Elsewhere (165)
Heather Mac Donald on post-Ferguson policing:
This incessant drumbeat against the police has resulted in what St Louis police chief Sam Dotson last November called the “Ferguson effect.” Cops are disengaging from discretionary enforcement activity and the “criminal element is feeling empowered,” Mr Dotson reported. Arrests in St Louis city and county by that point had dropped a third since the shooting of Michael Brown in August. Not surprisingly, homicides in the city surged 47% by early November and robberies in the county were up 82%.
See also Thomas Sowell on the same. And the last item here now seems somewhat prophetic.
And Theodore Dalrymple on social work and deservedness:
I called a social worker and made a disastrous mistake in my first sentence. “I have a particularly deserving case,” I said, thinking to arouse her interest and forgetting for a moment that desert in any traditional sense was a concept that had long been banned from the lexicon of social work. Far from arousing her interest, let alone compassion, it aroused her hostility. If I thought a case was particularly deserving, it followed that I must have thought that some cases were relatively or even absolutely undeserving. In short, I was judgmental, that is to say censorious, cruel and Victorian.
The abandonment of distinctions between the unfortunate and the merely verminous is a phenomenon we’ve seen before. As when the Guardian’s Zoe Williams wanted us to believe that the problem with ‘problem families’ is simply that they’re poor, and nothing whatsoever to do with how they choose to abuse their equally poor neighbours. And so attempts to deal with people who repeatedly play loud music at 3am or throw pets from top floor windows are framed as a “demonization of the poor” and “trying to shunt people out of society for not being rich enough.” According to Zoe, we should be “unstigmatising,” which is to say, non-judgmental. A result of which is that empathy, or feigned empathy, is shifted from the working class victim of crime and antisocial behaviour to the working class perpetrator of crime and antisocial behaviour, on grounds that the thug or criminal is in some way being oppressed and, unlike their neighbours, being made to misbehave.
Presumably Ms Williams’ own neighbours have little in common with, say, the delightful Stuart Murgatroyd, a father of twelve who has never worked and boasts an extensive criminal record, not least for robbing the elderly in graveyards, and whose attempt to challenge an antisocial behaviour order was cut short at the very last minute due to him being arrested for assaulting the mother of his children, herself a convicted getaway driver, on the steps of the courthouse. And I suspect our infinitely compassionate Guardianista has yet to experience an all-night eleven-hour rave being hosted next door, which would doubtless give her an opportunity to practise that non-judgmental piety.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
and whose attempt to challenge an antisocial behaviour order was cut short at the very last minute due to him being arrested for assaulting the mother of his children, herself a convicted getaway driver, on the steps of the courthouse.
I’m compassionate too so I’m starting a fund to have him and his 12 kids moved in next door to Zoe.
I’m starting a fund to have him and his 12 kids moved in next door to Zoe.
I see the makings of a compelling reality TV show.
Incidentally, if anyone can’t access the full Heather Mac Donald article, just type “Wall Street Journal” and “The New Nationwide Crime Wave” into Google and the resulting link should give you full access.
Another one for your “Giant Vaginas” series:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3112442/Huge-statue-queen-s-sex-organs-display-Versailles-Palace-gardens-sparks-anger-France.html
Another one for your “Giant Vaginas” series.
It’s surprising just how often that tag gets used.
The double standard between police killing police dogs and non-police killing police dogs
Cops are disengaging from discretionary enforcement activity and the “criminal element is feeling empowered,” Mr Dotson reported.
That’s true, as far as it goes. What’s left unsaid is the areas where discretionary enforcement is down are those areas where the populace believes the police are racist stormtroopers. The denizens of North St. Louis and North St. Louis County are learning the truth that when you facilitate, subsidize and celebrate certain behavior, you get more of it.
Two more…
Jennifer Kabbany on the unflattering flipside of “affirmative action”:
And Kevin Williamson on airport security theatre:
I’m starting a fund to have him and his 12 kids moved in next door to Zoe”
Wasn’t there an ancient punishment in which a criminal was placed in a small cage with a vicious beast?
D-Day, June 6, 1944.
I’m starting a fund to have him and his 12 kids moved in next door to Zoe.
I see the makings of a compelling reality TV show.
I so want that to happen.
I so want that to happen.
It would, I think, be educational for all concerned. I’m sure Zoe’s children, named Thurston and Harper, would instantly click with the twelve young Murgatroyds. Imagine the japes.
And that’s the thing. The Guardian regularly publishes articles telling us how wrong it is to think in terms of the deserving and undeserving. As if any attempt at discernment were wickedness itself and far worse than the behaviour of people like Mr Murgatroyd and his lovely brood. It goes without saying that those writing such articles tend not to live anywhere near the creatures in question.
When it comes to analysing the asinine attitude of Dr. Dalrymple’s social worker, and using that as a metaphor for the attitude of the Left in general (and which resonates here in Britain in the aftermath of the recent election- vide Ms. Church and all the other SJWs who persist in in believing that the state is a benign and altruistic institution) I really couldn’t put it better than this:
Under the present system, the recipient gets an anonymous check or benefit from the gubmint and gets to experience neither introspection nor gratitude and is trapped in indolence or despair. The taxpayer does not have money enough left after taxes to do very much on his own as far as giving to a worthwhile charity and feeling the satisfaction, redemption, and connection to the less fortunate that that brings. He is instead doomed to resentfully seeth at the mismanagement and perpetuity of the whole mess. So all kinds of character-building and spiritual experiences are missed on both sides.
What WhereAreTheVikings said.
You mean if you reward bad behavior, you get more of it?
How bizarre.
You mean if you reward bad behaviour, you get more of it?
It’s worth noting that the social worker’s view quoted above is quite pervasive, at least in certain quarters. For instance, the
currentformer Archbishop of Canterbury, the palace-dwelling lefty Rowan Williams, shares the Guardian’s editorial line that noticing the difference between misfortune and habitual fecklessness is “that most unhelpful of distinctions.” According to one of the many Guardian articles on this subject – I estimate one every two or three weeks – the difference between that nice Mrs Wilson down the road and, say, Mr Murgatroyd is just “a fictional divide.” Apparently we’re not supposed to remember that Mr Murgatroyd has repeatedly mugged nice old ladies like Mrs Wilson. Because, you know, he could.Well, I’ve just been banned by the Guardian again, this time when I complained about Comment is Free’s heavy handed and partisan moderation on an article about censorship. I must be in three figures now on the number of times I’ve been banned. Right, what name shall I use for the new account?
“For instance, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, the palace-dwelling lefty Rowan Williams”
Ahem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Welby
I stand corrected.
As the Archbishop (hopefully) said to the blogger.
Rowan Williams is a fan of the Incredible String Band though.
As the Archbishop (hopefully) said to the blogger.
I think it’s because their deep moral insights are so pivotal to my life and to the nation at large. No?
Well, I’ve just been banned by the Guardian again, this time when I complained about Comment is Free’s heavy handed and partisan moderation on an article about censorship
It takes a matter of minutes for critical (but not outstandingly rude) comments of mine to disappear from CiF. It’s almost as though they’ve automatically flagged any comments coming from my username.
In any case the activities of the Guardian comment moderators (does Alan Rusbridger’s daughter still do this job?) are a disgrace. From their actions they come across as slightly power-mad, revelling in their anonymous influence.
There should really be a tumblr account documenting the many deletions on CiF. It’s a simple matter to take a screenshot of the comments on a contentious subject before the self-righteous, faceless Big Brother crew come back from their coffee break..
And how about a bit more fame for those coy censors? Instead of “this comment was deleted”, couldn’t they be made more accountable by giving the name of the deleter? Just a thought..
Good news, Everyone. They are eating each other again:
“I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me.”
From here:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/laura-flint/2015/06/06/shocking-vox-im-liberal-professor-and-my-liberal-students-terrify-me
It goes to the source.
The first article reminds me that it’s now more than seven years since Nightjack wrote his “Evil Poor” piece. Nightjack was outed by the Times hacking into his email account and was then disciplined by his police force and made to delete the blog. I bet they wouldn’t have done that if he’d been complaining that the police weren’t doing enough for Lithumanian transgendered donkeys. Anyway, here’s his article which is even truer today.
http://nightjackarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/evil-poor.html
‘This incessant drumbeat against the police has resulted in what St Louis police chief Sam Dotson last November called the “Ferguson effect.” Cops are disengaging from discretionary enforcement activity and the “criminal element is feeling empowered,” Mr Dotson reported. Arrests in St Louis city and county by that point had dropped a third since the shooting of Michael Brown in August. Not surprisingly, homicides in the city surged 47% by early November and robberies in the county were up 82%’.
And stand by for the ‘evil racist police won’t protect poor black neighbourhoods’ jeremiads.
I really feel for mr Murgatroyd and his family. lets crowd fund them and move them to Baltimore, the locals will think he tastes like fried chicken
Another one for your “Giant Vaginas” series:
Hmmmm… if I didn’t know the title, I’d of thought it was an installation of a sandworm of Dune
though, why there and not at Comic Con in San Diego?
Rebuttals from Martin Bashir
I always appreciate the opportunity to post this about the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
An Iowahawk masterpiece.
Well, he ain’t no Alfred P. Doolittle, that’s for sure.
It seems that ‘Mattress Girl’ Emma Sulkowicz was so terribly traumatised by her ‘rape’ that she simply had to make a porn film about it. Milo has the horrible details.
Heavens! And to think that Murgatroyd was once a name of aristocracy.
Let’s not forget that Obama’s UN ambassador, Samantha Power, likened the plight of “Mattress Girl” to women living in Afghanistan.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/05/amb-powers-bizarre-analogy-columbia-mattress-girl-and-afghan-women/
RS – That D-Day website is very impressive and rather moving.
RS – That D-Day website is very impressive and rather moving.
A good site. I found it interesting, and somewhat ironic, to note how many of the American soldiers it mentions have German surnames.
‘Let’s not forget that Obama’s UN ambassador, Samantha Power, likened the plight of “Mattress Girl” to women living in Afghanistan’.
Power is the author of ‘A Problem from Hell’, which analysed the failure of the international community to deal with genocide. It’s quite a good book, but perhaps pertinent to note here insofar as the administration she serves has responded to massive atrocities against civilians in Syria – including the use of chemical weapons – by doing precisely fuck all about it.
Maybe this tweet is her way of convincing herself that she hasn’t sold out completely, and that by emoting over ‘Mattress Girl’ she can be forgiven for not resigning in disgust because her boss has ignored all the Sarin and the barrel bombings delivered against less well-publicised but more genuine victims.
Constable of the Moor Gate Road, eh?
Whadda ya think – customs house?
Meanwhile, in the world of teaching…
It turns out there are would-be educators who are willing to have their lawyers claim “there is no clear evidence strong literacy skills are essential for a teacher.”
Reminds me of this.
And in the Guardian Zach Stafford is toppling heteronormativity with his mighty hot-pants:
Tremble, ye patriarchs.
“…can threaten outdated ideas of masculinity…”
I’m pretty sure that the combination of short-shorts and luxuriant facial topiary did rather the opposite in the 70s.
Some of you may remember the Guardian’s Charlie Porter fighting the patriarchy with his burgundy purse.
There is, sad to say, going to be some interesting diversity clashes between, say, three families on a narrow street whose ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, probably with common language barriers and widely differing levels of self-entitlement will cause even the most staunch non-judgemental Guardianista to edge towards taking sides. Although equally I am not ignoring the fact that any such ‘expressions of mutual poverty’ will be safely ignored.
Best not to look too closely at things when one writes in or reads the Graun.
And in the Guardian Zach Stafford is toppling heteronormativity with his mighty hot-pants
Good old Guardian. Always fighting for the working class. 🙂
“hot-pants”
The shorts adorning the young gentlemen at the top of that article aren’t even that short – I suspect they’d have been deemed too long for Magnum PI back in the day. And nobody can tell me that Magnum’s Daisies and tache were anything other than a celebration of masculinity.
Do my short-shorts make you feel weird about your masculinity? Good, I’m glad
Because rank projection is the edgy journo’s path to non-judgementalism, the latter being the central pillar of morality through the very ages of man.
But since you asked, no, they don’t. They make my masculinity feel like they’re probably more comfortable than knee length cargos worn like enormous drooping tents on sweaty weekend fishing expeditions out in the bayous.
I was walking down the street the other day when two men in a car came to a screeching stop just to yell at me. And while usually I welcome anytime I can stop traffic and even love a good catcall – and will respectfully deliver one back to a man– this time, it wasn’t particularly flattering
“Boys shouldn’t wear short-shorts! No!” one of the men screamed.
Yeah. I’d be willing to bet that never happened. They do make crap up, you know. Journalists.
Nightjack was outed by the Times hacking into his email account and was then disciplined by his police force and made to delete the blog.
I remember that, and the smugness of The Times writers who insisted Nighthawk had no right to anonymity and this was *totally* different from their own sources remaining anonymous, of course. At the time, it looked as if The Times were livid that some uppity blogger was doing what their own journalists would not or could not do, and decided they’d do somebody a favour by shutting him down. Yay, progress.
The spam filter is being twitchy again. If anyone has trouble posting comments, let me know and I’ll smear the thing with lube.
… let me know and I’ll smear the thing with lube.
NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMaj6TF6gA
‘I’d be willing to bet that never happened’.
Funnily enough, I thought the same when I read that. We’ve got another potential Hari here.
Not sure if this is OT or not. Does somewhat fit into the Sulkowicz meme… It’s certainly “elsewhere”…except maybe for me…
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/ga-man-awarded-404000-for-libelous-internet-postin/nQpsB/
Yeah, I get a feeling too. I have a house near Blairsville. I have looked at pretty girls on occasion (don’t tell the wife). Now when I go to Home Depot in Blairsville, I’m gonna have to watch myself.
Fixed.
OT
This is a couple of months old, so I don’t know if I’m the last person to hear about this, but it’s so capitally stupid on all fronts that I just had to share it for anyone else who hasn’t yet seen it.
This is the story of Jeannie Harrell and Larry Lee.
Lee, who is Chinese, decided to name his Chinese restaurant Chop Chop Chinaman.
Harrell, who is quite clearly not Chinese, was so offended on behalf of all Chinese people everywhere, including presumably Lee himself, that she got out a lipstick to scrawl:
“Fuck this hate crime shit, it’s 2015.”
all over the restaurants windows, before sharing an image of her handiwork on social media.
As of June 5th, Lee’s restaurant “has been closed for several days just four months after opening” but the would be restaurateur “is hoping to reopen after finding an investor.
Score to Harrell.
One can only imagine what the fearless Harrell makes of popular entertainers Four Poofs and a Piano or indeed ‘This is Gangsta Rap’s catchy little ditty “Nigga Nigga Nigga”.
I’m not sure there’s enough lipstick in the world for her to be able to chastise all the individuals that might conceivably fall under the glare of her ferocious disapproval.