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Newsweek has this article on America's skewed definition of terrorism:
What is terrorism? According to the FBI, animal activists who stole two piglets from a farm were terrorists. As of now, Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas two weeks ago, has not been labeled a terrorist by the federal security organization.
In a viral story posted on The Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald details an account of federal agents investigating animal activists and scouring farm-animal sanctuaries to find two missing piglets that allegedly had been stolen from a farm. The FBI devoted such resources to finding these two piglets because their alleged theft and the capturing of undercover videos of the farm's conditions count as terrorism.
Why is the piglet theft classified as terrorism, but not the Las Vegas shooting? The distinction is rooted in the definition of the term. In spite of the emotions the word "terrorist" might elicit, the definition is not "mass killer" or "Muslim extremist" or "very bad person." The legal definition of terrorism is "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property in order to coerce or intimidate a government or the civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives."
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:30AM (17 children)
You seem to be under a misapprehension. A police officer's job is not to protect you from anything; it is to arrest people who have already broken the law. For protection you'd need every third or fourth person in the nation wearing a badge. Unless, have you figured out how to call 911 fifteen minutes before you're mugged so the police have time to get there?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:03PM (13 children)
Yeap, just forget about "To Protect and to Serve" ('cause this is just the obscure LAPD, never shown in any movies to create expectations) or "To Protect with Courage, To Serve with Compassion" ('cause this is just the Minneapolis PD, they only go shooting Australian blondes in night gowns after they cal 911) or "We Serve and Protect" (that's just the Chicago PD, unable to protect anything of value, 'cause nothing of value still remained in Chicago).
The Las Vegas PD is just probably tasked of singing Kumbaya when making "Partners With the Community", it's not reasonable to expect more than that from them. Do they at least have a good voice?
And FBI? They can spend heaps of your money searching for two piglets across 5 states, 'cause they'll be doing it with "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity"; nothing more is expected from them. Yeeeaaahh, maaayyybeee they can sorta get some hints from NSA for some parallel constructions; but rest assured that parallel construction will still be conducted with "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity". Oh, just forget about their use of Stingray cells, those are toys, just some innocent fun.
No, a person that buys tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of rifles and bullets in advance of his killing spree is, well, nothing out of the ordinary; even when he bring 23 fire arms and a truckload of ammo in his hotel apartment, it's an innocent gesture of a person that is sooo attached to his gun collection. No, this is his constitutional right, gun control is only allowed in totally dignified contexts, like when boarding a plane with your shoes in your hand; a hotel must make all its guests feel welcome at the entrance, then everyone for himself in regards with his protection - one can't expect a hotel to have a gun safe and ask the guests to check in their guns there while inside the hotel, that's not good for business.
You americans are batshit crazy. And you are batshit crazy for such a long time you think this is normal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:10PM (9 children)
Those slogans are PR. Police can't realistically protect shit out of their direct eyesight and they never have been able to. Any thoughts to the contrary are about as realistic as expecting a unicorn to come poop glitter on the bad guys and turn them into friendly leprechauns.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:28PM (7 children)
Yeah, right. So you just pay them to chase pigs for the benefit of your agricultural overlords' public image, 'cause they have proven and effective skills in PR.
And you consider this is a normal situation, not worth of being even remotely annoyed about.
It's the mundane reality for as long as you remember, therefore is absolutely sane!!
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:39PM (6 children)
English isn't your native language I take it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:52PM (1 child)
The point of FBI chasing non-violent "terrorists" on money from your pocket just to defend the bottom line of agribusiness barons is surely soooo much less important than my command over English language, isn't it? That point so insignificant it doesn't worth addressing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @04:31PM
Ignore the mighty buzzbrain. Hes the resident troll on staff.
(Score: 1) by oldmac31310 on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
You are an asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:32PM
'What does a sphincter say?" Wayne
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:41PM
ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ನನ್ನ ಸ್ಥಳೀಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಅಲ್ಲ
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:49PM
I gotta be honest, his command of English far exceeds your command of his native language. Exceeds your command of your native language too, actually.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:59PM
So you concede the misapprehension is the result of intentional propaganda, but you still blame the public at large for getting the wrong idea.
Let me quote here what a certain Soylentil wrote down thread:
"Nope. Words have meanings and this one hasn't changed. You may use it incorrectly but that's all it is, you using it incorrectly."
Which of course means that in this case the word "protect" doesn't mean what the public thinks it means, or what common usage would indicate, but rather your facile judgement that it instead means, "you'd be a fool to believe 'protect' when said by the police means what you think it means."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:17PM (1 child)
Let's leave aside how batshit crazy other people in the world, too, are for the moment.
For a person who observes so much about America, it's surprising you are missing how exasperated Americans are with the state of affairs. People like Donald Trump don't get elected because things are stable and people are generally content with the status quo. That one thing right there ought to be enough to prove my case. But if not, here are a couple more examples from the past week alone: the shattering of the NFL and Hollywood as American institutions. The NFL is riven now, and Hollywood and its allies in mass media are being knocked on their collective butt by the Weinstein saga and the decades-long coverup.
All of it are sure signs of a society in an existential crisis. The Information Age has torn away the tissue of lies that pacified and befuddled the public these past 70 years (arguably longer), such that they accepted those facile lies instead of facing up to the reality they have known in their hearts: that the game is rigged and American democracy is a sham.
All of these things you're talking about, the Vegas shooting, etc, are people writhing with that truth. There isn't much left for them to repose their trust in, and when those last things go the game will be up.
I hope where you are is far away and that place will afford you shelter when this super volcano of political eruptions occurs, but I doubt it.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:08PM
Exasperation. That's a state of mind bordering insanity, right? Like after trying everything that rationally should have worked, but failed again and again. So what one can do except trying the irrational?
No, I haven't discounted the exasperation, I just didn't have time and graphical space to write the analysis of causes for your craziness.
Causes which in fact are simple in principle (discarding the morbidly obese devil still able to hide comfortable into the details).
You are being played one against the other, like a whole nation of gladiators fighting in a continent large arena, for the amusement and wealth of a handful few. Since you are so equally matched - almost deliberately so - the amusement and profits will continue to flow for quite a while. Or so they hope.
You even have cheerleaders, to keep the festive atmosphere, the ones like CNN/CBS vs Breitbart/Fox.
What can you do? I have a hunch that stopping the infighting for a while and looking around would be a good first step.
While you can do this on your own.
The only way Trump or any other in his position can wipe out the division line between the two gladiator teams would be to put America under an external threat so great that you will forget the differences and focus on the commonality. Any other way will take longer than the 8 years.
Of course, anything achievable on a shorter terms means a global conflict - find a common enemy strong enough to be a menace, weak enough to lower the risk of getting out of hand.
I'm afraid I don't have another livable planet I can jump on until the things settle down.
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain_nifty on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:59PM
Let me help you with this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia [wikipedia.org]
Summary: the police have no specific legal duty to protect the public, according to the U.S. Supreme Court
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:52PM (1 child)
"Serve and Protect" is the police motto. It's a misapprehension they intentionally create.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday October 12 2017, @05:01PM
It becomes appropriate when adding a single word to the end: themselves.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:15PM
No, it is their job to protect you. The reason criminals are arrested is to protect others. Both directly (because those criminals arrested otherwise might do further crimes) and indirectly (by deterring others from doing crimes as well).
It is of course true that they cannot offer total protection. But it is indeed common that policemen are put on places where it is quite likely that a crime will occur. And if a police officer watches someone attempting a crime, he is not supposed to wait until the crime happened and then arrest that person, but rather he is supposed to take action to prevent that crime.