gang filled? What are we, in a bad 1970’s Sci Fi Movie (or a good one for that matter)?
In 2018, Battledancing has become the law of the street.
Maybe it depends on your city but I can tell you mine has several gangs. The thing you soon learn is that the weekend shootings and murders are usually just gangs killing each other. I would bet 95% of all deaths here are gang bangers killing each others and families offing each other.
To be fair to Scuzz, all cities of any significant size do have gangs. It’s just a loaded term; from one perspective a gang is really any kind of cooperation between people to further a criminal enterprise. It’s such a loose definition that it’s almost meaningless. However, what most people think of is gang warfare because that’s when the presence of these groups is felt most acutely.
While this data is old (2012), the trend is there:
https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/survey-analysis/measuring-the-extent-of-gang-problems
This shows there were an estimated 30,700 gangs in the US in 2012 (of course, there’s also population growth to account for).
However, the total number of gang homicides reported in 2012? 2,363. Seems like a lot, but it’s just a fraction of all homicides (which the FBI estimated at 14,827 for 2012, with 12,765 listed as murders).
So (assuming all gang-related homicides are murders) less than 1 out of 5 murders is actually gang-related based on those numbers.
Again, as I said above, it would depend on where you live.
So you think there are good connotations to a gang? I work in an area that contains gangs. It is not a safe place after dark. There have been several kids killed by “accident” when gang members have decided shooting was a good idea. I would bet the people that live around gangs would prefer not to.
My initial post about cops and gangs was that cops were now dealing with guys who are often armed, compared to dealing with what were once just annoying law breakers and neer do wells. The times have changed.
I just posted there were over 30,000 gangs in 2012, and that number has just been increasing. We’re arguing the same side.
That said, the term is loaded because a lot of people associate it with Bloods and Crypts, when it’s really much wider than that.
edit - of note, the total number of homicides (and homicide rate) has been decreasing over time, while gang-related homicides have been holding even and even creeping upward.
Are we trying to suggest that because of gangs cops are what… not as responsible for killing unarmed individuals? I don’t blame all cops for these deaths, but I blame nearly all cops for the lack of transparency and the unwillingness to clean their house. If they won’t clean house themselves, we had to insist and do it for them.
Be sure to always assume the worst among acquaintances. You never know when someone’s trying to sneak one by you!
I think you might want to acknowledge your own advice, you know assuming I am assuming the worst because you don’t consider me an acquaintance enough to get the benefit of the doubt.
If the mention of gangs was for another purpose, let’s hear it. He said it’s hard to blame all cops for things they don’t all do and yet at the same time he is painting a broad brush with what 30k other groups and people in them.
Even if someone is in a gang, the cops should not shoot them unarmed.
You never know. The dog might have had an association with some gang.
Don’t forget, it was a suicide call.
So, they showed up to a call where someone is going to kill themselves and decided to shoot the dog and hit a girl instead. At no point in that narrative does anything make anything resembling sense.
The lesson here is: never calls the cops if someone is suicidal in Kansas, you’re better off letting them shoot themselves than have the cops do it and maybe kill someone else in process.
Not sure if this was toward me, but I’ll answer from my perspective;
No.
Well, it makes sense if you remember that today’s police are trained to protect themselves at all costs. ‘All costs’ includes shooting any dog, child or person who could conceivably present any kind of threat. So, pretty much anything that moves.
Obviously, most police aren’t scaredy-cops. But too many are. Is there any evidence of departments addressing this on a widespread basis?
Nobody said that.
That is almost exactly what I said above.
Not really, because you hinted that you think all cops are getting a bad rap due to a few. But the in house problems is an all cops problem even if not all cops are running around sporadically shooting people.
Pretty damn close to what I said.
Here’s the difference.
You’re not saying who should hold them accountable. I am saying, the cops need to and their organization as well as the public.
Not doing themselves a favor is not strong enough. It’s too late for them to do themselves a favor, now they need to be forced.