Comment by sodafountan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sodafountan | Hacker News Reader

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There's so many things that need to change in the United States for real change to be seen.

We need to pay our officers more and have fewer of them, If you start to pay the good ones a respectable salary you'll get more accountability.

We need to train our officers better, we should have an apprenticeship program that lasts at least five years where the apprentice officer rides around with a veteran UNARMED until he picks up every skill necessary to do a good job in real time, two years of community college and then a year as park police isn't cutting it.

We need to reduce conflict on the streets, Philando Castile knew that his taillight was out, the problem is that in an impoverished and racially oppressed culture these small fixes become tough to handle when you have other bills to pay. The officer was either going to ticket him or give him a warning, neither of which would have done any good long term, and so you had unnecessary conflict. We need to change the laws so that cops aren't allowed to harass people over minor things like taillights/inspection stickers/small amounts of marijuana/jaywalking you name it.

Black culture needs to change, stop selling CD's on the corner with a gun in your pocket and get a job that supports your kids, this "gangster" lifestyle is a result of rap music.

The media needs to fined by the federal government for disproportionately reporting on content that is intended to get ratings and thus adds to the chaos and race baiting. How many people were killed in Chicago last week? Can you name them? The media outlets need to be fined to take away the incentive to over report on sensational news. We need something along the lines of a "Fair Media Coverage Act" that will completely destroy the financial incentive of media outlets that over report on sensational news, this would hopefully have the dual effect of (over the long term) slowing down the mass shootings that appear to be happening every other month. These rioters/mass shooters/cop killers are doing it for the 24/7 CNN news reel and the people tune in because the chaos is interesting and exciting, like a war movie with real life ramifications. Destroy the incentive.

Just some ideas for real changes.

I was with you until you implied that racial oppression makes it more difficult for someone to fix a tail light or that police officers shouldn't be "allowed" to give a ticket for it? And nothing said after brought me back.

Racial oppression and poverty make everything more difficult, you're a highly paid developer so you don't have to experience it. It's quite possible that Philando Castile didn't have enough gas to get to the store to buy a new bulb, or the extra money for a spare one, or an internet connection to figure out how to do it in the first place, or access to a friend or family member with the resources to get it done. Hell, maybe he was on his way to the store to fix it when he was shot. Either way we don't need the confrontation, people with a broken taillight know that it's broken, don't confront them! It seems small, but maybe you don't quite comprehend paycheck to paycheck poverty. I'm talking real American poverty which is a stark reality for far too many minorities in this country, an issue of which is also contributing to the violence and the riots plaguing the US as of late.

> people with a broken taillight know that it's broken

Unless they don't. How often do you stand behind your car while someone else presses the brake? I never know my tail light is out unless I see a reflection or someone tells me.

If you don't think that a broken tail light should be a crime, that's one thing. But it sounds like you're saying "don't bother poor people if they're breaking this law, just bother people with money."

> Racial oppression and poverty make everything more difficult

And racial oppression affects the distribution and stickiness of poverty among different communities.

>this "gangster" lifestyle is a result of rap music

Are you sure about that? That's a pretty outlandish thing to say.

>The media outlets need to be fined to take away the incentive to over report on sensational news

How would sensational news be distinguished from highly engaging/interesting news?

You can already see this issue regarding the hate for clickbait, people will call any content with an enticing title clickbait regardless of the value of the content itself.

>Are you sure about that? That's a pretty outlandish thing to say.

I'm positive, see the picture of Alton Sterling posing with guns with his kids, this is black culture in a nutshell (not ALL black culture, but a very real part of it)

>How would sensational news be distinguished from highly engaging/interesting news?

News shouldn't be interesting, it should be informative and that's it. CNN/FOX/MSNBC have turned into real life action/crime dramas. I'm convinced that five officers might not be dead if these networks had restrictions on what they could report. You could enforce this by only allowing networks to report for one hour per news story, per media day. Anything over that would result in a fine that would eat into advertising revenue. You could also enforce a rule that would fine media outlets for stating the name/showing the picture of mass shooters so you don't glorify them. Media outlets have too much power in this and there needs to be regulations on them just like any other industry in this country.

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