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Jul 19, 2021
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Rebecca's avatar

"Virtue signalling is a public expression of a moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating one's own good character."

There's literally nothing like that anywhere in this article.

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Vida Galore's avatar

I agree. I don't know what article these folks think they read.

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NotEnoughTime's avatar

Here is one. Without giving any written consideration to whether the following was true or not about crime demographics:

"One whistleblower officer named Pedro Serrano recorded a precinct superior instructing the troops in how to choose targets for stops, saying, “The problem is what…? I have no problem telling you this, male blacks, fourteen to twenty, , twenty one.”"

If it was a true or dishonest quote...we don't know because the author is simply virtue signaling through a quote out of context.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

What's the proper context?

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NotEnoughTime's avatar

Uh, how about the context in which the quote was spoken? Was he warning someone of a valid safety concern, for instance? Or was this during a cadet training exercise and the statistics don't back up the claim? Nobody knows without context.

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Harry Hood's avatar

"Pedro Serrano recorded a precinct superior instructing the troops in how to choose targets for stops" - this is the context.

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NotEnoughTime's avatar

Again, conveniently the validity of the supperior's statement is disregarded. We have who, where, when but not WHAT or WHY. Is WHAT was said true based on data and the WHY because they were relaying important info to cadets? Or does relevant data and statistical analysis oppose the statement, and they were simply being bigoted? Very different contexts. We may not like hearing such statements, but if they pass Socrates' three way test and may help those cadets keep themselves and the community safe, then it should be said. As it stands, this is the worst kind of virtue signaling -when you disregard the truth tables because your premise is conveniently supported by an implication.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

I'm asking you to tell me what the context was. Without that knowledge, we'd have to guess and I'd guess, given what I do know of such practices as Stop & Frisk, it was just normal police business. You seemed to be asserting there was some special context. Sure, we can all speculate, but as S&P was a common practice the speculation does not seem called for. It's not a matter of the cops' bigotry, it was something invented and called for by elected politicians under a certain theory of public order.

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NotEnoughTime's avatar

You're merely parroting the author. I'm a reader, not responsible for providing the lacking details or providing nuanced facts. I would debate on the 'theory of public order' point' but you only seem to be trying to appear smart, I'm not sure truth matters as much.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

I _am_ smart, so when I appear smart, I probably can't help it. But I am surprised you say "parroting the author". Which one? I thought I was criticizing both or all.

The theory of public order I was thinking of is related to the broken windows thing, only it's a bit more Freudian (as I heard it) and was called "seeking the Father", that is, doing crimes or other disorderly or offensive behaviors precisely in order to invoke the attention and discipline of authority -- presumably patriarchal authority, given its name. Following this theory, if you harass the undesirables you will make them aware that authority is there, etc. I was dubious about the theory when I heard of it, but similar ideas do seem to recur regularly and are often popular politically because they designate an outgroup (usually defined by race, ethnicity, class, etc. etc.) which can be blamed and scapegoated. As I'm saying, it is not the particular racism of the police but rather of the local ruling class and the people who support them.

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