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Who you do you thing the bad guys target?

Other criminals, for the most part. After that: young black males. If you don't fall in those categories, you really have better things to worry about than being shot to death. Go get some exercise, quit smoking,

When it comes to the safety of my family I take matters into my own hands.

If the safety is in the form of a gun, put it in the wife's hands, not the husband's. Most female murder victims are killed by a family member, most often the husband/SO/Ex.

Nobody is suggesting that anyone should be packing at the office Christmas party.

The San Bernadino massacre was at an office holiday party, and TV and the internets have been full of people saying how it should have been full of armed citizens.

"Considering that in the US accidental shootings alone kill ~10 times more people than mass shootings, I think more people would die rather than fewer"

- Would you care to cite any reliable sources on this?

Absolutely:

Mass shooting deaths (FBI):

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

Accidental shooting deaths (CDC):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

Meanwhile, I would suggest that many of the accidental shootings occur because of lack of training in the use of firearms and improper storage of firearms. The trigger doesn't pull itself.

Yes, absolutely. And upping the number of people carrying won't magically increase the percentage of them using holsters and gun safes correctly.

It took me about 5 seconds of Googling to show that the one concrete statistic you mention is false.

The FBI reports that at least two-thirds of all homicides in the US are committed with guns. Source.

I won't tell you to check all your facts, because I know no-one ever does that (including me). But whoever told you that particular statistic? Perhaps you might like to treat that person or source with a little more scepticism in future.

And you have a mass shooting almost every day.

Umm, no.

We have a website that changed the definition of "mass shooting" so they could claim we had one almost every day. Using the standard FBI definition, we've had one every other month or so..

The "standard FBI definition" defines "mass murder", not "Mass shooting." Different things.
https://www.fbi.gov/stats-serv...

In any case, if you read the FBI documents, they state that there is no accepted definition.

Let's get this out of the way. For the sake of discussion, let's accept that the Reddit report contains errors. In all fairness, we can then also look at the other side of the argument where the claim has been made that the FBI claims that only 21 such cases have occurred in the same time frame. What I did was to try to ascertain what the FBI defined a mass shooting as and quite quickly found out that the FBI doesn't really have a set definition for what qualifies as a mass shooting - so how can we say they are effectively reporting on the situation?

It can be daunting to wade through a long report. On page 9 of https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori... they define "mass killing" as 3 or more persons involved. (I disagree that that should be defined as "mass" but that is the definition the FBI is using) "The FBI found that 64 incidents (40.0%) would have been categorized as falling within the new federal definition of “mass killing,” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident.” [19]
[19] Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, 28 USC 530C(b)(1)(M)(i).

That is applicable to 64 of the 160 "active shooter" incidents from 2000-2013.

The issue we should be examining is what can be done to reduce the number of shooting victims annually. We do know that in China, almost no murders by firearms are committed - but I am not suggesting that I would be happy trading my rights for such a society. I would be fine making sure that every single firearm owner was held to a stricter level of responsibility. What I mean by that is if you have a gun stolen from you, the first question which should be asked if the was gun properly secured. A specific example of irresponsible gun ownership might be leaving one in the glove compartment of a car. I submit that no one would do that with a substantial amount of money, why should we let someone also be as careless with any firearm?

While proper security is the responsibility of the firearm owner it is difficult for the state to enforce or set a standard. I have two safes: one high security for weapons, the other is for ammunition. I would still not appreciate the police wanting to regularly inspect my house for storage compliance (and whatever else they decide they can fine me for while they are there). Whatever weapon is ready for a short-term response can't be in the safe. When transporting, I can lock items in my vehicle, but a determined person with tools and time can retrieve it/them; a vehicle is not a safe. Some attorney would gleefully make the argument that my secure storage is sloppy and/or inept no matter how disciplined or secure it was by accepted standards.

I understand that on occasion a firearm might be stolen in a home break in but if it was secured in a gun locker, this wouldn't happen. We need to break the path that allows firearms to be bought legitimately but through whatever means finds their way into the wrong person's hands. None of us what the bad guy to get these weapons, not the police, not me and not you.

California is a good example. At the end of my last read they had non-compliant rifles and magazines for california. That means they either executed a felony modification themselves or executed an illegal interstate transfer without the california legal requirement to process through a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder. Two felonies at least right there.

After Columbine and Connecticut very little effort was made to find and prosecute the sources of the weapons. Why not? This sounds like the kind of "making the guilty responsible" that should have been done. (and don't even get me started on Fast and Furious) Instead we hear platitudes like "we need to put this behind us".

so what do you do for the 354 other mass shootings this year not done by muslims?

(repeated from above)
(Re: 355) Shooting tracker is provided by a openly biased anti 2ndA sub-reddit, not a factual news source. Their list also does not meet the FBI criteria for "mass shootings".

(new!)
Here is some actual factual data including the FBI definition of a "mass shooting": https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

Average of 11.4 active shooter incidents per year. 16.4 in the last 7 years of the study. Median deaths per incident = 2, median wounded = 2. (page 9)
The FBI found that 64 incidents (40.0%) would have been categorized as falling within the new federal definition of “mass killing,” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident.” (page 9)

I reject the definition of "mass killing" as 3 individuals, but that is the government's definition. Therefore 64/14 = ~ 5 per year average.

Another interesting quote: "In 63 incidents where the duration of the incident could be ascertained, 44 (70%) of 63 incidents ended in 5 minutes or less, with 23 ending in 2 minutes or less. Even when law enforcement was present or able to respond within minutes, civilians often had to make life and death decisions, and, therefore, should be engaged in training and discussions on decisions they may face." (page 8)

(repeated from above) Consider the following:
"As for the Washington Post’s citing the 350+ mass-shooting statistic, it’s pure unadulterated nonsense. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon reported that only 21 of the 355 shootings on this sub-Reddit thread met the standards for the FBI classification of a mass shooting. Second, some of the incidents on the list aren’t even shootings, as indicated by Mediaite’s Alex Griswold. Here’s one that he found:

                A pair of township boys are accused of shooting four others with a pellet gun, police said.
                Nobody was seriously hurt by the 11- and 12-year-old boys who shot the pellet gun at them on April 25 in the Twinbrook Village apartment complex, Detective Lt. Kevin Faller said in a statement.

Of course, many publications omitted the fact that they’re citing Reddit."
source: http://hotair.com/archives/201... [hotair.com]

11 and 12 year-olds with a pellet gun is a "mass shooting" ?!?

Before I point out the problem let me point out what happened the day of the San Bernardino shooting. Within 30 seconds of the shooting, there was reporting on _every_ major new station that this was a 2nd amendment problem. Within 5 minutes, they had blamed conservatives (especially those dirty Libertarians who are despised by the Government and Media) for the shooting, and claimed that encryption needed back doors for Government snooping. The lie about the Paris terrorist attack being planned over encrypted channels was repeated several dozen times.

For 4 hours I listened to the puppet media claim that Guns were the problem and that _more_ gun control was necessary, and those libertarians and conservatives were a danger to the world.

Not one time in the 4 hours was it mentioned that California has THE strongest gun regulations in the country. Chicago was not mentioned either, which is a "gun free" city and county but has an incredibly high rate of gun violence sporting over 10 shootings a day (and over 1 dead per day) in a place where guns have been banned. At least for the citizens that abide by the law.

Within an hour of the Police finding and killing the 2 shooters we had their names. We also knew that his wife was Pakistani and the interesting circumstances for them meeting. We knew that she dropped their 6month off at a relative's house, an a few hours later knew that they had homemade weapons, links to at least one Jihadist terrorist group from Facebook posts, and attempted to wipe their hard drives.

For TWO MORE DAYS Politicians and Puppet media (*NBC*, *FOX*, *ABC*, NPR, *CNN*) claimed that the problem was home grown libertarians who owned guns, and facts were ignored to support that narrative. If the word "Muslim" was mentioned it was followed up immediately with Libertarians and/or how we lack gun laws.

So you post a number as if it has special meaning, and ignore the wise words of Mark Twain. "There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies, and statistics." You also ignore that the source of that number is a Reddit group! Do you also believe every post on Slashdot and Facebook, if it looks official? Why can we not find that same information from the FBI?

Well, that would be due to the fact that the number is bullshit. According to the FBI there have been 21 mass shootings this year, not 355. A longer term study performed by that same Law enforcement agency shows that the trend has been declining, not rising. The Narrative you post works because "shooting" is intentionally conflated to appeal to the emotions and make it appear that these are all San Bernardino like events.

Damage of any kind to _innocent_ people is wrong, but remember that crime is not a one way street. Crime does not stop magically when guns are banned, and if you somehow hold such a delusion you can look at the UK and Australia for both long term and short term crime trends with unarmed citizens. Banning guns does one thing. It removes people's ability to defend themselves, making them completely dependent on the Government for defense.

For the citizens to be able to defend themselves we accept a certain level of risk. The Rights of the people to defend themselves is in the Constitution very intentionally. Nobody stops _you_ from defending yourself or throwing your life to the Government. You currently can not legally demand that others do the same, and hopefully you never will.

Before I point out the problem let me point out what happened the day of the San Bernardino shooting. Within 30 seconds of the shooting, there was reporting on _every_ major new station that this was a 2nd amendment problem. Within 5 minutes, they had blamed conservatives (especially those dirty Libertarians who are despised by the Government and Media) for the shooting, and claimed that encryption needed back doors for Government snooping. The lie about the Paris terrorist attack being planned over encrypted channels was repeated several dozen times.

For 4 hours I listened to the puppet media claim that Guns were the problem and that _more_ gun control was necessary, and those libertarians and conservatives were a danger to the world.

Not one time in the 4 hours was it mentioned that California has THE strongest gun regulations in the country. Chicago was not mentioned either, which is a "gun free" city and county but has an incredibly high rate of gun violence sporting over 10 shootings a day (and over 1 dead per day) in a place where guns have been banned. At least for the citizens that abide by the law.

Within an hour of the Police finding and killing the 2 shooters we had their names. We also knew that his wife was Pakistani and the interesting circumstances for them meeting. We knew that she dropped their 6month off at a relative's house, an a few hours later knew that they had homemade weapons, links to at least one Jihadist terrorist group from Facebook posts, and attempted to wipe their hard drives.

For TWO MORE DAYS Politicians and Puppet media (*NBC*, *FOX*, *ABC*, NPR, *CNN*) claimed that the problem was home grown libertarians who owned guns, and facts were ignored to support that narrative. If the word "Muslim" was mentioned it was followed up immediately with Libertarians and/or how we lack gun laws.

So you post a number as if it has special meaning, and ignore the wise words of Mark Twain. "There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies, and statistics." You also ignore that the source of that number is a Reddit group! Do you also believe every post on Slashdot and Facebook, if it looks official? Why can we not find that same information from the FBI?

Well, that would be due to the fact that the number is bullshit. According to the FBI there have been 21 mass shootings this year, not 355. A longer term study performed by that same Law enforcement agency shows that the trend has been declining, not rising. The Narrative you post works because "shooting" is intentionally conflated to appeal to the emotions and make it appear that these are all San Bernardino like events.

Damage of any kind to _innocent_ people is wrong, but remember that crime is not a one way street. Crime does not stop magically when guns are banned, and if you somehow hold such a delusion you can look at the UK and Australia for both long term and short term crime trends with unarmed citizens. Banning guns does one thing. It removes people's ability to defend themselves, making them completely dependent on the Government for defense.

For the citizens to be able to defend themselves we accept a certain level of risk. The Rights of the people to defend themselves is in the Constitution very intentionally. Nobody stops _you_ from defending yourself or throwing your life to the Government. You currently can not legally demand that others do the same, and hopefully you never will.

Here's 2013:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

In a typical year, just over 300 people are killed by those things in the US.

Huh? That number seems low. As of October 1, according to the Washington Post, there were 294 mass shootings so far in 2015, and that was still with three months left in the year. That accounted for 380 deaths so far, with well over 1,000 injured. https://www.washingtonpost.com...

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal claims "the US leads the world in mass shootings." http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-...

As best I can tell he's near the mark. The statistics I can find show 300-400 rifle murders per year, with many times that caused by handguns. Source: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

Statistics on Australian homicide show that the number of all homicides went from 355 in 1997 to 297 in 2012. So about a 16% reduction.

Statistics on US homicides over that same time period (1997 to 2012) show the number dropping from 21,606 to 14,827. About a 31% reduction - about double that of Australia.

Seems that eliminating firearms in Australia might have actually slowed the drop in the number of homicides (assuming that Australia would have normally followed the reductions in the US), leading to a relative GAIN in the homicide rate as compared to the US over the same period.

Given that Australian homicide rates were far lower than the US to begin with, it's not surprising. The US can experience a far higher percentage reduction than any other modern democracy,and it will still have twice the rate as those countries.

For example, for the US to experience a homicide rate like than in Canada, the rate would have to fall almost 90%.

If Canada had half that rate, it would still be lower than that of the US, even though they had a 90% drop.

Statistics on Australian homicide show that the number of all homicides went from 355 in 1997 to 297 in 2012. So about a 16% reduction.

Statistics on US homicides over that same time period (1997 to 2012) show the number dropping from 21,606 to 14,827. About a 31% reduction - about double that of Australia.

Seems that eliminating firearms in Australia might have actually slowed the drop in the number of homicides (assuming that Australia would have normally followed the reductions in the US), leading to a relative GAIN in the homicide rate as compared to the US over the same period.

Especially since hands kill more people that rifles and shot guns put together? Handguns are a whole other category but long guns are not as bad as hands, or even knives. https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

Because ransomware attacks are for money, and target business and in some cases government itself, and involve large numbers of people at once, surely it's NOT being treated as a local problem: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

By different jurisdictions I am referring to different nations, places where the FBI would receive little to no cooperation.

And the NSA would love to be able to mail a ransomware operation to burnish its battered image. If it could do so, it would.

No. Why in the world would they potentially compromise their sources and methods on something as petty as ransomeware? The NSA is not law enforcement, they are in the intelligence gathering business. Discovering a petty criminal is something to note in their database, not do anything about.

Because ransomware attacks are for money, and target business and in some cases government itself, and involve large numbers of people at once, surely it's NOT being treated as a local problem: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

And the NSA would love to be able to mail a ransomware operation to burnish its battered image. If it could do so, it would.

PS regarding US local law enforcement keep in mind this https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/i....

I would argue the opposite.

Out of 310,000,000 million guns in the country (Data from The Congressional Research Service, 2009), 0.0028% of them were used in homicides in 2012

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

And according to the violence policy center, defensive gun use (Justified homicide and non-fatal use) from 2007 to 2011 was 338,700. That would come to about 84,675 per year, which would be 0.027%.

Meaning that defensive use occurs 9.64 times more often than unjustified homicide.

http://www.vpc.org/studies/jus...

Unless I seriously fucked up my math, it is extremely unlikely to be killed by a criminal with a gun in the United States.

And you're far far more likely to accidentally drown your swimming pool than be killed by a gun; do you advocate that swimming pools are the biggest source of terrorism?

That statistic in only true if you restrict your investigation to children under 14. The actual number of drownings in the US is about 3900/year (CDC), while the number of non-suicide gun deaths is around 12,000/year. (Gun suicides around 21,000/year)

More importantly, the number of people murdered by swimming pools is about 15, so keeping special surveillance of swimming pool owners is not going to reduce the number of homicides very much. 15 drowning murders/10 million swimming pools = 1/670,000. 12,000 gun homicides/100 million gun owners = 1/8,300.

And, relevant to the topic at hand, there's about 1 Islamic terrorist attack in the US per year. 1 Terrorist/3 million Muslims. You know, maybe we should keep an eye on those swimming pool owners.

How do you determine who should get guns?

Statistically. (Note: this post is sarcasm, source: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c... )

Blacks are disproportionately represented, so they're right out. Congratulations, if that actually worked you've just reduced the homicide rate by roughly 60% despite blacks being 12.6% of the population.

Can't discriminate by race? Ok, how about men! Men are the majority of homicide perpetrators, especially firearms, ruling them out you've removed 92% of gun homicides and only removed the 2A rights of 50% of the population.

Can't discriminate by gender? Youths are over represented so they're out. No guns until you're 30 years old. You've reduced gun homicides by 40%. Except, well, under 18 can't legally own a firearm already, so 695 of the 5895 you'd stop are already doubly illegal, but now, NOW that it is triply illegal that'll stop it. Around 65% of the population affected.

>> evidence that we catch (and convict) a representative sample of criminals

You might be looking for something called "clearance" (what percentage of crimes are resolved) and it's tracked by type of crime, region of country, size of population center, etc.
e.g., https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

How long until your viral load gets turned into yet another biometric for the FBI to stash away in their NGI database?

Not suspects. Perps. White males are about 50% of the murderous population too. In both cases the majority of crimes are within racial boundaries, most often by acquaintances, and about 25% were slain by family members.

It sounds like you should avoid your own race too. That said, I deplore the various cultures of violence in the US, both the Hollywood/NRA white boy flavor and the 'gangsta' type. But if you don't already hang out with violent morons then you're probably not at risk.

I'm not worried about the garbage truck and the "few minutes".

Here is a quote from your original post;

how it feels to be monitored day and night.

Do you enjoy the fact that you could end up on the No-Fly list with zero explanation as to how you got on the list, or how you could be removed due to your obvious innocence?

How do you get from license plate scans to No-Fly lists? They appear unconnected to me.

How will you feel when they come back in a few years complaining about the limited capability of vehicle mounted cameras and instead propose a fleet of drones to capture images in driveways and parking lots?

We can talk then if this is ever proposed. Drone surveillance is not an inevitable advance from garbage truck license plate cameras.

On top of all this, statistics will likely show this monitoring will do fuck-all to stop or curb auto theft.

You might be right but I bet it will increase the number of stolen vehicles recovered.

. The agencies responding (which included 10 state agencies, 71 local agencies, and 1 federal agency) reported a total of 1,102 stolen vehicles recovered with a value of more than $6.5 million,

I sure as hell don't expect my auto insurance company to hand me a huge refund

This has nothing to do with insurance.

chop shops don't usually worry about keeping license plates intact.

Many stolen vehicles are not taken to chop shops but are left on the side of the road.

From the wording of the article, I would imagine Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) would be the party that is responsible for curating/publishing the list of hashes. Here in the states, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, FBI, and Justice Department maintain a similar database.

Fingerprints and other biometric data go always to the FBI's IAFIS and are kept for god only knows how long.

What is included in IAFIS: Not only fingerprints, but corresponding criminal histories; mug shots; scars and tattoo photos; physical characteristics like height, weight, and hair and eye color; and aliases. The system also includes civil fingerprints, mostly of individuals who have served or are serving in the U.S. military or have been or are employed by the federal government. The fingerprints and criminal history information are submitted voluntarily by state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies.

In the age of the Patriot act, it all goes into IAFIS. Oh and sign up for the TSA Pre-Check program and guess what, you're fingerprints go there too, for at least 75 years. Oh and recent supreme court rulings have allowed DNA evidence to be collected in connection with 'serious' crimes. The definition of serious is still nebulous but I know a guy who had to give a mouth swab for a public intoxication arrest.

There's multiple reasons why I object to this kind of data being retained except for the purposes intended and it should have a lifespan suiting the needs, or it shouldn't be collected at all. Unfortunately for all of us in the US, everybody wants to collect data on us and our government is no different. If you're convicted of a felony, yes retain the data indefinitely but shit if you get a parking ticket or non-felony you shouldn't have this crap follow you around for the rest of your life.

Psychopaths are most definitely not normal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., nor by any stretch of the imagination could their behaviour be considered normal. As more testing is being done in correctional institutions so the statistics are becoming worse now 1% general population, 15% prison population (some are showing it up to 25%) and 50% of crimes of violence. Distinct genetic traits are being discovered, they could be considered a sub-species of humanity, a parasitic sub-species. A good thing the FBI doesn't agree with your defence of the traits you likely know well https://www.fbi.gov/stats-serv.... Also http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm... "These results indicate that different psychopathic traits as measured by the MPQ show distinct genetically based relations with broad dimensions of DSM psychopathology". So suck it up and make no mistake, they all definitely have psychopaths on the radar and it is a growing global trend, so we definitely are looking to a better future, well, not all of use, psychopaths definitely will be losing the ability to hide amongst us to be able to prey upon the rest of us.

A market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., can mean lots of things, note the only one they didn't list was free market. Separate entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., so basically a caveat emptor market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Basically in reality the closest we get to a free market would be a 'Fence' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., interesting in that the products do enter that market upon an actual 'Free' basis and it is unregulated until of course the psychopaths who run it get caught and they regulate right out of existence.

The wars on abstracts (drugs, crime, terror) has made our society more violent and less safe.

Violent crime has been dropping for several decades any way you slice it, America is at 1970s levels. What metrics are you using to that show an increase in violence? Even between 2013 and 2012 there's been a decrease.

C'mon, there aren't that many racial crimes in the US (I'm guessing a racial crime means white on black crime?).

Why would it refer only to white-on-black crime, when black-on-white crime is more common? (Quickly checking the homicide stats: black-on-white is about twice as common as white-on-black.)

Perhaps it would be more useful to state that the overall crime rate is lower in Australia than in the US. Checking the stats: raw murder rates are 4.7 for the US and 1.1 for Australia, annually per 100,000 population.

Webster defines terrorism (emphasis mine) as "the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal"

The FBI also requires a political bent: "Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping"

Swatting is not terrorism, at least in this instance. Not by the definition of the word or as it is commonly applied by western law enforcement agencies. *shrug* Sometimes an asshat is just that, an asshat, with no deeper motivation than the desire to be a dickhead.

Hey, just an FYI, two minutes on this thing called "Google" found the exact page that was 404ed, probably due to a website reconfiguration by the FBI (like going to HTTPS)!

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/c...

So, does this new information change your snarky attitude?

I think you've confused "data" with the plural of anecdote.

According to the very conservative numbers from the NCVS (national crime victimization survey) nearly 300,000 rapes and/or sexual assaults occur each year.

Interesting. Does the NCVS gather any stats on the crime of false accusation of rape? No? Can you point me to any reputable organization that does?

Single or even double-digit number of false rape reports in the newspapers is statistical noise.

Reported rapes are themselves a dark figure; false rape accusations are an even darker figure. In practical terms, it may be impossible to get to the actual number of false accusations.

Nonetheless, the FBI's numbers say 1 in 12 reported rapes are unfounded. The FBI also notes that for the more general class of "false accusations of adult crime", women perpetrate the majority of them.

someone who cannot freely be called sub-human... because of his race

You can call him sub-human (if that means anything) as much as you want, what you can't do is then extrapolate it to say that all people with black skin are sub-human.

I can not even freely call him a "NIGGER", you think i can freely call him a "sub-human" - this "freely" is important: it is not so much about my "Slashdot karma" for example (every fellow Slashdoter has the right to mod me down because he does not like they way i think and/or express myself, as every one -not just in Slashdot- has the right -even if he will be wrong- to answer to me "go fuck youself, you racist"), but it is about laws (like those we have in Europe) that make it illegal to call this nigger a sub-human.

About "extrapolating"... i posted the following "racist facts":

USA, 2013 - Arrests by Race - Black

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: 52.2%

Robbery: 56.4%

Population by Race - Black : 13.2%.

sources: FBI - CENSUS

Why you think i did it? I even wrote: "as a contribution to the discussion and to the American society (in which both Abi and Katerina will live - understand this before anyone accuse me for posting "racist facts")"

No my friend, i don't have any problem "extrapolating" - to what extent i will extrapolate is debatable and based on other conditions also, but i am a Greek... from the "racist facts" i posted i can easily become wiser!

Are these crazy comments a product of naive machine learning algorithms?

Or code used for illicit communications?

Any ideas?

I have some ideas.

The Savopoulos -Savvas, his wife Amy, and their 10 years old son Phillip (luckily, their 2 daughters, Abi and Katerina, 19 and 16 years old, were not in the house)- is a Greek-American family that (along with their 57 years old El Salvadorian faithful maid Veralicia Figueroa) were, all together, tortured and murdered by someone who cannot freely be called sub-human... because of his race - so, as a contribution to the discussion and to the American society (in which both Abi and Katerina will live - understand this before anyone accuse me for posting "racist facts"):

USA, 2013 - Arrests by Race - Black

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: 52.2%

Robbery: 56.4%

Population by Race - Black : 13.2%.

sources: FBI - CENSUS

* Both Abi and Katerina will honor their parents and their little brother (plus, their faithful maid) by living in the American society as their family teached them... o Theos na anapausi tis psixes ton Sabba, Amis, Phillipou, kai Veralicia - Abi kai Katerina, zoi se logou sas.

It is statistically a fact that in the U.S. a black person is roughly 7 times more likely to commit murder than a white person (about 7 thousands of a percent vs. 1 thousandth of a percent):
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

The problem with this statistic is that it ties violent crime to race without properly normalizing for income inequality. Efforts to do this have seen mixed results: http://blogs.channel4.com/fact...

The only thing that is certain is that poverty and neighborhood conditions are directly and unequivocally linked to major crime. It is pretty clear that promoting education and opportunity is vastly more effective at reducing crime and violence than targeting race.

If you normalised for income, wouldn't the stats then say that poor black people are much more likely to murder than poor white or asian people?

It is statistically a fact that in the U.S. a black person is roughly 7 times more likely to commit murder than a white person (about 7 thousands of a percent vs. 1 thousandth of a percent): http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... The problem with this statistic is that it ties violent crime to race without properly normalizing for income inequality. Efforts to do this have seen mixed results: http://blogs.channel4.com/fact... The only thing that is certain is that poverty and neighborhood conditions are directly and unequivocally linked to major crime. It is pretty clear that promoting education and opportunity is vastly more effective at reducing crime and violence than targeting race.

Better than an alternate theory is actual facts: In the U.S. [...]

I agree with you Sir, so i post some official FACTS that support your comment:

2012 Arrests by Race, Black, percent distribution: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter (49.4%), forcible rape (32.5%), robbery (54.9%); Census Population by Race, Black: 13.2%.

source: FBI http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj... - census http://quickfacts.census.gov/q...

No. The FBI mandate does not include nor condone protection. They enforce the law once it is broken. Nothing more.

YES - (in this case) some intelligence, but mostly just "usual" convention-protection: FBI Quick Facts (and from there many more info).

Your right, thats all blunt objects, and its the FBIs statistics I was looking at:

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj...

So "blunt objects" and "personal weapons" (including fists, etc), EACH are more than double that of rifles at 380.

But this is homicides, doesn't count intentional self wounding, since, that isn't really a useful statistic, being...intentional and consensual.

Ideas are not physical things.

And "property" is not a physical thing either.

The taking of real, physical property involves real, involuntary displacement or separation.

Distinction without difference. You copying my drawings, notes, or recording without my approval is still theft — even if I still hold on to my copies of same.

And not because FBI says so, but because it is indistinguishable in its effect from the theft of tangible things — the victim (inventor, creator, or whoever bought the invention/creation) still suffers real tangible losses.

Sure. Take a look at FBI stats for murderers. Blacks commit at least 38% of murders, or 54% of murders in which the race of the murderer is known, despite making up only 13% of the population.

Murders make a good test case here, because (a) almost every murder is reported, and (b) most murderers are identified, so the statistics should be fairly complete.

I remember seeing a study (sorry, can't find it at the moment) with a fairly well-controlled experiment, in which fake "lost" wallets were placed in view of a camera, and the experimenters recorded the person who picked them up and whether they were returned to the putative owner. The results were pretty clear: a young black male is the least honest, and an old white female is the most honest. (Curiously, I saw comments alleging that the study was racist for reaching this result, but nothing about it being ageist or sexist.)

Not even close.

Of course it is close.

The constitution defines treason as making war against the United States.

You seem to imply, one can only become a traitor by shooting at American personnel, but that's not true. The term "making war" is subject to interpretation (not unlike the term "reasonable").

How about passing secrets to the enemies — or spreading their propaganda? Yes.

And, for another example, does giving somebody money — which they'll use to buy arms or train soldiers to fight the United States — qualify? Another yes...

And now we've arrived to bringing one's dollars to Castro's island... No, it is not the same as actual treason. But it can be "close", and it is not "usurpation" for the government to seek to limit it.

If history is any guide, the lodgings for such tourists will be available with young willing women and conveniently pre-bugged for you. According to FBI, Cuban intelligence actively recruits Americans with methods including blackmail...

If you dance with the devil, then you haven't got a clue...

Cue-in the knuckle-dragging simpletons sincerely equating Castro (Peace be Upon Him) with Bush (spit) or Lavrenty Beria with Joe McCarthy, to tell us, how the US is "worse" than a regime headed by the same Dear Leader for 50 years.

Well, i cant speak for statistics in Europe, but I can say without a doubt that violent crime in america is much more heavily influenced by race than by poverty. As you can see here: http://kff.org/other/state-ind... for example, 27% of people living below the poverty line are black, compared to 10% being white. This means that blacks are 270% more likely to live in poverty than whites. Following so far?

Now, according to DOJ statistics: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj... blacks are responsible for more about 52% of all murders in the united states, with whites (including hispanics) accounting for 45%.

Now as i am sure you are aware, blacks are a minority in America, accounting for only 12% of the population, and yet they are responsible for over half of the murders. What this means, is that a black person is nearly 8 times more likely to commit murder than any other person of any other race in America.

Now, if you take the rate of murderers that are black and subtract from it the rate of blacks living in poverty, (800%-270%=530%) even if you supposed (wrongly) that every single black living in poverty is a murderer, then you are still left with the remaining blacks who dont live in poverty committing over 500% more murders than every other race in America combined.

Poverty is not the leading factor in violent crime, race is. The poverty myth is nothing short of delusional or perhaps deceitful propaganda.

Because blacks commit more violent crime than all other races combined

You might want to check your numbers.

In fact he's not the only one: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted

When your "interfering with a dinky little delivery drone" has the potential to kill people? Yeah, you'll go to prison. Just ask that guy who got 14 years for shining a dinky little laser at a helicopter, even though nobody was hurt.

Well, you can count separate small incidents from the past 40 years in a report that stops at 10 years ago, or look at the overall scope of the attacks and look at a more current report which follows recent trends.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-servi... particularly page 22.

That Norwegian guy was a monster, but there's another difference: he didn't belong or claim fealty to a large active terror organization. He might've had some loony friends in a small group but by and large he acted alone. There is no current large active christian group that is in anyway remotely equivalent to a group with the size and power of ISIS or Al Quaida.

As Mspangler mentioned, follow your own cite, rereading what I said:
~90% of firearm murders are with a handgun
'bare hands'(in quotes because I'm not being literal, kicking somebody to death still counts) murders outnumber the statistics for rifles and shotguns, at least counted separately. Even adjusted they add up to 'darn close'.

Pulling the statistics from the cite:
8,583 murders with a firearm.
6,899 where the firearm was known. We'll figure that the 'other gun/type not stated' follows the ratio where known. Realistically, the only 'other gun' I can think of that wouldn't be a handgun, rifle, or shotgun would be improvised 'zip guns', which I'd probably count as a handgun anyways.
6,220 handguns. 90.16%
323 rifles 4.68% (Adjusts to 402)
356 shotguns 5.16% (Adjusts to 443)

This is the reason why I've said in the past that I'd respect gun control proponents more if they went after handguns, responsible for the most murders, as opposed to seemingly targeting rifles the most when, outside of unusual years, shotguns are actually responsible for more murders.

Realistically the vast majority of gun crimes are committed with cheap "throw-away" handguns.

Roughly 90% of firearm murders. More people are killed by 'bare hands' than by rifles or shotguns.

[citation needed]

Actually, one quick google shows that in 2011 in the US 8583 of 12664 homicides were committed with firearms, vs only 726 with bare hands. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj...

Things may be different worldwide, in places with much less firearms available to the public of course. But then so is the homicide rate (in first world countries at least)...

The FBI, that well-known organisation with large amounts of experience and jurisdiction over international matters?

Who do you think it is that deals with international organized crime at the US Federal level? I take it you have never heard of the term "legat" either?

Whom among the CIA, NSA, and FBI do you think is responsible for investigating computer crime in the US?

Despite Mr. Klatch’s success, his young age led to some reckless decisions. Mr. Klatch was indicted in 2011 by the federal government, and he subsequently accepted a guilty plea to four felony counts: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Securities Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Money Laundering. Mr. Klatch acknowledges that he engaged in deceptive marketing tactics, which led to some investor losses during the 2008-2010 financial crisis. However, he accepted responsibility for his actions, and successfully served a five-year federal prison sentence. Today, he is actively pursuing various avenues in order to make full restitution to his victims.

FBI:

Kenyen Brown, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, is pleased to announce that Anthony J. Klatch, II, of Tampa, Florida and Sugarloaf Township, Pennsylvania, has pled guilty to one count each of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. These convictions all stem from his involvement in a fraudulent investment scheme involving the TASK Capital Partners hedge fund. All the TASK fund investors were located in either the Mobile area or in Florida. Combined, they lost a total of $2.3 million. In addition to spending time in prison, Klatch will be required to forfeit assets associated with his fraudulent activities. As part of his plea agreement, Klatch also agreed to the following facts about his involvement:

In January 2009, Anthony J. Klatch, II and Timothy Sullivan created the TASK Capital Partners, LP hedge fund, with Klatch serving as the fund’s Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer.

After creating TASK, Klatch, Sullivan, and others solicited individuals to invest in the fund. This was done through a variety of means, including, but not limited to, providing potential investors with investment prospectuses, which contained material misrepresentations and material misleading omissions. At least one potential investor received this prospectus via e-mail.

From April through October 2009, seven investors invested approximately $2.3 million in the TASK hedge fund. Along with the seven investors, Klatch and Sullivan each invested $1 in TASK. Once investors agreed to invest money in the TASK fund, the investors used interstate wires to transfer, or to authorize a transfer of, money from their accounts into accounts managed by TASK. Wire transfers, or the authorizations to transfer money, for three of the TASK investors originated in the Southern District of Alabama.

Between April 2009 and December 2009, Klatch and Sullivan managed the $2.3 million of investment capital in TASK. However, only about 60 percent of this amount was ever actually invested. This 60 percent was lost over the course of eight months through a series of investments. In December 2009 and January 2010, all TASK investors were told by Klatch, Sullivan, and others that their entire investment had been lost in a single bad trade.

The remaining 40 percent of money in TASK was used for non-investment related expenditures. This includes $180,592.45 which ended up in Klatch’s personal bank account. Before ending up in his personal account, this money was moved through different bank accounts, via a series of transactions, which Klatch knew were designed in whole or in part, conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds.

In addition to his involvement in the TASK scheme, Klatch admits that he was also involved in similar fraudulent investment schemes involving American Private Equities, LLC, ARM Capital Management, LLC, and Vigilant Capital Management, LLC. Furthermore, Klatch agrees that the total fraud amount associated with these other funds will be included as relevant conduct for sentencing purposes. The parties agree that