Hacker News Reader

Comment by akilism | Hacker News Reader

This is what happens when you have an above the law police force that preys on entire neighborhoods that feel like they have been cast aside.

View on HN

It's not just about the police. It's about an entire society that has self-assembled into a caste system by treating some portions of the society as wards of the state.

The wards of the state aren't expected to be independent and responsible. They're given handouts in exchanges for their votes, and over time you have a whole generation that can't take care of itself. That's when the state steps in to take care of its wards "for their own good", and it's inevitable that over-corrections will happen.

Yes let's blame poor people. You realise we don't have this problem in countries with even larger welfare systems because our police aren't so heavily militarised and given free reign with no consequences?

Where did I blame poor people? Why do discussions like this on HN have to be so twisted and toxic?

If anything, I would blame the political elitist class that uses shiny beads to buy power and then perpetuates the misery of their constituents by not giving them a good education and the means to improve their lot.

It reads to me like a complaint about wards of the state but I may have misunderstood.

I think it was meant to be a complaint about the political party that consistently keeps certain demographics beholden to them with policies that are made in the guise of "helping".

The problem isn't the police. The police are a good target of authority. The real problem is economic.

Even with all the current police injustices, the negative impact from them is less than the impact if they withdrew from the neighborhood. In that sense they are a net good. Of course people want the peace and prosperity reduced crime brings but also want less authority looking down but most of all they want economic opportunity when they know its available to other communities, its the immediate contrast which is most damning. I.e. your neighbors have it good and you don't and society tells you you can have too but for the life of you, it seems like a scam is being played on you.

This however is a long term issue. It's generational. The community has to help itself as much as it needs a helping hand from others. Community organizations which give people support, direction and even punishment. But lots of that is missing and you have disaffected people and opportunists who take these circumstances as an excuse for more violence instead of trying to build something positive.

It should be noted that the police can be used as an economic weapon via tickets/fees/fines.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/26/h...

True, but that's an injustice which affects all poor communities. But I hope this interpretation of fines as revenue stream gets revisited and tossed out. The problem is this came about from anti tax initiatives like prop 13 in Calif. Money has to come from somewhere to keep the lights on.

I also don't think the fines and other ridiculous fees are used as weapons, but rather path of least resistance in generating revenue because people vote taxes down.

There's an article in the Atlantic[1] that explains that there have been a good deal of civil cases settled for police brutality and racism, but none of the perpetrators have been charged. It seems to me that there is no reason for a person to die in custody, but right now, the people in charge of Baltimore don't have an explanation of how Freddy Gray died.

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviole...

This is what happens when you have populations that think they are above the law, and that prey on other citizens that aren't like them (FTFY)

you can't even stand behind your own comments.

He or she may not feel like exposing their identity but what they say is not that far off. Most of the violence is not by the local people who will be directly impacted by the violence in the neighborhoods. It's by people who found a nice excuse to vent whatever frustration they have violently and anonymously. These acts don't further justice -the same way mistreating arrestees does not further justice. They coopt the frustration of the community and corrupt it and moreover set the community back in terms of forward development.

I think the problem is more your interpretation with what they are saying than what the words they said. Also, who are the people above the law, the rioters, the bad police, its not clear, but we know both contribute to destruction.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com