the watcher

It's not about taking their background into account when considering punishment...ITS NOT ABOUT EXCUSES. ITS NOT ABOUT PUNISHMENT. ITS ABOUT PREVENTION.
No one thinks they shouldn't be punished, they should be.
It's understanding how they got to a point where they murder, and how we can put things in place/fix things/change things etc etc so the next person who is in a similar situation won't make that choice.
In terms of imprisonment, our society whether you like it or not very rarely sends someone to a true life in prison. Which means basically everyone who goes to prison, is getting out at some point. As of today, a good portion of those people will be sent back for committing a crime. But...we know from other examples, that it doesn't HAVE to be that way. Society can welcome people back into regular life with a better jail system, and better supports once they leave jail. It won't be 100% successful...but we can do better.
To recap:
It's not about creating excuses for those who murder people. It's about understanding what happened in their life so that maybe...just maybe...we (society/systems/family structure/whatever the ****) can pre-emptively help people who may be dealing with something similar, so they don't end up killing people.
Yes, not everyone who struggles or has a **** upbringing/life kills someone...that doesn't mean we should just stop trying to improve things.
I really don't know how else to explain this. 

I think it's really tough for us to understand what it is like to a black person in the US. Do we have racism in Canada? Of course we do. But people of colour here don't live in terror of having their children pulled over. Milt Stegal's comments a while back made me really think . He said they weren't worried at all about their driving aged kid driving recklessly,  drinking and driving, speeding.........All they concentrated on was what to do when you are stopped by the police. They live in fear of it. I dont think we CAN understand it., I dont think we CAN understand what it is like to see what has been going on time after time to people with your skin colour.  When you look at their crime rates it's pretty obvious that throwing people in jail for extremely long periods doesn't work. 200, million adults in the USA and 2.3 million are in jail. And that rate is increasing. The majority are people of colour. So if jailing as many as you can ,for as long as you can doesn't solve anything doesn't it make sense to work on the social issues that lead to crime ? No one is saying people shouldn't be put in jail but we / they really need to look to other solutions. We are seeing other countries in the world that are trying to deal with drug issues in other ways from decrimilisation to making them legal. Poverty breeds crime in my opinion. It raises children who are angry, desperate, and hopeless to lead the lives that many of us have been privileged to have access to. I'm just an old farmer but my life has taught me that when something isn't working, find a different way to fix it or do it.

I think it's really tough for us to understand what it is like to a black person in the US. Do we have racism in Canada? Of course we do. But people of colour here don't live in terror of having their children pulled over. Milt Stegal's comments a while back made me really think . He said they weren't worried at all about their driving aged kid driving recklessly,  drinking and driving, speeding.........All they concentrated on was what to do when you are stopped by the police. They live in fear of it. I dont think we CAN understand it., I dont think we CAN understand what it is like to see what has been going on time after time to people with your skin colour.  When you look at their crime rates it's pretty obvious that throwing people in jail for extremely long periods doesn't work. 200, million adults in the USA and 2.3 million are in jail. And that rate is increasing. The majority are people of colour. So if jailing as many as you can ,for as long as you can doesn't solve anything doesn't it make sense to work on the social issues that lead to crime ? No one is saying people shouldn't be put in jail but we / they really need to look to other solutions. We are seeing other countries in the world that are trying to deal with drug issues in other ways from decrimilisation to making them legal. Poverty breeds crime in my opinion. It raises children who are angry, desperate, and hopeless to lead the lives that many of us have been privileged to have access to. I'm just an old farmer but my life has taught me that when something isn't working, find a different way to fix it or do it.

I think it's really tough for us to understand what it is like to a black person in the US. Do we have racism in Canada? Of course we do. But people of colour here don't live in terror of having their children pulled over. Milt Stegal's comments a while back made me really think . He said they weren't worried at all about their driving aged kid driving recklessly,  drinking and driving, speeding.........All they concentrated on was what to do when you are stopped by the police. They live in fear of it. I dont think we CAN understand it., I dont think we CAN understand what it is like to see what has been going on time after time to people with your skin colour.  When you look at their crime rates it's pretty obvious that throwing people in jail for extremely long periods doesn't work. 200, million adults in the USA and 2.3 million are in jail. And that rate is increasing. The majority are people of colour. So if jailing as many as you can ,for as long as you can doesn't solve anything doesn't it make sense to work on the social issues that lead to crime ? No one is saying people shouldn't be put in jail but we / they really need to look to other solutions. We are seeing other countries in the world that are trying to deal with drug issues in other ways from decrimilisation to making them legal. Poverty breeds crime in my opinion. It raises children who are angry, desperate, and hopeless to lead the lives that many of us have been privileged to have access to. I'm just an old farmer but my life has taught me that when something isn't working, find a different way to fix it or do it.

I think it's really tough for us to understand what it is like to a black person in the US. Do we have racism in Canada? Of course we do. But people of colour here don't live in terror of having their children pulled over. Milt Stegal's comments a while back made me really think . He said they weren't worried at all about their driving aged kid driving recklessly,  drinking and driving, speeding.........All they concentrated on was what to do when you are stopped by the police. They live in fear of it. I dont think we CAN understand it., I dont think we CAN understand what it is like to see what has been going on time after time to people with your skin colour.  When you look at their crime rates it's pretty obvious that throwing people in jail for extremely long periods doesn't work. 200, million adults in the USA and 2.3 million are in jail. And that rate is increasing. The majority are people of colour. So if jailing as many as you can ,for as long as you can doesn't solve anything doesn't it make sense to work on the social issues that lead to crime ? No one is saying people shouldn't be put in jail but we / they really need to look to other solutions. We are seeing other countries in the world that are trying to deal with drug issues in other ways from decrimilisation to making them legal. Poverty breeds crime in my opinion. It raises children who are angry, desperate, and hopeless to lead the lives that many of us have been privileged to have access to. I'm just an old farmer but my life has taught me that when something isn't working, find a different way to fix it or do it.

I think it's really tough for us to understand what it is like to a black person in the US. Do we have racism in Canada? Of course we do. But people of colour here don't live in terror of having their children pulled over. Milt Stegal's comments a while back made me really think . He said they weren't worried at all about their driving aged kid driving recklessly,  drinking and driving, speeding.........All they concentrated on was what to do when you are stopped by the police. They live in fear of it. I dont think we CAN understand it., I dont think we CAN understand what it is like to see what has been going on time after time to people with your skin colour.  When you look at their crime rates it's pretty obvious that throwing people in jail for extremely long periods doesn't work. 200, million adults in the USA and 2.3 million are in jail. And that rate is increasing. The majority are people of colour. So if jailing as many as you can ,for as long as you can doesn't solve anything doesn't it make sense to work on the social issues that lead to crime ? No one is saying people shouldn't be put in jail but we / they really need to look to other solutions. We are seeing other countries in the world that are trying to deal with drug issues in other ways from decrimilisation to making them legal. Poverty breeds crime in my opinion. It raises children who are angry, desperate, and hopeless to lead the lives that many of us have been privileged to have access to. I'm just an old farmer but my life has taught me that when something isn't working, find a different way to fix it or do it.

I used to hear about police shootings at traffic stops and despite the horror I would always on the back of my white privileged mind say “yeah, but why did the black man not just listen to police commands and do as he was told. Should not have escalated to that level, BUT if the victim had just complied then we would not be here”. 
Then came cell video from bystanders. Seeing cops plant guns on the dead perp after police shootings to match their story that the suspect engaged in a high risk situation that forced them to shoot. Told myself “Ok, I have to concede that there are bad cops out there, but few and far between”. Then I saw cell phone video of black motorists being shot in front of their children for asking the question “what did I do?” and getting a bullet instead of an answer, seeing George Floyd begging for nine minutes for his life to no avail, to police showing their own body cam footage and describing a high level threat that even their own body cam doesn’t show, and I no longer ask “why did he just not comply and get out of the car?”
The latest example here (please click on the link and watch the video, it is eye-opening). If I had a gun drawn on me from the get go, had an officer screaming at me to “get out or you’ll feel the lightning”, and then when I said “I’m afraid to get out” and was told “you should be scared” no way in Hell would I get out of that car. But since I am white, I have never been pulled over for no reason in the first place.
Except once.
As a teenager a few decades ago, before I realized the cultural insensitivity of black face, my buddies and I once went to a Halloween party dressed as the Jackson 5. In hindsight, very inappropriate costume and one I regret despite no intention to offend (and the costume was a hit at the party at the time). Funny thing though, got pulled over by the Winnipeg police that night as the 5 of us drove to the party. Once the officer got to the car door and quickly realized who he was actually dealing with, he promptly let us on our way with no real explanation for the stop in the first place (he wanted to check for license and registration, but somehow never followed through with that desired reason for the stop).
Anyway, here is the latest disturbing video from the USA involving police and black motorists. I can’t help but wonder how many cops got away with this behaviour or worse before body cams and cell phone videos and it was just their honourable word against the thuggish black man who wouldn’t comply, knowing that was enough to absolve their authoritarian actions every time. A very long way to go to eradicate this kind of stuff .
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/us/caron-nazario-officer-fired/index.html
 
 
 

all the while using the best treatments available, and getting vaccinated.
ie he had full knowledge of what he was doing.
mass murder.
 

Ex-Australian PM: Murdoch and Trump Did Putin’s Job For Him

Australia’s ex-prime minister, Malcom Turnbull, has long accused Rupert Murdoch of bringing his prime ministership down—and, at a parliamentary hearing on Monday, it was very clear that he’s out for revenge.
Turnbull, a former journalist who has known Murdoch for over four decades, delivered a furious takedown of one of his country’s most notorious sons during Monday’s evidence session. He accused Murdoch of doing more to divide America than Vladimir Putin, and blamed his media empire for causing the presidency of Donald Trump as well as the Capitol riot that marked the disgraceful climax of his time in power.
“What does Vladimir Putin want to do with his operations in America? He wants to divide America and turn Americans against each other,” said the ex-prime minister, who first met Murdoch in 1974. “That is exactly what Murdoch has done: divided Americans against each other and so undermined their faith in political institutions that a mob of thousands of people, many of them armed, stormed the Capitol.”
Strong words from Malcolm Turnbull about Murdoch's attacks on Australian Muslims.
He says Murdoch is "essentially doing the work of the terrorists" by reinforcing their message that Muslims aren't accepted in our society. 
The former Australian PM was invited to give evidence to the inquiry that was launched after a petition calling for a probe into Murdoch’s media empire was signed by half a million Australians. Turnbull is the second former prime minister to rip into Murdoch in front of the inquiry.
 

not sure what Roussin has said for you guys, but our CMOH in AB has talked a lot about wearing masks outdoors now because they're discovering more and more variant transmission outdoors. It's very airborne and not just droplets, as with the original strain. I've taken to wearing a single reusable mask outdoors, and I double mask (with a disposable as base layer) when I go into a business (which is extremely limited for me...groceries once a week on Sundays) 

No new deaths again  

Good suggestions. I think the UBI is still important. As robotics / AI and Mega corparations continue to advance the world has 2 choices, more people on sub human wages or UBI that is paid for by a tax system that is truly equitable.  I just don't know how we can make it happen ( the 2nd  choice )

No but they got a big thank you from me lol

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

And how realistic is that when many of the religious services that try to evangelize the poor advocate against contraception? Education is the antidote to both poverty and unwanted pregnancies.

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

We are approaching 1/4 of our population with at least one covid shot.  That "should' mean a good number of our vulnerable citizens are protected. 

Arrived at Morden Super site for 5:40 appointment.Came in at 5:25 .Needled and Done and waiting the 15 minutes by 5:45. It can't get much better than that.

Seems like Winnipeg is about 3 weeks. Rural sites much less. Have a cousin in Carman that became eligible yesterday called and had an appointment in 40 minutes. Had to get in the car and hustle. 

The UoS info is updated at a certain point in time and I suspect they were just behind. Kives was live-tweeting the update. 

So in all likelihood  the difference between the %14  reported by the U of S and Kives%18 is the lower amount probably doesn't include the ones by indigenous  communities. OR the U of S didn't have today's numbers although it said was reporting as of Friday at noon 

The big problem I see out here in the sticks is that the anti-maskers have been emboldened.  Buisnesses aren't enforcing their policies partly because of a lack of support from city/town councils and therefore local police as well. They are all, afraid of upsetting the fundamentalist church crowd. When the 3rd  wave hits it will come from the Southern  part of the province. My shot on Sunday can't come soon enough.