Courtesy of Raw Story:
Bill Maher closed Real Time on Friday by denouncing not only New York City police, but police unions in general for fostering tension between officers, residents and elected leaders.
“Put six slugs into an unarmed man by the seat of your car? ‘By the book,’” he explained. “Strangle a handcuffed guy to death? ‘By the book.’ Kill a 12-year-old who had a toy gun? ‘By the book.’ Maybe they need to get a new book. Who wrote this book, anyway, George Zimmerman?”
“This is why Americans hate unions now,” Maher said. “It’s why
Republicans have been able to make ‘taking on the unions’ an applause
line. Because union bullsh*t that people see on TV made it easy for them
to make it about crybabies and entitlement. Which is a shame, because
with a record wealth gap, we need unions now more than ever.”
I am usually 100% in support of unions, but Maher does make some good points about certain police unions.
Maher makes excellent points about the unions and how their stupid behavior gives their critics/GOP ammunition to convince people not paying attention that unions are bad. Ditto for the teachers unions that come hell or high water will not get rid of the dead wood.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I really resent the continual attack on teachers in this way.
DeleteDead wood? Define dead wood. Any teacher over 50? Only the "bad" ones? Define bad. The ones the students hate? They tend to be the ones that won't let the lazy, entitled students off the hook with easy As, extra credit or just be bullied into passing their little darlings by aggressive parents. Are the bad teachers the ones the administration hates because they point out the faults that need improvement and won't shut up when it comes to exposing the weaknesses of administrative policy and those that impose it?
Who decides what a bad teacher is? Test scores? Well, all an administrator has to do is give the teacher of the year a room full of special ed, behavior problems and constant truants and you've just turned the Teacher of the Year into a "bad" teacher.
There is a good reason teachers have a union. To protect them against abuse by their employers. And I've seen plenty. I've got a grievance against my district right now for contract violations. The union protects my rights. The district is in the business of violating the contract as much as they can and avoiding any consequences when they are finally called on it.
I'm sick of amateurs thinking they know it all just because they went to school once or stayed in a Holiday Inn or some such shit.
Apparently our Justice system is fine with making sure the innocent don't go to prison but it's OK to paint all teachers with a black brush just to make sure that one or two that really shouldn't be teachers are fired. If competent successful teachers are caught in the net, fine, we'll just replace them with cheaper college grads. (Until NO one wants to be a teacher. Then what do you do?) It's unions that make sure teachers get the same consideration we give criminals. What is wrong with that?
He's spot on with this one.
ReplyDeleteI don't trust policemen and I have only contempt for their disrespect to DeBlasio. Union or no union, this behavior is despicable.
ReplyDeleteSpoken as one from New York, who supports the purpose and mission of unions.
Sadly, our NH cops took part in the major disrespect toward the Mayor in turning their backs.
DeleteThey forgot they are public servants and demand that we RESPECT them because they traveled on their 'own' vacation time. Appears to me, that's still my dime.
I've lost all respect for policemen for awhile now. Last year I was pulled over for making eye contact with a police officer--that was what he kept screaming in my face--"You made EYE CONTACT WITH ME!" I am a petite, middle-aged woman who was driving a boring low-pizzazz, 3-year-old car. The cop came barreling out of a fast food restaurant and nearly t-boned me--OF COURSE I was looking at him, wondering if my car could evade being wrecked! If I was nearly arrested for "disrespecting" a cop, I can only imagine what people with a different skin tone experience.
DeleteI loved that whole show, Gryph, if it wasn't so late.I would have logged on for "overtime."
ReplyDeleteWhat was up with Carly Fiorina? She trying to pretend to be a compassionate conservative so she can run for Barbara Boxer's seat in the Senate? She just acted too fake to be convincing in anything she said.
DeleteThe police union behavior gives unions a bad name like the Paris terrorists give Muslims a bad name. If you judge an entire group (unions, Muslims) by the actions of a few, then you are prejudiced.
ReplyDeleteAs a member of the teacher union, I can attest that it is not the union, but administrators with no balls that do not get rid of the dead wood. The dead wood make all of our (union) jobs more difficult, but administrators (not in the union) will not do what is necessary to get rid of them. We would LOVE to have the dead wood gone, but we members of the teacher union do not have any say in who stays and who goes.Administrators and boards have used the "union excuse" forever to be wusses as educational leaders.
That was his point.
DeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteAs a teacher of 36 years I have begged my administrators to do their jobs and document a teacher for dismissal. We teachers know who they are and we don't want them in the classroom any more than anyone else. It's the administrators that are too cowardly, lazy or incompetent to go through the proper procedures to have a teacher dismissed. It's all laid out in the contract and can be done. They just don't want to do it. They want shortcuts that put all teachers jobs at risk of administrative abuse.
Of all the horrors we've witnessed of problematic policing, the two that show such disrespect for dying people are the worst: the video of the man who couldn't breathe in NY, who was totally ignored, and the kid with the toy gun, who was untended to for almost five minutes and died nine hours later. Did you see the part where his sister ran to him and a police officer slammed her to the ground and cuffed her?
ReplyDeleteAnd stuffed her, in the back of the cruiser.
DeleteJust like that.
I think there are two issues being confused here. The NYC (and other) police have long had the "if you're not with us you're against us" attitude. This notion is very toxic. Yes the police risk their lives. They should be well paid and respected for this. That does not mean that the actions of specific police officers cannot be questioned, criticized or even be subject to indictment. That is a separate issue from the right of any workers to have a union to represent them and support their interests.
ReplyDeleteTrue, the union facilitates organized action but should not be the fall guy for the New York controversy. Every union does not act entitled and imperious to any criticism of individual members who may have engaged in poor or criminal behavior. It is well and good to put police, firefighters, and military personnel on a pedestal, calling them heroes and warriors, and constantly thanking them for their service, but that hero worship can blur the fact that some of these civil servants act in an unacceptable and lawless manner and the union should denounce and discipline members who do not follow ethical standards.
Delete.Heros are Heros.
DeleteYou don't become one through job classification.
It's done through individual actions.
The NY police (and their union) are being used to smear all police just as the NY education system (and their union) are being used to smear all teachers.
Delete"POW"
ReplyDeleteVideos Show 1-Year-Old Putting Handgun In Mouth
An Evansville, Indiana couple is in trouble with the law after cell phone videos surfaced showing their 12-month-old daughter with a handgun in her mouth.
Police say the man and the girl’s 22-year-old mother can be heard encouraging the toddler to say “pow” and that no one tried to stop her as she put the gun in her mouth.
Police say the mother told officers the girl was holding a pellet gun; investigators say it was a .40-caliber handgun. They say the gun’s magazine appeared to be removed but it’s not clear if ammunition was in the chamber
http://www.alan.com/2015/01/10/police-videos-show-1-year-old-putting-handgun-in-mouth/
Authorities in Evansville said on Friday they found the video on the phone of Michael Barnes, 19, who was arrested Thursday after he agreed to sell a handgun to an undercover officer through a transaction made on social media, Evansville police said in a statement.
DeleteDuring what police called a “follow up investigation,” officers looking through Barnes’ phone discovered the video of the one-year-old baby putting a gun in her mouth. In the background, two adults, identified as Barnes and the toddler’s mother, Toni Wilson, 22, encouraged the child to play with the weapon, police said.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/indiana-couple-arrested-for-making-toddler-point-gun-in-her-mouth-and-say-pow/
Ah, more good ol' commonsense from Rill Murkkkuh! No wonder Palin is so attracted to these folks.
DeleteInsubordinate douches.
ReplyDeleteOT/ Gryphen, thought you might find this interesting. Pete at c4p is trying to elevate Sarah to prophet statusPete Petretich • 13 hours ago
ReplyDeleteQUESTION: What is the biblical age of prophecy?
For my last year in the USAF, I had a room mate, a "bible Christian" who had converted to Catholicism and preferred to attend the ancient Byzantine Rite liturgy that was offered in Colorado Springs at that time. He once told me that fifty was the "age of prophecy", something that he had learned from his deep Bible study over the years. That was years ago, but I've never forgotten his statement.
Has anyone else heard of this? Did the prophets of Israel not "get started" until they were 50 years old? This is the closest thing I can find:
"Ezekiel"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...
"...Ezekiel was 50 years old when he began to have visions of a new Temple. He served as a prophet for at least 22 years until Ezekiel last experienced an encounter with God in April 570 BC.[Ezekiel 29:17] His time of death has not been recorded."
Sarah is now 50 years old, and her birthday is February 11
Oooooh, a Pisces!
DeleteWhat does this have to do with Bill Maher?
DeleteAquarius
DeleteAnonymous6:44 AM
DeleteWhat does this have to do with Bill Maher?
Nothing. But, OT should have made that clear. Duh!
I think John the Baptist was much younger than 50. He was a contemporary of Jesus.
DeleteO/T - Lowell "Bud" Paxson passed away http://thr.cm/JYDhJf
ReplyDeleteNot long ago the words "I hate unions," spewed out of my mouth. I stopped and listened to the "echo" of it in my head.
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't hate ANYthing, my life is way too cushy for that emotion. So I had to give my mind a complete tune-up.
I realized that I'd been a victim of a decades long, very subtle propaganda and brainwashing scheme. Using the handy tool of snooping out the truth, I ran through my mind, the "Who stands to make money, if I believe this" test.
It didn't take the mind of Sherlock Holmes to figure that out. The same large corporations that have hypnotized even convenience store assistant night managers, to list as one of their top three concerns in life, that there are too many "regulations" on businesses, for them to be able to make any profit.
I don't want to be paranoid, but we all need to sit and meditate now and again, searching our minds for the reasons we think the way we do.
Very, very true. All of this.
DeleteI have long been confused, and sometimes disgusted, by conservatives who take EVERY advantage of the unions they belong to and then bitch loudly about paying dues and vote for politicians that would abolish them.
ReplyDeleteWhat are they going to bitch about when their bennies are taken away and they are working for pennies?
Must be Dems fault, or the blacks, or mexicans, chinese, isil, somebody... anybody... but themselves.
Sorta like those that enjoy every advantage of a free and democratic government but bitch about paying taxes and vote for those that would abolish them (only for the rich and corporations).
DeleteI was with him till the very last line about math and not being able to fire teachers. ENOUGH with the teacher bashing already. All the teachers I know work well over 40 hrs a week and sacrifice their own free time for their students. Enough.
ReplyDeleteWe also pay for school supplies out of our own pockets, training out of our own pockets and do it on our own time, like evenings, weekends and summers.
Delete