Saturday 21 January 2017

A triumph for race relations

The first thing Trump did was to sign the papers beginning the dismantling of Obama's health-care plan. Today, he visits the CIA headquarters. I imagine he will be welcomed with open arms, given what he said about them a few days ago.

To be fair, I did not realise that everyone had to pay for private health insurance and would be fined if they did not, but this is how it is in every other civilised country, so I suppose it was nothing out of the ordinary, depending on how large the premiums were and how poor the potential patients. If it was to be the rich subsidising the poor without the state getting involved, then I think it would not have harmed the wealthy that much - just pissed them off.

The Avon and Somerset Constabulary here in nearby Bristol are in the news for the wrong reasons. Bristol was founded on the slave trade and has quite a high percentage of people of West Indian heritage living there, so sometimes the tensions between the authorities and the resident black people get a little strained.

The Bristol police have tried to ameliorate the situation by electing a person from the West Indian residents to sit on the race relations panel and represent their community at certain meetings, etc.

Last week, the current 62 year-old Community Representative was walking home when he was mistakenly identified by some police as a wanted drug-dealer. They repeatedly asked him to give them his name, and he repeatedly refused to do so on the grounds that he had done nothing wrong and was just trying to enter his own house.

So they tasered him in the face. Oops.

27 comments:

  1. They say he went at them with a dreadlock

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    1. Did he? Well that explains it.

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    2. It was a gun; oh errr it might have been a dreadlock......

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  2. Whatever happened to "Evenin' all" and "Mind how you go."

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    1. Indeed. It's now, "EVENIN' ALL! ARMED POLICE! LIE DOWN AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD! NOW! OK, YOU ASKED FOR IT!"

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    2. Oh, and the taser is fired after you have lain down and put your hands on the back of your head.

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  3. Actually, the real answer to Gwil's question is that the police have never been so scared to get out of the car and stand in the street, so tend to be very jumpy. They used to be brave - and I am sure some still are - but many of them continuously expect the worst.

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    1. Give someone a gun and it is only a matter of time before they will pull the trigger.

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  4. I read this story here in the states. Gentleman instigated a confrontation by refusing to identify himself and then attempting to slide though his gate to leave the scene. The tazer was perhaps hasty but he pushed a confrontation that did not need to be.
    As far as I can tell, Hazel, his pit bull behaved better than all the humans combined.
    This new tactic of lack of cooperation with police requests has long been used here in the states to force a situation to escalate either to make a point and sometimes in the hope for a lawsuit. Dangerous game for all
    Donna

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    1. The whole event was filmed by his neighbour, but - as yet - I have only seen stills. The dog looks confused and worried, and stands over his master, giving him concerned attention. This is not the behaviour of a drug dealer's dog, and the police completely ignore it, knowing they are not going to have their leg bitten off at any time, otherwise they would have tasered the dog, wouldn't they?

      I don't know if you have watched the video, wondering, but I also don't know how you can sit over there in the States and pronounce from a distance of 6000 miles that the man 'pushed a confrontation'. Pushed a confrontation by not giving his name when asked to? You think that he would have tried to take the matter to court in the hopes of a cash settlement by playing this sort of game? I was stopped once by plain clothes police and asked for these details. I asked for their warrant card identification and they had forgotten to take it with them. I walked away, and the police could do nothing. These were the days before tasers were invented, let alone issued.

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  5. Makes me feel the world is turning into a pretty nasty place although in truth it has always been the same I am sure. Just not quite so much in my face, that's all, really.

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  6. Trump also reversed an order by Obama that sought to aid low-income homeowners who will now be stuck paying higher insurance premiums on mortgages.

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    1. Mortgages on his property, probably. No wait - his SON'S property.

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  7. Many 20 and 30 something people I know (some married with small children) just lost the only health insurance they've ever been able to afford for there families. A guy I work with was able to start a family with his wife two years ago because they finally could afford medical care thanks to the ACA. Now they have a two year old son and, thanks to Trump, they just lost their medical coverage for him.

    And this is only Day 1!

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    1. Terrible. 150,000 marched on Washington today, more than he predicted for Hilary!

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    2. 500,000 is a conservative estimate of the number that marched on Washington today.

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    3. Yes - I was probably thinking of the London numbers.

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  8. Here it is my understanding that one needn't identify themselves to the police but then they are within their rights to detain them until such time as they can establish your identity. Unless someone has a policitcal point to make, what's the point?
    Confrontations like this cam almost always be avoided with a little civility and common sense

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    1. In the UK, the police have to give a reason for why they stopped you, no matter how spurious, unless they suspect you of terrorism. Given the West Indian Bristol man's position within the community, I think it would be a fair guess to say that he definitely was making a political point. The 'stop and search' police policy in the UK was scrapped, because it was being used for black people, 9 times out of 10. If it was the police making a political point by saying that they mistook him for a drug-dealer, it wasn't a very good one. No, it was probably a case of the police being stupidly innept as usual.

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  9. Not very 'British' to tazer someone in the face. I'd always understood that if a nice policeman asked you for your identity, and you refused, they would wish you a pleasant journey and offer you a fiver!

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    1. I don't remember when it was like that. I was constantly stopped and searched for no reason in Farnham!

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  10. If only common sense always prevailed.

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    1. And if only we could all agree on what common sense is.

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  11. In Oz I walked out of hospital 2 babbies later and no bill. Totally free. But then I was born in the best era. Everyone pays tax to support women in labour (women included).

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