The League

Gangs

by Rufus F. · July 22, 2011

Rufus F.

Rufus is an American curmudgeon in Canada. He has a PhD in History, sings in a garage rock band, and does many things. He is the author of the forthcoming book "The Paris Bureau" from Dio Press (early 2021).

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Jaybird says:

July 22, 2011 at 9:59 am

I cannot imagine how in the heck we got here.

How many lodestones did it take to get our moral compasses to point *HERE*?Report
Elias Isquith says:

July 22, 2011 at 11:18 am

Fucking with suburbanites’ dogs — this is how you lose public support for the WoD. It’s almost like they’re trying to appear thuggist, out of control and out of touch.Report
- Mike Schilling in reply to Elias Isquith says:
  
  July 22, 2011 at 11:54 am
  
  The operative word being “suburbanites”. The same threat made to someone living in a project makes him a good, tough cop.Report
  - Will Truman in reply to Mike Schilling says:
    
    July 22, 2011 at 11:57 am
    
    This touches on the main problem I’ve kept running into over and over again. Even in the Missouri case, which featured a white dude in a suburban-looking house. Folks think that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen to them. It’s the sort of thing that happens to bad people, who we need the cops to protect us from. Surely, if the cops are busting down their door, they did something to bring it on, right?
    
    Jose Guarena had that picture under his bed. That’s just not right.Report
  - Elias Isquith in reply to Mike Schilling says:
    
    July 22, 2011 at 12:22 pm
    
    Yep. If the WoD is to be reformed or ended, it’ll have to be preceded by many more “good” people being mistreated.Report
    - Rufus F. in reply to Elias Isquith says:
      
      July 22, 2011 at 4:27 pm
      
      I’ll admit I was taken aback by it, but not because of where the guy lives. When they shoot the dogs, I sort of hoped that they do it because the person might have a rotweiller or pitbull and they have some fear of being put in danger. But telling someone cooperate with us or we’re going to go to your house and shoot your dog? Just sounds like intimidation.Report
      - Mike Schilling in reply to Rufus F. says:
        
        July 22, 2011 at 4:42 pm
        
        Intimidation is a large part of what cops do; thus the objections to Miranda and other brakes on how much they can do it. But they’re only supposed to intimidate the sort of people who need to be kept in line, not people like us.Report
        
        Stillwater in reply to Mike Schilling says:
        
        July 27, 2011 at 9:35 pm
        
        And new laws against videoing cops.Report
      - Plinko in reply to Rufus F. says:
        
        July 27, 2011 at 9:31 pm
        
        Read Balko for a few months, you’ll start feeling surprised they only threatened to kill the dog instead of just doing it.Report
Kolohe says:

July 22, 2011 at 4:01 pm

This one though, probably won’t get larger traction outside those who already give a darn about this issue. He’s a Hispanic hippie musician, not a nice middle aged white lady (or even an Iraq war veteran whose nontheless Hispanic).Report
- Rufus F. in reply to Kolohe says:
  
  July 22, 2011 at 4:28 pm
  
  You’d think by now if someone like Michael Moore wanted to do a documentary about the War on Drugs, he’d have more than enough material.Report
  - Kolohe in reply to Rufus F. says:
    
    July 24, 2011 at 10:43 am
    
    “COPS is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”Report

Ten Second News

Pardon Me, Sir

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The full list of pardons and commutations President Trump has issued on his last day in office, with a little help from Grey Poupon

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Ryan Adams Cleared by the FBI

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While Adams still has the pall of being an asshole hanging over his head, none of those come with possible felonies attached.

Continued

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From Rolling Stone: What Happened to Promises to Disband the Minneapolis Police?

(9)

How vows to reform public safety in the wake of George Floyd’s killing devolved into modest cuts to the city’s 2021 police budget

Continued

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From CNN Business: Sheldon Adelson, Republican kingmaker and casino magnate, has died at 87

(1)

From CNN Business:

New York (CNN Business)Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and a major donor to Republican politicians, died late Monday following complications related to his cancer treatment, his company said. He was 87.

Adelson took a leave of absence from Sands last week to resume treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which his aides first disclosed in late February 2019.

(Featured image is "Some birds hanging out at the Sands Casino in Atlantic City" by iirraa is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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From Gizmodo: Every Deleted Parler Post, Many With Users’ Location Data, Has Been Archived

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From Gizmodo:

In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by scores of President Trump’s supporters, a lone researcher began an effort to catalogue the posts of social media users across Parler, a platform founded to provide conservative users a safe haven for uninhibited “free speech” — but which ultimately devolved into a hotbed of far-right conspiracy theories, unchecked racism, and death threats aimed at prominent politicians.

The researcher, who asked to be referred to by their Twitter handle, @donk_enby, began with the goal of archiving every post from January 6, the day of the Capitol riot; what she called a bevy of “very incriminating” evidence. According to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, among others, Parler is one of a number of apps used by the insurrections to coordinate their breach of the Capitol, in a plan to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Donald Trump in power.

(Featured image is "A radio tracking device on a Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) at the Cotswold Falconry Centre" by Anguskirk and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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Amazon Turns Out the Lights, The Parler’s Over

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First Apple kicked the app off the iOS app store, and now Amazon is ending their web services agreement citing breech of terms of service.

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From Twitter Safety: Donald Trump’s Twitter Account has been Permanently Suspended

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From Twitter Safety:

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021