Was peeping Michael Bloomberg on the Today Show talking about all the money he’s set to lay out and the new tactics he set to deploy to enact what he describes as sensible gun control legislation.. He’s gearing up to launch NRA type organization that pushes for gun control. His goal is to have this organization be such that if politicians don’t follow its dictates they pay a hefty price at the ballot box. He intends to use the same political strong-arm bullying approach as the NRA..
Like most of the folks around me, I can’t stand the wanton violence that frequently visits our community. There are way too many guns in the hands of reckless folks who simply have no respect and do not value life… When you hear stories about little toddlers getting gunned down or students shooting up their schools, concluding that we have too many guns is not a hard one to establish..
With that being said, if there is one person who illustrated the danger we can all be in if unarmed is former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.. His Stop and Frisk policies via NYPD and sheer terror he allowed them to unleash on citizens was shuttering.. It was stunning to see that in the midst of tens of thousands of complaints, massive marches and court cases siding with those complaining, Bloomberg made no move to improve conditions or even back off. If anything he doubled down and said more police crackdowns were needed within the Black community.
It was in this political climate when he referred to NYPD as HIS private army that raised serious red flags and made me rethink my position on gun control. It was how he used that private army to ruthlessly crack down on protestors like he did on Occupy Wall Street or when he allowed NYPD to literally be rented out and deputized by the Wall Street bankers they opposed that made me rethink things. Can we trust a guy who says he wants to keep people safe who did very little to stop the brutality of his NYPD private army? Seeing how time and time again, private armies that are beholden to rich and powerful interests have played a key role in political repression has made it crystal clear the dangers that lay before us when tyrannical uber rich people who own private armies want you unarmed..(Fascism..)
In the words of Chuck D.. Can’t Truss It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEKadgJYtMw
Right wing extremists are shooting Jews, now. We’ll see if the media continues to legitimize them the way they have when they were shooting minorities. Overland Park may finally be the turning point in this madness.
Actually, the 3 people killed were Christian
But, the shooter had been given a new identity by the US government, for which he was a snitch. As a turncoat, he was trying to prove his cred by finally doing the act.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/16/was_kansas_shooting_avoidable_white_supremacist
Warning.
should we go back to the new York of the early 80’s where there were over 2k hoimicides per year. I think stop and frisk has worked. New York is at an all-time low 400 % fewer casualties of homicides.
Don’t walk around with unlicesnsed guns and drugs then you won’t have problems.
The law was instituted because crime was out of control and homicide rate throughout the city was at an alltime high.
Now people can say its racial profiling but crime is way down from the days of open air drug markets and random reckless senseless killings.
Its like alcohol checkpoints ; they are annoying but the only people really concerned are the ones who are intoxicated.
Do we really need unstable youth or adults for that matter of any color walking around town with unlicesnsed weapons, firearms and narcotics on their person ?
The United States does have an unlicensed gun and drug problem. Is it the perfect solution probably not ; it has collateral problems. But rather than just blame it ; what better solutions are there ? The end result has been much lower crime rates throughout.
Even if he hadn’t held entire communities in terror for the comfort of a few zip codes (which he did), the whole notion of a wealthy individual being able to throw his money around to shape policy is anti-democratic, regressive and deeply troubling. This is the same grandiosity that allowed him to run for an illegal third term and allows the Kochs and Gates and Broads to control the conversation about education “reform.” This is an urgent issue, no doubt, but the move exposes the gross reality that much of today’s political debate is little more than a Trading Places wager at the expense of entire generations of Billy Ray Valentines. Anyway, what is 50 million (tax-deductible?) to Bloomberg?