@unmagical - eviltoast
  • 0 Posts
  • 294 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
cake
Cake day: October 30th, 2023

help-circle
  • Do we actually know if he had a knife? Initial reporting was that the police knew he had a knife because he refused to take his hands out of his pockets. While he did threaten them, it was contingent upon them continuing to follow them. He did not actually attack them until after multiple officers attempted to tase him. Furthermore, so what if he had a knife? As far as we’re aware, he’s got a second amendment right to keep and bear arms. Being armed isn’t an excuse to be killed by cops because you are generally explicitly allowed to be armed.

    All in all:

    • We don’t know he’s armed
    • We don’t know his intentions
    • He didn’t immediately attack anyone
    • While he did threaten them he made no indication that he intended to follow through until he was attacked
    • He continued to try to leave the situation until he was attacked
    • The police attacked him first
    • He didn’t have a gun
    • 4 people were shot by the police; he was killed (this seems to have been erroneously reported earlier. He is now reportedly in critical condition), an officer and 2 bystanders were wounded
    • No one was stabbed

    While that is textbook escalation, it really doesn’t seem like they shot him cause he had a knife. They shot him (and 3 others) cause he didn’t care about their authority and they couldn’t let the guy that was already on the train go. And all that came about because he tried to skip a fare that costs around the same amount as the bullets fired.







  • It’s way more than just trigger discipline. There’s the traditional rules of course:

    • Never point your gun at something you do not intend to kill
    • Be sure of your target and what’s beyond
    • Trigger discipline

    But there’s also reasonable shit beyond the 5 basic rules:

    • Don’t willingly put yourself in a situation where use of a gun may be warranted.
    • Property isn’t worth killing over, especially in situations where you had to go out of your way to put yourself in perceived danger to protect it.
    • Don’t block in the person you are trying to convince to leave.
    • People with guns commit more acts of violence than those who don’t. Owning a gun is an irresponsible choice. There are more and there are less responsible gun owners, but owning a gun puts you and those around at a greater risk of violence. When all you have is a hammer …



  • properly documenting the people who enter our country is vital for providing public services …

    Not really. We can track that the same way we track non-immigrants: census, job reports, bank accounts, change of address forms, buying private data hoards.

    Frankly I’d be in favor of just letting people in and letting them legally work. Our current system allows people in but then they are just expected to lie around waiting for permission to stay. Meanwhile they aren’t contributing to the broader economy. Let them work while they’re here and more of them will get off the streets, there will be more money going towards taxes, and there will be a broadening pool of people that can actually afford to buy things.