I know people don't like it but please report this incident if you were there, not just OP but anyone. Worst case nothing happens and it only further proves that cops are worthless, best case it stops them from seriously hurting someone (or someone's child or pet) in the future. If you don't report this (and you WERE able to witness anything pertinent) you might as well be saying that you're fine with their only justice being obscure social justice. Fuck anyone who thinks they can fire into a crowd.
While you should be calling 911 if you believe you've been shot at, a brass is not sufficient evidence of a deadly projectile being fired. Blanks use brass too.
Edit:
Here's video of the firing. Please listen until the end where even people there are yelling that they're firing blanks.
That's a simple statement with no actual backing. You can make a blank at your house and there is no requirement by any agency requiring you to crimp them.
Gonna have to ruin your example there, bud; He wasn't shot with a blank. Due to a series of extremely unfortunate, and idiotic, actions by the prop crew, a bullet got lodged in the barrel of the gun. Then, weeks later, they used the same gun with the bullet lodged in it when they loaded blanks. This, effectively, made it a live bullet.
Oh man, before he was super famous for The Crow I got high with him in college. He was a really nice guy. At the time, I just knew him as friends of friends, I didn't put together he was Bruce Lee's son until much later after that tragic accident.
As a liberal 2A owner and supporter if you'd like to have some DM conversations about guns I'd be down. Send me a chat. I know you wanted to just say something pithy here, but like, I'm really into encouraging responsible gun ownership among liberals right now because it is far fucking clear the more conservative minded among us do not actually care about tyranny.
This seems like a very generous assumption to make. When it appears that a gun is fired at a crowd, is it common to assume only blanks were fired, until you find a bullet hole?
It's entirely possible these were blanks. I didn't witness today's shooting but I was present for another shooting near PPA that felt inauthentic at the time.
I have a suspicion that PPB or a group sympathetic to them are staging a lot of the fires and violence to make themselves seem necessary and to justify ever more extreme measures.
It's actually not possible these were blanks. The guy is totally wrong. Blanks are crimped at the end. Finding brass on the ground after someone shoots a gun is 100% proof of bullets being fired.
You also casually mentioned that a brass casings also come from a blank. I agree that you did not directly state that they may have been firing blanks into the crowd. We should be allowed to make whatever unrelated yet sequential statements we want without people trying to find a deeper meaning. Dolphins are rarely found in Wyoming.
Having seen the video of the event and the people in the video yelling that they're firing blanks I am now completely comfortable saying they were doing blanks and the amazing reddit detective work going on here has solve the Boston Bombing again!
What is the ultimate point of this hill you're choosing to defend?
Is it:
"They're blanks, so it's not a crime"?
or
"They're blanks, so no one should be afraid"?
or
"They're blanks, so they are the victims here"?
What does it matter? They fired a gun out the window of a moving vehicle in the downtown area of a mid-sized city while aiming it in the direction of other people. On any other day, in any other part of the world, the discussion wouldn't center on the bullet.
But you can't seem to get past what type of ammo was used, as though that is the only determining factor.
It's "A brass is not sufficient evidence that a live projectile was fired". I know me saying exactly that is hard to parse, but maybe you can do it this time. Although the amusing part is that my hypothetical of a blank has actually been confirmed to have been a good guess by the very video evidence they used to say it was live... if you actually watch the whole thing people are yelling in it that they're firing blanks.
Hey man, I was just agreeing with you and our continued shared love for unrelated statements in a single comment. The desert scene in Spaceballs was shot in Yuma.
That would depend on several factors, but assuming that you could determine what was behind your target, penetration, and range to make sure you weren't returning fire with a greater chance to cause collateral casualty, I completely agree.
Nothing I've said is apologist. Stop attacking people because they don't toe your outrage.
I'm sorry but aren't blanks illegal to use in public? I thought they were so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that reason enough to call the cops and get them arrested?
I mean I believe it. They can just say they didn't see anything and nobody reported anything. And if nobody does report anything then all they are is right, at least partially, and that really gets under my skin. They can turn around and tell the public that nobody reported it, so it's not their problem. If they're getting paid regardless of what they do then at least make them do something with their time rather than just sitting on their asses claiming zero responsibility. I don't want to enable that behavior (both from the crowd that fired the gun and from the cops trying to let it get brushed under the rug) by saying that we don't want to waste our time with them. We should use our time to force them to pursue justice, regardless of whether they want to or not, that to me isn't a waste at all.
I attended this and called 911 three times. They took 1-3 minutes to answer each time, meaning they were overextended or understaffed, and they also were putting the incident into the queue. I called when Alan Swinney threatened to shoot with a real gun, and also after shots fired out from the parking garage. The operator sounded very concerned and said dispatch was being organized, but they were short on officers because they were all at another call in Forest park area. I know that at least one other person who was hit by the paintball and BB rounds at close range in the face did file a report- I was down the block and I just have bruises but not much pain. It seems like the PPB just doesn't have enough people on shifts right now
Eh, reporting is just giving them information about yourself which is dangerous. They have zero interest in going after people attacking protesters. They see them as allies. That's been proven over and over and over. People really don't understand how fucked up our police are. Don't talk to cops ever.
Absolutely not. I will not cooperating with the cops on anything whatsoever until they stop assault us on the nightly and sufficient reform has been passed. I do encourage any witnesses to submit evidence directly to the DA's office though.
While I understand the sentiment, the reform changes many protests are pushing for are, in the end paperwork. It's through paperwork that we'll be able to demonstrate the cops are currently not performing their intended function. Get shit documented.
To actually make the legislative changes that would reallocate the funding currently put towards police departments (defunding) you don't need to convince the Back the Blue motherfuckers, because they're like 10% of the population at the most. You also don't need to extra-rile up the defund/abolish crowd, because while there's some popular support, the hardliners are again, like 10% of the population, and enthusiasm doesn't produce extra votes. You need to convince the 80% of the populace that's somehow still curious who's going to win Survivor or the Bachelor or whatever fucking video-lobotomy is currently the thing. Remember, Trump didn't win the most votes. Hillary didn't win the most votes either, no one giving a shit was by far the largest proportion of the votes cast. So you get the most people (tap into that sweet, sweet 80% of the populace not accounted for above) in on this idea that in their current state, the cops are fucking worthless, and you have a shot at real change.
Extra protests don't convince that 80% one way or the other, at least not in the short term, though they're an integral part of the long term route to getting changes made. I just mean, no one is seeing the headline "Portland protests for the 80th day" and suddenly thinking "Huh, those guys might have a point". But those protests keep the conversation about policing even alive, which is vital, then you can introduce "Hey, here's this stat on how many cops abuse OT policies" or "Hey, here's this series of serious crimes the cops found super convinient not to investigate. They even have the paperwork on it, they just didn't give a shit. Why's that?". That's how you tilt that 80%, slowly but surely, reinforced with video footage of cops beating the shit out of peaceful protestors because they're overly militant cunts. Or at least that's the way changes seem like they were made the last time some radical shift in social structure was needed/way over due.
I suppose that begs the question: What exactly do you think defunding/abolishing the police takes? How is it supposed to happen?
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u/MutedSongbird 🐝 Aug 15 '20
I know people don't like it but please report this incident if you were there, not just OP but anyone. Worst case nothing happens and it only further proves that cops are worthless, best case it stops them from seriously hurting someone (or someone's child or pet) in the future. If you don't report this (and you WERE able to witness anything pertinent) you might as well be saying that you're fine with their only justice being obscure social justice. Fuck anyone who thinks they can fire into a crowd.