US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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Lib and let die: Aug 26, 2004

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

As part of the process of ending Title 42, the DHS is expecting a surge of ~400,000 new migrant border crossings. Instead of turning people away, they are phasing in a new system to speed up processing times by letting the low-risk crossers or people with family they can stay with just come into the country, but they have to either take a smart phone or an ankle bracelet to make sure they don't just leave.

How wonderful.

You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:03

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:38

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

I'm wondering who the people are who are given a choice of a free smart phone or a wearable GPS tracker and choose the GPS jewelry instead.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:08

Devor: Nov 30, 2004; Lurking more.

Jaxyon posted:

You left out how a lot of this "inflation" is just companies padding margins to make up up for lost profit's from the pandemic.

As for supply chain.....most of south china is currently locked down and we haven't yet hit the supply shock from that.

Framing profit-taking as merely going after "lost profits" is a ridiculous face-saving measure that ignores the core conceit of Capitalism.

Oh, are companies price-gouging just enough to make themselves whole, and then they'll decide to lower prices again, out of the goodness of their hearts? That's loving ridiculous. Market conditions allowed them to raise prices for sheer profit because there were no alternatives. Prices won't go down unless market conditions change, or government regulation stops them. And neither of those situations has anything to do with "lost profits" from the year before.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:11

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

VitalSigns posted:

Woof

https://mobile.twitter.com/eyokley/status/1511736140520472588

Unbelievable. This one policy might have secured Democratic dominance for a generation, oh well

So it turns out people stop liking you when you say you�re going to help them and then let the help just dry up. Huh.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:12

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Also, there is some kind of metaphor or ironic message in the fact that the U.S. Government is trying to get migrants looking for better economic conditions to take tens of thousands of free smartphones made by people who work at factories with suicide nets because they are much cheaper to buy than a GPS device, but I can't quite find a pithy way to phrase it.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:15

Cranappleberry: Jan 27, 2009

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Also, there is some kind of metaphor or ironic message in the fact that the U.S. Government is trying to get migrants looking for better economic conditions to take tens of thousands of free smartphones made by people who work at factories with suicide nets because they are much cheaper to buy than a GPS device, but I can't quite find a pithy way to phrase it.

I mean yea but different parts of the world so it's not like they're the ones who made the phones that they are getting for free, to track their every movement, in the land of opportunity

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:32

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Here's some insane research and polling from Pew in Philadelphia.

The wildest things:

quote:

Among Pew�s starkest findings was that the number of residents who said crime, drugs, and public safety was the No. 1 issue � about 70% � has increased by 30 percentage points compared with August 2020, the last time Pew conducted such a survey. It�s the highest percentage any topic has received since Pew started polling more than a decade ago.

The highest ANY topic has ever reached.

quote:

That tracks with what Anton Moore said he hears and experiences every day. A longtime community activist, Moore runs a nonprofit called Unity in the Community, which provides job training and other services to at-risk children and teenagers. He also frequently attends vigils in remembrance of victims of gun violence and comforts the families of those who have been lost.

�I can�t stress to you enough the severity of what�s taking place,� he said. �People not wanting to come out after a certain time, that�s troubling. People don�t feel safe. And Philadelphia can never be great if people don�t feel safe.�

quote:

When asked an open-ended question about the most important issue facing the city, 70% gave the answer crime, drugs, and public safety�a noteworthy increase of 30 percentage points over 2020 and the highest percentage recorded by Pew polling. The concern about public safety is shared across the city by all demographic groups and neighborhoods.

Philadelphia�s Most Important Issues
Percentage of respondents mentioning each topic

Crime/Drugs/Safety - 70%
Poverty/homelessness - 14%
Affordable housing/cost of living - 6%
Covid-19 Impact - 6%
Education/schools - 6%
Jobs/Economy - 5%
Government functioning/corruption - 5%
Sanitation/trash removal/cleanliness - 5%

quote:

Since the first poll in 2009, Pew has asked Philadelphians how safe they feel in their neighborhoods at night. That number dropped below 50% for the first time in the 2020 poll. The decrease continues in 2022, with only 44% of Philadelphians saying they feel �completely� or �pretty� safe in their neighborhoods at night.

There's a dramatic racial difference in who feels safe.

quote:

Overall, nearly two-thirds of Philadelphians indicate that they had heard gunshots in their neighborhood during the previous 12 months. And 85% of Philadelphians say that gun violence is getting worse, a view held by nearly all demographic groups and neighborhoods in the city. Furthermore, 48% of Philadelphians said either they, an immediate family member, or a close friend had been the victim of a violent crime such as an assault, robbery, or gun violence in 2021.

quote:

The Pew survey found a swing in attitudes about policing, showing that 61% of respondents in January said the city needs more police, which is up from 45% in August 2020. Just 8% said the size of the police force should be reduced, down from 14% in 2020. Black and Hispanic respondents were more likely to say the city doesn�t have enough police, while white people were twice as likely as Black people to say the city has too many. And those more likely to say that the city had enough or too many police officers were either younger, had annual income above $100,000, or have a college degree.

Young white people with college degrees who make over $100,000 per year want fewer police; while Black and Hispanic people of all demographics say they don't have enough.

White people were over 2x more likely than Black or Hispanic people to say they need fewer police.

People without a college degree were hit much harder by the pandemic than the average person or person with a college degree.

quote:

When asked about their personal financial situation, about one-third of Philadelphians say they are worse off today than when the economy shut down in March 2020. Answers varied depending on the respondent�s educational attainment, race, and income: Those with lower levels of educational attainment were especially challenged, with 40% of those with a high school diploma or less and 38% of those with just some college saying they were worse off financially.

Less than 20% believe that life will "return to normal" in the next year and 52% are either "unsure" or think life will never go back to how it was pre-pandemic.

quote:

Philadelphia residents expect it to take substantial time to get their lives back to the way they were before the pandemic, if ever. More than one-third of Philadelphians believe things will never get back to the way they were, with an additional 14% expecting it to take more than a year. A full 22% of residents are unsure when life will return to the way it was before the pandemic. This leaves less than 1 in 5 who see a return to pre-pandemic life within a year.

quote:

And looming issues of violence and poverty continue to dampen the city�s outlook. Just 53% of Philadelphians rated the city as an �excellent� or �good� place to live, down from 66% in 2020. Only 58% of residents expect to be living in the city in five to 10 years, down from 72% in 2019.

Just over half of all residents think they will still be living there in 5-10 years. Down from 72%.

https://twitter.com/hollyotterbein/status/1511902081732558856

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2022/04/pew-poll-gun-violence-covid19-have-hit-philadelphians-hard

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Apr 7, 2022

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:40

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Big shocker that those who are white and who earn enough to live in safe communities think police presence is sufficient or excessive.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:51

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

I'm sure a lot of people who are saying they won't be living in the city in 5-10 years are just expressing disapproval or pessimism and won't actually leave for various reasons, but losing 42% of the population in 10 years is basically speed running Detroit and the most surprising part to me.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:54

Lib and let die: Aug 26, 2004

Willa Rogers posted:

Big shocker that those who are white and who earn enough to live in safe communities think police presence is sufficient or excessive.

It's the same demographic that will accost and surveil you for letting your dog pee on the median on the street they live on and threaten to call the cops because they're so up their own rear end they don't realize that female dogs squat when they pee

Ask me how I know lmao

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:55

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

Mellow Seas posted:

Yeah, there's basically no question that the pollster in question is ideologically centrist, and they were looking for this result. The poll was done by Schoen-Cooperman Research.

"Moderate" obviously means a lot of different things to different people, and it's not like the Dems are going to be running national TV ads that say "Dems: they're moderate!" so what this messaging priority means is unclear, and will vary from district to district. One thing I am 115% sure of is that they really, really don't want any candidates talking about "defunding" the police.

He wants to be perceived as centrist, but that's not really where he stands nowadays. Although he came up through the Clinton camp, he's one of those HillaryIs44 types who spent 2008-2016 opposing Obama at all costs, only to end up so deep in bed with his right-wing allies of convenience that he wouldn't back Hillary in 2016 because she was too far left and would cause too much partisan division (though after being somewhat disappointed with the Trump era, he seems to be all-in on Hillary 2024). His "Democrat who opposes the Democratic Party" branding has been useful to his career ever since he joined Fox in 2009, but his time as a Dem consultant is long in the past, as he's spent the last fourteen years as little more than right-media's token Democrat.

Frankly speaking, Doug Schoen is not someone I'm gonna take ideological advice from, nor is he someone I'm gonna trust polls from. After all, here's his ideological advice for the Dems back in 2017, in the wake of Trump's election:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/opinion/why-democrats-need-wall-street.html

quote:

Why Democrats Need Wall Street

Many of the most prominent voices in the Democratic Party, led by Bernie Sanders, are advocating wealth redistribution through higher taxes and Medicare for all, and demonizing banks and Wall Street.

Memories in politics are short, but those policies are vastly different from the program of the party�s traditional center-left coalition. Under Bill Clinton, that coalition balanced the budget, acknowledged the limits of government and protected the essential programs that make up the social safety net.

President Clinton did this, in part, by moving the party away from a reflexive anti-Wall Street posture. It�s not popular to say so today, but there are still compelling reasons Democrats should strengthen ties to Wall Street.

As the party has left behind that version of liberalism, it has also found its way to its weakest electoral position � nationally and at the state level � since the 1920s. Hillary Clinton�s lurch to the left probably cost her key Midwestern states that Barack Obama had won twice and led to the election of Donald Trump.

After the 2016 election, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, warned that the party�s �broad anti-business rhetoric� distracts its leaders from making growth the goal and �manages to scare off entrepreneurs and small businesses, too.�

Democrats should keep ties with Wall Street for several reasons. The first is an ugly fact of politics: money. Maintaining ties to Wall Street makes economic sense for Democrats and keeps their coffers full.

In the 2016 election, the Center for Responsive Politics reports, employees and companies in the securities and investment industry donated more than $63 million to the Democratic Party.

For the 2020 election, some of the party�s strongest potential presidential candidates � Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris as well as Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor � should not be dismissed simply because of their current or past ties to Wall Street.

If voters really hated ties to Wall Street and financial elites, Republicans would not enjoy such a commanding electoral position � or have elected a New York plutocrat president. Most voters� major problems with President Trump stem from his performance, not from his wealth or connections to Wall Street.

A second reason Democrats should keep ties with Wall Street: Despite what the Democratic left says, America is a center-right, pro-capitalist nation. A January Gallup poll found that moderates and conservatives make up almost 70 percent of the country, while only 25 percent of voters identify as liberal. Even in May 2016, when Senator Sanders made redistribution a central part of his platform, Gallup found that only about 35 percent of Americans had a positive image of socialism, compared with 60 percent with a positive view of capitalism.

Third, it is hypocritical for Democrats to maintain ties to Silicon Valley and then turn their backs on the very people who help finance its work. The financial industry brings to market the world�s most innovate products and platforms that expand the economy and create jobs.

Fourth, demonizing Wall Street does nothing to bridge the widening gaps in our country. Wall Street has its flaws and abuses, which were addressed in part by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. And yes, the American people are certainly hostile to and suspicious of Wall Street. But using this suspicion and hostility as the organizing principle for a major political party will consign Democrats to permanent minority status.

Here�s what the Democrats need to do instead: develop a set of pro-growth, inclusive economic policies. Democratic leaders must prioritize entrepreneurship, small-business growth and the expansion of job-training and retraining programs.

American leadership in finance will make it possible for our country to invest as much as $1 trillion in infrastructure, extend health care access to every American at an affordable rate and lift the 76 million Americans who are barely surviving financially, as reported in May 2016 by the Federal Reserve, into the middle class.

The Democrats need to partner with the financial community on these issues. Most important, the Democrats have simply had an ineffective, negative and coercive economic message. Advocacy of a $15 minimum wage and further banking regulation does not constitute a positive, proactive agenda.

The Democrats cannot be the party that supports only new, stifling regulations. Reducing regulation allows banks to employ capital and finance investment in our country�s future, making electric cars, renewable energy and internet connectivity across the globe a reality.

This was evident to Democrats in the 1990s. From 1996 to 2000, for example, Democrats led the way on two key economic legislative victories. First, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated the communications and cable industries, increased growth and enhanced market competition. Second, the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 removed regulations placed on financial institutions by bureaucrats and expanded opportunities for Wall Street to engage in mergers and acquisitions, adding wealth to the retirement accounts and other investment portfolios of millions of middle-class Americans.

If the party is going to have any chance of returning to its position of influence and appeal, Democrats need to work with Wall Street to push policies that create jobs, heal divisions and stimulate the American economy.

Not exactly someone who seems to be in tune with the electorate.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:56

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Lib and let die posted:

It's the same demographic that will accost and surveil you for letting your dog pee on the median on the street they live on and threaten to call the cops because they're so up their own rear end they don't realize that female dogs squat when they pee

Ask me how I know lmao

IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE...
...in Sentry home security!

(The no. of people in my suburb who have those lib signs but also security-system warnings never fails to make me lol.)

# ? Apr 7, 2022 15:57

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

We're going vintage with the newest immigration scandal. The DHS Secretary is coming to congress for an unrelated hearing, but Josh Hawley says that they are going to focus the entire 2-hour hearing on the throwback scandal that is sweeping the nation.

Obamaphones 2.0 is upon us.

As part of the process of ending Title 42, the DHS is expecting a surge of ~400,000 new migrant border crossings. Instead of turning people away, they are phasing in a new system to speed up processing times by letting the low-risk crossers or people with family they can stay with just come into the country, but they have to either take a smart phone or an ankle bracelet to make sure they don't just leave.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1512060372810977283

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-administration-giving-cell-phones-to-illegal-immigrants-to-track-and-check-in-with-them

https://twitter.com/DarrellIssa/status/1512034683416158213
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1511790408472403977
https://twitter.com/abigailmarone/status/1511727578247307264

The GPS tracking devices we're putting on immigrants are too fancy. That's some good dystopian nightmare.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:05

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

Willa Rogers posted:

IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE...
...in Sentry home security!

(The no. of people in my suburb who have those lib signs but also security-system warnings never fails to make me lol.)

In Seattle it was pretty much a guarantee they�d be right next to a Recall Sawant sign.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:08

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

Nucleic Acids posted:

So it turns out people stop liking you when you say you�re going to help them and then let the help just dry up. Huh.

But vote blue no matter who because, uh,

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:13

RBA Starblade: Apr 28, 2008; Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Willa Rogers posted:

IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE...
...in Sentry home security!

(The no. of people in my suburb who have those lib signs but also security-system warnings never fails to make me lol.)

When I bought my house it came with a sign in the front saying it has some home security system or another. It doesn't actually have one, but I figured just keeping the sign there's about as effective

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:20

VitalSigns: Sep 3, 2011

Gumball Gumption posted:

The GPS tracking devices we're putting on immigrants are too fancy. That's some good dystopian nightmare.

It's not even that they're too fancy, it's that GPS tracking is foolish because according to them immigrants should all be in prison anyway

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:21

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

Willa Rogers posted:

IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE...
...in Sentry home security!

(The no. of people in my suburb who have those lib signs but also security-system warnings never fails to make me lol.)

What's wrong with having home security?

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:21

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

How are u posted:

What's wrong with having home security?

"we welcome everyone with open arms"

*sign next to drawing of rottweiler on home-security signage*

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:23

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

The Washington Post put out an unrelated long-term investigation on gun violence in the U.S. today on the same day as the Pew study.

The whole thing is long and depressing, but worth a read. This the first part of a multi-part investigative series the post is doing on gun violence that took over 3 years to complete.

The craziest parts:

- 41 children per day in the U.S. lose parents to gun violence.
- 367 people per day are shot in the U.S.
- 136 people are shot and killed per day in the U.S.
- 231 people are shot and survive per day in the U.S.

None of those include suicide by gun or self-injuries with a gun.

It is extremely difficult to get accurate information on gun violence and required requesting and analyzing sever years of records from every individual police agency in 20 major metro areas.

More than 80% of crimes involving death or serious injury in the U.S. are caused by a gun.

Almost every single gun death in America is related to either drugs/crime related to drugs, an accident, suicide, or domestic dispute.

https://twitter.com/JohnWoodrowCox/status/1512083751601287171
https://twitter.com/JohnWoodrowCox/status/1512083759960506379
https://twitter.com/JohnWoodrowCox/status/1512083776456867841
https://twitter.com/JohnWoodrowCox/status/1512083809633595397

quote:

Orphaned by gun violence: Two kids, two shootings, two parents gone

Every day in America, more than 40 children lose a parent to shootings, new Post data reveals. Kaleigh and Kavon Washington lost both.

She knew that the pops outside were gunshots because, by age 7, Kaleigh Washington had heard them many times before. She didn�t worry at first. Kaleigh was inside a townhouse, away from windows, the kind of place she�d been taught to take refuge since she was little, even before the shooting that killed her father when she was 5. Then came more pops, and she remembered.

�Oh no,� Kaleigh recalled thinking. �My mom is out there.�

The second-grader couldn�t see anything from her friend�s upper floor in Douglass Homes, a public housing complex in East Baltimore, so she hurried downstairs. The adults gathering by the front door wouldn�t let her pass, but Kaleigh spotted the flickering red lights of an ambulance.

�That�s her mommy,� she heard someone say, and Kaleigh began to cry.

It was just before 4 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2020, and the worst stretch of gun violence in decades had just begun. By the end of the year, more than 19,000 people would be killed in gun homicides, including 1,376 children, a record-smashing figure that still fails to capture the scope of the epidemic�s devastation on the youngest and most vulnerable Americans.

Every year, hundreds of them are struck by stray rounds or endure school shootings or shoot themselves accidentally or on purpose. But there is another uncounted, often invisible group suffering through this crisis: the kids who lose parents to it.

Across 20 cities that were the site of nearly a quarter of the nation�s gun homicides in 2020, more than 3,600 children lost their mother or father in a shooting, according to a groundbreaking analysis by The Washington Post.

If the trends identified in those communities remained consistent across the country, it would mean that the parents of more than 15,000 children in America were gunned down that year � or, on average, at least 41 every day.

And that doesn�t include the thousands of parents � the precise number is impossible to track � who shot themselves.

By that unseasonably mild afternoon in Baltimore, Kaleigh and her older brother, 11-year-old Kavon, already knew what it felt like to be robbed of a parent. Their dad, Kavon Washington Sr., had been shot on the side of the road while walking to work in early August 2017. He was 32.

It left his preschool daughter sad and confused, but certain that her dad, the man who bought her a bag of chips whenever she wanted one, had gone to heaven. His son and namesake, Kavon Jr., felt angry at first, but in time, as he watched his family mourn friends and neighbors being killed, his fury gave way to a lingering numbness.

So, when Kavon noticed an Instagram post about another shooting at Douglass, he didn�t think much of it. Then his phone rang.

�You know your mother just got killed?� his cousin said.

He�d learn that wasn�t true. At the scene, Jackie Burley was still breathing. Her girlfriend, Jameta Rooths, rushed to the courtyard where the woman she�d dated for six years lay sprawled on the ground.

By the time Jameta found Kaleigh, the girl was hyperventilating. She�d heard someone say that her mother had been shot in the head.

�Breathe,� Jameta told her.

In the lobby at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Kaleigh imagined what would change after her mom woke up. She didn�t like going to Douglass, a site of unrelenting gun violence.

�When she get out of the hospital, she can�t be down there no more,� Jameta recalled Kaleigh telling her over and over.

Other family members soon arrived, including Kavon. Not long after, doctors delivered the news: Jackie wasn�t going to make it.

Kaleigh wept. Kavon tried not to. The family wouldn�t let him see his mom in person, but a relative FaceTimed him from the room. Through his cellphone, he stared at his mother, her eyes swollen shut and face covered with tubes.

Afterward, he sat next to his great-grandmother, Jacqueline White.

�Grandma, how my mother gonna be buried?� Kavon asked.

Funerals and caskets were expensive, the fifth-grader knew. He wanted her body to rest somewhere nice, near his father�s grave.

Jacqueline told him not to fret. The family would take care of it, she assured him, but she still sensed his anxiety. He had another question.

Where would he and his sister stay, Kavon asked, because he knew the two of them no longer had a parent to go home to. They were orphans now.

For most kids whose parents are shot to death, their existence is noted only, if at all, in brief news articles about the crimes: �mother of two,� �father of three.� The stories seldom convey how the damage done to the children left behind can haunt them for decades as they grow up in a society that doesn�t recognize their trauma.

And those children are everywhere.

Kavon and Kaleigh�s mom was killed on the same day that fathers in Houston, Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., were also killed. Across the 20 cities that The Post reviewed in its analysis, at least 43 children would lose a parent to gun violence by the end of that week.

Two in Charlotte. Three in Memphis. Four in Cleveland. Five in St. Louis.

In Kansas City, three of Devon Nolan�s four children were in his car when a woman shot the 34-year-old standing just outside of it, investigators allege. His attacker � the mother of two of Nolan�s kids � drove away, and when police reached his car, they heard the children inside screaming.

In Chicago, Stephanie Brooks, 27, was shot by a man trying to break into an apartment. Brooks was devoted to her kids, capturing their three young lives in dozens of Facebook posts: a video singing with her preschool-aged daughter, whose shirt read, �Be Strong Be Bold Be Brave�; another of her tottering baby boy, still in diapers, taking nine unsteady steps before plopping to the floor; a trio of photos of her beaming baby girl, along with the caption, �no better feeling then wake ... up to these smiles.�

In Philadelphia, after Brent Swearingen was killed, his 14-year-old son, Nasir, grew so afraid of being shot himself that he stopped riding the bus or shopping at the corner store, said his aunt, Tajia Swearingen. His sister, Bailey, now 7, still cries about her dad�s death, still asks why anyone would hurt him. Sometimes, she hugs his urn or gently places drawings and My Little Pony toys on top of it.

�Daddy,� she�ll say, �look.�

In Baltimore, Jackie was the first of two mothers gunned down that week. The other one, Melissa Brown, 31, left behind a 3-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl. Brown�s death splintered the family, said her grandmother, Barbara Anderson. The kids� father is in prison, she said, and the children now live apart. The girl has dealt with depression, but Anderson worries even more about the boy. She wonders for how long he�ll remember his mother.

Most of those kids won�t recover without help, trauma experts say, but providing it requires the country to acknowledge that children who lose parents to gun violence are also victims of it.

Jocelyn R. Smith Lee, who has studied the fallout from this epidemic for a decade, argues that society hasn�t accepted that truth at least in part because of the skin color of those most affected.

Black people made up just 30 percent of the residents of the 20 cities The Post analyzed. But of the children in those cities whose parents were killed in gun homicides, 82 percent were Black.

Smith Lee and other researchers point to the disparity between how the nation responds to mass shootings at mostly White suburban schools and the chronic gun violence in marginalized neighborhoods that devastates children of color.

�There�s this idea that we�re de-sensitized to violence,� she said of African Americans. �That because it happens so much, we�re used to it.�

But that�s not true at all. For one study, she interviewed 40 young Black men in Baltimore about how incessant gun violence had derailed their lives. Combined, they had lost 119 friends, relatives, siblings and parents to homicide. All of them exhibited at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, and 1 in 5 experienced all four.

Such losses can have an even more calamitous effect on kids, but Smith Lee questions describing their affliction as post-traumatic stress when, for so many Black children, there is no �post.� The fear of the next shooting never subsides, often depriving them of the chance to process their loved one�s death.

�Grief is a luxury,� said Smith Lee, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. �And it�s too often denied to Black Americans, and it�s too often denied to homicide survivors.�

In Baltimore, Kavon had been trying to manage the consequences of loss for nearly three years by the time he faced his mother�s glossy, ivory-colored casket. He didn�t remember much about his father�s funeral, but Kavon had never forgotten seeing his distorted face. He barely recognized the man in the box, but now, peering at his mother, she looked just like the woman who made him his favorite mac and cheese and tattooed his initials on her neck and called him her �heart outside my chest.�

Kaleigh poured her own grief into a song she�d written two days earlier about their mother�s death. She performed it only once, for Vernel Rogers, the aunt who�d taken her in and recorded her niece singing a cappella on the floor.

�When we heard the sound, everybody said, �No, not her.� And I thought about mommy.�

�We went to the hospital, and the nurse said she was okay. But then there was too much, so they couldn�t help it.�

�Why�d you have to leave so fast? Why�d you have to go? Why�d you have to leave so soon? I was scared to let you go.�

Kaleigh squinted her eyes and stroked her chin, mulling over a question that she had asked herself hundreds of times since writing a version of it into the song two years earlier.

Why had someone killed her mother?

She and her brother never discussed it. The siblings were split up after the shooting, each moving in with family members who barely had enough room for them.

Kavon was living with his paternal grandmother, Ronnie Milburn, in a deteriorating rowhouse a mile and a half northeast of Douglass. He shared a bed with his 21-year-old uncle in a room where they lined the window�s edge with brown packing tape to keep the cold from seeping in.

Jackie�s sister, Vernel, was caring for Kaleigh in her two-bedroom apartment in a Baltimore suburb. They shared the space with Vernel�s daughter and the 26-year-old�s premature infant, who required oxygen. Kaleigh had her own bedroom but seldom spent her nights in it because of nightmares about her mother being murdered and the perpetual fear that, if she slept apart from Vernel, Kaleigh would lose her, too.

Now she was sitting in their living room, on the bed that doubled as a couch, and she�d come to the same answer about the cause of her mother�s death that she always did.

�Because I left,� she said.

Kaleigh had been with Jackie that afternoon at Douglass but decided to visit a family friend just minutes before the shooting. The girl theorized that if whoever killed Jackie had seen a child with her, he wouldn�t have pulled the trigger.

�Stop. Stop it,� said Vernel, sitting on the other side of the bed. �I told you that�s not why it happened.�

�Then why did it happen?� Kaleigh asked.

�It is a blessing that you left,� Vernel told her, avoiding Kaleigh�s question because she didn�t know the answer. �You would have seen that happen to your mother. How you think you would feel if you had seen it, right there?�

Kaleigh looked unconvinced, her eyes drifting across the room.

All around her were reminders. A clock adorned with a collage of Jackie�s photos. A glass crystal with a 3D image of Jackie holding Kaleigh as a baby. A life-sized cardboard cutout of Jackie posing with her lips pursed, just the way her daughter does.

�If I just think about it, I can, like, see it,� Kaleigh told her aunt. �It�s like, they�re shooting her leg, but she�s trying to, like, run away.�

Vernel didn�t respond. She knew her niece had heard detectives discuss the case.

Baltimore police hadn�t found either of her parents� killers, magnifying her fear that she could also lose Kavon, who still hung out at Douglass.

�I always wonder sometimes, still why do he choose to go down there?� she said. �Like, do he want to get hurt?�

Kaleigh shook her head. She missed him.

Their parents had each served stints behind bars on drug charges. Kavon Sr. was in prison when Kaleigh was born, and he was dead before she started first grade, but both she and her brother knew he loved them.

They liked to tag along when he sold water bottles and baseball caps around Baltimore�s Inner Harbor, and on birthdays, he took them roller skating. He called them �Mama� and �Baby K.�

Jackie began dating Jameta soon after Kaleigh�s birth, and her girlfriend became a second parent to the kids, especially in the wake of their dad�s killing. When Kavon started picking fights at school, Jameta helped him work through it, explaining that he couldn�t take his anger out on other people.

For a time, the four of them felt like a family. Jameta, an accounting associate, paid most of the bills while Jackie, who worked in fast food, handled the chores and managed homework. The couple took the kids to playgrounds and water parks and, at home, they played �Would you rather?� and �Never have I ever,� munching on chocolate candies late into the night.

But Kaleigh knew, too, that her world wasn�t always safe. The family never lived in Douglass, where Jackie and Jameta had grown up, but they often visited. Kaleigh saw men with guns and ducked into strangers� homes when shootings started, picked up bullets in the grass and passed by dried blood on the pavement.

Two of her mom�s friends, guys who had bought her pizza and snacks, were killed.

Then her mom was gone, too.

One day after her death, a relative called Vernel to say that Kavon, still 11, had gone down to the public housing complex, searching for the person who killed his mother.

Kavon later claimed he didn�t do it, but Jacqueline scolded him anyway.

�You could have got hurt,� she said.

Kaleigh thought about that all the time. Her brother, she knew, was smart. A husky kid with a baby face, he had inherited his father�s wry wit and his mother�s quiet charm. He made good grades, especially in math, and seldom got in serious trouble at school anymore, but he still woke up angry some days, for reasons he couldn�t explain.

�Mad-at-the-world type stuff,� was how he put it.

Kaleigh wished she could see him more. She started superimposing the two of them into photos of her parents, pretending they were all together again. Sometimes, the siblings played �Fortnite� with each other online, but he preferred Call of Duty and Madden, games she didn�t own.

She liked re-watching the YouTube video her dad posted of her fourth birthday party, when she forgot how old she was and Kavon put his arm around her shoulder and whispered it into her ear.

In her phone, he appeared as �One And only Big Bro.� She liked to check on him.

�Hey u ok I miss u,� she texted last April.

�I miss you more,� he responded, with three pink hearts.

�I�m bout to go to school but I just wanted to hi,� she wrote one morning.

The next month, she sent him a joke about ordering an extra tooth on Amazon, and that made him laugh.

�Hey brother,� she texted in mid-January, but that time, he didn�t respond.

One week later, Kavon was back near Douglass, waiting for his egg roll order outside a nearby Chinese restaurant. Suddenly, someone started shooting. Kavon turned to flee but tripped, slamming into the sidewalk. On the ground, the middle-schooler heard bullets zip by his head. He stood and ran, scrambling to a relative�s house a few blocks away.

He rushed through the front door and stripped off his pants and hoodie, searching his body for blood.

�Ma!� he screamed for his grandmother.

She and his cousins tried to calm him down, to assure him that he hadn�t been shot, but the panic would not relent. He couldn�t speak. He couldn�t breathe.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:24

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

Willa Rogers posted:

"we welcome everyone with open arms"

*sign next to drawing of rottweiler on home-security signage*

I don't really see the disconnect between welcoming people into your country and society with open arms, and also not wanting your personal home where you and your family live to be burgled.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:25

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

How are u posted:

I don't really see the disconnect between welcoming people into your country and society with open arms, and also not wanting your personal home where you and your family live to be burgled.

They don't work though, security systems are a good indicator you're a rube being fleeced by people taking advantage of your fears. Ring is building out a huge surveillance system for police and Amazon on the back of that fear. The security industry sucks.

Gumball Gumption fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Apr 7, 2022

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:28

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

Gumball Gumption posted:

They don't work though, security systems are a good indicator you're a rube being fleeced by little telling advantage of your fears. Ring is building out a huge surveillance system for police and Amazon on the back of that fear. The security industry sucks.

I don't think she was commenting on whether the security works or not, correct me if I'm wrong, Willa. It seemed she was making fun of the idea of somebody who welcomes people into society for who they are, and also wants a secure home.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:32

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Yeah that's indistinguishable from a conservative saying "if you love the homeless so much why don't you give them your house"

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:32

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

How are u posted:

I don't think she was commenting on whether the security works or not, correct me if I'm wrong, Willa. It seemed she was making fun of the idea of somebody who welcomes people into society for who they are, and also wants a secure home.

I have a secure home without putting up signs that broadcast to the world how secure my home is.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:34

Lib and let die: Aug 26, 2004

How are u posted:

I don't really see the disconnect between welcoming people into your country and society with open arms, and also not wanting your personal home where you and your family live to be burgled.

It's probably worth a lot more of an :effort:

post than I can put together while distracting myself at work, but I can't help but shake the creeping feeling that a plethora of video security systems installed on a majority of homes is a bit like US citizens openly welcoming the surveillance state into our lives, and instead of addressing the material conditions that lead desperate or ill (ex addicts) people to commit material crimes, but it creates more value for shareholders to have The Property Brothers (a registered trademark of HGN, a copyrighted subsidiary of Discovery Networks, LLC) shilling home security systems for a buck for a false sense of security that even if the whole world is going tango unicorn, your little fiefdom is "safe" because you have a camera on your doorbell

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:34

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Gumball Gumption posted:

They don't work though, security systems are a good indicator you're a rube being fleeced by little telling advantage of your fears. Ring is building out a huge surveillance system for police and Amazon on the back of that fear. The security industry sucks.

It depends.

According to studies, just putting a sign in your front yard that says you have a security system can reduce your chance of being burgled (even if you don't actually have a security system) and having visible cameras and alarms also dramatically reduces your chance of being burgled.

But, for most people, the likelihood of getting burgled combined with the average value of the most commonly burgled materials means that an expensive security system is usually not worth the money.

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/how-to-deter-burglars.html

According to science, the best thing to do is not get a security system, but do get a dog and put a sign on your yard/windows claiming you do have a security system.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:34

RBA Starblade: Apr 28, 2008; Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Lib and let die posted:

It's probably worth a lot more of an post than I can put together while distracting myself at work, but I can't help but shake the creeping feeling that a plethora of video security systems installed on a majority of homes is a bit like US citizens openly welcoming the surveillance state into our lives, and instead of addressing the material conditions that lead desperate or ill (ex addicts) people to commit material crimes, but it creates more value for shareholders to have The Property Brothers (a registered trademark of HGN, a copyrighted subsidiary of Discovery Networks, LLC) shilling home security systems for a buck for a false sense of security that even if the whole world is going tango unicorn, your little fiefdom is "safe" because you have a camera on your doorbell

Wait are we talking about stuff like those lovely webcams everywhere or stuff like those services that call the security company if a window is open or broken and you didn't press a button or whatever first?

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

It depends.

According to studies, just putting a sign in your front yard that says you have a security system can reduce your chance of being burgled (even if you don't actually have a security system)

Lol glad to see I was right, laziness wins again

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:36

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

According to science, the best thing to do is not get a security system, but do get a dog and put a sign on your yard/windows claiming you do have a security system.

Fake camera that don't do anything are also cheaper than real ones

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:40

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Security system might at least come in handy for rear end in a top hat neighbours and getting cool animal photos.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:42

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Security system might at least come in handy for rear end in a top hat neighbours and getting cool animal photos.

Based on videos I have seen on the internet, a home security system is used 85% of the time for getting a refund from Amazon/UPS/FedEx by sending them a video of their driver throwing your package onto your porch and the remaining 15% of the time is used to film videos of animals doing weird things when nobody is home.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:44

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

85% reporting bad deliverymen
14% animals doing weird poo poo
1% winning disputes with your neighbors

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:45

virtualboyCOLOR: Dec 22, 2004

Lib and let die posted:

It's probably worth a lot more of an post than I can put together while distracting myself at work, but I can't help but shake the creeping feeling that a plethora of video security systems installed on a majority of homes is a bit like US citizens openly welcoming the surveillance state into our lives, and instead of addressing the material conditions that lead desperate or ill (ex addicts) people to commit material crimes, but it creates more value for shareholders to have The Property Brothers (a registered trademark of HGN, a copyrighted subsidiary of Discovery Networks, LLC) shilling home security systems for a buck for a false sense of security that even if the whole world is going tango unicorn, your little fiefdom is "safe" because you have a camera on your doorbell

Because that is exactly what it is unless you roll your own in-house security system.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:48

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

This is actually a pretty big deal.

I don't know if they have done studies about how effective the mandatory anti-union propaganda meetings actually are at changing votes. But, at the very least, this was the most heavy-handed example of an employer using their power over staff to impact a union vote.

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1512077807169376263

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:52

Trevorrrrrrrrrrrrr: Jul 4, 2008

Willa Rogers posted:

Big shocker that those who are white and who earn enough to live in safe communities think police presence is sufficient or excessive.

I remember polling done a few months after the 2020 BLM protests showing most black Americans preferred the same level of policing with the the rest being split between more and less. The discourse on SA on the time would have had you believe it was overwhelming defund and reduce the police, there really seems to be a huge disconnect on what black Americans want vs leftists think is best w/r/t to police and crime

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:52

Lib and let die: Aug 26, 2004

virtualboyCOLOR posted:

Because that is exactly what it is unless you roll your own in-house security system.

When I was growing up, my parents' backyard was adjacent to the backyard of a murderous, violent enforcer of the criminality of poverty and the dude was a legit compound-brained nutjob - if I so much as stepped out onto the back porch at night for a smoke, 10 floodlights would come blasting to life and just annihilate any semblance of tranquility. Once the piece of poo poo went on vacation for a week, his hackjob home security system got set off by something and the klaxon went on blaring for like, 2 days before it wore itself out. My parents called the local murderous, violent enforcers of the criminality of poverty and they just told him since it wasn't a professional security system, there was nothing anyone could do about it until the homeowner came home.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:52

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

It's like dashcams, they serve as potentially invaluable resources for a number of things but most of the time they'll just be useful for YouTube compilation videos.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:55

Lib and let die: Aug 26, 2004

Trevorrrrrrrrrrrrr posted:

I remember polling done a few months after the 2020 BLM protests showing most black Americans preferred the same level of policing with the the rest being split between more and less. The discourse on SA on the time would have had you believe it was overwhelming defund and reduce the police, there really seems to be a huge disconnect on what black Americans want vs leftists think is best w/r/t to police and crime

It's always fascinating to discuss police issues. I can sit down with my deeply conservative father-in-law and we will agree that cops waste too much time needlessly harassing people over minor traffic violations, controlled substances, and generally making life worse for individuals whenever possible...but then he breaks down into a frothing rage if someone suggests that maybe they don't deserve more funding as a reward for being the pieces of poo poo they are.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:55

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

Gumball Gumption posted:

I have a secure home without putting up signs that broadcast to the world how secure my home is.

Ok? That's great, I'm glad you have a secure home. I assume you also welcome all people into society. If / when I own a home I plan to make sure it's secure, too. Probably by just putting a light with a motion sensor up, and/or a fake camera.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 16:57

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:38

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Lib and let die posted:

It's always fascinating to discuss police issues. I can sit down with my deeply conservative father-in-law and we will agree that cops waste too much time needlessly harassing people over minor traffic violations, controlled substances, and generally making life worse for individuals whenever possible...but then he breaks down into a frothing rage if someone suggests that maybe they don't deserve more funding as a reward for being the pieces of poo poo they are.

Copaganda and regulatory capture have made drat well sure that while well-meaning liberals are willing to acknowledge at least some of the awful poo poo cops do, they're programmed to be utterly hostile to literally any viable solutions to the problem.

# ? Apr 7, 2022 17:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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