Social media really can help society.....

[Geila]

Life is sorrowful. It is a hard reality to swallow but it's true.

Children and women are raped every day. Their bodies are mutilated and tortured. Humans across the world are hungry, tortured and killed. And some people have wealth that baffles the imagination. Others are just plain lucky to live a happy and carefree life.

In this case, I see it as an incident that has received plenty of media coverage because the victim is white. The same as when a young attractive white female is killed or goes missing. If the victim is/was a person of color, no one would hear about it. Or care.

We all have our triggers and battles to fight. But we also need to recognize that those battles deplete us of energy to live and enjoy our own lives. So I would say, choose your battles wisely.

That might sound callous to you Rob, but it's the only way I've found to make peace with our world. It's also the reason I don't believe in organized religion. We're in a chaotic, unfair, sorrowful world. Our only hope is to find the joy in it. And to live our lives as fully as we can. Otherwise we would go mad.

[SteveinMN]

That's another score I have with this country I can't forgive - if you are low income, damned if you do, damned if you don't. It really is a nightmare to live with this day in and day out. Rob

Yes, poor people too often get sh*t on in this country. It's expensive to be poor in America. Social mobility has declined for every "non-1%" group in the U.S. over the last several decades. Americans of all stripes have spent far too long believing politicians who infer that anything someone else gets comes at their expense -- even if it's just something that looks like parity.

Political and social activism is not a bad thing. I believe America faces some real challenges right now and citizens need to be engaged in moving toward solutions. When "citizens" quit working at democracy, they become "subjects". People willing to help citizens explore, determine, and communicate points of view are needed -- honestly, on all sides.

But insisting, despite much testimony from the other participants in this thread, that all law-enforcement officers are enabled sociopaths waiting for the right moments to strike with impunity? Believing that being low-income is a "score" you have to settle? This kind of absolutism is not conducive to progress.

As Ultralight points out, you and your (self-selected) members of 85006 are nowhere near true poverty. You are nowhere near living under the anti-democratic conditions that, say, Venezuela is enduring the past couple of months. You are not at risk of being separated from your family and being deported right now.

If this all aggrieves you so much, Rob, surely there must be some better place for you to live? Is your limited time and energy better spent on venting here, where no one I've seen in 15 pages of discussion has agreed with your point of view, or is it better spent working on getting yourself and your husband to that better place? Maybe staying behind for training was the wise move for you as it enables you to move toward the utopia you seem sure exists. You certainly don't seem to believe there's any improving the situation by staying in the States. Or am I reading this all wrong?

[gimmethesimplelife]

I'm posting this very quickly from a work break during a lunch banquet. I had the chance today to do something very positive and heart warming as an activist and I'm a bit disappointed that I needed to mention this to other activists, that this had not been thought of by others. I called Gold Cross Ambulance in Salt Lake City - where Salt Lake City Detective Jeff Payne formerly held a P/T position - and thanked their HR department from the bottom of my heart, quite effusively, for firing him. My take is that activism is about so much more than protesting in the streets and the adrenaline rush and the drama - there is room for heartfelt thanks when sane, humane decisions are made such as in this instance with Gold Cross Ambulance firing Jeff Payne. Gotta go - only a few minutes left to inhale the shift meal.

BTW, for anyone following another of my threads here about my upcoming training - four different temps came up to me today and told me Congrats and two of them said I was a good choice for the position as I'm not all about power. That really made my day! Rob

[JaneV2.0]

...

BTW, for anyone following another of my threads here about my upcoming training - four different temps came up to me today and told me Congrats and two of them said I was a good choice for the position as I'm not all about power. That really made my day! Rob

Good work recognizing the ambulance service.
Remember that praise on the inevitable occasions that your new job is trying your last nerve. And congratulations again.

[Teacher Terry]

Rob, so glad that the other employees are happy that you got the job. I agree with UL that you are far better off then most of the world. I think sometimes we all tend to forget this instead focusing on people that have more then us. Suggesting that Payne should get 20-30 years in prison is ridiculous. Extremes are never the solution. I have had friends lose their children and that is real tragedy. The incident with the nurse was unpleasant and scary but most likely will not ruin her entire life. For some reason you have problems keeping things in perspective. You sound like a nice, caring person but for your own mental health I would take a news break.

[bae]

Many people in the 85006 are advocating for life imprisonment with no chance of parole (for criminal Jeff Payne). I personally believe this might be slightly extreme - I'd be more comfortable with a thirty year sentence myself, giving him a chance to see the light of day once again as an old man -

So, for what may be a false arrest/unlawful imprisonment (which in my state is a Class C felony with a maximum sentence of 5 years/$10,000 fine), which lasted only 20 minutes, your enlightened neighborhood would lock the man away *forever*. Whereas you'd be happy for him to be locked up for 30 years w/o parole, so he could get out as an old old man.

That's insane.

I mean, really. It's so disproportionate to the offense that it's unsupportable by anything other than a desire to inflict cruel and unreasonable pain and suffering on someone.

Your answer to "what grievous harm has she suffered?" wouldn't in my estimation fly in our society. It's an answer from some fear-filled fantasy land.

I'm curious, if your neighborhood wants life in prison w/no parole for this offense, what penalties do they wish to use for greater offenses? Televised torture and excruciating execution? Lining up the offender's family and torturing them in front of him first, for especially bad crimes?

Simply amazing.

[Alan]

Simply amazing.

So amazing that I'm starting to believe none of this is real, Rob must be putting us on.

[bae]

So amazing that I'm starting to believe none of this is real, Rob must be putting us on.

I think he overplayed his hand today, indeed.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I see your take of allowing for and minimizing a violent and illegal arrest as indications of the true nature of this citizenship. Touche. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

So, for what may be a false arrest/unlawful imprisonment (which in my state is a Class C felony with a maximum sentence of 5 years/$10,000 fine), which lasted only 20 minutes, your enlightened neighborhood would lock the man away *forever*. Whereas you'd be happy for him to be locked up for 30 years w/o parole, so he could get out as an old old man.

That's insane.

I mean, really. It's so disproportionate to the offense that it's unsupportable by anything other than a desire to inflict cruel and unreasonable pain and suffering on someone.

Your answer to "what grievous harm has she suffered?" wouldn't in my estimation fly in our society. It's an answer from some fear-filled fantasy land.

I'm curious, if your neighborhood wants life in prison w/no parole for this offense, what penalties do they wish to use for greater offenses? Televised torture and excruciating execution? Lining up the offender's family and torturing them in front of him first, for especially bad crimes?

Simply amazing.

Bae, you don't get it, do you? Detective Payne gloried in abusing the powers of the badge. Unfortunately for him he chose a very likeable white professional woman as a victim who is quite capable of leveraging herself against all the police truly are and what they are truly about.....stupid man for picking a victim most would side with. At any rate, for his power tripping/all hail my power or I will destroy you behavior, I believe I am being over the top liberal in advocating for such a lenient sentence. If anyone is being nice here it's me, given criminal Jeff Payne's behaviors the whole world can see on video. I will be kind and spare you'all the verdict of District 23 in Vienna where my family in Austria lives other than to say I'm much more kind and humane towards this trash than Austrians are. And don't think I don't question myself for my liberal stance towards this inhumane trash in discussion. Rob