Life in the USA

[Manny]

I read an interesting article in this weeks media, I'll reproduce it below in full (as its behind a paywall on the link) as I think its a good talking point about what is going on at the moment in US society. I think defunding the police is an idea no sane person would contemplate, but here it is. Also, super high crime and shootings in New York it seems. Surely that will affect tourism post virus?

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Black Lives Matter: ‘upper-class’ calls to defund police bring chill to mean streets of New York

Schools were shut and the sun was out, but on Wednesday afternoon the newly reopened Newport playground in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was deserted.

A few streets away, on June 22, a 46-year-old man had been killed. In a double shooting last week, one man was killed and a woman was injured.

Brownsville is one of New York’s more dangerous neighbourhoods at the best of times and some residents are deeply concerned about the consequences of recent calls to defund the police, which New York is already enacting.

“It just doesn’t feel safe right now,” said Ashley Via, a young mother of three.

“The people suggesting defunding need to take their shoes off and come and live a day in our lives in neighbourhoods like this.”

Via avoids going out after dark or letting her children play outside. “It’s mostly from the upper-class areas that they’re shouting ‘defund the police’ but that’s not what we want here,” she said.

While violent crime has slumped in New York over the past two decades, the murder rate in Brownsville has remained stubbornly high. And over the past month the entire city has seen an alarming spike in violence.

At least 125 shootings have been logged since the beginning of June. The past four weeks have seen a 158% increase in shootings relative to the same period in 2019.

Similar trends have played out across America. Violent crime has been rising nationally throughout this year and particularly in the summer. During one weekend in June more than 100 people were shot in Chicago, with at least 14 killed, including a three-year-old boy. Minneapolis police said 111 people were shot in the four weeks after the death of George Floyd on May 25.

Violence usually surges in the summer. The added strain of the coronavirus pandemic, along with early releases from jail, may have contributed.

Criminologists also see a direct connection to the recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. “The concern that violent crime may increase in connection with the widespread social unrest is valid,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at Missouri-St Louis University.

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, helped to spark the BLM movement. Violent crime rose then as well. A report by Rosenfeld logged a 16.8% increase in killings across 56 American cities over the course of 2015.

Conservative critics complained that police were withdrawing from high-crime neighbourhoods in response to criticism and overly fierce scrutiny. Rosenfeld believes the picture is more complex.

“During periods of unrest, already tense relationships between communities and police grow even more tense,” he said.

“The word spreads not to co-operate. People stop reporting crimes and can take matters into their own hands.”

In nationwide polling, black respondents supported defunding the police by an average of 45% to 28%.

New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, responded to the BLM pressure last week with a $1bn cut to the city’s police department. Demonstrators said that he used “budget tricks” to exaggerate it.

In Brownsville, locals want better policing but fear the consequences of defunding.

“We can’t allow folks from outside our community to lecture us about black lives and what we need in our communities,” said Daneek Miller, a city councillor.

Others believe defunding will give the police a much-needed shock. “I’m not against defunding if it makes them open their eyes and see things,” said Tyesha Wilson, 44, a Brownsville resident, standing by a housing block where a man was murdered three weeks ago.

“Right now police are everywhere in Brownsville and it doesn’t make people feel safe, it makes them feel targeted.”

Police morale has dropped amid furious criticism. “A lot of our officers feel let down by politicians calling for defunding,” said Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.

“They’re hurt by the lack of support from politicians who have no idea what goes on in an officer’s day. People are starting to hate you for the uniform you wear.

“We’re being left out there to hang.”

Source.

[Texan77]

Black Lives Matter: ‘upper-class’ calls to defund police bring chill to mean streets of New York

I think post virus there will be a bump in tourism and the it will quickly drop off. Nothing will be like it was.

Just wait until blacks in black neighborhoods call 911 an no body comes. The 911 operator would say something like due to defunding we no longer service your area of the city.  Those same neighborhoods without police will war zones.

[BillyB]

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, helped to spark the BLM movement. Violent crime rose then as well. A report by Rosenfeld logged a 16.8% increase in killings across 56 American cities over the course of 2015.

One thing rarely talked about is businesses moved out of low income neighborhoods not because of police but because of the rioters and they don't come back.

There's a radical left wing ideology that thinks the way to Utopia is getting rid of law and order. It's a constant fight here in America and other nations.

These past few months crime skyrocketed in large cities. An area in Seattle CHOP/CHAZ seen violent crime triple in a week after they got rid of the cops. Later it had the highest homicide rate in America per capita. The cops are scared or told not to do their job in Seattle and I'm sure elsewhere which leads to more crime. Protestors are illegally protesting on the streets and over 60 people been hit by cars already. Cops should be telling them to get off the roads. Video below shows protestors on the freeway with two getting hit. Later in the video one guy says "911". Funny

[Manny]

Is it true that the bulk of the lawlessness is in Democrat (leftist) areas?

Google tells me Brownsville, NY hasn't voted Republican since 1924.

I was reading about the statue of Christopher Columbus being felled in Baltimore. Google suggests also a Democrat place.

Do Republican areas mostly have a grip on it?

[B.B.]

Is it true that the bulk of the lawlessness is in Democrat (leftist) areas?

Basically all of it.  Seattle and Minneapolis happened because of progressive (liberal democrat - in the "American" sense, not the Nick Clegg sense) mayors and governors. 

Trump *could* have invoked the Sedition Act, but why let a good crisis go to waste?  The narrative would have instantly changed to "Peaceful protestors {har-har} attacked by vicious police and the ghost of Bull Connor."  Far better to say, "Hey, we're ready.  We have 800 MPs ready to assist the governors and mayors.  All they have to do is ask."

And then wait.

Let the Dems lie in the bed they created where a bitter, ungrateful underclass revolts against them, while us Normals eat popcorn and sing songs.

Google tells me Brownsville, NY hasn't voted Republican since 1924.

Brownsville is in a bad part of Brooklyn.  If a tourist wound up there it would have meant that Things Had Gone Seriously Wrong.

I was reading about the statue of Christopher Columbus being felled in Baltimore. Google suggests also a Democrat place.

Outside of the Inner Harbor area, which was re-developed a few decades ago, Baltimore is a 3rd world country.  There is no reason to go to Baltimore unless you want to get mugged or get VD.  It is a pit.

Do Republican areas mostly have a grip on it?

Yes.  Of America's 50 biggest cities, you have 13 cities with Republican Mayors.  Any rioting in Tulsa?  How about Jacksonville?  Forth Worth?  Miami, San Diego have GOP mayors now, but I suspect that was a reaction to the shit-shows that Miami and California, generally have become.  SD is more liberal, on average than most cities, but there is a big Navy base there, so that skews the numbers more GOP than would be expected.  Fresno was also a surprise but they are pretty evenly split GOP/Dem.

The more GOP a place gets, the less likely to have BLM protests *and* the more likely that armed counter-protesters are to show up - to prevent riots.  See Coeur D'alene Idaho

The big black guy in the video leading the "All Lives Matter!" chant is protesting on the conservative side. 

The BLM protesters shown are almost all white, and therefore historically less likely to riot.  No property damage, and everyone kept to their side of the street. 

Meanwhile, in Troy NY (upstate NY, near Albany), a bunch of BLM protesters entered a church and harassed churchgoers, because: assholes.

Troy is a "rust belt" city in upstate NY with a Dem Mayor - America-hating Democrat Andrew Cuomo is the governor of NY.

GOP areas tend not to have protests and when they do, they are generally well-behaved.  Thus a previous armed protest in Coeur d'Alene, plus one in Richmond, VA, plus one in Lansing Michigan (the latter two state capitals) had zero deaths whereas there have been at least 5 homicides in the "CHAZ" area of Seattle.

So we look at blue cities the way that Brits look at London.

B/B

[Steveboy]

If I was in Power I would arrange secret death squads like they used to have in South America..

But I would do it 100 times more better. basically you would wake up in the morning and all the bad ass usual trouble makes, killers and so on would of vanished never to be seen again ..

Problem solved..

[Manny]

Thanks for the overview, BB. What I suspected.

US politics is a tad confusing initially to Brits because red and blue are the opposite way around.

In the US, Republicans, ie, normal thinking people, are what we might call Conservatives (Tories), but are red in colour. And red here is the other side: ie Moby and his ilk.

Democrats (which are actually anything but), are blue in the US, but in fact are the ‘red under the bed', what we might call Labour or Liberal Democrat.

Here, Conservatives are blue and Labour red. Liberal Democrats (Labour in disguise) are yellow - which is quite fitting.

Wiki explains it thus:

The choice of colors reverses a long-standing convention of political colors whereby red symbols (such as the red flag or red star) are associated with left-wing politics and right-wing movements often choose blue as a contrasting color.

When reading American political stuff, the way I remember it is "Democrats aren't", because I associate democracy with normal thinking people, which here would be the Conservatives.

So for Brits, Republican = Conservatives (but are red in the US) and Democrats = Labour (but are blue in the US).

If I was in Power I would arrange secret death squads like they used to have in South America..

But I would do it 100 times more better. basically you would wake up in the morning and all the bad ass usual trouble makes, killers and so on would of vanished never to be seen again ..

Problem solved..

President Xi would love you. Put yourself forward as Ambassador in Hong Kong.

The thing with all the unrest in the States is it will kill tourism. The average tourist doesn't know the difference between red and blue and where is safe and where is not. He will read headlines like "X number of shootings in New York" and won't know that Brownsville is in Brooklyn and culturally a million miles away from Manhattan and over water. Joe tourist thinks he'll be gunned down for his Nike shoes walking down 5th.

Frasier fans don't want to go to Seattle to see the Space Needle and be caught up with homies looting stores. They'll just go to Italy or someplace instead.

The US will have a big PR job to woo tourists back post virus.

[BillyB]

Is it true that the bulk of the lawlessness is in Democrat (leftist) areas?

Google tells me Brownsville, NY hasn't voted Republican since 1924.

I was reading about the statue of Christopher Columbus being felled in Baltimore. Google suggests also a Democrat place.

Do Republican areas mostly have a grip on it?

If you Google American cities and look at violent crime rate and homicides and then Google the politicians running those cities, it's almost always run by Democrats. Top 20 or so cities for guns homicides are Democratically run. You can drive through many Conservative areas in America and wouldn't know there are protests and riots going on elsewhere unless you turned on the news. Liberal cities have the most crime per capita and they think the solution is less cops and taking that money and investing in the poor community.

The US will have a big PR job to woo tourists back post virus.

I think most people will forget. I remember the rioting in Paris a few years ago. I'm sure most Americans forgot about it and know it was a temporary thing. Most Americans probably don't even know there was recent rioting in major European cities. Your far left thought it was a good time to join the American far left in destroying things.

[cufflinks]

Soros and woke Corps not wanting their brands boycotted by loonie lefty Millenials are funding BLM (Soros and Steyer also fund Antifa) which uses a straw 501C3 tax-exempt charity for funneling illegal donations to ActBlue Dem SuperPAC and the DNC.  BLM was denied charity status in Commiefornia and the NYC AG sent BLM a cease and desist order for soliciting any more donations in NY State.

This is due to :

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/professor-doubles-down-on-prediction-model-showing-trump-having-91-percent-chance-of-winning-election-despite-polls

Professor doubles down on prediction model of Trump's chances in 2020 Stony Brook professor Helmut Norpoth says Trump has a 91% chance of winning in November.

Mediaite reported on Wednesday that Stony Brook professor Helmut Norpoth is doubling down on his "Primary Model,” which has correctly predicted five out of the past six elections since 1996 and every single election but two in the past 108 years.

“The Primary Model gives Trump a 91 percent chance of winning in November,” Norpoth said. "This model gets it right for 25 of the 27 elections since 1912, when primaries were introduced."

As Mediaite noted, the two elections the model failed to predict were the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy and the 2000 election of George W. Bush (Florida Hanging Chads).

Norpoth's model examines the results of presidential primaries as the strongest indicator as to the outcome in the general election, not the polls that dominate the political discussion. According to Norpoth, Biden is in a much weaker position than Trump because of his poor showing in the first two primary races.

Before making the stunning comeback in the South Carolina primary and carrying the following races, Biden came in fourth place in Iowa with just 15.8 percent of the vote and came in fifth place in New Hampshire with just 8.4 percent. Norpoth stressed that enthusiasm is key.

“The terrain of presidential contests is littered with nominees who saw a poll lead in the spring turn to dust in the fall,” Norpoth told Mediaite. “The list is long and discouraging for early frontrunners. Beginning with Thomas Dewey in 1948, it spans such notables as Richard Nixon in 1960, Jimmy Carter in 1980, Michael Dukakis in 1988, George H.W. Bush in 1992, and John Kerry in 2004, to cite just the most spectacular cases."