The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Cesar R M]

I honestly don't know. No one seems to know. It's Gay street in East Baltimore.

There are about 4 fires like that right now. Some have spread to residential areas

thats Awful! a lot of people might lose homes, and their entire lives due of these men... :/

 

[Cesar R M]

Yes.

I KNEW IT.. JENNIFER IS ALIEN!!! D:

 

[MOXOMUMD]

thats Awful! a lot of people might lose homes, and their entire lives due of these men... :/

It's not just men.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Well, it depends on your point of view.
Afroamericans are really getting ****ed for being portrayed as thugs as they get murdered by police.
There seems to be no accountability there.

Spoiler: RANT AHEAD, discretion is advised

Only one cop out of 120+ murder cases by cops on Blacks (according to some tumblr blogger )
Thats almost 3 killed every week.

What annoys me is.. There is a kid who gets murdered.. The media finds ANY way to portray him in bad shape.
Even if the guy was a honor student.
But if its a white kid, its always "he had a rough patch.. noone knew this was coming, he was a saint.." etc..

I know not many understand this, but as a third party viewer.. seems like the TV is doing this constant slow brainwashing to the masses.. like saying that All blacks deserve what they get.. even if they dont deserve it at all.

As for looters, I agree. I think they are opportunistic scum who wants to destroy and ride the "protest" for convenience.

I still laugh and facepalm at the disparity of the official answers.
There was a giant riot of white students.. destroyed a lot of stuff..
but the police called it "they were just drunk kids being rowdy"... Police watch in the vicinity in normal gear.
Then a similar event happens with black guys..
its "Thugs and Gangs, violent protesters, destruction..etc.." and the police shows in full assault riot gear with tanks and snipers.

And what on Earth does destroying buildings and other people's property accomplish? Think about it. All that these violent protesters have done is destroy property, destroy their own neighborhoods, and make those of us who don't live directly in the city afraid to go there. And what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing.

Believe me dude, I know what African Americans experience. We have a family friend. He and I are very close; I think of him as a grandfather. He is African American. He has told me what he has experienced, from segregation to police brutality now. Even though I have never experienced it firsthand, I am appalled by some of his experiences. I have even seen him experience racism. But this is not the way to change things. I haven't spoken to him since the protests have started (boy, I need to call him), but I know he would say this is not the way.

My tutee was extremely distraught by this. She is black. One of my best friends from school is very upset by this. She is also black. At this point, regardless of what you think about what happened, this is no way to behave.

What is especially sad about this is that the victim's family said that they did not want protests today. Today was his funeral; they wanted today to honor his memory. No matter how you slice it, this is wrong, and I am disgusted by the damage being done to this city that I love. For another thing, the situation was being handled. The federal government has been investigating. The officers responsible will most likely be charged.

 

[Cesar R M]

Haha

Wednesday.

Speaking of which, my cousin had her twins today. Boy and girl. Both premature unfortunately, weighed two pounds each. They picked a heck of a time to enter this world.

yikes.. hopefully they wont have any issues. or will they?

 

[Cesar R M]

Taco Bell

 

[Cesar R M]

And what on Earth does destroying buildings and other people's property accomplish? Think about it. All that these violent protesters have done is destroy property, destroy their own neighborhoods, and make those of us who don't live directly in the city afraid to go there. And what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing.

Believe me dude, I know what African Americans experience. We have a family friend. He and I are very close; I think of him as a grandfather. He is African American. He has told me what he has experienced, from segregation to police brutality now. Even though I have never experienced it firsthand, I am appalled by some of his experiences. I have even seen him experience racism. But this is not the way to change things. I haven't spoken to him since the protests have started (boy, I need to call him), but I know he would say this is not the way.

My tutee was extremely distraught by this. She is black. One of my best friends from school is very upset by this. She is also black. At this point, regardless of what you think about what happened, this is no way to behave.

What is especially sad about this is that the victim's family said that they did not want protests today. Today was his funeral; they wanted today to honor his memory. No matter how you slice it, this is wrong, and I am disgusted by the damage being done to this city that I love. For another thing, the situation was being handled. The federal government has been investigating. The officers responsible will most likely be charged.

Oh I agree with you, I expected normal non violent protests.
But going full rioting and setting fires .. is NOT OK.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

And what on Earth does destroying buildings and other people's property accomplish? Think about it. All that these violent protesters have done is destroy property, destroy their own neighborhoods, and make those of us who don't live directly in the city afraid to go there. And what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing.

Believe me dude, I know what African Americans experience. We have a family friend. He and I are very close; I think of him as a grandfather. He is African American. He has told me what he has experienced, from segregation to police brutality now. Even though I have never experienced it firsthand, I am appalled by some of his experiences. I have even seen him experience racism. But this is not the way to change things. I haven't spoken to him since the protests have started (boy, I need to call him), but I know he would say this is not the way.

My tutee was extremely distraught by this. She is black. One of my best friends from school is very upset by this. She is also black. At this point, regardless of what you think about what happened, this is no way to behave.

What is especially sad about this is that the victim's family said that they did not want protests today. Today was his funeral; they wanted today to honor his memory. No matter how you slice it, this is wrong, and I am disgusted by the damage being done to this city that I love. For another thing, the situation was being handled. The federal government has been investigating. The officers responsible will most likely be charged.

Well said.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Oh I agree with you, I expected normal non violent protests.
But going full rioting and setting fires .. is NOT OK.

Did you not see how it started today? The "Purge at 3 pm" text/facebook post that went out to all those students? I actually had to look that movie up because I'd never heard of it.

 

[donaldtoo]

Woof.
I stifled a helluva' lot tonight.
Sweet dreams, all...

 

[StarWarsGirl]

yikes.. hopefully they wont have any issues. or will they?

Premies usually do. Hard to tell at this point, though. They were both breathing without assistance, but of course they are in the special unit. So nothing yet, but we'll have to see.

Thankfully, she is a step-cousin (she has no involvement with her father and calls my uncle dad, and he refers to her as his daughter, not his step daughter so as far as we are concerned, she is our family) so she does not have asthma nor the genetic predisposition in the family for asthma. A lot of premies end up with asthma, so at least there's no genetic factor there.

The problem is that she is so tiny that it was hard for her to carry twins. She wasn't due until early August, but her doctor put her on bed rest at the end of March. So it's not terribly surprising.

I said, "Well, if they were going to be premature, couldn't they have waited two days?"

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Watching an interview with the Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor. They look like they're gonna kill each other.

 

[Gabe1]

She I think this post was meant for me. It's 14 days away and 7 is my lucky number and giraffes are my absolute favorite.

Ha! I'm more than 10 pages behind yet again and skimming seems to be counterproductive.

I read your post as:

I think this post was mean for me

I had that uh oh moment, what happened now...Yep, skimming doesn't always pay.

 

[JenniferS]

I'm afraid I do not get both.
Anyone care to explain to your loveable foreign friend?

As you may know, I'm a Puke - Polish/Ukrainian.

Kapusta:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapusta

Studenina is jellied pigs feet. Unfortunately every single pic I found to post made me want to hurl.
I never ate that carp, no matter how hard Baba tried to get me to taste it.

Kapusta is pronounced kah-pooh-stuh. The whole conversation started after Bro #3 recounted why he had to get a new phone. He had dropped his Blackberry in the can, after he had used the toilet, if you catch my drift.
One thing led to another, and soon three 40-somethings are howling over poo jokes. And from there, the next logical conversational leap is to kapusta.

 

[Gabe1]

I was born in July 1974.

I was in Middle School.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Oh I agree with you, I expected normal non violent protests.
But going full rioting and setting fires .. is NOT OK.

It was never non-violent. Saturday there was an organized protest. While much of it stayed non-violent, it was already starting to get violent. There was some property damage and they had to ask fans at Camden Yards not to leave the ballpark for a period on Saturday.

None of this surprises me in the least. Yesterday was the calm before the storm; I was walking through and thinking how peaceful and beautiful the city looked. Now...ugh.

For the record, I have no plans to visit the city until Sunday. We have tickets to an O's game, but we will not go if we don't feel safe. We can always trade in the tickets for a Friday night game later in the season.

 

[englanddg]

Well, it depends on your point of view.
Afroamericans are really getting ****ed for being portrayed as thugs as they get murdered by police.
There seems to be no accountability there.

Spoiler: RANT AHEAD, discretion is advised

Only one cop out of 120+ murder cases by cops on Blacks (according to some tumblr blogger )
Thats almost 3 killed every week.

What annoys me is.. There is a kid who gets murdered.. The media finds ANY way to portray him in bad shape.
Even if the guy was a honor student.
But if its a white kid, its always "he had a rough patch.. noone knew this was coming, he was a saint.." etc..

I know not many understand this, but as a third party viewer.. seems like the TV is doing this constant slow brainwashing to the masses.. like saying that All blacks deserve what they get.. even if they dont deserve it at all.

As for looters, I agree. I think they are opportunistic scum who wants to destroy and ride the "protest" for convenience.

I still laugh and facepalm at the disparity of the official answers.
There was a giant riot of white students.. destroyed a lot of stuff..
but the police called it "they were just drunk kids being rowdy"... Police watch in the vicinity in normal gear.
Then a similar event happens with black guys..
its "Thugs and Gangs, violent protesters, destruction..etc.." and the police shows in full assault riot gear with tanks and snipers.

It's far more complex than that. And, none of this is new. Riots happen far less now than in the 60s and 70s, but major "benchmark" riots seem to cycle about every 15 - 20 years. Not sure why, but it does. They really aren't that uncommon, they just tend not to peak / dominate the news cycles. For example, there was a riot in 2009 for the BART shooting, but no one seems to remember that the same way they recall the LA riots or the Watts riots.

This latest string is gonna lead us to a boiling point, and you'd think that municipalities would have predicted what the proper reaction should be given the current general feel, specifically of the lower income AA community.

Spoiler

What I find disturbing are the people that are being chosen as the "martyrs" for these incidents. The guy in NYC was a sympathetic figure. And, the situation surrounding the Baltimore incident is also sketchy (meaning that it happened AFTER his arrest), but he has a record a mile long. Mike Brown was a terrible choice to highlight what is a valid situation. Then there's the guy in Florida that was recently shot, but he also ran from the police for what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. But, note, people have already forgotten about that one.

The core concern (systematic issues within the police force regarding use of force) is a valid discussion that needs to be had. Eroding the common belief that the police are here to serve and protect rather than oppress and generate income for the governing / political class is a dangerous trend.

However, the cases which truly reveal the issues (such as the child who was literally ran over by an officer and then shot in Philly, or the little girl that was killed by a flashbang in her crib during a drug raid on the WRONG HOUSE, or the other little girl who was shot by an officer as she slept on her grandmothers couch, again, a drug raid on the wrong house...all sad). Anyhow, these stories don't have a very long lifespan, yet cases such as Ferguson make the news cycle for weeks and lead to riots.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Watching an interview with the Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor. They look like they're gonna kill each other.

Probably. You can tell the governor is p!ssed and probably not real happy with the way she has handled it.

 

[englanddg]

Probably. You can tell the governor is p!ssed and probably not real happy with the way she has handled it.

To be fair to her, decision or not, she was in a rough spot with some difficult choices to make.

It's all a perception game...which is what makes it difficult to respond to. Come down too hard, and it can flare out of control. Allow it to simmer out, as she did, and you run the risk of seeming too soft, and non-rioters condemn you (and again, the riot could barrel out of control because they are not getting resistance)...

Tough line to walk. I don't envy the decisions they have had to make.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Another CVS is on fire. Not as bad, but someone broke in and set a fire. Ugh.

And with that, I am off to bed. Hoping things have settled by the time I'm up and going tomorrow.