Riots in Ferguson

Trans_Maro wrote: He's grandstanding, if you ignore him, he'll go away quietly.

Grandstanding looks an awful lot like personal attacks strangely enough....which is something this thread has done a great job NOT doing thus far.

It does look like personal attacks, and a cry for attention.

If he really does leave, hopefully he will take his personal attacks with him.

Um..... Can we get back to our regular hating of the protestors? I liked that.

Well... the thread managed to stay civil for a few days... might be a record around here. But now I'd say it's "lock" time.

http://vimeo.com/33677884

Ian F wrote: Well... the thread managed to stay civil for a few days... might be a record around here. But now I'd say it's "lock" time.

Nah, that's just one person trying to poop in the punch bowl. And by the looks of it, actively troll several people lookin for a fight. Two things I find interesting about that-

He missed several people. Yamaha was not the original pants up don't loot. I think that was Datsun. He also never called me out, and I've been actively (though openly.sarcastically) calling for the deaths of thousands of protestors since the beginning in wile e. Coyote levels of messed up ways. Not to mention openly mocking the racial bias present in the whole thing as a means of trivializing what the media has chosen to blow out of proportion to a massive scale. The other thing was, even as divisive as our opinions have been on this whole thing, not only have we kept it civil, once trolly face showed up, we.basically showed him the door so we could get back to our polite discourse.

I check this thread each and every time I open GRM … keeping an eye out for a change in tone here …

if it becomes a E36 M3 flinging mess I not only will lock it, I'll probably delete it

let him go, if that's what he wants to do …. keep this thread as civil as it's been (there have been a few iffy posts, but so far no one has escalated it to the point that it needs to go away ) lets keep it that way

This thread has been quite civil. It has been interesting being a more "liberal" voice in a group (among other friends, I am the more conservative one trying to explain why police can legitimately be afraid of an unarmed man).

I have seen people here willing to change their views based on new information or events, and own up when told their rhetoric isn't helping.

This is a crazy, messed up issue (all the way around), and I've had to step out for a day here and there, but folks are generally reasonable.

In reply to Beer Baron: Its weird being the liberal isn't it. The Garner case is one of the few times I've had a problem with the police killing someone in an altercation. Even though people dis agree I thought it stayed very calm for the interweb.

As for protesters I wouldn't mind a few of these to clear the roads and let everyone else get on with their day. The mostly privileged white kids clogging the streets here aren't helping anyone.

Damn, you mean we are being forced to read this stuff now? And here I have been thinking it was my choice to read it or not, but now that mattm pointed out that this is required reading, I want to start a pro-choice movement to free us from our oppressors. Wonder if he is really leaving the forum over this thread. mattm, if you are still here, please keep in mind that one of things that makes this one of the best places on the internet is the diversity of opinions and experiences of the members. We will never all agree on anything, but that makes this place better, not worse. If you really do not want to read this thread anymore, then don't and if you really don't want to read posts by certain folks, then skip over them when you see them. Even better yet, instead of skipping them, maybe read them and reflect on them and try to understand where they are coming from, even if you do not agree with them.

Slightly more on topic, I see where there were some riots in Berkeley that got a little violent.

In reply to T.J.:

berkeley man......

Wait, I LIKE that I don't agree with a bunch of the people on here. Darned if this isn't one of the most diverse group of lunatics I've ever seen online. We've got car guys, car gals, and those who have yet to make up their mind. You name it, the nationality, religion, or political leaning is represented here. I've been here well over a decade and I've seen folks come and go. Sure there are people who won't get along, but put them in front of a cooler full of beer on the back stretch at Road Atlanta and they will be cracking jokes in no time.

My brother has a girlfriend these days who is a well educated and well spoken P.H.d. candidate who perhaps unsurprisingly comes down firmly on the side of the Ferguson et al protesters. It is really frustrating to deal with her at even the most casual of get togethers as our ongoing "disagreement" boils down to me saying:

"If people would behave even a little bit reasonably and take responsibility for their own actions there would be a vanishingly small problem of police brutality as it wouldn't be necessary."

She responds with: "The institution of law enforcement is so inherently racist that it's ok for rioters to act out and people who misbehave should be given special treatment as they as a grooup have been treated badly for so long they simply can't be blamed or held responsible for their actions."

I enjoy a nice arguement as much as the next person but it gets old when the other person refuses to even entertain the posibility of being wrong.

In reply to KyAllroad:

I'm never wrong about anything, if you don't believe me just ask me

I have the same situation with my mother in law. She absolutely will not look at any situation from any other point of view besides her own. It's very frustrating to have any kind of conversation with her about anything.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Nobody should get special treatment in my books. And allowing this crap is exactly special treatment, but then again.....that's what this is all about.

What? Forced to read the forum? That's it! Burn this biznatch down!

Can I tell my wife that I'm being forced to read the forum?

1988RedT2 wrote: What? Forced to read the forum? That's it! Burn this biznatch down!

Quit inciting a riot before we charge you......

In reply to KyAllroad:

People who have no room for doubt scare me.

yamaha wrote: In reply to mattm: Wow, you took a sarcastic post of mine and turned it straight into a chastisement........cudos.

The internet is no place for sarcasm.

I have cops in my family, and agree with them probably 95% of the time but in some cases they berkeley up and because they are cops they are exempt from criticism. I don't believe racism was a factor in either case, and in the Brown case the cop was right. If you try and take a cop's gun you've earned a shooting.

So everyone has time to get their argument ready or for the more sensitive viewers, to run away from their computers, the next round of protests will probably start in the spring when a Grand Jury decided walking up a dark stairway with your finger on the trigger of your drawn gun was not irresponsible. http://nypost.com/2014/11/23/apparent-deadly-missteps-in-police-shooting-of-unarmed-man/

Woody wrote: Can I tell my wife that I'm being forced to read the forum?

Tell her if you don't we'll send the police.

Beer Baron wrote: I have seen people here willing to change their views based on new information or events, and own up when told their rhetoric isn't helping.

Truff,

Several threads have been criticized previously for being pointless on the grounds that people’s opinions don’t change.

This simply isn’t true…I know my personal views have changed significantly as a direct result of participating in this board. I’ve gone from being a frothing at the mouth crazed conservative to being at least moderately palatable to a broad cross section of the population….you guys have made me almost presentable, thanks!

Anyway, the last thing anybody should hope for is a self-fulfilling circle jerk of like mindedness. Bring it on…if your thinking is flawed, the hive tends to self-correct, if your thinking is unconventional but rational, the hive tends to gradually migrate towards adoption. This is an efficient, elegant, and mostly entertaining means of advancing our collective understanding.

I sincerely don’t want anyone’s feelings to get hurt however, being offended is not synonymous with “cease and desist”; if it were, a back door passage to censorship would be wide open. The powers to be have thoughtfully provided this off topic section so folks that exclusively want automotive content can easily avoid this stuff.

In my mind, the real consideration is to be mindful of what impression we may have on GRM’s sponsors…one of them may poke their head in on a particularly bad day and get an unrepresentative view.

Now for the silver lining…

While cleaning my pool yesterday (because California), I was treated to an Osprey doing a scud run right past my house. I played “America Berkley Yah” on my leaf blower turned air guitar but regrettably, no wing dip was provided.

I live about thirty miles north of Los Angeles and it’s pretty safe to guess the Osprey was part of the riot preparation drills that are currently taking place.

In reply to RX Reven':

Nah, its just that the "Jap's" are invading again.....

Wally wrote: So everyone has time to get their argument ready or for the more sensitive viewers, to run away from their computers, the next round of protests will probably start in the spring when a Grand Jury decided walking up a dark stairway with your finger on the trigger of your drawn gun was not irresponsible. http://nypost.com/2014/11/23/apparent-deadly-missteps-in-police-shooting-of-unarmed-man/

Looks like a failure to follow Rule #3.

RX Reven' wrote: I live about thirty miles north of Los Angeles and it’s pretty safe to guess the Osprey was part of the riot preparation drills that are currently taking place.

More likely practice by the V-22 drivers at Miramar. Only people that have them are USMC and AF SOC, not going to be used by Nat'l Guard.

jsquared wrote:

Wally wrote: So everyone has time to get their argument ready or for the more sensitive viewers, to run away from their computers, the next round of protests will probably start in the spring when a Grand Jury decided walking up a dark stairway with your finger on the trigger of your drawn gun was not irresponsible. http://nypost.com/2014/11/23/apparent-deadly-missteps-in-police-shooting-of-unarmed-man/

Looks like a failure to follow Rule #3.

RX Reven' wrote: I live about thirty miles north of Los Angeles and it’s pretty safe to guess the Osprey was part of the riot preparation drills that are currently taking place.

More likely practice by the V-22 drivers at Miramar. Only people that have them are USMC and AF SOC, not going to be used by Nat'l Guard.

I’m a 100+ miles up the coast from Miramar though not far from Point Mugu Naval Base. My house is in a fairly densely populated area at the top of a 200’ hill and I was eye-to-eye with the Osprey so they were doing some serious hooning.

It’s not uncommon for me to see attack helicopters track the 101 freeway presumably escorting political bigwigs from Mugu to wherever but these guys weren’t doing that…way too fast to track a vehicle on the freeway, way too unnecessarily low, and way too zig-zagy.

No complaints mind you although they could have thrown a wing dip to the hair metal guy out their window.