The majority of the time it's probably a minor stealing a phone, who's not going to get more than an uncomfortable day in court, and will not himself be discouraged, let alone any of his peers be discouraged.
Of course if you just get punched like in that "knockout" game, they don't even bother sending a car. If you really insist, they'll tell you they are, but they won't.
As someone whose bicycle supply, among other items, was largely supplied by police auctions, I always wondered how it was that none of all that confiscated stuff being auctioned off could be returned to the proper owner. If the owner didn't report the item stolen, how was it confiscated? And if it was, don't they bother calling up to mention that they found your bike/stereo/computer/motorcycle/jewelry etc?
Having been mugged and/or robbed in various cities in various states, I can tell you that the usual situation is that the law is less interested in the "violent" part than in the "theft" part. The cops, while sympathetic to my being assaulted, always tell me that, since I had managed to defend myself and nothing was actually stolen, that was just misdemeanor assault, and would be plea bargained to nothing if they ever caught the guy. Whereas a nonviolent robbery (violence was threatened, of course, but the guy didn't actually jump me from behind) where I was content to give the guy my $20 cash, was a felony and would be at least investigated, although probably again they wouldn't catch him.
As the victim, still seems backassward to me.
A priority is shaking down law abiding citizens for money. A priority is terrorizing citizens in the middle of the night with an armed raid of a dozen officers to find a joint. A priority is terrorizing your children and shooting your dog on such a raid.
A priority is padding pay checks with overtime pay. A *big* priority is confiscating cameras from citizens recording what the cops do, and then arresting them on some bogus charge. A priority is protecting cops by abusing citizens, using wholly disproportionate and unnecessary force. A priority is putting the populace in their place whenever they seem a little uppity.
You realize that happens mainly to black people, followed by other minoritIes, followed by white kids who don't come from powerful families, followed by white adults who don't appear to be middle of the road middle or upper class, followed by white middle or working class, right?
A few decades ago my bike was stripped while locked up outside Sears. Wheeling the hulk home, I came upon a bunch of kids talking to a cop, while still holding my handlebars, seat, etc. Haha I thought, lucky me. Turns out I had the situation wrong. The cop wasn't grilling them, he was the older brother of one of their buddies, chewing the fat, and my claims that the parts they were carrying belonged to the bike i was dragging was just a wild claim, and it was just a coincidence that they were not only the exact parts the bike was missing, but were even the right size (French sizes, not the most common). Somewhat ironically, it was one of the kids who assumed the leadership role and presumably out of some remnant of common decency offered to give me back all the stuff with no admission of guilt; they actually whipped out a bunch of wrenches and rebuilt it, while the cop glared at me with hostility.
anyway, the points are: cops are human, they're going to serve and protect not some conceptual citizenry, not "the state" in some Cliven Bundy paranoid wet dream, but their families and friends and neighbors and people with whom they identify.
It's a problem of scale. The same people who respond to babies beaten to death by their parents are just naturally going to be less concerned about any of the two dozen iPhones stolen today.
Not a lot of hard evidence around to make a concrete conclusion. Were there more information it would cement my thoughts. What I see is a conglomerate of issues.
Concrete caused my particular downfall. Whoever poured my front steps did a bad job, and after a lot of freezing and thawing, one day I step on it and splat.
Sometimes the proper response is to just tell people to sit down, shut the fuck up, and LISTEN to the facts.
And who gets to decide what "the facts" are? You're very language betrays the conceit that you are somehow omniscient, because how else can you know that someone else's knowledge is "ignorance" and your's are "facts".
I too believe the anti-vaccine BS is... well is exactly that, BS. But the moment anyone presents me with real evidence to the contrary I'll happily change my posisition, because I realize that any given human being only has a limited amount of knowledge available to them, and therefore that I must always be open to new knowledge.
Umm. . Yeah, but when you have strong negative evidence, as with vaccines/autism, or perpetual energy, the requirement for open mindedness is significantly reduced.
Solve the problem of the incredible energy cost of getting into orbit (compared to the minimal cost of running around the solar system once you've achieved orbit).
It's been suggested to use a ground based laser focused on a tank of water or something similar in the ship as reaction mass, kind of a steam powered orbital booster, for the savings in not having to haul the whole rocket fuel up.
How about using the space solar collector to power the laser, focused down onto the rocket? No more dangerous to the rocket as a ground based laser, no more dangerous to the earth end as the launch site for a chemical rocket. I'm guessing there might be decent efficiency compared to using earth based power stations of any variety to power the laser.
Might not be the ultimate best way to get to orbit, but seems to me like a slight enhancement of the aforementioned ground-laser powered launcher.
Slashdot Mirror
Should be possible to write an app that remotely makes the battery explode when it's in the guy's pocket. God knows they write them by accident.
The majority of the time it's probably a minor stealing a phone, who's not going to get more than an uncomfortable day in court, and will not himself be discouraged, let alone any of his peers be discouraged.
Of course if you just get punched like in that "knockout" game, they don't even bother sending a car. If you really insist, they'll tell you they are, but they won't.
As someone whose bicycle supply, among other items, was largely supplied by police auctions, I always wondered how it was that none of all that confiscated stuff being auctioned off could be returned to the proper owner. If the owner didn't report the item stolen, how was it confiscated? And if it was, don't they bother calling up to mention that they found your bike/stereo/computer/motorcycle/jewelry etc?
Excellent Point. The cops cOuld easily end up spending most of their time busting down doors of couples who had bad breakups.
Having been mugged and/or robbed in various cities in various states, I can tell you that the usual situation is that the law is less interested in the "violent" part than in the "theft" part. The cops, while sympathetic to my being assaulted, always tell me that, since I had managed to defend myself and nothing was actually stolen, that was just misdemeanor assault, and would be plea bargained to nothing if they ever caught the guy. Whereas a nonviolent robbery (violence was threatened, of course, but the guy didn't actually jump me from behind) where I was content to give the guy my $20 cash, was a felony and would be at least investigated, although probably again they wouldn't catch him. As the victim, still seems backassward to me.
Yeah, it's priorities, not funding.
A priority is shaking down law abiding citizens for money. A priority is terrorizing citizens in the middle of the night with an armed raid of a dozen officers to find a joint. A priority is terrorizing your children and shooting your dog on such a raid.
A priority is padding pay checks with overtime pay. A *big* priority is confiscating cameras from citizens recording what the cops do, and then arresting them on some bogus charge. A priority is protecting cops by abusing citizens, using wholly disproportionate and unnecessary force. A priority is putting the populace in their place whenever they seem a little uppity.
You realize that happens mainly to black people, followed by other minoritIes, followed by white kids who don't come from powerful families, followed by white adults who don't appear to be middle of the road middle or upper class, followed by white middle or working class, right?
A few decades ago my bike was stripped while locked up outside Sears. Wheeling the hulk home, I came upon a bunch of kids talking to a cop, while still holding my handlebars, seat, etc. Haha I thought, lucky me. Turns out I had the situation wrong. The cop wasn't grilling them, he was the older brother of one of their buddies, chewing the fat, and my claims that the parts they were carrying belonged to the bike i was dragging was just a wild claim, and it was just a coincidence that they were not only the exact parts the bike was missing, but were even the right size (French sizes, not the most common). Somewhat ironically, it was one of the kids who assumed the leadership role and presumably out of some remnant of common decency offered to give me back all the stuff with no admission of guilt; they actually whipped out a bunch of wrenches and rebuilt it, while the cop glared at me with hostility. anyway, the points are: cops are human, they're going to serve and protect not some conceptual citizenry, not "the state" in some Cliven Bundy paranoid wet dream, but their families and friends and neighbors and people with whom they identify.
It's a problem of scale. The same people who respond to babies beaten to death by their parents are just naturally going to be less concerned about any of the two dozen iPhones stolen today.
Rock rips through paper because of gravity. Rock wins always!
Because it isn't the case. You win, lose, or tie. Your chances of winning are 1 in 3.
Tie goes to the house.
I like to play it solitaire, right hand against left hand.
5th head was flying erase head
Heresy! The truth can only be found through flying spaghetti monster!
I came I saw I concreted
Veni Vidi Vitrify
Veni, vidi, Vichysoisse. I came, I saw, cold potato soup.
Not a lot of hard evidence around to make a concrete conclusion. Were there more information it would cement my thoughts. What I see is a conglomerate of issues.
Now that's some stone-cold, solid reasoning.
That's our quarry.
The Rising Fall of the Roaming Umpire.
Concrete caused my particular downfall. Whoever poured my front steps did a bad job, and after a lot of freezing and thawing, one day I step on it and splat.
Sometimes the proper response is to just tell people to sit down, shut the fuck up, and LISTEN to the facts.
And who gets to decide what "the facts" are? You're very language betrays the conceit that you are somehow omniscient, because how else can you know that someone else's knowledge is "ignorance" and your's are "facts".
I too believe the anti-vaccine BS is ... well is exactly that, BS. But the moment anyone presents me with real evidence to the contrary I'll happily change my posisition, because I realize that any given human being only has a limited amount of knowledge available to them, and therefore that I must always be open to new knowledge.
Umm. . Yeah, but when you have strong negative evidence, as with vaccines/autism, or perpetual energy, the requirement for open mindedness is significantly reduced.
Leading researchers now believe the fall of Rome was caused by Slashdot Beta.
Fine slashdot fare, if I ever saw it. It would be better to say, "the fall of Rome was caused by the introduction of Slashdot. Polling shows that..."
The decline of Slashdot was due to the use of concrete as a programming language.
The classic (literally) reasons; greed, decay of patriotism, and foreign expansionism.
What led to the downfall of the Roman republic was being confused with the Roman Empire.
Maybe it's one of those "You start dying as soon as you're born" philosophical things. Or before you're born.
Look at chickens. We eat them before they're born. That's doom.
DOS vs CPM
Windows vs OS2
PC vs Apple
VHS vs Beta
44 khz CD vs SACD
NTSC vs PAL
18 khz subcarrier FM vs discrete stereo
jpg vs png
mp3 vs FLAC or ALAC
Solve the problem of the incredible energy cost of getting into orbit (compared to the minimal cost of running around the solar system once you've achieved orbit). It's been suggested to use a ground based laser focused on a tank of water or something similar in the ship as reaction mass, kind of a steam powered orbital booster, for the savings in not having to haul the whole rocket fuel up. How about using the space solar collector to power the laser, focused down onto the rocket? No more dangerous to the rocket as a ground based laser, no more dangerous to the earth end as the launch site for a chemical rocket. I'm guessing there might be decent efficiency compared to using earth based power stations of any variety to power the laser. Might not be the ultimate best way to get to orbit, but seems to me like a slight enhancement of the aforementioned ground-laser powered launcher.
The Fab Four of scary writing Steven King=Paul McCartney Peter Straub=George Harrison Clive Barker=John Lennon Dean Koontz=Ringo Starr