COPS Cancelled

[Leo656]

Not to mention that a big reason why so many cops are ill-behaved and prone to corruption in the first place - aside from the whole "No person who would ever seek to wield power is ever fit to do so" thing - is that cops notoriously make sh*t money. Even people who get into it to "Do the right thing" generally find out that "The Right Thing" matters very little on thirty grand a year. So why bother with morals or ethics? When the money sucks, "Getting paid to be a bully" becomes, like, the entire point of the job. With ANY job, if it ain't about the money than it's about getting kicks. Makes sense to me. It's also why so many EMTs are heroin addicts. "Saving lives" and seeing horrific sh*t constantly really wears you down, but even more when it sinks in that the guy working the fryer at Wendy's probably makes more than you.

Someone should ask any of the people shouting to "Defund The Police" if taking money away from people who are already not doing great made the people in their own neighborhood any more or less well-behaved. Since "poverty" is generally their preferred excuse for why they behave in a criminal fashion. They argue that poverty breeds bad behavior. Well, cops make sh*t money, so it just stands to reason that the same applies to them as well as anyone else.

I can't see how slashing police budgets when those budgets are already stretched thin is going to do anything except breed even more angry, disgruntled police officers.

[Voltron]

I just looked and the numbers I'm getting are WAY higher than $30,000 a year.

If you're in Jersey, the pays pretty good.

https://www.app.com/story/news/inves...em/3867540002/

The national average is around $50,000 according to this site.

https://www.indeed.com/career/police-officer/salaries

[Leo656]

That's not all that bad. Nevermind, guess they're just assholes.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Obviously ridiculous. And this is probably the most important time ever for COPS to be on the air... showing dumb people that these are, in fact, humans and not racist attack dogs.

Though... as others said, I wasn't even sure it was still on the air. I don't watch TV, though, really.

This. Not to mention it also usually goes to show that crime doesn't pay. You see some of the folks getting in trouble on there & maybe wanna reconsider a few of your own actions.

[Voltron]

If you need a constant, televised reminder that the police will come if you break the law, then you're probably not going to make it far in life regardless.

"Man! I can't wait to rob that bank and murder all those tellers. But first, some TV! What's this? Some kind of squadron of men and women who would seek to prohibit my criminal activities? Well! This certainly makes me rethink today's plans. I guess I'll just have to do something less illegal!"

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Voltron

If you need a constant, televised reminder that the police will come if you break the law, then you're probably not going to make it far in life regardless.

"Man! I can't wait to rob that bank and murder all those tellers. But first, some TV! What's this? Some kind of squadron of men and women who would seek to prohibit my criminal activities? Well! This certainly makes me rethink today's plans. I guess I'll just have to do something less illegal!"

So what are you trying to say is that show is very fitting as deterrent for leftists?

[Leo656]

The thing is that crime does pay, and exorbitantly. I grew up surrounded by criminals and thugs and they're really not at all afraid of getting arrested because as long as you at least have enough cash for a lawyer and one sympathetic family member, you can get away with almost anything.

Like obviously they get arrested periodically, but as long as you don't kill anyone then at worst you'll be temporarily inconvenienced. And frankly, anyone who is a part of that lifestyle isn't too terribly upset by living rent-free for a while.

But selling drugs is like objectively the smartest thing anyone can do. They barely punish you for it, and guys I used to work with at the moving company used to make a thousand bucks a day selling drugs, sometimes. They were only working to keep the parole officer and/or their family quiet, but they didn't need to work. To me, they're scumbags, but they were never shy about reminding me that while I was breaking my neck to just barely scrape by, they could drop a thousand bucks on something and not even blink. Really puts things into perspective.

I have a really strong moral compass, so I got pretty much screwed by my constant insistence on being such a straight arrow, but if I could go back and advise my younger self I would probably tell them to suck it up and do what has to be done, because the truth of it is that criminals and "scumbags" live a lot more comfortably for a lot more of the time, and at the end of the day all that matters to anyone else is that you have money, not how you acquired it. Case in point: Right Now. Lots of people struggling to get by. Lots of people depressed. Y'know who's doing great right now? Drug dealers. People are depressed, so they want drugs, and nobody is in danger of getting arrested due to the pandemic (doubly so with the protests), so it's a Seller's Paradise right now. Sad but true.

Robbing banks is honestly pretty brilliant, too, although I can't say I know anyone who's done that. Probably because it's a lot of work, but it's also not terribly difficult In Theory. Banks are insured out the ass but don't want to be sued for wrongful death or injury, so they're technically supposed to just give you whatever you want to avoid anyone getting hurt. Actually robbing a bank is easy, it's everything that happens outside afterwards that makes it difficult. But if you have a solid escape plan then it's actually not very difficult, in theory, to rob a bank. It's just a lot more risky than selling drugs, but one could argue that dealing is a lot more lucrative long-term.

But yeah, prison is only for murderers and child molestors. Anything else you do, it's a Revolving Door System and most people who live the life know exactly how to navigate it. They're not scared of cops and they're not scared of jail, because they know it's a short-term inconvenience and most of them are smart enough not to molest kids or kill anyone. And anything else is going to see you back on the streets in less than 90 days with good behavior.

It's only the really stupid people who run from or resist the cops who get in trouble or killed. I've witnessed tons of people get arrested, many of them for the hundredth time; as long as it's "Yes sir, no sir," you're usually home in a week. They'd say that to the cops AS they were being arrested, and they were always right. They'd laugh at anyone who got roughed up or killed by the police because "Damn, who told that dumb motherf*cker to run? Should'a just taken the week's vacation."

So yeah, crime pays pretty goddamn well. Between the assholes my parents hung out with, and everything I learned studying Criminal Justice in high school, it's actually pretty depressing sometimes to be a "good person" when that sh*t is generally for suckers. There's this persistent myth that our system is so harsh and cruel, but if you take the time to learn about it, it's actually far, FAR too lenient to suffice as any kind of deterrent whatsoever. Like you have to go so far out of your way to get any real punishment - to say nothing of becoming a victim of "brutality" - that even the criminal-minded don't feel particularly bad when it happens to someone, because again, you really, REALLY have to force that kind of thing to happen.

Is what it is, but that's the reality of life. Crime pays, and if you want an easy life, sell drugs. You'll never go hungry, people will like you, and punishment is nonexistent. Not the world I would have chosen, but it is indeed the world we live in.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Voltron

If you need a constant, televised reminder that the police will come if you break the law, then you're probably not going to make it far in life regardless.

You're assuming people are a lot smarter than they are.

[Voltron]

No, I'm not. Hence the "you're not going to make it very far."

Notice how COPS was on the air and were still arresting people? You're assuming that crimes won't be committed because of a TV show.

[Leo656]

What's funny is, pretty much 80% (or more) of crime would just up and disappear if drugs weren't a thing. People are sometimes just sh*tty, but about 95% (or more) of the people doing long stretches of hard time are there because of sh*t they did when they were high.

We talk about "attacking root causes" such as investing more money into social services and education, so forth and so on, and we've tried that and it doesn't work even a little bit. And we've talked about "just decriminalize all drugs, then we won't have to put people in jail for drugs", but that's silly because we'd still have to incarcerate them for all the raping and murdering and Misc. Awful Sh*t that they did when they were ON drugs, so that's... frankly much worse. Have you ever actually SEEN a cokehead when they're given free reign to get high as much as they want? I have, it ain't pretty. Decriminalizing drugs would be Step One towards total anarchy. I get that it's "convenient" (mostly for people who secretly just wanna get high without a hassle and don't give a f*ck about society as a whole) but it's also total bullsh*t.

What we haven't tried doing - the only thing, really - is actually getting TOUGHER on drugs, which I'll remind you really are the root cause of just about every bad thing people do (excluding the few people who were just plain sh*tty to begin with). I don't mean "prohibition", that's a band-aid. I mean public executions of drug dealers and cartel kingpins, razing coca and opium fields to the ground, etc. etc.

I know that'll never happen, because 1. People Love Drugs, more than pretty much anything, really, and 2. Our masters have too much money invested into "trading" with countries who make those things their primary cash crop, while simultaneously dealing it back to us under the table (because "See #1").

But it's what should happen if we're being totally and completely honest. Y'know how many sober people go around raping and murdering people and picking fights with the police? Like, six. Six people. Maybe eight if you live in the Deep South. Everybody in jail has a story, and most of those stories begin with, "So me and my boy was tryin'a get high, right..." If you've been in there, you know.

So point being, we simply CAN'T in good faith talk about "attacking Root Causes" of crime and making for better and safer communities without asking ourselves seriously, "Is the 'freedom' to do drugs if we choose seriously worth it?" Remember, I'm not talking about weed here, I'm talking about coke and heroin and meth and the actual narcotic drugs that turn regular human beings into animals. We can't pretend we're serious about "improvement" if we aren't willing to admit that the reason we're "losing the war" is because we're not even fighting it. Eliminate drugs, and almost all that's left to "police" are traffic violations. I'd vote for that world.

Buuuuut we'll never see it happen. Because everyone wants the option to sniff some coke or shoot a little dope on the weekend as long as their spouse or kids don't know about it. That's "fine", according to most people. Except it really, really, really f*cking isn't.

This is one of those "Don't tell me you want to house the homeless unless you're willing to pave over those stupid goddamn golf courses and put up housing" kinda things. We do that, we can put a roof over every single American's head in less than 10 years, easily. "But people like golf!" F*ck 'em. It's useless and it takes up too much space. Elitist nonsense. Same thing. Get rid of drugs - find a way - and watch things improve exponentially across the board, watch crime and poverty all but disappear, and in far LESS than 10 years, more than likely. "But people LIKE drugs!" Again... f*ck 'em. They're standing in the way of Actual Progress, so they're expendable.

But it's why I don't take all the dick-waving and fist-shaking about "making things better" even the least bit seriously. Nobody actually cares about making things better or they'd stop wasting time on positing "solutions" based on "feelings" and they'd actually Get Serious.

That's the biggest downside in being a pragmatist. People say, "How can we fix a problem?" And you come up with a guaranteed solution, but they say "Well, that's just crazy and impractical." And then you sigh and realize they're not serious, and they're not interesting in "fixing the problem", they're just masturbating. Anything is "practical" once a group of people collectively decides that it's a priority.

But that's the problem. The human race has some f*cking terrible priorities across the board, which is why the closer we inch to extinction, I laugh. We really don't deserve to save ourselves if we're not willing to even try.

[Hamato Yoshi]

Originally Posted by Leo656

The thing is that crime does pay, and exorbitantly. I grew up surrounded by criminals and thugs and they're really not at all afraid of getting arrested because as long as you at least have enough cash for a lawyer and one sympathetic family member, you can get away with almost anything.

Like obviously they get arrested periodically, but as long as you don't kill anyone then at worst you'll be temporarily inconvenienced. And frankly, anyone who is a part of that lifestyle isn't too terribly upset by living rent-free for a while.

But selling drugs is like objectively the smartest thing anyone can do. They barely punish you for it, and guys I used to work with at the moving company used to make a thousand bucks a day selling drugs, sometimes. They were only working to keep the parole officer and/or their family quiet, but they didn't need to work. To me, they're scumbags, but they were never shy about reminding me that while I was breaking my neck to just barely scrape by, they could drop a thousand bucks on something and not even blink. Really puts things into perspective.

I have a really strong moral compass, so I got pretty much screwed by my constant insistence on being such a straight arrow, but if I could go back and advise my younger self I would probably tell them to suck it up and do what has to be done, because the truth of it is that criminals and "scumbags" live a lot more comfortably for a lot more of the time, and at the end of the day all that matters to anyone else is that you have money, not how you acquired it. Case in point: Right Now. Lots of people struggling to get by. Lots of people depressed. Y'know who's doing great right now? Drug dealers. People are depressed, so they want drugs, and nobody is in danger of getting arrested due to the pandemic (doubly so with the protests), so it's a Seller's Paradise right now. Sad but true.

Robbing banks is honestly pretty brilliant, too, although I can't say I know anyone who's done that. Probably because it's a lot of work, but it's also not terribly difficult In Theory. Banks are insured out the ass but don't want to be sued for wrongful death or injury, so they're technically supposed to just give you whatever you want to avoid anyone getting hurt. Actually robbing a bank is easy, it's everything that happens outside afterwards that makes it difficult. But if you have a solid escape plan then it's actually not very difficult, in theory, to rob a bank. It's just a lot more risky than selling drugs, but one could argue that dealing is a lot more lucrative long-term.

But yeah, prison is only for murderers and child molestors. Anything else you do, it's a Revolving Door System and most people who live the life know exactly how to navigate it. They're not scared of cops and they're not scared of jail, because they know it's a short-term inconvenience and most of them are smart enough not to molest kids or kill anyone. And anything else is going to see you back on the streets in less than 90 days with good behavior.

It's only the really stupid people who run from or resist the cops who get in trouble or killed. I've witnessed tons of people get arrested, many of them for the hundredth time; as long as it's "Yes sir, no sir," you're usually home in a week. They'd say that to the cops AS they were being arrested, and they were always right. They'd laugh at anyone who got roughed up or killed by the police because "Damn, who told that dumb motherf*cker to run? Should'a just taken the week's vacation."

So yeah, crime pays pretty goddamn well. Between the assholes my parents hung out with, and everything I learned studying Criminal Justice in high school, it's actually pretty depressing sometimes to be a "good person" when that sh*t is generally for suckers. There's this persistent myth that our system is so harsh and cruel, but if you take the time to learn about it, it's actually far, FAR too lenient to suffice as any kind of deterrent whatsoever. Like you have to go so far out of your way to get any real punishment - to say nothing of becoming a victim of "brutality" - that even the criminal-minded don't feel particularly bad when it happens to someone, because again, you really, REALLY have to force that kind of thing to happen.

Is what it is, but that's the reality of life. Crime pays, and if you want an easy life, sell drugs. You'll never go hungry, people will like you, and punishment is nonexistent. Not the world I would have chosen, but it is indeed the world we live in.

Crime certainly seems to pay if you forge autographs , cops dont have time for this , ive sent letters to FBI hopefully they will pay these crooks a visit but im not holding my breath.

[Voltron]

I'd understand a pragmatist arguing for harsher penalties for criminals. I can't imagine a pragmatist suggesting the United States invade other countries just to burn drug farms to the ground.

That'd cost way more resources than,say, a methadone clinic. It'd also cause a lot more problems than it would solve.

[Leo656]

No, trying to wean people off of drugs by giving them Other Drugs is more trouble than it's worth and causes more problems than it solves. You're not fixing the problem, you're putting a Band-Aid on it. I know a lot of "Functional Junkies" who have to go get their shot at the clinic so they can go to work and live something close to a normal life and whatnot. They're still barely functioning and they're not, on the whole, much better than full-blown heroin addicts. They're not "functioning", they're Managing.

I'm not gonna say it's the altogether most practical or easiest thing to do. Which is why it won't happen. What I'm saying is, it's what NEEDS to happen if things are ever gonna get better. Can it? Will it? Probably not. Should it? Should we find a way? Yes. Will we? No. I know that. Doesn't change the facts.

I understand that most people have a somewhat more compassionate view on things like "addiction", because they weren't born to and raised by drug addicts, and then spent nearly four decades being abused and victimized by many of the same. I've been "fortunate" enough to know hundreds of "addicts" in my daily life. They're not good people, they make sh*tty choices, that's WHY they're addicts - because they're shortsighted and ignorant - and they hurt people. They hurt lots and LOTS of people, from the wives and kids they beat to the shopkeepers they steal from and kill to the people they transmit diseases to, and on and on and on.

Addicts are a f*cking cancer on the human race and they're not deserving of as much sympathy as they get. Anyone who feels differently, simply hasn't met enough of them to have an educated opinion on the subject, AND/OR they like doing drugs/secretly want the option. That's all there is to it.

Every addict is a liar and a thief by default, and those are two types of people I already don't tolerate. And many of them are worse than that. "I just wanted to try something! I didn't know I'd end up a scumbag like everyone else!" Right. Right. Next time, "just" give Russian Roulette a "try" and spare the world your disease. That's what I'd tell these people.

Addicts are a cancer. You don't placate cancer, you remove it by any means necessary so the healthy cells have a chance to survive. No different with regards to The Human Race.
----------

People can have a different opinion if they want to, but... it's incorrect. That's all. Sympathy for addicts is enabling, nothing more. You make choices, you own the consequences.

I, personally, if given the power, would stop at absolutely nothing - I repeat, NOTHING - to purge said cancer from the Earth. Because I f*cking care a whole goddamn lot about decent people. But I don't care at ALL about people who'd prey on them. That's just the way it is.

[Voltron]

The language you're using is heading in the direction of "kill all addicts". If you've had bad experiences with addicts, I can understand the anger. I'm pretty sure declaring open season on anyone using is going to be just as impractical or implausible.

The problem is that there's always going to BE a problem. We can work to solve problems, but chances are low that we'll ever get it just right. There's always going to be crime. There's always going to be poverty. There's always going to be SOMETHING that could be going better.

I tried looking up some stuff about the decriminalization of drugs. I know that Portugal tried it, and they're reporting success with the experiment.

Reading the article, tough, it becomes clear that it's not the decriminalization that does the magic, it's the shift in thinking about the problem. If we view addicts as a lost cause, we're never going to make headway. "Band-aid" is an accurate term, but we need to move in a different direction. Bullets only solve so much.

[TommyT]

Weed is legal here. Guess what. For about a week, everybody go a bit stoned. Three months later? Party is over, and you?d never know it was ever an issue. Instead of drinking, you might smoke. We have laws about driving under the influence, an extended most of the rules to cover weed.

So now, far less bs for cops to use. The only downside, is how weed is regulated, but baby steps are still good.

Your war on drugs is idiotic, given the very real issue of prescription drug addiction. You have addicts because you punish and shame, scold and ostracize broken people with problems, and little recourse.

America?s addiction is actually ?Me and mine?. Winners and losers. Kick that, everything else is cake.

[Andrew NDB]

I kind of loathe weed and frown on a lot of friends that go balls-deep into it (I could say their trajectory always seems about the same... but my only knife to bear is having to have the same conversation with them over and over again because memory goes WHOOSH from visit to visit)... but I have no problem with it being legalized.

Just... jesus... keep it at a healthy limit.

[TommyT]

Weed is gross. It smells like ****, I can?t stand it, don?t like the high.

But It’s f*cking great that people are free to do what the please, when the please, given it’s not affecting anyone else. I thought a Libertarian would agree...

Oh right, you’re a hardened me and mine type. Hope you’re enjoying the riots.
Me and mine in full effect.

Fun side note about legalized weed - people are more chill, imprisoned less, riot less often.

[PizzaPower1985]

Given how America's untidy little fascists have been behaving against BLM and the heroic protestors during these trying times, the fact that this show is cancelled is excellent news. WE as a species can do a lot more and go a lot farther to expose generations of harmful abuse at their hands all over the world...

I AM POSTING THIS so that some here can hopefully learn the racist, classist history of American Law Enforcement.

https://libcom.org/history/origins-p...RY6xgUCDxYokdY

[Sumac]

Is it a joke post?
Or do we really have a crazy commie on our hands?

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Is it a joke post?
Or do we really have a crazy commie on our hands?

Crazy commie? You're calling me names now? Aren't there rules against that kind of thing here?