Drones and cops

For the first time a drone was used to kill a person in the United States by police.  In this case it was the active shooter who shot police in Dallas Texas.  This is history making.

Now I do not celebrate death of anyone including a murderer.  However, it is important to note that a drone (one typically used to disarm bombs) was used to detonate a bomb close enough to the suspect to kill him.  It is these kinds of situations where a shooter holds an advantageous position that drones in my opinion should be used in place of an officer.  If police went in to apprehend the shooter, the shooter would have opened fire, potentially killed more police, and the cops would have shot the shooter anyway.  In essence the shooter was most likely going to die anyway.  And this is exactly the kind of jobs drones excel at.  They perform the dull, the dirty and of course the DANGEROUS.  Once a suspect is determined to be nonnegotiable and is a danger to police and those around them, then a drone should be sent in to settle the matter.   It was excellent police work by cops, in my opinion, in order to protect themselves and other innocents in the area.  

This however sets a precedent where cops may begin deploying drones more readily to "end" incidents.  As such this particular incident must be looked at with close scrutiny to help develop standards and procedures for when drones may be used to exhibit deadly force.  If not developed carefully by using the Dallas shooter situation as a case study, then the drones may be abused with respect to lethal capacity.  Remember, drones were originally used in war as recon machines and to disarm bombs which correlated directly with what police do in various situations.  Now the drone’s capacity for killing is being explored as well.

Final Thought:  Like I said, we must be careful so as to not screw this up.  Cops know this was an extreme situation and they also know this is going to change how they operate.  So cops, and lawmakers are going to have to decide how to use this "tool" in future situations.  I am glad it exists for it will protect more lives, but the potential for abuse and misuse is still there.  Thankfully I have faith in police to do the right thing. 

Should Cops wear cameras?

After all the incidents and questions of innocence or guilt between Black Americans and cops I feel cops have to wear cameras.  Not to protect the people from the cops, but to protect the cops.

An audio/visual camera recording a cop constantly especially during an incident can mean all the difference in keeping a cop out of jail in these situations where onlookers can be confused or misinterpret what is going on between a cop and an individual they are interacting with.  But to do this, a 360 degree view is needed and really good microphones.  So we would be able to see what happened in the Ferguson shooting, or the shooting in Dallas from the cops’ point of view.  No longer will we question what a cop is saying or what the suspect is doing/saying as we will get a clearer picture of who and what cops are dealing with.  It even may help with investigators seeing things they may have missed and can also help in court cases with the claims of suspects and inmates who resist while being detained and the public having a conversation on uses of force by police.  Basically a camera and microphone covers all the bases with respect to covering the cops from being harmed in the public eye.

Police may even begin to announce what they are doing to clarify what is going on via these cameras so that people who do not know of police tactics or procedures can readily understand why cops do what they do.  Basically it will aid in clearing up misunderstandings.  Also, a 360 degree camera may aid in identifying witnesses and cameras in the back of police cars and on and in police vehicles will help with cases like with the death of Freddy Grey.  

Final Thought:  Cameras and microphones can give us a 360 degree view of the world around a police officer.  They can even identify where a particular sound is coming from and from whom via technology and with a heads up display can warn officers of approaching danger from behind.  We can protect our police and even eliminate the select minority of bad officers who abuse their power.  Let us end the confusion and the potential race war by giving our cops a tool to help protect themselves.

On the Cops and Shootings

This is entirely my opinion and mine alone as a reaction to the violence going on between Black Americans and Police.  

I am watching the news and all I am seeing right now is misunderstanding, hate and anger.  If the cops in question are guilty, then let the system work. We must have faith in a jury, people chosen for their neutrality to judge innocence or guilt based on facts and arguments.  Yes, I know historically Black Americans did not get fair trials and likewise evil men got away with murder of black Americans.  I know my history, but we live in a different America where whites and blacks serve on the same jury and a consensus has to be reached.  In other words whites and blacks on a jury have to be unanimous for such trails in judging innocence or guilt.  So why are we not relying on the jury to decide?  Why are people commuting acts of violence against cops who had nothing to do with the indecent in question?  Those officers should not have been murdered in Dallas Texas or other places in the country.  We are not in a race war, but if we continue down this path then we may just end up in one.  

The media is not helping at all in disarming this violence.  All they show is an indecent without adding context.  As such all we see on the media is a black man being killed without knowing the circumstances.  Is not the media supposed to help report what goes on and provide all the facts they know as the first recorders of history?  I think they are, but all I see is a commentator making up a play by play of a man being shot.

Final Thought:  I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be crying.  I think he would be asking where is the love for each other that overcomes violence and hate.  But no, we stab each other in the back because of a perception that people are out to get Black Americans, when I don't think they are.  I think the officers are scared because a country is turning on them which makes them jumpy.  I think they are victims too of laws that force police into confrontation with people who commit what are known as victimless crimes which in my opinion should not be crimes at all.  Our country is in pain and we must try to remember what we learned from Jesus and reiterated through Dr. King, to solve hate with love, to solve injustice with justice.

Living the Milgram Experiment

The "Milgram experiment" (look it up, it’s interesting) was a series of tests done at Yale University to see how willing people are to Obey someone in authority.  In the tests, a man (who was actually an actor) was put in a booth, and the unknowing test subject was set up as a questioner.  The test subject would ask questions of the person in the booth and if the person in the booth got the questions wrong they would get shocked, with each wrong answer causing the shock to be worse than the last one.  Next to the questioner would be the authority figure.  As the test was conducted the questioner, at the urging of the person playing the authority figure would continue shocking the person in the booth even when the person in the booth begged for the test to be over due to the pain of the shocks they were receiving (the shocks were of course fake as the person in the booth is an actor, but the test subject has no knowledge of this).  At some point the actor would stop responding to indicate they were passed out, at which time the authority figure would urge more shocks because of the failure to respond to the questioning.  Our test subjects continued to shock the passed out person and then the person in the booth (our actor) let out a dramatic scream to indicate the test subject had shocked them to death.  

Surprisingly the test results show that we human beings have a tendency to listen to authority figures.  Of the 40 subjects, 26 administered the lethal dose, but all subjects in the course of the experiment at some point questioned the experiment and apparently exhibited emotional distress.  Milgram would repeat the experiment with some colleges around the world with similar results (he and his colleges even tried it in groups of people).  Basically the reason why the Germans obeyed the NAZI's is because of this psychological flaw that we have.  Now the question is, are we being told what to believe even by people who want the best for us?

I say yes.  President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and those in power have the same authority and position that many of the world’s greatest heroes and villains had.  When Obama says Republicans are bad, how many think long enough to question him?  When Trump says to ban Muslims for a time, how many cheer?  We allowed concentration camps to exist in America during WWI and WWII for those people we perceived as our enemies (German, Italian, and Japanese concentration camps to name a few).  And do you know who gave the order for those to exist, President Woodrow Wilson, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  People in authority ordered us to do things even though at the most basic level we knew it was wrong.  President Bush and our Republican and Democrat lawmakers ordered the spying on American citizens via the Patriot act.  And we blindly follow these authority figures by justifying our actions by citing things like safety, comfort and at times even greed.

Final Thought:  We have a problem.  Maybe we listen too much to authority.  On top of this, we give radicals like Trump and Hillary our tacit consent to seize property, ban our freedoms and harm individual groups simply because it is convenient.  I think we rely on them so much that we think they are indispensable.  Truth is the old boss is the same as the new boss and is the same as every other boss.  They are expendable and our politicians don't even realize that is what they were designed to be with respect to being public servants.  It is time we questioned everything and stop listening to people who tell us to throw away our morals and our ethics.

Religious/Ethics in the Workplace

Taken from an Economist Article subtitled "Cross the Boss" it looks at how displaying religious values and ethics in the workplace affects how you are treated there.  Here are the conclusions of what that study revealed as conducted by Ms. Sreedhari Desai of the University of North Carolina.

Bosses ask employees to do unscrupulous things.  Nine percent of American employees said that managers pressured them to do things that violated their beliefs (Ethics and Compliance initiative).  However, this was not the case of those employees displaying religious symbols on their desk/person, or having a virtuous quote in their emails.  In these cases the study showed that the boss was less likely to ask them to act unethically.  Even simple displays of religious symbols in the workplace impacted the managers want or desire to ask employees to do unethical things, but when symbol actually belonged to the employee, then the boss was even less likely to ask that particular individual.  Basically, if you do not want your moral compass violated by a boss, then display you faith proudly.  Both Americans and Indians (people of India for those who cannot differentiate the term from Native Americans alternative post-colonial name) were used in these studies.

Interestingly bosses who were religious were more likely to discriminate in favor of those who openly share their faith via symbols as opposed to people who displayed nothing.  As such, people who hide their faith or have none were at a disadvantage to the openly religious people in this situation.

In contrast white collar people in India did not give preference or discriminate as much compared to their American counterparts with respect to if they shared the same religion.  Instead Muslims in India were more likely to respect people displaying their Christian or Hindi symbols.  Thus this demonstrates to me that it is partly culture and religious values that impact how people are treated in the workplace.

Final Thought:  Interesting isn't it.  People will be less likely (at least in the U.S.) to pressure you to do unethical things simply by displaying your faith visually and shield you from work place pressures.  Food for thought.

Respect those older than yourself

People older than us have experience and wisdom that only we younger people can only hope to have.  I used to think differently when I was younger, but then I noticed changes in myself from year to year and began to understand.  I understood that people older than yourself should be respected because they are more knowledgeable due to life experience.  Now why is this important?

This is important because of the knowledge we can obtain from them.  Sure, they may have some facts wrong or they perceive things differently but their opinions and knowledge hold value which can be used by those younger than them.  Basically, I talked even more with the seniors in my family and took in their stories and their experiences and learned from them whatever I could.  Actually it is part of why I know even half of what I know today.  Some cultures and groups recognize this such as people of Spanish, Japanese and Chinese decent.  When they walk into a room, they will go to great the person who is the oldest in the room first and then make their way down based on age.  It is a way of paying homage to the life of those older than.  Some people even take this a step further by worshiping their ancestors in a form of ancestor worship.  They have shrines to their dead family members and pray to them for help and guidance.  

Now what if the whole world did this.  What if we remembered the people in our family for the deeds they did and the knowledge they passed on and wrote it down.  It would resemble a Bible, save for the fact that it was written based on the knowledge and life experiences of our current and past members of our family.  No, it would not be just the good deeds, but the bad deeds as well so that we remember them so they are not repeated.  A shrine to our own ancestors works too to show respect to the people who guided us in life.

Final thought:  This can lay the foundation for a more respectful and peaceful society.  No one wants to be remembered for being stupid, or even being evil.  They would rather be respected by those around them.  As such, showing respect to those older than you (obviously as long as that respect is not abused) can lead society down a more enlightened path.  We can all become Confucius, Buddha and more.  Rather than creating a faith, we can turn men and women into idols even after death in a more pronounced way where our ancestors are worshiped and mimicked like they were deities.  Will they ever replace Jesus?  Heck no, at least not in my book, but for those who don't have faith and those who need that extra motivation to be morally and ethically better, it could do wonders.

Happy July 4th

America is another year older and still one of the most successful Republics in the world.

So on this Fourth of July I would like to say thank you.

Thank you to the Founding Fathers and their families for their sacrifices.

Thank you to our Soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice both during the Revolution and to the Present.

Additionally, I want to thank all the inventors, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and all the dreamers that built this nation.

Thank you all for the country I grew up in and for its limitless future.

Happy 4th of July and God Bless.