People say (and do) the dumbest things

People are saying and doing the dumbest things these days.  Case in point, the tragic recent shootings of black men by police in Tulsa, OK and Charlotte, NC.

Last week a Tulsa man was shot by a police officer who claims that the victim didn't comply with her commands to stop.  He kept walking away, and at one point he lowered one of his hands, leading the officer to fear he was going for a gun. (He was not.)

The video shown on TV over and over was from a police helicopter circling several hundred feet overhead.  The audio from the helicopter said, "He looks like a bad dude."  Really?  From 200(?) feet overhead what does a "bad dude" look like?  How can you tell?  DUMB!

Then yesterday Presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaking to a largely black audience, said of the victim, "He looked like a nice guy."  Really?  How can you tell what a nice guy looks like from 500(?) miles away?  DUMB!  

Oh, and how about that Don King soliloquy/introduction?  Isn't he a piece of work?  DUMB!

Some in the minority community immediately called for the arrest of Officer Betty Shelby, the shooter.  Doesn't Officer Shelby get a hearing to determine if she acted appropriately or not?  These people say no, just arrest her.  Now.  DUMB!

It seems the Tulsa police received (at least some) body cameras in July, but hadn't yet issued them to patrol officers.  Why?  I would fast-track their implementation....I can't think of one piece of equipment that would be more likely to determine the facts in a police shooting than body cameras.  They may not always be conclusive, but they would be better than the "he said, she said" we have now.  

I would think every honest cop would welcome body cams as a way to show their professionalism and exonerate them after a shooting.  I would think every bad cop would be looking for a new line of work if they thought their body cam would show them doing something likely to send them to prison.  (Good riddance!)  Not using body cams....DUMB!

Then in Charlotte, NC, where police DO have body cams, they aren't releasing the footage of their fatal shooting.  They said they couldn't because they were prohibited from doing so by state law.  Why would legislators pass a law prohibting release of video that could possibly quell protestors if the video showed it to be a justified shooting?  DUMB!

Why do protestors show their outrage by looting a Walmart?  Because it was Walmart's fault?  Why do they destroy a downtown souvenir shop?  Because it was the souvenir shop's fault?  DUMB! 

At least the protestors shown above were venting their anger toward the police.  It still wasn't right, but at least it was focused.

One frustrated Charlotte minority leader went on TV telling blacks to "keep their money in their pockets" and not spend it with white-owned businesses.  Umm....don't those businesses have black employees?  Is putting even more blacks out of work a good thing?  Was this boycott well thought out?  DUMB!

But then it turns out that the new state video law doesn't go into effect until October 1.  So if they can, why haven't the cops released it if it proves their case and stops the rioting now going on?  DUMB!

And if the video doesn't prove their case, if it shows an unjustified shooting, then why are they protecting a guilty cop?  DUMB!

Then on one of the TV news roundtables, when it was pointed out that the Charlotte police shooter was himself black, one of the commentators said it didn't matter.  She said the police were institutionally bigoted, regardless of the race of the officer.  So if you wear a badge you're automatically bigoted?  DUMB!

By inference would that mean that the commentator (the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus) didn't want any police, black, white, Asian, or anyone else to patrol minority neighborhoods?  Then who you gonna call when someone kicks in your back door?  Is it then every man for himself....vigilante justice?  DUMB!

What is wrong with us?  Why are we saying and doing such DUMB things?

S

EDIT:  "Why are we saying and doing such DUMB things?"  I think I've answered my own question.  It's because we only hear what we want to hear, we only see what we want to see, and we only believe what we want to believe.  Now that's DUMB!

Talk about a polluted gene pool!

It's been a quiet week, with nothing much going on that rankled me enough to post about.  

The big news recently has been the Israeli/Palestinian crisis, but I didn't write about that because it seems most people, and of course the news media, are rooting for the Gazans.  I think they're dumber than dirt....make that "sand".  I mean, you'd think someone in Gaza would make the connection between "we shoot missiles at them, they drop bombs on us".  But no.  DUH!

Sure, the Palestinians deserve their own homeland, but with that privilege comes responsibility, and they've shown none of the latter.  Grow up, kids!

Now we're launching air strikes on ISIS forces (Sunni Islamic extremists) running around "the place that isn't even a legitimate country", aka Iraq.  But we say we're not doing it to support the "government" of Iraq, but to protect our embassies and consulates there.  They say the US largest embassy anywhere in the entire world is in Baghdad, Iraq.  

Why?  Why do we have more than a guy, an expendable mercenary at that, sitting behind a desk with a phone in Baghdad?  Do we just have so many gubment bureaucrats we can't fit them all into Washington, DC, so we dump the overflow into Iraq?  What the hell is there in Iraq that is vital to our national interests, anyway?  Oil?  Do we even import Iraqi oil?  Can't we get it from elsewhere, like Texas or North Dakota?

 

Dude, just a suggestion....steal a BELT, and maybe a proper holster.

OK, here's a story that baffles me:  In a suburb of St. Louis police recently shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. The police say he was fighting for the officer's gun, others say that is totally untrue.  I have no idea who's right or wrong.  But what I do know is that, as is often the case, "the community's frustration spilled over into the streets".  Translation:  rioting and looting.  

Somebody please 'splain to me what looting the grocery store and the shoe store have to do with a police shooting?  "Yeah, I'll just steal these here AirJordan's and maybe some Slim Jim's....that'll show 'em how pissed I am!"  Huh?

Justice needs to be served, whatever the truth might be, but how does rioting and looting bring about justice?

Burning down the police station I might could understand.  Still wrong, but at least there's a correlation.  But instead their priorities seem to be, 1..."tear up/burn down my own neighborhood to show how much I miss ____", then, 2 ..."blow off my own pecker with this gun I have shoved down in the front of my pants" (see photo above). 

There are some really, REALLY stupid people in this world, you know?  With over six BILLION people alive today you'd think these idiots (world wide) could find someone to procreate with besides their own first cousins.  Are we witnessing evolution in reverse?

That's my two bits.  :)

S