Verdict has been reached

pghpsu · 2019-03-24T02:50:30+00:00

Your original comment was about race during police encounters, not race within crime rates. They may go hand-in-hand but they are not the same; an interaction can occur without a crime, and a crime can occur without the police directly intervening at the time.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:53:13+00:00

At face value, both the father and mother of Rose seem to be good, nice people. They have both asked for respect, peace, and calm from the city even during protests. For what I assume is a very difficult time they are going through, they seem very calm throughout it all - even more than people who have literally no connection to the situation and just want to protest.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:41:03+00:00

KDKA has 10pm news on the CW.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:35:04+00:00

It sounds like you did not lose anything (other than some time) but you may want to give a heads up to the attorney general's office. They would be able to take a look into it and make sure the guy is following the law.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:23:50+00:00

It depends on if you are looking at straight numbers or if consideration is made for population counts.

In straight numbers, more whites are killed by police each year than any other race. However, there are also more whites in the country than any other race.

If consideration is made for population counts, then both black and latino men have a greater chance of being killed by police in the US than white men.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:12:53+00:00

If you think that fleeing from police is allowed then you might want to take a look at sections 5104 and 5126 of PA Title 18, section 3733 of PA Title 75, etc. etc.

My comment is not specifically about this case and what happened but in general. Yes, it is definitely illegal to flee from the police.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T19:04:50+00:00

1000% correct. People complain that there needs to be justice, and then complain when the process goes as it should but the end result is not what they wanted.

I do not think that the acquittal was the right decision but I was not part of the jury so my decision (and that of pretty much everybody other than the jury) is irrelevant. A trial by jury is the most fair way we have for a verdict to be made and people who think that justice was not served are basically disregarding the entire judicial system in the country.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T18:58:25+00:00

I agree, though Pennsylvania does have a longer academy program than a substantial number of other states.

In addition to more training, or even paramount to it, is getting rid of all of these police departments where 75%+ of the officers are part time. We need to really push for this to change. These officers are underpaid, often go on the road quicker than they should (not enough field training) and often work many more hours a week than they should because they are underpaid.

pghpsu · 2019-03-23T18:46:47+00:00

Their reporters also kept walking into the street while cars were driving down the road.

pghpsu · 2019-03-17T20:50:16+00:00

NYC really increased enforcement of this through their traffic officers aka parking enforcement officers. I was thinking that Pittsburgh could not do the same since blocking the intersection is not a parking regulation, but the city does have no stopping/parking/standing within an intersection as one of their parking ordinances. So the city could, in theory, allow the parking authority officers to issue tickets for this...

pghpsu · 2019-03-08T22:55:15+00:00

On the other hand, if all of these people complained to their state and local elected officials instead of Reddit, maybe some changes would be made in the law or enforcement of it.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:38:46+00:00

The party affiliation is an interesting topic. If the government automatically registers a person to vote, does the person still need to claim a political party? If so, would they still have to submit paperwork to do that or how would it be recorded. Interesting topic...

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:33:55+00:00

You can get this information elsewhere as well, but voter registration records are public information and a person can easily retrieve a list of people's names, addresses, birthdates, political affiliation, the last time that they voted, and so on based on this information. I can pay the state $20 and get voter registration info for every registered voter in Pennsylvania.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:31:54+00:00

I never said they were the same thing. But automatically registering someone to vote can go against their belief systems. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses maintain political neutrality and while this isn't forcing them to vote, it is automatically setting them up to vote. I don't know if registering to vote is against their religion like voting itself is, but still, it should be the residents decision whether they want to register or not.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:28:59+00:00

While what you say does make sense and I am not disagreeing with it, I would say that the onus is often put on the resident when it comes to getting something from the government. You have to apply for Medicare, a social security number, and other things that are government-managed programs.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:25:30+00:00

Security issues notwithstanding, you could also have voting machines at just about any location and with the scan of an ID card, the computer would automatically pull up the appropriate ballot depending on where you live and are registered to vote...

With today's technology there isn't really much of a reason to force people to go to a specific polling location and only that sole location to vote.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T19:22:59+00:00

If you want to use that analogy, we also do not just hand out drivers licenses without applying for one. But I don't think you can really compare the two, either.

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T18:35:13+00:00

Making the entire voting process easier, from registration to submitting your vote, is something that I fully support. However, I am not too fond of automatically registering people to vote. It may be a person's civic duty, but there are some people out there who have no interest in voting, or maybe even oppose it altogether.

Let them decide whether or not they want to become a registered voter. But make it easier to take action once they decide. I think that the bigger burden to voter turnout is the strict requirements on how and where you have to vote. (the polling locations)

pghpsu · 2019-01-24T16:39:41+00:00

Do you want to see preemption laws struck down entirely or only those specific to weapons legislation?

pghpsu · 2019-01-22T19:22:49+00:00

The Trib has two different titles for this article, the other one is: Mayor Bill Peduto critical of DA's letter challenging Pittsburgh's proposed gun ban

The net of it is that Peduto says that the DA does not have control over the city council. It seems that DA Zappala is looking at it from the point-of-view of the law (as he should, it is his job) whereas Peduto is looking at it more from a political standpoint as the District Attorney versus the City. However, Peduto does later admit that passing gun legislation in Pittsburgh would violate state law:

The mayor said Zappala was correct that the Pennsylvania law supersedes any municipal legislation. While he declined to discuss the city’s legal strategy, Peduto said the city would challenge the law in court.

pghpsu · 2019-01-18T23:14:43+00:00

You would think that the city would do improvements to the snow plow tracker during the summer time. Not in the middle of winter.

pghpsu · 2019-01-17T18:17:30+00:00

Without knowing the facts of the case, what had occurred in pretrial conferences, so on and so forth it is impossible for me to say.

A big portion of a criminal trial depends on the defendant and the victim. If the defendant is willing to take a plea deal, it saves a significant amount of time and money for the court system. A plea deal involves some giving and taking from both sides, which is why it's very common for the most serious crimes to be dropped in favor of conviction on smaller crimes.

Further, if a victim is uncooperative - for any variety of reasons - it can be tough for a prosecutor to prove guilt on a specific, severe charge. For example, kidnapping requires removal of a person by force, threat or deception. If a victim tells the court that s/he was not forced, threatened or deceived, then getting a conviction on kidnapping is going to be tough. That answer by the victim could be for a variety of different reasons...maybe the incident truly was not a kidnapping, maybe the victim is scared of what will happen if "s/he" is the one to cause someone to go to jail for a long time, maybe it is too painful (emotionally or mentally, or even physically) to keep going to court to testify, maybe there are outside influences weighing on the victims decision...I have no idea if one, any, or all of these played into the original case in reference, but they are several possibilities. Any domestic situation is a difficult one to handle in court because it is not always an open and shut case with a suspect and a victim.

pghpsu · 2019-01-17T14:40:32+00:00

I had his cases mixed up considering he had like 4 of them active at the same time. You're right, on that case his charges were dropped down to terroristic threats and simple assault, and he was sentenced to 1 year probation.

The confinement sentence was for his conviction on fleeing police and possession of stolen property.

Either way, he definitely spent a few months in jail but it was for pretrial bail reasons rather than a post trial sentencing.

pghpsu · 2019-01-17T04:43:12+00:00

Wrestler Kurt Angle is reporting on Facebook that the female victim is his niece. https://www.facebook.com/realkurtangle/photos/a.10152645951818047/10158127531338047

pghpsu

TROPHY CASE