> At what point does the average citizen look at "SWAT death as an option for what could happen to me today" and think, 'well .. this is okay'?
The average citizen saw 20 1st-graders being shot 5 years and 2 weeks ago and decided it was OK with that. Citizens weaponising police (I have a hard time calling that law enforcement) against other citizens barely even ranks.
So you are saying the event horizon for police brutality is closer than that of the citizens willingness to move the goalpost for how violent things should/could/can be?
Yeah, the point is, we are really, really beyond the point where something legitimately real, and not just apathetic, should be done about this shit.
Citizens need to start asking for disarmament: of themselves, and others. We do not need a society which puts the implements of death and destruction above .. well .. themselves.
Nothing we can do on HN will change this. But wouldn't it be an interesting thought experiment to find some real, rational, applicable means of reducing these kinds of incidents?
To me, as a technologist, this is a problem that can be solved, "can" being the key word.
> So you are saying the event horizon for police brutality is closer than that of the citizens willingness to move the goalpost for how violent things should/could/can be?
I would say so yes, if you mean that I put the "police brutality" bar lower than the "citizen on citizen" brutality (assuming levels go up).
> To me, as a technologist, this is a problem that can be solved, "can" being the key word.
Of course it can, other countries have done so in the past, the issue has never been about ability, always will. And in the US specifically, the ability to shoot other people has always been a privilege, only to be relinquished if the "wrong" people move towards accessing it.
Every time that subject comes up, I wonder whether the fastest way to get nationwide gun buyback & control in the US would be to have a program massively train and (legally) arm black communities. After all, that's pretty much how gun control passed in Cali, authored by a republican, with support of the NRA, signed by a republican governor who stated
> no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons
and that guns were a
> ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.
The average citizen saw 20 1st-graders being shot 5 years and 2 weeks ago and decided it was OK with that. Citizens weaponising police (I have a hard time calling that law enforcement) against other citizens barely even ranks.