The Gaming Den

[Kaelik]

I think the answer is that Scandinavia is superior to the US, but Germany/France/England/Austria are pretty much on par with parts of the US. Since some states are ass, and some are not.

And yes, Eastern and Western Europe are completely different, and have completely different cultures.

Of course, so do the North East and the South East, and the West Coast, and the Midwest, and the flyover states.

That's the point, if you live in Germany, and you think you are so much better than New York, you are kinda wrong, and if your argument is that Kansas is a shithole, I would agree. But of course, I don't live in Kansas, and Kansas is completely different from New York, exactly like Germany or Switzerland is completely different from Moldova.
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[Lago PARANOIA]

[Maj]

[Maj]

[Doom]

Still a little steep, but at least a reasonable cost, when you consider she needs to pay off the doctor regularly to keep getting the pills.
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[Ted the Flayer]

[Ted the Flayer]

[The Vigilante]

[Kaelik]

[erik]

[Kaelik]

Do you avoid New York City? Because I hear they once had corrupt people at one time too.
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[erik]

I don't avoid NYC, though sadly I've never gotten to visit. I would like to someday. =-(

My continued avoidance of Louisiana (and I have had the opportunity to drive through but opted not to do so) has to do largely with that I haven't heard of it getting any better and in our worsening political/econimical climate, it sure doesn't seem likely to happen either. Here was their radical reform. Traffic stops are not allowed "to take longer than reasonably necessary to write a ticket". Yeah, I'm sure that with that will do it. Ugh. The only reasonable way to put the brakes on it is to remove the incentive to directly fund your department via forfeiture. But nobody wants to remove funding from law enforcement. That is political suicide. So yeah, I have reasonable concerns that this shit isn't gonna stop once it gets started.

In fact more states adopted similar asset forfeiture laws and now I don't know how many shitty places there are, but Louisiana is certainly one of them still. It certainly has spread to Texas. Leave it to Texas to do asset forfeiture on a grander scale.

Ah, looks like Louisiana isn't much better considering they are raking in more and more money via asset forfeiture. Strangely their law didn't stop or even slow the money flow.

I'm probably spoiled because Indiana police does not (yet) get to fund itself directly by stealing from citizens. Once that shit gets on the books then there is tremendous incentive to find ways to seize assets that before were not a priority.

Disclaimer: I don't know the records of any of these sites, they were just the first ones to come up with usable data.

[FrankTrollman]

[Pseudo Stupidity]

There's a severe lack of America lovin' going on in this thread.

Have you guys even seen Team America?

I will say I dislike NYC though. It's dirty and there are homeless people are all over the place (I don't hate the homeless, it's just depressing). I also dislike the massive crowd of people that is everywhere all the time. I guess there's some charm in that? People smell funny and are often rude, I can get along fine without bumping shoulders with hundreds of them a day.

I like being in good ol' NH. No sales tax, we have liquor stores on the highway and are just an all-around ballin' ass place to live. You know, if you don't mind the fucked up weather and occasional insanity in state government.

Snowstorm in October that knocks out power for a week? Yeah, we had that last year.

[Koumei]

[The Vigilante]

[erik]

Yah, my understanding is that in the U.S. generally police can ask you to verbally identify yourself (even this requires probable cause, which you can probably just assume they will be able to claim), but if you don't have ID on you, no worries, assuming you were not observed doing something that required that ID anyway.

http://flexyourrights.org/faq/When_do_I_have_to_show_ID

That site has all sorts of helpful info to U.S. residents for understanding how to deal with police in such a way that you really cut down your odds of being screwed.

[Koumei]

[Lago PARANOIA]

Quick aside: how does Canada and Japan compare to Scandanavia?
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[Koumei]

In Japan, "looking foreign" makes you the prime suspect in any crime in the local area where you happen to be, and can probably be thought of as the equivalent to carrying a pistol in America: not a crime in and of itself, but in conjunction with a crime/getting pulled over, is certainly going to be an aggravating factor.

If arrested, you have the right to not have a lawyer present when questioned (you cannot waive this right, so what I'm saying is "you don't get a lawyer") and you had better fucking have your ID on you or be able to call someone to bring it for you. Conviction rates are incredibly high for any crime where they arrest a suspect for questioning - equal parts "It's amazing what people confess to when locked in a room, restrained, with the police and no witnesses" and "The jury basically always rules in favour of the prosecution."

Apparently crime in general is pretty low there, although there is the perceived problem of delinquency (as with everywhere else in the world) as more students realise they basically aren't going to be able to get a job so they may as well drop out of school and enjoy a few years of freedom before "???" (or joining a family business). Also, more youths seem to be going around "looking like they're in a gang" ("American" haircuts, tattoos, riding around on scooters and other heinous activities). But you know what it's like, old people always complain that today's youth is a scourge on society and nothing like the old days.

Suicide is always high there, that could be due to a racial inclination to kill themselves at the drop of a hat (see: samurai committing sudoku seppuku all the time) or more likely school causing immense pressures on them, work being a hellish existence for many and so on. Come to think of it, a "kill yourself" gene probably wouldn't pass on that much, would it?

Note that I'm not just telling you stuff from Sankakucomplex or whatever, this is from the mouths of people who live there (with my own commentary mixed in) - though none of them is actually Japanese.
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[angelfromanotherpin]

[erik]

[Lago PARANOIA]

Man, we should really make another thread for this, but:

What's the deal with the U.S. Crime rate? Specifically, it's dropping. Like a hell of a lot. The crime rate in the United States has been plummeting very rapidly in the last couple of decades despite the ongoing drug wars (which leads to a much larger incarceration rate, but doesn't cause non-drug crime to rise as much as you'd think), the stalling out of the social safety net, and rising income inequality. There are a couple of other factors I think you can point to like the Clinton administration's putting extra police officers out on the streets and computerizing the executive branch (thus making their work more efficient) but the effect shouldn't be this large and sustained.

The only explanation I can think of for why this is the case is that homophobic, racist, and sexist attitudes are a lot lower for U.S. Gen X / Gen Y generations than Baby Boomers and Generation Jones and even though the United States' social factors would normally be a cocktail for vastly increased crime rates the de-bigotizing of society is (for now) a larger factor.

Alternatively, to spin this back into weaksauce attempt of staying on-topic, do you think it has to do with having safe access to abortion and birth control? Maybe, but the crime wave in the U.S. peaked in the 80s, well after Roe v. Wade.
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[virgil]

Maybe the increasingly draconian police activity and punishment is doing the job of reducing crime rate?
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[Koumei]

The crime rate is almost always dropping - it's unusual for it to actually spike, and tends to only happen when some big bad thing occurs that shakes everything up (for instance, it went through the holes in the roof during WWII, and that's not counting genocide and invasion as crimes, I just mean the sheer amount of burglary going on in Britain alone).

So chances are, this is just a case of "Crime rate going down again, situation normal". Remember, the bit where old people complain about how "crime rates are skyrocketing, and we know this because:

I saw graffiti on a fence

There are beer bottles lying beside the road

Kids are impolite

That neighbour is always screaming and swearing at her kids

I keep seeing groups of black people, together in numbers greater than 2 or 3!

Things cost more money, clearly a response to shoplifters!

There are a lot of fuckwits on the road

And it's been that way ever since we:

Gave black people rights

Gave women rights

Legalised sodomy as a lifestyle and not a sin

Stopped mandating everyone follow our Lord and Saviour

Stopped beating the shit out of children

Ended prohibition"

They're just complaining in general and can be safely ignored.
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