(07-18-2023, 10:59 AM)NYC4jags Wrote:

(07-18-2023, 08:23 AM)Lucky2Last Wrote: They've only been collecting the data for 5 years, so what you see is what you get. If the y axis was 12,154, that would make it look worse than it is, but whatever. Keep fighting the good fight, man. 

Also, don't say stupid [BLEEP] like, We don't know if sworn police officers are getting more specialized. Say, YOU don't know if sworn police officers are getting more specialized. It's there to find if you go look for it. 

This is just bad policy, and it doesn't matter if we live in Chicago. We can point to it and say "I told you so," because we're hoping you ostriches can pull your heads out of the sands long enough to acknowledge the problem. Your ignorance is not my ignorance.

The bolded makes zero sense in context. You may be confusing me with someone else you're debating? 
Or attributing something in a linked article to me personally? No idea what that's about. 

And, it's fine if you want to call me ignorant because I prefer to take facts at face value opposed to the way you want to spin them into something else. Have at it. I can deal with it. 

The bottom line here for me is that Chicago has a crime problem. It's had one for as long as I can remember, and it is even worse now. 
Even though the annual police budget in Chicago has increased throughout all of this, it may need to increase more for them to bring crime levels back to "normal" parameters. 
Nothing wrong with that. 
But that is not a dynamic that anyone in their right mind would label as a "defunding" unless they were trying to hyperbolize and politicize the roots of the problem.  All of this is magnified because Chicago had a mayor who threatened a "defunding" quite publicly but ended up marginally trimming the increase in budget to a lesser increase. She brought ire from the right, and here we are.

Of course the headline of this thread here (that calssicly misused the "woke " term, and the article in the OP isn't saying that ^ it's spewing a bunch of fear and hyperbole instead.
You want to attack me for giving context to a bunch of hyperbolic blathering? Go for it. 
I think all of the fear-mongering, ranting, and frothing at the mouth around here could use some perspective sometimes.  Glad you enjoyed this tiny dose of it enough to call me stupid and ignorant. 

Also, please feel free to quote me ever jumping on any of the defunding bandwagons. 
Every budget should be scrutinized, police or otherwise, but I've never been a proponent of taking cops off the streets. I've only ever spoken up for reform in recruitment and training of officers (which would require MORE funding)  - and for cutting the fat out of unnecessary expenses like some these suburban police forces all over the country buying up armored personnel carriers and giant arsenals of tactical gear/ weaponry so they can play toy soldier running drills on their off days. 

The only thing I'm trying to actively defund is my HOA.

Well, I would hope that it makes zero sense, since I was specifically replying to Mikey. I don't think of you as ignorant. I think you're a smart guy that does his due diligence by reading up on issues which should be packaged and condensed into bite sized chunks by journalists who thoroughly understand the issues. Unfortunately, the media is bought and paid for. They don't do their research, and they cherry pick facts, and they pit us against one another. I agree those headlines are hyperbolic, but there is one side of the aisle that is clanging the gongs, begging the left to slow down, and there is another side of the aisle that is really good at giving platitudes as they bulldoze their ideology through the Western landscape, which often doesn't end up doing the things they claim. 

The bolded part made me lol.

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