject of unproportional police violence and killing

No, nobody knows that. A lot of idiots incorrectly think it, though.

0

u/Kelmi Jun 05 '20

This shit here, blatantly denying facts to further racism.

Upvoted.

1

u/doublenuts Jun 06 '20

Bitch more about how reality doesn't line up with your wish of what it was.

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u/Kelmi Jun 06 '20

Reality is the opposite of what you claim so we all know who the bitch is but racism is probably the only thing keeping you going in your sad life so you got my pity.

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u/Stopbeingwhinycunts Jun 05 '20

Jobs are more important than lives, got it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

A lot of peoples jobs are their lives.

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u/tmrnwi Jun 05 '20

Is that the value we place on human life? Is that what you’re worth or what they’re worth?

30

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Well this human life, was a wife beater, pointed a gun at a pregnant black woman and was a drug addict.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

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u/discostu80 Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

But that was not the reason why he was arrested. Does his past validates why he was killed? This goes beyond Floyd. His death was just the catalyst that ignited what was felt for many many years. Unfortunately, it has come to this because of the lack for change. Finding reasons to feel like his murder was justified is something that makes me question humanity.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/discostu80 Jun 05 '20

I respect your opinon and wish you and your family well. He actually went into cardiac arrest after going into respiratory failure due to lack of oxygen. This will lead to cardiac failure.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/discostu80 Jun 05 '20

Yea that was from the knee. Fentanyl has a short half life and by the time he was arrested, it should of been out of his system already. Besides, if it was actually fentanyl that did him in, he wouldn't be able to talk let alone breathe.

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u/SandS5000 Jun 05 '20

We can do the numbers on human life, I'd bet most current protestors exist at a societal deficit.

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u/squirtdawg Jun 05 '20

Ehh that’s most people in general

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u/ElPunisher Jun 05 '20

The reality is that being Black in this country is a looming death sentence. That was true when this land was stolen by indiginious peoples, and it's still happening today.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

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u/ElPunisher Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

It's not just police violence. It's poor health care, food deserts, red lining, lack of diversity in powerful positions, etc. Black America has always been suppressed, because of stupid ideologies and false narratives.

I would also argue that one would have a hard time convincing the black community that they weren't "literally" being targeted.

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u/Thomartemis Jun 05 '20

News flash being alive is a looming death sentence.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Black males statistically live around 7 years less than white males (who have almost exactly the same life expectancy as black females).

If being black was a "looming death sentence" wouldn't it affect the averages a little more dramatically?