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Somebody did this bit of scaremongering. And certain members of the rightwing noise brigade had their knickers in a twist over the movie.

ABC is reporting that the shooter was one Nasim Aghdam and the hospital lists three people as being in the hospital with the shooter dead, due to a self-inflicted gunshot.

If you saw news stories like this or this, would you trust the government to run a redistribution plan?

A bunch of people died in a fire at the Cook County Administration Building in 2003 due to not being able to open locked doors. They had entered a stairwell that was filling with smoke and couldn't get back on to any of the floors because the door locked behind them. After that incident the city required that stairwell doors automatically unlock when the fire alarm is activated.

It seems crazy that someone would intentionally design a passenger car that you could locked into.

Actually, it's rather ironic. You see, we're often told about the Paradox of Tolerance formulated by Karl Popper, essentially that intolerance is the one thing one cannot tolerate. However, how does one decide what "intolerance" is and by what right is it suppressed? Well, just look at what Popper wrote:

In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.

From this we can see that the moral justification is based on dealing with those who "answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols." So it's ultimately justified by means of the right of self-defense and anyone using Popper to justify going on the attack has it completely backwards. It's a shield, not a sword.

Instead, it should properly be used against the intolerance and criminal behavior of those particular individual people who promote or are involved in things like large riots or attacking and nearly killing an old man in the street (as well as stealing his car) after a fender-bender when they believed he supported the other political party.

In Chicago the CHA pays for low-income people to live in luxury apartments.

Another way to make money is to make excessive bail requirements in possible
collusion with bail bondsmen.

TL;DR - bail should be set by the circumstances of the person's ability to pay and
the nature of them being a flight risk, NOT the nature of the crime.

Now the "I'm sorry but it got long" part:

Bail from the eighth amendment to the Constitution of the United States:
"Excessive bail shall not be required"

Excessive is when it's greater than the amount necessary to bring the offender to trial. From Wikipidia:
"In Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1 (1951), the Court found that a defendant's bail cannot be set higher than an amount that is reasonably likely to ensure the defendant's presence at the trial" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Judges are starting to agree: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2...

But some are still hungry for HUMONGOUS bail to avoid looking soft on crime when BAIL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CRIME.

Man kills cop: 3 million dollars
http://www.philly.com/philly/n...

Man kills man: 2 million dollars
http://www.bellinghamherald.co...

Cop kills man: 1.5 million:
http://abc7chicago.com/news/ja...

The US DoJ ought to take a long hard look at how our nation's Courts are handing out large bail
requirements --unconstitutionally-- to make it look like they're "tough on crime."

In fact, the people being granted bail are innocent until proven guilty, AND
the amount of the bail is only supposed to ensure they show up for trial.

We need a lot of reform in the criminal justice system. Hopefully the DoJ won't whitewash
bail while they look at the other methods that "the justice system" screws the people.

Full disclosure: I've never been arrested, offered bail, denied bail, nor am personally
part of the legal / "justice" system.

E

I'm so glad you cleared that up for us.

Meanwhile:
http://abc7chicago.com/politic...

Quite ironic given the republicans argument for voter ID is democratic fraud. I wonder if anyone will go to prison?

btw, before anyone calls me a democrat, I hate both parties intensely.