Lessons to be learned from the Martin & Brown cases

[sirs]

I don't suppose anything.  The FACT of the matter is that there would have been no basis to fire him, as he did nothing wrong, or against any department policy. 

And its on record that there were death threats, not just on him, but on his fellow officers, had he stayed on.  There is no public record that he was pending an imminent firing.  So your wishful thinking is nothing but that.  But, perhaps you can contribute to the New Black Panthers, to help hire a hitman, to take him out

[Xavier_Onassis]

They were trying to get Wilson to resign before they delivered the grand jury results. It was all over the news. Wilson refused, he was apparently told by his lawyer to hold out. Perhaps they did buy him out in some under the table way. Clearly, they would not reveal that they had paid Ferguson taxpayers' money to get him to go away. There was no way that his presence in Ferguson would have been anything other than a motivation for more disturbances,

It is pretty clear that in the future a lot of cops will think carefully before shooting unarmed kids. At least the smart ones as a result of this affair. 

[sirs]

Who is "they", and what facts can you provide to back up that opinion??  "All over the news", doesn't quite cut it", as that's simply another opinion, minus any actual facts to back that up, as well

So, even if we were to accept your opinion on trying to have him resign, doesn't defacto turn it into an imminent firing, to which you originally were in error of claiming     

[Plane]

   When I need a policeman because I am in trouble , I really want Wyatt Earp to show up with gun drawn to lay low all threat.

     When I get accused or caught out of place, I hope the policeman that shows up is Andy Taylor, prepared to talk it out and send everyone home mollified.


       What do I want the police to be like in my real life?

       Effective?
       Cautious?
       Helpful?
       Mindful always to CYA?

      I hope that they do not learn from this incident to be too cautious to be effective , or so mindful of potential accusation that they aren't very helpful.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp

[Plane]

   By the way.

     Did that patrol car have a dash cam?

[Xavier_Onassis]

There were no cameras present.

President Obama said that there should be more cameras on cops and their vehicles, and this is clearly a good idea. The more both the cops and the prospecte perps know that their actions are being recorded, the fewer of them will act like pricks and the fewer incidents like these we will have.

[sirs]

Most could agree with that.  So much waste and fraud in Government programs, that we could easily start diverting funds in that direction.  The Bullet train debacle alone, here in CA, might pay for every law enforcment agency to be outfitted with just such program

[Xavier_Onassis]

No passenger trains pay their own way except in making it possible to forgo even more expensive highways.

Once built, though, the French and Spanish bullet trains do pay for their maintenance and operation. And, of course, there is no longer the need to build more highways. Highways never pay for their initial construction, either.

[Plane]

  The train in California is not merely falling a little short of a profit.

    It is orders of magnitude away from breaking even .

      With all that has been spent so far , and even more promised, this train does not even threaten to connect any major urban areas.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I do know about the California bullet train. I rode the bullet train in France, from Paris to Pau. It was awesome and comfortable. I used to ride trains a lot, even from Kansas City to Mexico City. That took over 70 hours. There was a wreck and they took a detour through Durango, many hundreds of Kms out of the way. Ferrocarriles de Mexico was lots cheaper than the bus and for a good reason.

Bullet trains are great when done right.

 

[sirs]

The problem is the voters were sold a bullet train fantasy, and any results are going to be no more than a standard train experience.  There will be no travelling LA <--> San Fran in no more than 2 1/2 hours, as pledged.  To "save money" the train will be using existing tracks that won't allow for such speeds.  It's a massive bait & switch, with the tax payers being soaked for nothing more than a slightly different train experience, at an exorbitantly higher cost than the rest of the CA trains.

The opposite of doing it right

[Plane]

Bullet trains are great when done right.

  Yes , but doing it right would be making it to fill a real need.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I don't think that anyone needs to prove that a train between LA and SF or Miami and Orlando that would take less time than a plane and use a fraction of the energy needs to be proven.  Doing it is not the issue: doing it right is.

[Plane]

I don't think that anyone needs to prove that a train between LA and SF or Miami and Orlando that would take less time than a plane and use a fraction of the energy needs to be proven.  Doing it is not the issue: doing it right is.

The California train does not go all the way from La to SF.

Check it out , they are not putting it where it will be in demand.

There would be a grand demand for a train running rapidly between all the top ten cities in the USA, especially one that was top of the line and cooler than the TGV.

But there is an amount of value beyond which the point of diminishing returns is found.

I actually rode Amtrak from San Francisco to San Diego in 1979. Took all day, but the vistas were wonderful most of the time. What really made it work for me was that I didn't own a car at that time.

  People that own cars want them with them on the other end of the trip, unless it is just too far for a comfortable drive.

[sirs]

I don't think that anyone needs to prove that a train between LA and SF or Miami and Orlando that would take less time than a plane and use a fraction of the energy needs to be proven.  Doing it is not the issue: doing it right is.

That's the contradiction.....its not being done right, in any way, shape, or form.  Planes are still going to be faster, this is not going to be some France-like bullet train, and the tax payers are getting hosed, all the while, those with the right Government connections, who lobbied for the big contracts, get the big tax payer payed payments, at the end of the day