Hurlshort

A documentary about Sierra On-Line is being made, looks like they've got all the right interviews. I pledged for a DVD, I remember going on a tour of the company on Oakhurst when I was about 12, it was magical. Their goal is a bit high, hopefully they can make it.

Krookie, I hope the Ryan Clowe signing works out for you, but that is too much money for him. He's a gritty guy with good hands, but he's got no speed. $3 million a season should be his ceiling.

Understandably took exception and struggled a bit is the part that gets me, I don't understand that. If the police are coming at me, I'm going to do my best to not escalate the situation. If it is a case of mistaken identity, it can be cleared up much quicker if I am not struggling.

It taught me that I'd die of dysentery or be swept out of my wagon by a swollen river if I ever traveled west of the Mississippi. Those are all very important lessons to learn.

Now that I think about it, every cop I know has a college degree. I think that might actually be really important. I am willing to admit that every police department is different, and there are a lot of flawed departments out there. I guess I am lucky that in the area I live in, the police have a very good reputation, both at the county level and the city. That being said, I still believe that the majority of police officers are out there to serve and protect. If they are not trained properly, if citizen complaints are not being addressed, then that lies on the people running the departments. Getting all indignant towards the guys and gals who are the first people to respond when you call out for help seems wrong.

I also have no interest in the end game.

As a whole? I would need to see more evidence that police officers as a whole are not up to that standard. alanschu already pointed out that the day to day good cop stuff simply doesn't make the news. All the high profile cases we've talked about have resulted in the officers losing their jobs or worse. I know quite a few cops, they all take their jobs seriously and they are the kind of people I would want to show up at my door if I needed help. None of them fit some bully archetype that malcador keeps ranting about. If you have a bad experience with a police officer, you can actually make his/her life miserable. Filing a complaint is just the first step, as nkkk illustrated in that other thread, you can file lawsuits and use the media to put pressure on the department. edit: I tried to look up the detail on the cop who arrested her daughter's boyfriend, it doesn't say what happened after the investigation. He was suspended, and faced either additional training or termination. He also was sued by the parents.

I agree that police officers should be held to a high standard. I also believe the should be given respect until they fail to meet that standard.

I actually really enjoyed our parade today, we got a spot in the shade and the kids had a blast. But fireworks have never sparked my interest.

Donner was targetting the families of police officers, he he hardly seems like a reliable character witness

I am happy that fireworks are illegal in my town. We have a big show the city puts on, and there are always a few yahoos, but it keeps it safer.

Yes, the amount of over reactive vitriol in this thread is astounding.

If I started pepper spraying our developers or support teams, I would probably be out of a job pretty soon I am really ok with that guy losing his job.

Ah, I was confusing the bart cop with the davis cop. So he lost his job for pepper spraying, that sounds about right. You guys are pretty quick to drop the axe on people. Hopefully you hold yourself to the same standard in your own career. There is an entire procedure for filing complaints against cops, and most departments have an entire division committed to investigating officers. It may not always work, but you folks make it sound like they've got free reign to loot and pillage.

There are plenty of consequences. The dad who arrested the boyfriend was suspended. The UC Davis cop was put in prison. Cops lose their jobs over brutality allegations on a regular basis.

Nobody has defended those actions. A few of us are saying those are not the typical actions of a police officer.

I doubt they had authorization, they would need a judge to sign off on it. It's funny that Volourn is in complete agreement with me here but is yelling at me in the other cop thread edit: I can see why someone would not let the cops stakeout in their house. It gets you involved in a domestic violence case. What happens if the neighbor doesn't go to prison, or gets out in a year, and you still have to live next to him/her?

That female cop is trying to protect her partner, who is getting pummeled. All she has is a night stick (I'm not familiar enough with Finnish police, but are they security guards?) and she is not doing any damage against that guy with it. I would consider her justified in shooting him. Protocol would dictate that she should warn him she will fire if he does not move away from her partner and get down on the ground. None of these scenarios are a simply fist fight between an officer and a citizen, I don't know where you are getting that. These are aggressive guys resisting arrest. Also, people die in fistfights. This isn't a video game, unarmed attackers can do plenty of damage to a cop. If you want to show me a scenario where the cop starts the fight, I'll call them a bad cop.

If you had me as a math teacher, you would be screwed, I'm terrible with numbers I did use Expedition: Conquistadors this year in class, it worked out pretty well. I've also used Total War clips as unit intros, and I talk about games in my discussions regularly. Whatever keeps them awake

The police in the US need to have just cause or a warrant to enter any private property in the US. These two officers clearly had neither, hence the lawsuit.

Volourn, when did I defend bad cops? Why are you lying about what I said? We were talking about this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQvMJMj1GVg&feature=player_embedded In all 3 clips, the cops are responding to a violent attacker. Did you even watch the video? These are the unarmed people you are so vigorously defending. The first guy is the worst, he is on top of the officer pounding him into the ground. Please enlighten me as to what the officers are doing that is over the line in these videos.

That's a big issue with every type of lesson guide or curriculum plan. Students are always trying to game the system to get results. Getting students to think critically about anything is extremely difficult. I have students who will memorize entire sections of a textbook rather than engaging in actual learning. It's the biggest hurdle in education. Games can be effective because they disguise critical thinking. But you are still going to have chunks of students that work around it.

Well the Officer shooting of Oscar Grant is a good example of how complicated these cases can be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant The criminal trial sounds light when you look at the case, basically a two year prison sentence. But then you have the civil case which is still going on, and you have a civil rights case filed by the US Justice department. So no, cops don't get away with murder.

The plaintiff has a a great lawsuit here if there is a shred of truth to the case, but a couple cops in a small city in Nevada hardly merit enough consideration to call this an attack on the constitution.

It's going to be 100 degrees outside (like 38 degrees for you metric folks) so I'm not super excited to go out to our town's parade today. But my wife is, oddly this is one of her favorite holidays.