Such group games like Wii Sports / Play really should have had internet play. Period. The only reason why I'm still playing Sports after three weeks is because my roommate and I have a rivalry going as far as getting gold medals in the trainings and trying to outdo each other in the fitness tests.
I also picked up Warioware because I always liked the end-game endless modes and how they condition me to recognize what I have to do in a fraction of a second. If you don't like minigames, that's probably torture.;)
As I recall, no system has ever had a platform-exclusive RPG come out until many months after launch. (and I'm of the tribe where Zelda doesn't count as an RPG.) It's unfortunate that the unexpected success of the Wii has brought with it a whole bunch of shovelware from 3rd parties. Once the growing pains quit I think it'll do fine.
And, yes, same argument could be made about the PS3 right now anyway.
"Nintendo comes out and says they kick puppies, love Nazis, and wipe their ass with every nations flag in the world they are not likely to drop the ball. "
Is that a preview of the next Nintendogs game? Sounds like things have gotten much more exciting.
"Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable."
So, if altruism creates pleasure in the brain, is it still considered altruism? You ARE getting something out of it, after all.
I knew I should have paid more attention in my humanities courses, particularly Philosophy.
"I've used GoDaddy plenty of times in the past with no problems."
Sounds like you've never been on the wrong side of a media conglomerate.
Then again, neither have I, which would also explain why I've never had problems with GoDaddy either. That story referenced by GP certainly gives me pause, at least.
One lovely feature of TrueCrypt is the ability to house data in separate drives both referred to by one bitstream. They call it "plausable deniability". You can put some sensitive-looking information in there with one password, which you would surrender if forced to. In the meantime you put the REAL sensitive stuff in there with a completely different password that the bad guys cannot even know exists.
No partition has to know about the other one it coexists with. The whole thing still looks like a random smattering of bits.
A Bridge Too Far Close Encounters of the Third Kind The Goodbye Girl High Anxiety Saturday Night Fever Smokey and the Bandit The Spy Who Loved Me Star Wars
How come we just don't get years like that anymore?
It's a very lightweight C library which basically enables "on the ground" SQL queries and such. No client/server mechanisms to worry about, no middleware (other than sqlite.dll, and even then you can just take the source and compile it in), and the security of the database is handled by security permissions on the file. That's right, "the" file. A single file contains the schema and data.
It fully supports transactions and is appropriately ACID. For someone who's had his Firefox bookmarks hosed before, this is very welcome for me.
The benefit of this will [hopefully] be fully searchable bookmarks and easy to move the bookmarks around to other computers.
I've used it in the past and it's been great for me. Check it out: http://www.sqlite.org/
The real curious part is that none of the Nintendo's portable game systems have ever had any kind of lockout or region coding mechanisms, from original Game Boy to Virtual Boy (and I'm using "portable" in quotes for that one) to DS.
So obviously the region-free model is only selectively viable. The differences in NTSC and PAL and SECAM are quickly blurring as TV manufacturers are harmonizing their models around the world and game consoles move over to digital signals anyway.
How is this Offtopic? Europeans keep getting shafted when it comes to release dates, so "Mario, Smash Bros. Coming This Year" isn't true for them.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all seem to consider Europe as a minor, nagging detail with delayed releases and arbitrary price increases. Seems to me the market might need a major European console player to step up and call their region their #1 priority before the other three will stop dragging their feet.
Full disclosure: I'm in the US. I care because, well, I don't know. Call it empathy. Call it dreaming of a future where I won't have to hear complaints like the above (not that they aren't warranted).
Remember those articles about Intel in bed with Dell with under-the-table payoffs? How about HP's high moral standard as evidenced by the last snafu that had the SEC on their tail (for which they got but a slap on the wrist, something else that smells bad).
I'm all for the simplest explanation usually being the right one, but, it's an awful lot of coincidence that Linux Dells are available in such close proximity to this announcement, don't you think?
It's going to wind up with a big black cloud over any other big integrator (HP, eMachines, etc.) ever releasing an appropriately priced Linux OS machine... and therefore mainstream acceptance.
"It's not a viable plan, it didn't work with Dell." and the discussion will end there. Not only will the monoculture not be split, but this might completely eliminate the acceptance of preinstalled-linux as a method to give people a choice.
I doubt they'd have Ubuntu pre-installed. This reeks of a scam.
Walmart is huge, and putting cheap windows machines there will mean they will get bought by many. Then Dell can come back to sales figures and go, "See? We told you! Consumers just don't want Linux on their computers," and then discontinue the line. Microsoft leaves happy, Dell leaves happy, and the average customer doesn't even know what hit them.
I was WONDERING why Dell was getting so cozy with the idea of selling Linux machines without a lot of hoop-jumping.
Profiling is statistically driven; if a greater proportion of crimes are committed by members of a particular minority, other members of that minority will see more hassle. If you don't like that, address the problem of why certain minorities are overrepresented in the criminal set, instead of tying the hands of law enforcement.
I'd much rather see reporting done on WHICH suspect description is being looked for when profiling. The suspect (and, let's be honest, when profiling is happening, they are already a suspect) never gets to know that they do, in fact, partially match a description. It'd be nice to know how that's an actual lookout going on instead of a "hmm... if I stop him, maybe I'll find he'd committed a crime. QUOTA++!"
Along those lines, once you are done with the ride-along, try going into that neighborhood on your own and pick a fight with a few meth heads. Once the word "berserker" has popped into your head (assuming some bullets haven't) enough times, then you can go home.
Hmm... I suppose Rodney King was a meth head. My mistake. I suppose Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield, you know, the three unarmed men that the cops pumped over 50 rounds into in New York last November were aaaaaallllll doped up.
The Left has sufficiently steeped poor neighborhoods with racism and hostility for law enforcement, that they have become battle zones for cops. Why should they rush into places where there is not only little appreciation for their efforts, but open distrust, hatred and danger?
Some clients don't appreciate my efforts, think I'm ripping them off for charging more for something not on the use case, and really wished my boss would assign my project to someone else. Does that mean I get the right to be rude, late, and dismissive of my clients? A home invasion (just to pick A crime) in their jurisdiction should be treated with the same priority regardless of what neighborhood it is.
Also, bonus points for blaming "The Left." I suppose one can't ever criticise government without being a bleeding pink-o commie, huh? Why not drag The Illuminati into it, too? *rolleyes*
How "many many" officers have you actually dealt with? How "many many" have you dealt with, WITHOUT radiating your nasty attitude?
Respect begets respect. I have never ever ever dealt with a cop and had them not swing their balls around. The only cats I've had any experience with that have their egos in check are the non-officer public aides that take care of the busy work for accidents. They don't get nasty and uppity around me. I'm not trying my luck around these guys. I don't need to wind up slammed against the hood of a cop car. If there's anything I'm radiating it's fear.
1. How long was he there? Was it a quick stop for something? Who hasn't done that in a pinch? I haven't, for one. For the record, it was there, empty, when I got there and made line for the ATM.
2. What jurisdiction was this? In every one I've lived in (5 states, 2 countries), there are many of these spots routinely sitting empty. For the most part, the law mandating these spots are poorly implemented and just waste space. They do routinely sit empty... because people know those spaces are NOT for them. I thought it was supposed to be "if the law doesn't make sense, you try and change it, not just ignore it." Fact is, if anyone OTHER than Lawman was parked that way, they'd get a fine... and I'd still say they deserve it.
3. Is law enforcement exempted from tinting restrictions? It's likely, if not necessarily fair. I'll concede there may be a legitimate law enforcement reason for this. I'm not saying nobody should have dark tints, I'm saying that the exemptions made so that LE gets to enjoy the privacy and lower temperatures of tinted windows is further evidence of the "We're more important than you" attitude.
4. What help did you offer the old lady? Or were you too busy getting a hate on for the cop? Irrelevant. My hel
Ahhhh... "legal" as in an exception made in the DMCA, no. "Legal" as in the entities that control AACS and MPAA agreeing to 2 copies, yes.
It's still a scoop of gruel in an orphan's bowl. From TFA, it will allow one backup and one media device.
What if I have more than one media device? What if I have one and it gets lost or stolen? Now I can't put it on any others?
One backup? What happens when that backup is too beat up to work anymore. I can't make another backup?
This is just a trick for getting people to say "ooh, well, DRM isn't so bad after all."
They're offering a piddling fraction of the rights we as customers SHOULD have and treating it like we should be kissing their butts for the privilage.
"JC: DX9 has its act together well. I like the version of DirectX on the 360. Microsoft is doing well with DX10 on tightening the specs and the exactness."
Of course, he's still calls it like it is:
"The new features are not exactly well-thought-out. Most developers are pretty happy with DX9. The changes with DX10 aren't as radical. It's not like getting pixel shaders for the first time. Single-pass shaders are nice with DX10, but it's a smaller change. "
"doubt this technology will see iraq, oh and don't flame the truth, thanks"
Yes, don't flame the truth. Rather, flame the complete ignorance of the process by which new technologies trickle down to soldiers from the numerous trials and tests.
If it's good enough, it will eventually be used. The question then will be whether troops will still be in Iraq at that time.
Guitar Hero : Guitar Playing:: A FPS : Target Shooting
If it were a real guitar the learning curve would be too steep. Only the really dedicated could ever play and... well... if you could really play the guitar, why would you plug it into a console instead of an amplifier?
The simplified control scheme lets people who just have a good sense of rhythm and basic finger control play the game. If I had to hit some of those chorts in real life and use a real whammy bar instead of the soft one on the controller I'd probably never pick it up after my first couple of tries.
I wonder if anyone playing it has gotten interested in learning in real life. The first Guitar Hero said, during a loading screen, "At some point you might want to look into a real guitar" or something like that.
Does it really undermine anything? TFS states that it will create an advisory board whose explicit purpose is to examine the ESRB system and recommend ways to help make it work.
Of course, the above is really naive. The goal will be to undermine the ESRB anyway. There's no reason why this new entity can't just go:
1. ESRB sucks. We know because we thought of the children. 2. We're making the NYESRB. It will go up to 11. 3. It will be government controlled. Because we know best, and if you disagree you are a terrorist. 4. Meeting over. 5. ??? (let's do lunch for the next 2 years while pretending to work) 6. Profit! (let's milk the taxpayers, and, oh, NYESRB will have rating application fees even higher than the ESRB has now)
Considering the abuse of authority, I wasn't about to test his limits.
Funny thing about non-lethal weapons is that the guidelines aren't as strict over their use like guns are. After all, they're "non-lethal".
You know those released dash-cam videos? The ones of suspects being totally unreasonable and non-compliant that get hit with the stun gun? Those are generally plastered all over the news as an "oh-ho-ho they deserved it" propaganda tool. Police departments love being able to justify carrying these instantly-debilitating weapons that they can use with open-ended discretion. The videos serve their purpose, and they are released intentionally and with full cooperation of the departments.
They'll never willingly release video of unjustified tasering, and if the poor and uneducated that get targeted don't get arrested they don't get a public defender. At that point they simlpy don't have access to a kind of lawyer that would be able to get charges pressed and justice served.
While going off-topic on an already off-topic discussion, it was after that event that I went though the motions to apply for a concealed weapons permit, shooting lessons, and bought a pistol. I know I can't rely on the police.
If the police really wanted to turn those "No Snitch" movements around, they should go back to doing what they have written on their cars: To Protect and Serve.
As opposed to racial profiling. As opposed to beating suspects mercilessly when they present no danger to the officer. As opposed to taking their sweet time to respond to inner-city disturbances while rushing to rich neighborhoods. As opposed to villifying teenagers that are just bored and want to hang out in a public place and not causing any trouble. As opposed to the "we are above the law" attitude that many many officers seem to have.
I remember getting pulled over by an undercover detective for looking at him wrong. Quite literally. He parked his unmarked vehicle with illegally dark tints across two handicapped spaces at my local bank branch and some old lady had to park considerably farther. As I left the ATM I saw him getting into his vehicle and I saw this poor thing with the appropriate handicapped tag in no more complicated than a nightgown struggling with her walker.
I stared at him nastily. I wanted him to feel the shame that others were judging him. Obviously I rubbed him the wrong way since I drove off maybe three blocks before this guy turned on ol' red and blues mounted on his dashboard. I was pulled over and given a lecture about how HE was keeping me safe.
Pro tip: in those situations, the only thing you should do is "Yes, officer" lest you get tazered.
Hell, I live in South Florida... NBC did a story on filing complaints to police stations. Most of the stations just wanted a verbal report and wouldn't provide him with the anonymous forms required under law. To top it all off, when the report got on the air, the investigator had a BOLO notice posted! "Fuck da police" isn't just because we're rebellious: it's because so many DO WRONG.
Questioning witnesses for murders is movie-time. Law and Order on CBS time. It happens, but it's not so prevalent that doors are being knocked on day in and out to find out where they were on August the 11th at 3:19am.
If the police stopped intentionally being antagonists to the citizenry maybe we'd cooperate more.
Slashdot Mirror
Such group games like Wii Sports / Play really should have had internet play. Period. The only reason why I'm still playing Sports after three weeks is because my roommate and I have a rivalry going as far as getting gold medals in the trainings and trying to outdo each other in the fitness tests.
;)
I also picked up Warioware because I always liked the end-game endless modes and how they condition me to recognize what I have to do in a fraction of a second. If you don't like minigames, that's probably torture.
As I recall, no system has ever had a platform-exclusive RPG come out until many months after launch. (and I'm of the tribe where Zelda doesn't count as an RPG.) It's unfortunate that the unexpected success of the Wii has brought with it a whole bunch of shovelware from 3rd parties. Once the growing pains quit I think it'll do fine.
And, yes, same argument could be made about the PS3 right now anyway.
"Nintendo comes out and says they kick puppies, love Nazis, and wipe their ass with every nations flag in the world they are not likely to drop the ball. "
Is that a preview of the next Nintendogs game? Sounds like things have gotten much more exciting.
"Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable."
So, if altruism creates pleasure in the brain, is it still considered altruism? You ARE getting something out of it, after all.
I knew I should have paid more attention in my humanities courses, particularly Philosophy.
"I've used GoDaddy plenty of times in the past with no problems."
Sounds like you've never been on the wrong side of a media conglomerate.
Then again, neither have I, which would also explain why I've never had problems with GoDaddy either. That story referenced by GP certainly gives me pause, at least.
Not only OK, it's for their protection.
One lovely feature of TrueCrypt is the ability to house data in separate drives both referred to by one bitstream. They call it "plausable deniability". You can put some sensitive-looking information in there with one password, which you would surrender if forced to. In the meantime you put the REAL sensitive stuff in there with a completely different password that the bad guys cannot even know exists.
No partition has to know about the other one it coexists with. The whole thing still looks like a random smattering of bits.
A quick glance at the ol' wiki:
A Bridge Too Far
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Goodbye Girl
High Anxiety
Saturday Night Fever
Smokey and the Bandit
The Spy Who Loved Me
Star Wars
How come we just don't get years like that anymore?
Oh, and, it's fully cross-platform public domain, too. The database file is also equally portable. ^^-b
It's a very lightweight C library which basically enables "on the ground" SQL queries and such. No client/server mechanisms to worry about, no middleware (other than sqlite.dll, and even then you can just take the source and compile it in), and the security of the database is handled by security permissions on the file. That's right, "the" file. A single file contains the schema and data.
It fully supports transactions and is appropriately ACID. For someone who's had his Firefox bookmarks hosed before, this is very welcome for me.
The benefit of this will [hopefully] be fully searchable bookmarks and easy to move the bookmarks around to other computers.
I've used it in the past and it's been great for me. Check it out: http://www.sqlite.org/
The real curious part is that none of the Nintendo's portable game systems have ever had any kind of lockout or region coding mechanisms, from original Game Boy to Virtual Boy (and I'm using "portable" in quotes for that one) to DS.
So obviously the region-free model is only selectively viable. The differences in NTSC and PAL and SECAM are quickly blurring as TV manufacturers are harmonizing their models around the world and game consoles move over to digital signals anyway.
How is this Offtopic? Europeans keep getting shafted when it comes to release dates, so "Mario, Smash Bros. Coming This Year" isn't true for them.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all seem to consider Europe as a minor, nagging detail with delayed releases and arbitrary price increases. Seems to me the market might need a major European console player to step up and call their region their #1 priority before the other three will stop dragging their feet.
Full disclosure: I'm in the US. I care because, well, I don't know. Call it empathy. Call it dreaming of a future where I won't have to hear complaints like the above (not that they aren't warranted).
According to Ace of Base,
All that she wants
Is another baby
She's gone tomorrow, boy.
So I don't know what IT can really offer women.
"Because geeky IT guys are trying to figure out how to lure more women into their dungeons."
Silence, you fool!
Oday otnay alktay aboutay hetay astermay lanpay hereway hosetay uriouscay reaturescay ancay earhay ouyay.
All it takes is the right person in power.
Remember those articles about Intel in bed with Dell with under-the-table payoffs? How about HP's high moral standard as evidenced by the last snafu that had the SEC on their tail (for which they got but a slap on the wrist, something else that smells bad).
I'm all for the simplest explanation usually being the right one, but, it's an awful lot of coincidence that Linux Dells are available in such close proximity to this announcement, don't you think?
It's going to wind up with a big black cloud over any other big integrator (HP, eMachines, etc.) ever releasing an appropriately priced Linux OS machine... and therefore mainstream acceptance.
"It's not a viable plan, it didn't work with Dell." and the discussion will end there. Not only will the monoculture not be split, but this might completely eliminate the acceptance of preinstalled-linux as a method to give people a choice.
I doubt they'd have Ubuntu pre-installed. This reeks of a scam.
Walmart is huge, and putting cheap windows machines there will mean they will get bought by many. Then Dell can come back to sales figures and go, "See? We told you! Consumers just don't want Linux on their computers," and then discontinue the line. Microsoft leaves happy, Dell leaves happy, and the average customer doesn't even know what hit them.
I was WONDERING why Dell was getting so cozy with the idea of selling Linux machines without a lot of hoop-jumping.
Profiling is statistically driven; if a greater proportion of crimes are committed by members of a particular minority, other members of that minority will see more hassle. If you don't like that, address the problem of why certain minorities are overrepresented in the criminal set, instead of tying the hands of law enforcement.
I'd much rather see reporting done on WHICH suspect description is being looked for when profiling. The suspect (and, let's be honest, when profiling is happening, they are already a suspect) never gets to know that they do, in fact, partially match a description. It'd be nice to know how that's an actual lookout going on instead of a "hmm... if I stop him, maybe I'll find he'd committed a crime. QUOTA++!"
Along those lines, once you are done with the ride-along, try going into that neighborhood on your own and pick a fight with a few meth heads. Once the word "berserker" has popped into your head (assuming some bullets haven't) enough times, then you can go home.
Hmm... I suppose Rodney King was a meth head. My mistake. I suppose Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield, you know, the three unarmed men that the cops pumped over 50 rounds into in New York last November were aaaaaallllll doped up.
The Left has sufficiently steeped poor neighborhoods with racism and hostility for law enforcement, that they have become battle zones for cops. Why should they rush into places where there is not only little appreciation for their efforts, but open distrust, hatred and danger?
Some clients don't appreciate my efforts, think I'm ripping them off for charging more for something not on the use case, and really wished my boss would assign my project to someone else. Does that mean I get the right to be rude, late, and dismissive of my clients? A home invasion (just to pick A crime) in their jurisdiction should be treated with the same priority regardless of what neighborhood it is.
Also, bonus points for blaming "The Left." I suppose one can't ever criticise government without being a bleeding pink-o commie, huh? Why not drag The Illuminati into it, too? *rolleyes*
How "many many" officers have you actually dealt with? How "many many" have you dealt with, WITHOUT radiating your nasty attitude?
Respect begets respect. I have never ever ever dealt with a cop and had them not swing their balls around. The only cats I've had any experience with that have their egos in check are the non-officer public aides that take care of the busy work for accidents. They don't get nasty and uppity around me. I'm not trying my luck around these guys. I don't need to wind up slammed against the hood of a cop car. If there's anything I'm radiating it's fear.
1. How long was he there? Was it a quick stop for something? Who hasn't done that in a pinch?
I haven't, for one. For the record, it was there, empty, when I got there and made line for the ATM.
2. What jurisdiction was this? In every one I've lived in (5 states, 2 countries), there are many of these spots routinely sitting empty. For the most part, the law mandating these spots are poorly implemented and just waste space.
They do routinely sit empty... because people know those spaces are NOT for them. I thought it was supposed to be "if the law doesn't make sense, you try and change it, not just ignore it." Fact is, if anyone OTHER than Lawman was parked that way, they'd get a fine... and I'd still say they deserve it.
3. Is law enforcement exempted from tinting restrictions? It's likely, if not necessarily fair.
I'll concede there may be a legitimate law enforcement reason for this. I'm not saying nobody should have dark tints, I'm saying that the exemptions made so that LE gets to enjoy the privacy and lower temperatures of tinted windows is further evidence of the "We're more important than you" attitude.
4. What help did you offer the old lady? Or were you too busy getting a hate on for the cop?
Irrelevant. My hel
Ahhhh... "legal" as in an exception made in the DMCA, no.
"Legal" as in the entities that control AACS and MPAA agreeing to 2 copies, yes.
It's still a scoop of gruel in an orphan's bowl. From TFA, it will allow one backup and one media device.
What if I have more than one media device? What if I have one and it gets lost or stolen? Now I can't put it on any others?
One backup? What happens when that backup is too beat up to work anymore. I can't make another backup?
This is just a trick for getting people to say "ooh, well, DRM isn't so bad after all."
They're offering a piddling fraction of the rights we as customers SHOULD have and treating it like we should be kissing their butts for the privilage.
... perhaps it's time Jack Thompson had his own icon.
It could look like that Marge Squirrel from that episode of The Simpsons when Marge was all upity against Itch and Scratchy.
Just a thought.
He seems to be less anti-DirectX these days:
"JC: DX9 has its act together well. I like the version of DirectX on the 360. Microsoft is doing well with DX10 on tightening the specs and the exactness."
Of course, he's still calls it like it is:
"The new features are not exactly well-thought-out. Most developers are pretty happy with DX9. The changes with DX10 aren't as radical. It's not like getting pixel shaders for the first time. Single-pass shaders are nice with DX10, but it's a smaller change. "
"doubt this technology will see iraq, oh and don't flame the truth, thanks"
Yes, don't flame the truth. Rather, flame the complete ignorance of the process by which new technologies trickle down to soldiers from the numerous trials and tests.
If it's good enough, it will eventually be used. The question then will be whether troops will still be in Iraq at that time.
Guitar Hero : Guitar Playing :: A FPS : Target Shooting
If it were a real guitar the learning curve would be too steep. Only the really dedicated could ever play and... well... if you could really play the guitar, why would you plug it into a console instead of an amplifier?
The simplified control scheme lets people who just have a good sense of rhythm and basic finger control play the game. If I had to hit some of those chorts in real life and use a real whammy bar instead of the soft one on the controller I'd probably never pick it up after my first couple of tries.
I wonder if anyone playing it has gotten interested in learning in real life. The first Guitar Hero said, during a loading screen, "At some point you might want to look into a real guitar" or something like that.
Does it really undermine anything? TFS states that it will create an advisory board whose explicit purpose is to examine the ESRB system and recommend ways to help make it work.
Of course, the above is really naive. The goal will be to undermine the ESRB anyway. There's no reason why this new entity can't just go:
1. ESRB sucks. We know because we thought of the children.
2. We're making the NYESRB. It will go up to 11.
3. It will be government controlled. Because we know best, and if you disagree you are a terrorist.
4. Meeting over.
5. ??? (let's do lunch for the next 2 years while pretending to work)
6. Profit! (let's milk the taxpayers, and, oh, NYESRB will have rating application fees even higher than the ESRB has now)
Considering the abuse of authority, I wasn't about to test his limits.
Funny thing about non-lethal weapons is that the guidelines aren't as strict over their use like guns are. After all, they're "non-lethal".
You know those released dash-cam videos? The ones of suspects being totally unreasonable and non-compliant that get hit with the stun gun? Those are generally plastered all over the news as an "oh-ho-ho they deserved it" propaganda tool. Police departments love being able to justify carrying these instantly-debilitating weapons that they can use with open-ended discretion. The videos serve their purpose, and they are released intentionally and with full cooperation of the departments.
They'll never willingly release video of unjustified tasering, and if the poor and uneducated that get targeted don't get arrested they don't get a public defender. At that point they simlpy don't have access to a kind of lawyer that would be able to get charges pressed and justice served.
While going off-topic on an already off-topic discussion, it was after that event that I went though the motions to apply for a concealed weapons permit, shooting lessons, and bought a pistol. I know I can't rely on the police.
If the police really wanted to turn those "No Snitch" movements around, they should go back to doing what they have written on their cars: To Protect and Serve.
As opposed to racial profiling. As opposed to beating suspects mercilessly when they present no danger to the officer. As opposed to taking their sweet time to respond to inner-city disturbances while rushing to rich neighborhoods. As opposed to villifying teenagers that are just bored and want to hang out in a public place and not causing any trouble. As opposed to the "we are above the law" attitude that many many officers seem to have.
I remember getting pulled over by an undercover detective for looking at him wrong. Quite literally. He parked his unmarked vehicle with illegally dark tints across two handicapped spaces at my local bank branch and some old lady had to park considerably farther. As I left the ATM I saw him getting into his vehicle and I saw this poor thing with the appropriate handicapped tag in no more complicated than a nightgown struggling with her walker.
I stared at him nastily. I wanted him to feel the shame that others were judging him. Obviously I rubbed him the wrong way since I drove off maybe three blocks before this guy turned on ol' red and blues mounted on his dashboard. I was pulled over and given a lecture about how HE was keeping me safe.
Pro tip: in those situations, the only thing you should do is "Yes, officer" lest you get tazered.
Hell, I live in South Florida... NBC did a story on filing complaints to police stations. Most of the stations just wanted a verbal report and wouldn't provide him with the anonymous forms required under law. To top it all off, when the report got on the air, the investigator had a BOLO notice posted! "Fuck da police" isn't just because we're rebellious: it's because so many DO WRONG.
Questioning witnesses for murders is movie-time. Law and Order on CBS time. It happens, but it's not so prevalent that doors are being knocked on day in and out to find out where they were on August the 11th at 3:19am.
If the police stopped intentionally being antagonists to the citizenry maybe we'd cooperate more.