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Safety in a Time of COVID
I would like to offer a life-saving safety tip, particularly to you young people, during these challenging times.
You read the news, you know that danger is out there, and you know that none of us is immune. But there are things you can do to keep yourself safe. If I could offer you one important tip, taken directly from today’s headlines, it would be this:
Yield to police authority.
If you get pulled over, comply. If you get arrested, submit. Never get into fistfights with police officers, don’t try to grab their guns, and don’t resist arrest.
A substantial majority of Americans believe that it’s a good thing that police have the authority to use deadly force when they carry out their duties. Don’t be stupid. Whatever problems may come from complying with the officers’ instructions, they are probably less onerous than being shot and killed as another poster child for dysfunction.
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What’s that? Masks? I don’t care about those. You’re not at risk from the Wuhan coronavirus anyway if you’re under 30.
Published in Healthcare
A timely tip.
This week in Portland, a young man was in a park practicing his quick-draw with a toy pistol (with the bright orange marker on its “muzzle” to readily identify it as a toy). Someone saw him and called 911. The responding police officer, apparently without making any contact with the subject, positioned himself behind a tree and, with an AR-15, fatally shot the young man. Evidently, the Portland police send their officers into the streets without any training.
What about when they act without proper authority. There was a video a couple weeks ago of a pastor in Canada yelling at the police to get out of his home or church, and not come back until they had a warrant. They kept trying to tell him something about covid or gatherings, but it was hard to hear what they were saying because he kept up his yelling was louder than their talk. Finally, they left.
In general, you should also yield to cops acting without proper authority. That doesn’t mean agreeing with them, but it does mean responding to the use of force or the threat of force.
Even if you are a church pastor, if they draw their guns and tell you to get in the squad car, get in the squad car. Even if they’re wrong. We have courts to resolve that kind of thing.
This is kind of obvious stuff. Just don’t be stupid.
There’s another (cynical) message that can be taken from these stories: a low-level criminal thug with no real employment or sell-able skills in the legitimate marketplace can leave his family with millions of dollars and be remade as some kind of secular saint through a run-in with the police. If he’s lucky, he might just be paralyzed and not die after all. Perhaps we should have Taylor Force Act type legislation to stop pay-offs in these cases. They don’t differ all that much from the Palestinian Authority’s pay-to-slay/suicide bomber payment programs, except maybe that in the US, the families get a whole lot more money.
About the masks, probably true, but Covid is not to be ignored for the young. They are one of the growing age groups catching and transmitting it and they’re also significantly represented among those with “long covid.” They don’t die, but they have symptoms and disability for a long time, in some cases probably permanently.
I’m not going to attempt to defend the police in this instance: what little I’ve read suggests that they should not have used lethal force when they did.
However, in the interests of accuracy, and again according to what I’ve read:
The “young man” in the park was a half-naked 46 year old homeless man reportedly suffering from anxiety and depression. The police described his actions, prior to the shooting, as “very noncompliant.”
Again, that doesn’t justify the shooting; again, what I’ve read suggests it wasn’t a justifiable shooting.
I would be surprised if any of the fellows who have made the news recently by becoming victims of officer-involved shootings had any such intentions in mind. I guess I don’t see it as much of an issue. If it becomes an issue, I think I’d see it as another symptom of the same dysfunctional sub-culture that has given us George Floyd and misguided men like him.
I’m generally skeptical of so-called “long COVID” claims. The definition of “long” is often as short as five weeks; the data are spotty and inconsistent; and there seems a general agreement that we really don’t know. I think the available literature fills in the numerous gaps with scary interpretations, as is so common when discussing this virus.
I’m particularly skeptical that young people are at a significant risk of long-term damage from this virus.
“The “young man” in the park was a half-naked 46 year old homeless man reportedly suffering from anxiety and depression. The police described his actions, prior to the shooting, as “very noncompliant.””
At my age, nearly everyone else is “young.”
I have the same problem, Jim. ;)
I had “The Talk” with both my kids when they were teens.
“If you get pulled over, make sure you have your license, and registration ready, keep both hands on the wheel, be polite and follow the police instructions.”
How hard is that to do?
Well .Then things like this pop up
Authorities find Glock pistol disguised as toy gun at NC man’s home
Even if it’s a toy, if the police say drop it, you drop it.
Based on what?
That can only be the result of bad intentions, no?
And even if there are some it is a teeny tiny percentage. Not enough to terrify the entire population of the country.
I read an interview with an anonymous NYPD officer in the WSJ who described what it is like to ticket a man in the subway system. It is instant entertainment for all, recorded by many, and the man feels he must at least give the officer a very hard time or his compliance will be broadcast throughout his community and he will lose face. Of course!
Oh, no.
Based on the lack of evidence to the contrary, and the well-established pattern of hyping everything to do with this disease.
I’m open to having my mind changed by sound data, but COVID is a highly politicized topic and the reporting on it has been execrable. The public face of the medical community has not distinguished itself during this debacle, and I’m distrustful of alarmist rhetoric accompanied by little actual data.
Five weeks does not strike me as long-term, and yet many descriptions of so-called “long COVID” describe symptoms at the five week mark. The paucity of age-partitioned data and our lack of knowledge of the prevalence of infection in the young increase my skepticism.
My first question would be: what is the frequency of significant negative health impacts six months after infection among those under 30, as a fraction of all instances of infection?
Also, don’t go digging around in the glove compartment for the registration before the officer asks you for it; he/she may think you’re looking for something else. As a youth, I often rode-along with state trooper friends and learned of some of the “exciting” situations they can encounter in “routine” traffic stops. They have a very tough job out there all alone.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Yer killin’ me!
Probably harder if you know you have outstanding warrants and you’re likely going back to jail. Or if you’re drunk, it might be hard to remember all those instructions. If you’re totally skyed on toxic amounts of illegal drugs, all bets are kind of off here.
But if you’re a normal sober non-criminal citizen, tis is probably what most others like you are already doing. Which is why we don’t all know your name.
Right?
But seriously: you have a better chance of defending yourself in court than of surviving the use of force against a police officer.
So, again: don’t be stupid.
Rather a strong supposition for an illness we have seen for maybe a year. Chronic Lyme, any one?
When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.
When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?
Good advice. I have no idea why people would fight and resist police officers. Even if you physically match up against one, they will get back up. If you’re innocent, your lawyers will prove it.
Helpful advice from Chris Rock … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
When it’s plural.
Well, if you’re not going to get a fair trial, why not?
Well…I think for the most part trials are fair or even give the defendant an advantage if your not a career criminal. There are exceptions of course.
Yes, I was being provocative. But if the judicial system is a crap shoot, like being forced to play Russian roulette with half-loaded revolver, if we can’t have trust that the judges aren’t going to judge every case on color or political orientation, then that does seem to raise the validity of the decision of resisting arrest, fighting with the police, and trying to escape.
I’m trying to figure out the thinking of those who do this.
Oh I see. Personally I don’t think they think about it. I think it’s an impulsive reaction. But maybe some are making a calculation. I can’t understand their mentality.
I tend to think it’s a habituated decision-making on an unconscious level, which is where a lot of impulsive decisions are made, both good and bad.
Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.