• seathru@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 months ago

    Sorry guys, rent-a-cops don’t get the same murder privileges. Imagine going to prison for a hotel chain.

      • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        i wouldn’t say a lot. you’d be amazed how massive the private security industry is. it’s mostly shit jobs that pay pile 15/hr for you to watch cameras and occasionally scan little wall dots to prove you walked down a hall.

        my old roommate did this kind of security for a different building in Milwaukee. none of his coworkers were cops, nor were they trained in any meaningful way.

        • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I knew a guy who had masters degree in philosophy that worked as a security guard. Turns out that the job market isn’t great for philosophers.

        • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Our security guard spends most of his time chasing away fentanyl addicts shooting up inside our elevator and cleaning up poop from them after they devour tubs and tubs of ice cream (they poop in our parking garage stairway every single day).

          Also, calling the police and helping to coordinate cleanup in the daily car break ins we have at the office. My boss had his truck windows smashed 5 times since 2021.

          So yes, some security officers actually do real work. Ours doesn’t even carry a gun and said he would not physically interact with anyone unless someone’s life was on the line.

      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        I would say their qualified immunity shouldn’t apply to their off-duty actions, but I wouldn’t be so sure, and also I’m not American.

      • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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        4 months ago

        Off duty cops get a waaaay higher wage than regular security guards. Most security guards are paid around $14-$20 an hour from what I’ve seen in my state.

        A lot of companies are too cheap to pay for the off duty cops.

  • Kelly Aster 🏳️‍⚧️@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Check out how news orgs are covering this story.

    Associated Press: “Milwaukee hotel employees fired after death of Black man who was pinned to the ground”

    NBC: “Video shows Black man being pinned down by Milwaukee hotel security shortly before death”

    CBS: “Milwaukee hotel workers fired after death of Black man pinned down outside”

    ABC: “Al Sharpton to deliver eulogy for Black man who died after being held down by Milwaukee hotel guards”

    CNN: “A Black man died after he was pinned to the ground by security guards at a Milwaukee hotel. Now his family wants answers”

    Fox 6 Milwaukee: “Hyatt Regency Milwaukee death; man’s family gathers outside hotel”

    Fox News: “”

    These are the earliest stories posted by each outlet that I could find. The headlines speak volumes. The local Fox affiliate omits the fact that the man was black in the headline, and Fox News has yet to acknowledge it even happened, which was 12 days ago (June 30). I’m sure they’ll get around to it, though.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Fox news is probably hard at work trying to find pictures of him on social media with a gun, or drugs, or anything that gives them the “he was no angel” narrative

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Literally. This isn’t even a joke, I guarantee there are people doing this as we speak.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          Yep, because it is extremely effective on their base. Any reason they can discount a person as a bad one, or as a “criminal,” makes them a sub-human animal whose rights and worth can be completely disregarded.

          I can hear some of my conservative family now. “Oh he got killed? WELL I GUESS HE SHOULDN’T HAVE CHOSEN TO STEAL/TAKE DRUGS/BE BLACK/BE A CRIMINAL HUH?!?”

        • pyre@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          yeah i wasn’t making a joke either, they do this every time, the fact that they haven’t reported on this just indicates to me they haven’t found anything yet

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      All of them seem to be using the passive voice to. They should say something akin to “Video shows security guard pinning and killing black man.”

      • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s standard practice as you can’t say that the guard killed him until he’s actually been convicted.

        • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Using an active voice is perfectly fine. The standard practice is to use the term alleged if there is a possible crime. Saying “Security guard pins black man and man dies” is absolutely fine.

        • Katana314@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Hence why it was so incredibly satisfying to get the ruling on George Floyd, and henceforth officially refer to it as “the police murder of George Floyd” - a lot of people will even forcefully correct anyone that tries to refer to it as ‘tragic death’ or ‘accidental death’.

        • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Killing isn’t a legal designation. You can factually say that someone killed a another person without calling what they did murder or manslaughter.

          • prole@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            I was thinking along the same lines… but I don’t think I’d want anyone to be able to publicly label me a killer if it hasn’t been proven yet that I actually killed a person. Maybe there was a second person who actually did it and bailed before the cops showed up and this person was wrong place, wrong time. Not even saying that’s the case in this example (probably isn’t), but we still need to treat it the same as any other.

            Manslaughter hasn’t been proven yet either; until they’re convicted, it’s all “alleged.”

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Have you heard about the guy who police poked gently several times in the head with copper clad lead rods? He actually fell tragically to his death.

      Then there was another instance where a guy fell asleep forever right after cops made big noises coming from their hands.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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      4 months ago

      Why does it matter that the guy was black?

      How about something like:

      Hotel guards kill father of two, holding him down while he cries for help.

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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          4 months ago

          I’m not trolling, I read the article and a few things stood out.

          This guy has two kids, I have 3 at similar ages, he has a family that loved him. The article states he had some mental health issues, but doesn’t go into how severe (I assume low level, otherwise it would have stated it). It says that he was unarmed, you know what American gun culture fucks up to many things for you, this shouldn’t even be a point of note.

          The least interesting thing about a murder victim should be their race. Would it make any difference if he was Chinese, Indian or Samoan? A man was killed, his kids will miss him, is family will morn him.

          As for

          You know exactly why it matters.

          I have an idea why you think it matters, I know why I think it doesn’t. If this was a race based killing, that can be taken into account at sentencing.

          • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            I have an idea why you think it matters, I know why I think it doesn’t. If this was a race based killing, that can be taken into account at sentencing.

            There’s a pattern of disproportionate use of force against black folks by police in the US. I’m not going to argue with you about that fact. You either know it’s true, or will not be swayed by any evidence I present anyhow. And when police kill someone who may be yet another example of this, it matters and is worth including.

            • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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              4 months ago

              I know I shouldn’t engage.

              But how exactly is it racist, to be concerned with the fact that a murder occurred. I don’t find murder a political issue.

              Why do you think murder is political?

              • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                how exactly is it racist, to be concerned with the fact that a murder occurred.

                Is that actually what you think the disagreement is about? Be honest now, is this really what you think you’re being criticized for? Being concerned about murder?

                You dismissed the relevance that a white security guard killed an unarmed black suspect, in an era where armed white men regularly killed unarmed black men with impunity.

                I don’t find murder a political issue. Why do you think murder is political?

                This is a weird response. I never said anything was “political”, I said that your rigid insistence on colorblindness in the case of a white armed security guard restraining and killing an unarmed black man is inherently racist because you seek to invalidate any claim of racial bias despite plenty of evidence that these situations are heavily influenced by racial bias.

                You’re asking people to look the other way at an event that is being compared to the murder of George Floyd.

                If anything, you seem conspicuously unconcerned about the nature of this murder.

                If you think that Black lives are inherently “political”, I am happy to reiterate my assessment that you are a racist person.

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                You’re so bad at this. Just say it with your full chest, my dude. We all know it already, and I’m sure the people in your real life know it.

                Racists are always the biggest fucking pussies about honestly expressing their own world view and ideology.

              • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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                4 months ago

                Why do you think murder is political?

                Why do you think racial injustice is about politics not basic human rights and decency?

          • Zink@programming.dev
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            4 months ago

            If this was a race based killing, that can be taken into account at sentencing.

            Oh so you think that racism should be an aggravating factor in sentencing? That sounds like it would be inconsistent with your other statements here. I would expect something like “why is there a lesser punishment for killing a white person you hate than killing a black person you hate?”

      • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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        4 months ago

        “White folks don’t get in disturbances in Milwaukee?” Sharpton said during the funeral. “Do y’all throw white folks to the ground and put your knee on their neck? The sentence for disturbance is death?”

        This is the reason.

      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Probably because it might have been a hate crime and might have done it for hate reasons, and maybe they will do it again unless they are held accountable. That would be my guess.

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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          4 months ago

          Shouldn’t they be held accountable for killing a human?

          I thought murder was bad, as a general rule.

          • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Murder once is bad, yeah, of course. You know what’s worse than one murder? Multiple murders, because the person wasn’t stopped.

            • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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              4 months ago

              Agreed.

              Have the two men in this instance killed before? I didn’t get that from the article.

              • CreativeShotgun@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                Cops keep murdering people, the same people too, the same evil fucks killing under the same pretenses. There’s a fucking tendency to kill certain people, wake up

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                let’s pretend statistics don’t exist because the reality of their implications makes me uncomfortable.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Because police encounters with black people has been an ongoing issue since they were brought over on boats to the united states.

        Many studies have highlighted disparities in how black people are treated.

        For instance: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/

        Black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers examined 5,494 police-related deaths in the U.S. between 2013 and 2017. Rates of deadly police encounters were higher in the West and South than in the Midwest and Northeast, according to the study. Racial disparities in killings by police varied widely across the country, with some metropolitan areas showing very high differences between treatment by race. Black Chicagoans, for example, were found to be over 650% more likely to be killed by police than white Chicagoans.

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        So humans often study patterns in human behavior in order to gain insight into things like group dynamics, sometimes even as a profession. Crazy right?

        And others try to use that data to try and correct historical injustices and atrocities we’ve made against marginalized people. That, I know for sure, is crazy to you.

        I’m sure you think this is all just “virtue signalling,” which says a lot about you.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    Witness video shows Dvontaye Mitchell, 43, lying on the ground and crying for help outside the Hyatt Regency hotel as security guards pin him down with their hands and knees. Mitchell can be heard grunting and yelling apologies.

    What makes people like this? What kind of disease infects their minds that makes them capable of doing this to a fellow human being? That’s not just standard racism. It’s inhuman.

    • nifty@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      A lot of time, the justification to dehumanize comes from the news media, a religious figure, or some close relationships. Treating someone like they’re subhuman is a cultural thing, and people who do it do so with the understanding that they can “get away” with it because they have safety in numbers

    • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      Psychopathy is shockingly common. Technically, only 5% of people are full-blown psychopaths, but like all brain disorders it’s a spectrum, and everyone falls somewhere on that spectrum. At least 30% of the population exhibits sub-diagnostic psychopathic traits, such as an indifference to lying or a lack of moral compunction.

      What people don’t understand about psychopathy is that it presents as an indifference (or an unresponsiveness) to empirical and normative facts. That is why psychopaths just do whatever feels good (which might include tormenting others), why they might be obsessed with money or power other pleasure-oriented goals.

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      The rules of war should be taught to all authority figures, they should also be forced to abide by them.

      Once an enemy has been rendered combat ineffective, you are required to stop fighting them and render aid and security to them.

    • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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      4 months ago

      Geee I wonder, maybe it’s the rampant disassociation with real tangible society and social norms, increasing calls for violence by political figures/service in the military, mental health crisis, I mean…

      Really just take your pick. The reality is that society is not being treated and/or seeking treatment for mental disorders and are too busy stuffing their faces with addiction of a wide variety.

      We are not okay.

  • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    hotel guards

    What the actual fucking fuck is wrong with your society that you need fucking hotel guards?

    • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Hotels/inns/taverns having dedicated security is pretty universal since like always? I’m not defending what happened here in any way, but balking at the idea security guards in general feels almost hilariously naive.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Hotels/inns/taverns having dedicated security is pretty universal

        Well you must live in a different universe to the rest of us then, cos I’ve never seen one in my entire life

        • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Again, hilariously naive. “I’ve never seen one so they must not exist!”

          Also I think you’re hearing ‘guard’ and thinking something adjacent to uniformed, armed police. Which is not the case. Think bouncer at a bar, not mall cops with guns.

          And if you’re dismayed that society has become ‘so fucked up’ that we need security measures in places where lots of people from disparate backgrounds gather and share a roof. I’m sorry but you’ve missed the boat by a few thousand years.

          • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            The society I live in doesn’t have them, and being a well travelled gent, I’ve never seen a bouncer anywhere except a club.

            Don’t accuse society of being “so fucked up” when it’s just a tiny, tiny percentage of the planet

            • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              You literally started this entire exchange with calling society fucked up enough to need security at a hotel. You are a human being on the planet earth, your society has them, our society has them and has for a very long time. If you’re going to refuse actually engaging in the subject of discussion and just say ‘nuh uh’ over and over, we’re done here.

              • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                My society doesn’t have them. No society I’ve ever visited needed them.

                What is it about yours that a) you need them, and b) you think they’re ubiquitous when they most definitely aren’t?

      • exanime@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Hmmm maybe in America?

        In Canada I can’t remember the last (or first) time I saw a rent a cop in a hotel

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      What fancy country are you from?

      Hell, I was just down in Ecuador and the 7-11s had armed security guards… usually more than one.

      The hotels had armed soldiers, with rifles.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      We don’t take care of people with mental health problems, or the homeless, or make sure people can have a living wage so there’s all kinds of reasons you might need security in a place like that. Especially if it’s in a city where more people with those problems are in closer proximity. Security shouldn’t be killing people though.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Like the case in Kent, WA a few weeks ago where a Ln off work security guard murdered a teen who was returning an airsoft pistol to a sporting goods store because he thought he was going to rob the place. He is being charged with murder. It should be no surprise that the victim had brown skin which likely played into why the guy thought he was going to rob the place. I’m sure the guy wanted to be the good guy and save the day but he had access to a gun and became a murderer instead.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      We should never assume the best in cases of homicide. The cops have taught us that quite clearly. Maybe he wanted to be a hero, or maybe he wanted an excuse to shoot someone and took the first chance he got.