Are those blinds I can see at the top of the window?
If you have something for the night for privacy, why spoil the look with covering half the windows permanently?
It's a lovely, light, well-proportioned living space with clean lines. Bamboo blinds covering half the windows would be like wearing socks and sandals with a cocktail dress.
So, to help George Floyd out, Derek Chauvin held him down by the neck including for several minutes after he became unresponsive, so that he didn't injure himself, or anyone else.
Assuming he was bringing it to the gun fight, rather than attempting to stash it under the seat of the car.
I once heard a story of a chap who was absent mindedly using a multi-tool to tidy up his nails in a meeting, a tool which he routinely used in his work. He was suspended for threatening behaviour with a knife.
It may be that Jacob Blake is a nasty piece of work, but it's also possible that partial information can be presented in such a way that public opinion is left to fill in the dots, perhaps with racial stereotyping in mind.
The issue here is whether 7 bullets at very close range in the back was warranted, or unprofessional. If it was unprofessional, it raises the question of whether racial discrimination, or stereotyping played a role in the use of excessive force.
What is your interest? The castle, the museum, the micro-brewery near the train station if it survives covid, Roath Park Lake, the Millennium Stadium...?
I'm not a great fan of Cardiff myself, but there are a few interesting places to visit.
Spare us the poorly reasoned, psychopathic, old man bravado.
You can't cope with Spitz in the written word without whining that she's being mean to you and telling her to go away.
If you would make the same decision as the police officer, you've just highlighted a perspective that hadn't really crystallised in my mind, perhaps because it's just too appalling to think about.
One of my lecturers at uni conducted research into stereotyping. In the control group subjects were given scenarios to read followed by multiple choice questions about each scenario, some answers relying upon stereotyping.
In other variables the subjects had to simultaneously carry out arithmetical tasks of varying difficulty.
Reliance upon stereotyping when answering questions increased as the cognitive challenges increased.
In a (perceived) life threatening situation people are cognitively challenged, therefore are more likely to assess and react using stereotyping and other cognitive short cuts to decision making. You will never find common ground because each individual will use different short-cuts in their decision making processes, based upon personal experience and the fluid situation they find themselves in.
Unfortunately, these scenarios will always be assessed for justifiability after the fact. Investigations and opinions will inevitably involve bias according to which perspective an individual understands and empathises with most. We are unlikely to ever get reliable and usable feedback unless independent investigations are carried out.
I still maintain that we need to go back further and reduce the number of these situations occurring, rather than try and reduce the number that are poorly handled. Poor handling is inevitable because of the way our brains work.
I'm asking because people don't always react how they might be expected to. Sometimes people are 'shocked into silence', are confused by extreme events, or even go into 'sensible overdrive'.
In the video of the fatal shooting of Philando Castile after being stopped for a broken tail light, his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds remains calm, videos the post-shooting incident and doesn't skip a yes sir/no sir despite Castile passing away next to her and having the gun pointed towards her. Philando Castile had declared he had a licensed gun and was following instructions to get his ID when he was shot. Reynolds doesn't break down until she is out of the car and handcuffed. Her (pre-school age?) daughter attempts to emotionally support her by saying, "It's okay, mommy" and "It's okay, I'm right here with you."
In the video of the fatal shooting of Michael Ramos which may have been sparked by a bogus emergency call, Ramos appears afraid and confused by 8 armed officers yelling instructions at him. Initially compliant, he gradually manoeuvres himself behind the car door so he has a barrier between himself and the armed police. He appears to struggle to maintain a standing position with his arms in the air, begins to buckle with fear and uses the car door for support. When he is shot, he leaps into the car in a bid to escape his attackers, but is gunned down.
Secretagent posted a link to the fatal shooting of Daniel Shaver where he attempted to comply with numerous contradictory instructions before he was fatally shot.
There are different races of people involved in these cases and there is perhaps something(s) fundamentally wrong with the way these high emotion situations are carried out, but perhaps race does need to addressed.
I appreciate that the 'yes sir/no sir' etiquette in the US is not culture specific, but I can't help thinking polite compliance and obeisance must feel uniquely humiliating and frightening for black American people when faced with white, irrational authority. I also question how much trust there is in that being an effective survival strategy given the history of America.
How people react to life threatening attacks, or perceived life threatening attacks will vary from individual to individual. That's true of the police officers, citizens involved in serious criminal activity and citizens going about their ordinary lives, with, or without minor infractions.
Clearly, the root issue is the incidence of these high stakes situations. How is it that in the US a broken tail light can lead to guns being drawn? It begs the question whether the right to bear arms as a means of self-protection is, on a practical level, the right for some people to bear arms whereby everyone is in danger of unwitting suicide.
It was just coincidence that the people you earmarked as being of the same mould just happened to be black, regardless of the crimes they have committed, haven't committed, or you assume they have committed, or will commit.
I was sorry to see that you felt the need to disable the comments, but I appreciate why you did.
I've taken the above quote out of context, but compliance is a theme which keeps cropping up. The idea is that if only the victim had complied with the poor policing, they would have survived the poor policing.
There is something very wrong with this picture.
We are recognising that an incident, or number of incidents, of policing is poor. We then transfer responsibility for the management of the poor policing on to the member of the public who is subject to the poor policing. We may claim that the victim would have survived the poor policing had they complied, but in reality we are saying that the victim may have had a greater chance of survival had they complied.
What we are doing is advocating a best way for people, black men in particular, to survive interactions with the police.
We are saying that we need to learn to manage our incompetent, micro-managing boss so that we can get on with our own work unhindered, or without being destroyed.
What we are not doing is addressing poor policing. What we're not doing is addressing how a boss came to be in their position and how they came to be incompetent at their job. It'll either be because they are not fit to do that job and never will be, or they are not fit to that job because they haven't had appropriate training.
This is something that needs to be addressed by upper management, not managed by victims/lowest pay scale workers. If upper management fail to address the issue despite having the situation drawn to their attention, then we need to skip another level of management.
If the complaint reaches the head of the company and the issue is still not addressed, then the victims, or workers only have non-compliance left in order to make a stand.
If someone is weighing up a slim chance of survival against an unknown chance of survival, they may well go for the slim chance out in the open where it can be witnessed with a level of human dignity and feeling of self-worth intact.
I did an 11 hour shift with my four grandchildren yesterday.
What exercise bike?
For most of my life fitness has been somewhat effortless. I'm finding having to work within the limitations of age and convalescence extraordinarily frustrating. I'm going to think about breaking things down into smaller stints throughout the day.
Integrity is about being honest and having strong moral principles.
Congruence in this context is about being aware of and in harmony with your true self.
To be 'normal' would involve not being honest, nor in harmony with your true self.
To want to be 'normal' rather than your true self is about fitting in and worrying about what other people think. It's emotionally immature.
Emotional maturity is about being self-aware, other-aware, honest, confident and trusting yourself to make your own decisions without worrying about what other people think.
I planned to do 1K at a time today just so I could pat myself on the back for doing something.
It turns out that I just had a motivational block. Once I started I did 10K going up and down through the resistance levels and including some aerobic spurts.
I watch a 60 minutes Australia report from a R.E.D. zone covid ward. All the staff were working flat out wearing loads of hot, sweaty plastic PPE for their 12 hour shifts.
The cross-section of patients in the report included a heavily pregnant woman whose baby was still healthy, a foreign student who rapidly took a turn for the worse after a clear chest X-ray and who recovered so far away from her family, a young frontline nurse who contracted the disease and described previously holding a phone for a dying covid patient while he and his daughter said their final farewells, a young woman with an addiction who wanted to discharge herself back into the community and a representation of the daily losses.
I was affected by the poignant words of one young doctor who said, "We cannot keep doing this a third and fourth time" referring to the potential for repeated waves.
Socially distance, wear a mask, wash your hands. It's all we've got and all we can do to protect our frontline workers and each other.
I have a drama, or documentary on while I cycle to keep me occupied. 10K on low resistance only takes 20 minutes anyway.
I'm more of a mountain walker than biker, but whilst I have plenty of mountains to explore locally (I moved here just before lockdown), it's more of a winter thing for me. I can sunburn on a rainy day in a forest.
Also, if I go exploring, I prefer not to go on my own in case I get lost, or fall off the mountain. We still have restrictions here, so the exercise bike is an adaptation to my circumstances.
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
RE: Should I cover my home’s windows again?
Are those blinds I can see at the top of the window?If you have something for the night for privacy, why spoil the look with covering half the windows permanently?
It's a lovely, light, well-proportioned living space with clean lines. Bamboo blinds covering half the windows would be like wearing socks and sandals with a cocktail dress.