The Law Enforcement Officer Thread

Crosspostin' from the racism thread, David Simon, the author, journalist, and TV producer who created The Wire, talks about the current state of the BPD.

In other news, a BART officer has been cleared of using excessive force after throwing a woman to the ground hard enough to break four bones in her face and several of her teeth, a man sues the West Jordan police department after an officer orders his dog to literally chew his face off for failing to get up from a couch he was sitting on (he had his hands up and couldn't rise without lowering them), and a woman is shot while handcuffed inside a police car after (according to the officers on scene) grabbing a gun and opening fire on them. Now, that last one may be a legit shoot, but it's weird enough and close enough to some very shady previous incidents that I think it's worth keeping an eye on.

Oh, and FYI, the first two links have very disturbing video, so exercise caution there.

New York Times - Suspect Charged in Officer Shooting in Queens

I'm also trying to find sources on the rate of LEO fatalities and injuries with intent to harm for 2014, but the numbers are varying. One article suggests that the number of LEO fatalities has slightly increased between 2014 and 2015, but it's starting to taper off as of March 2015.

Note: be careful about how you interpret the data. Some studies are classifying an officer death as anything ranging from gunfire to heart attacks. Other studies specifically differentiate between actual deadly assaults on police officers and non-homicide deaths such as fires and car accidents.

edited 3rd May '15 4:32:53 PM by Aprilla

Question about the guy who got savaged: how the hell does a bin fire warrant SWAT-and-dogs in the first place? Overkill, much?

Foxtrot Alpha article on the Garland, Texas SWAT team... who were inside the venue in the event the gunmen who attacked the art show had managed to enter.

Now I'm certain that the guards outside should collect these guys' salary.

Do they have somewhere else they need to be? I think 2 people in body armor carrying A Ks with murderous intent merits a SWAT Team.

Certainly deserves a promotion.

edited 5th May '15 1:12:52 PM by Protagonist506

Sarah Connor?

Cross posting from the Economics Thread

How can an immortal have identity and fuction in a modernized world?

In a story I'm writing, there's an immortal character. He had lived around 1,500 years before coming to earth (although he spent around 700 being trapped in a coffin), and he arrives at earth around 9th century, BC.

By 19th century, he could practically speak all the major languages on earth and knew most of the customs, so blending in was not a problem. World War I breaks out, however, and things get more complicated because now he needs more complete identification documents.

Obviously, if you live for more than 100 years, you are gonna get noticed by social services. In addition, he believes in actively getting involved in society and helping humanity (his works focuses on cure and prevention of diseases and philathropy) so he can't just hide in either.

Is there any way to reliably fake your identity in 21st century?

Immigration.

Apply as a refugee as often as you can.

edited 8th May '15 12:40:00 PM by AngelusNox

In which situation does he need identification? How does he look? And does he want to keep his age under the hood?

Ho, never thought about that one.

ID...hmm...I don't know, he would need it about as often as a CEO or a director of research in a company would? Actually, I'm not sure.

He is a man with an appearance of robust looking 28 year old man with mixed look of Caucasian and Asian.

What do you mean by keeping his age under the hood? Like, are you talking about it being hidden on documents or just people around him?

Of course you can fake your identity.

All you need is a good forger, and you have all the papers you need.

A birth certificate from a dead person can be rigged to get you a new social now even. And if he is wealthy enough, these papers will not be hard to secure.

^^I am asking about the age thing because I do think you might be able to get away with saying "I am 1500 years old" or somesuch, you just would need documentation.

Ah. That's simpler than I thought.

Come to think of it, maybe it IS okay for him to just say that he has been 28 year old from 1920s till 2050. I mean, if someone told you that you are officially 160 years old despite looking lik 28, who's going to believe anyway?

And with our improvements in health and what not, he could pass as older in an area for longer, but eventually he would have to move on or change who he is such as passing as a younger family member or what not.

He could also rotate out his human staff reasonably, which could help.

You would be surprised what you can get away with by just changing things a little, like growing out your hair and changing your style to help people see you as different.

4 Arrested After 2 Mississippi Police Officers Are Killed During Traffic Stop

White supremacists accused of planning for 'race war' in Florida

Great. At least they arrested the pricks.

Starbucks Will not Have To Pay Cop for Hot Coffee Spill

For things like this, I like to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Yes, spilling coffee on yourself is usually a pretty dumb thing to get mad at someone else for, but, if the coffee is giving you second degree burns, it has been been made far too hot to be safe for consumption (imagine if instead of spilling it on yourself, you poured near-boiling hot coffee into your mouth?)

Now, that said, if you have been scalded badly enough to have severe burns, maybe you should go directly to the hospital instead of going back to the office and back home first and generally dicking around for two hours. That tends to give the impression that your injuries are not in fact all that severe.

A second-degree burn can occur within 3 seconds after spilling liquid of 140 degrees and above on yourself.

Water boils at 212 degrees. It simmers at 190 degrees.

Part of the coffee-making process is boiling water.

Maybe let your coffee cool in the future, rather than flipping out on Starbucks for supplying the boiling-hot liquid you asked for?

edited 12th May '15 8:25:26 AM by TobiasDrake

Boil... water... for coffee?

Do you cook your steaks until they are dead and grey inside too?!

But seriously, never boil water for coffee, unless you need to sterilize it first or something. Temperature should be around 200 degrees.

edited 12th May '15 2:31:06 PM by AFP

My mistake.

200 degrees is still well above 140, though.

True. But just as that's a good reason to let your coffee cool before drinking, it's a better reason to ensure the lid is secured before handing it to a customer.

But as said before, if you're burned badly, go to the hospital, don't go home.

edited 12th May '15 3:00:24 PM by AFP

Yeah in the end the reason the Mc Donalds case went the way it did was because they'd been warned about such incidents happening again and again, so as long as Starbucks don't make a habit out of this they'll be fine.

It's apparently policy to give an additional cup or a protective sleeve with a large coffee, something that wasn't done in this case. So really just sticking to Starbucks policy should work fine.

I drink cold coffee personally, though that can lead to incidents like them forgetting to put coffee in my coffee.

edited 12th May '15 3:05:04 PM by Silasw

Aren't second-degree burns the equivalent of a sunburn? I don't think they even scar.

I'd probably just go home.

No, a sun-burn would be a first degree burn. Unless it's a particularly horrible sun-burn.