hey, we used to be the heroin capital a few years ago.>> ^chingalera:

>> ^lurgee:
I really loathe my CUNTry.

Hometown of Disneyland ain't shit compared to the crackdown party the cops'll have in Sunny Baltimore...

>> ^lurgee:

I really loathe my CUNTry.


Hometown of Disneyland ain't shit compared to the crackdown party the cops'll have in Sunny Baltimore...

The other video wasn't a hate crime IMO, nor in the majority view of commenters, FWIW. The best quote from that link:

>> ^longde:

Anyone who looks soft will be a victim in the rough hoods of Baltimore [...] Black people get robbed, beaten and shot in Baltimore regularly.

The only way some of those statements have merit is that they apply equally to whites or poor neighbourhoods, like, "Stay out of heavily impoverished neighbourhoods." "If accosted by a strange person on the street, smile and say something polite, but keep moving." etc. Any racism that you read into that video is your own preconceptions at work. Being black doesn't give you a free pass through those neighbourhoods.>> ^Payback:

Near all of what was shown is obviously racist.
However, a statement or two have... merit?
http://fear.videosift.com/video/Another-Hate-Crime-Committed-in-America

In this case, I stand by "it has nothing to do with race". In the equivalent situation (Baltimore, black thugs/gang, drunk victim) put a black person in the victim's place and nothing changes. Actually, they may have killed/maimed the black victim. The white dude got off light, for Baltimore.

Anyway, they don't scream racial epithets. There is no evidence he was targeted due to being white.

_________________________________________________________________________

I say the Zimmerman case is about race because of Zimmerman's history of profiling black males as criminals. Even the black neighbor who praised Zimmerman said he was uncomfortable walking in his own neighborhood because of the profiling. That's pretty damning in itself.

I say it's about race because Zimmerman's only rationale for pursuing Martin with a loaded gun was his appearance.

I say it's about race, because Zimmerman on the 911 call called Martin a "coon".

I say it's about race due to the (in)actions of the police:
-A homicide goes down and the admitted killer is let go after a couple of hours due to his word in the absence of video or consistent eyewitness accounts? No thorough investigation while they held him? When have you ever heard of that happening? I have black friends who have been wrongly held for days on much less serious allegations.

-The victim, a young teenager, is not identified for days. On that night, the police didn't even canvas the community he was walking in to find out who he was. Can you imagine that happening to any of your teenage friends/relatives? I would think anyone would assume a normal teenager would have concerned parents worried about his absence. And at least look in the most likely place for the parents: the immediate neighborhood.

-They've corrupted the chain of evidence so much, the case had to be taken out of their hands

-This department has a history of mistreating blacks

Plenty of evidence and observations that can't reasonably be explained any other way.>> ^chilaxe:

>> ^longde:
Happens often enough; where are all those national stories?
And for you to level such a broad accusation, you have to show some proof/evidence/facts. Where are these videos you speak of where we without reason mislabel a hate crime?
>> ^chilaxe:
If the ethnicities were reversed, everybody above saying it's not a hate crime would be saying it's without a doubt a hate crime. It'd also be national news.


On the other video, you said: "This crime has nothing to do with race."
"Nothing to do with race" seems to be going a bit far, but the general argument could be reasonable.
If we believed in those standards, we'd apply them to the Trayvon Martin case.
We'd say the critical factors in Martin's case weren't about race, because Zimmerman's black neighbor said he'd have done the same thing, and any teenager who presents himself to the world as being part of gang culture would have a problem in a gated community that's having a problem with crime.

This crime has nothing to do with race. Put a black man in the same situation, and the same would happen.

1. He wasn't targeted because he was white. He was targeted because he was drunk, alone and unable to defend himself. The same thing would have happened to a black dude in an equivalent situation, except then you wouldn't care.

2. As I pointed out in a similar video, that's Baltimore. Black people are robbed, beaten, and killed in that violent city every fucking day. There are enough of these disgusting videos online to show that these thugs will attack anyone of any demographic.

3. Apparently you don't realize that white people commit crimes too. Every day. Sometimes in groups (called "gangs"). And some of those crimes target black people. The instances where a gang or a group of drunk, rowdy white boys attack a black victim are not all national news. >> ^chilaxe:

If a black person was targeted by not a lone white criminal but an entire white mob for this because of their ethnicity, it'd be national news.
Videosift always supports that because racism, and in particular group hate crimes, are seen as representing larger cultural and practical realities.
There'd be no comments that it should be downplayed by the media and restricted to sites like WorldStarHipHop.
>> ^longde:
Of course not. Why would I say that a bunch of white thugs robbing Urkel represented white culture? Also, I have encountered enough criminals of all colors to know that a mugging -even an extravagant one- isn't a political statement. >> ^chilaxe:
>> ^longde:
I don't necessarily have anything against the video; frankly though it fits better on WorldStarHipHop than videosift. I downvoted for your tags, which imply that criminals somehow comprise the culture of some group, which shall remain nameless. And your description, which attempts to make a criminal act political.
If the cultural groups in this video were reversed, wouldn't you take the opposite position on those points?

>> ^longde:
Anyone who looks soft will be a victim in the rough hoods of Baltimore. It's only news here because this particular victim is white. Black people get robbed, beaten and shot in Baltimore regularly.

it's not news because he's white, it's news because it was filmed. personally i would have the same reaction regardless of what the victim or assailants looked like. we know things are worse all over the world and crazier shit happens but this is a weird, somewhat unique, and horrible victimization.

B.S.

His race has nothing to do with his victimization. There are some hard white dudes in Baltimore that would not have been touched by this crowd of cowards. As I said, a soft target in Baltimore will be victimized, and most of 'em (the victims of crime in Baltimore) are black.
>> ^TheDreamingDragon:

Considering the guy was targetted for no othwer reason than his Race,and that they were enjoying themselves humiliating and hurting him,I would most certainly call this a Hate Crime.

You know what? I bet these punks get more time than Zimmerman will.

Another thing; this is not a hate crime. They even address the guy as a "nigga", basically bringing him to their level.

Anyone who looks soft will be a victim in the rough hoods of Baltimore. It's only news here because this particular victim is white. Black people get robbed, beaten and shot in Baltimore regularly.

>> ^Darkhand:
I wonder where this was shot?


From YouTube: Approximately 9 days ago in Baltimore, Maryland an adult male standing on a sidewalk was surrounded by a group of young adult males and females. One of the females who looked like she was just wearing panties and a tee shirt started grinding her fat ass into the guys crotch like she wanted to get penetrated. One guy in a grey beenie starts creeping up to the victim on his right then two guys with white shirts are right next to him on the left. The taller one, Aaron Jacob Parsons reaches into the victim's front right pocket and grabs something before the guy could stop him.

I knew of

Double Dagger ... punky band from baltimore

LCD Soundsystem ... guy who runs DFA but LCD was bigger than his own label somehow.

REM ... duh

The White Stripes ... duh

Ludicra ... metal band from east bay that had a wicked female vocalist

The Stills ... fuck em

Ponytail ... some weirdo mathy band from baltimore that probably should not have had a vocalist at all.

and Sonic Youth. Had no idea Sonic Youth threw in the towel but knew that Thurston and Kim are getting divorced which is sad in and of itself.


All I know is that I did not see Lou Reed or Metallica on the list ... leaves me disappointed.

Ah, Baltimore... - upvote

"i dont know where you were on the east coast but when i lived in brooklyn, walmart was trying to get in and the community came out everytime to protest."

I used to live in PA. It was chain stores and outlets for hundreds of miles to Pittsburgh, to Philly, to Baltimore, to New Jersey. I remember my parents loved it. They used to take me to SAMs, one of those Costco-esque places and the immense size of those places used to almost give me a panic attack, as I would repeat in my head "this is what is wrong with world". Even creepier when they pretty much got rid of cashiers. I mean even if I had enough money to buy shitloads of stuff - I wouldn't even have enough space to put away the sort of things you could buy at a place like that. I've only room for like 4 boxes of cereal of hopefully different varieties.

This was written up by the Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/commuting/bs-md-mta-aclu-20110531,0,3380358.story

And a followup:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-mta-policy-20110601,0,2129369.story

Second Followup:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-mta-photography-20110602,0,6046710.story


Quick synopsis:
Press: "Hey MTA, that's illegal."
MTA: "Oh yeah, our bad. Won't happen again."
Press: "Sure it won't."

"Noah Benjamin Lennox[2] (born July 17,[1] 1978 in Baltimore, Maryland) also known as Panda Bear, is an experimental musician and a founding member of Animal Collective."

Animal Collective were wildy successful in 2009 - Merriweather Post Pavilion was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2009. Even, Spin selected it as the best album of 2009. Panda Bear's last album "Person Pitch" was named by Pitchfork Media to be the top album of 2007[17] and placed it 9th on the Top 200 Albums of The Decade.

They innovated experimental music with using samplers to create strange rhythmic pop songs. I calmly resent that question because all of you should be at least trying to listen to new and innovative music if you're into music. If you're into music you should try to not be closed-minded... at all. I know it's difficult but if there is a genre or field of music someone has done that style well enough for me to enjoy. For me to resolve this question with - didn't you know Animal Collective's album was the best album of the entire year?! PSHHH... is ridiculous. Bottom-line - listen to music and don't worry about whether you should care or not, just listen and have a good time.


>> ^Sagemind:

Who's Panda Bear?
... and why should we care/take interest?
Not meant as a Troll, I've just never heard of Panda Bear - ever, in any-way, or at any-time as an artist or otherwise.
I could be out of touch, but maybe a better description is required here.

Hey ghandi, remember me, the crazy guy with the crazy idea? I switched majors to biology but I keep on keeping on with the dreaming. Chemistry is a lot more interesting than a state university's current idea of computer science. My wait-and-see attitude, coupled with my tendency to only do things i enjoy, lets me stick to projects where I can make personally satisfactory progress. Other people will have to complete the LDP as I sort of always knew.

Check these out regarding logical discourse:

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"This seems like the perfect question to pose to Slashdotters: how would you foster more dynamic spaces for online news discussion? How would you preserve the context of online discussions and stamp out trolls? " Sound familiar?

http://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/05/09/203221/Ask-Slashdot-Going-Beyond-Comment-Threads

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Truthy is a research project that helps you understand how memes spread online. With our images and statistics, you can help identify misuse of Twitter. Our first application was the study of astroturf campaigns in elections. Now we're extending our focus to the diffusion of all types of information in social media.

http://truthy.indiana.edu


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United States Patent 7,805,291 Berkowitz Appl. No.: 11/137,594
Filed: May 25, 2005
September 28, 2010

Method of identifying topic of text using nouns


Abstract
A method of identifying a topic of a text. Text is received. Then, the nouns in the text are identified. The singular form of each identified noun is determined. Combinations are created of the singular form of the identified nouns, where the number of singular forms of the nouns in the combinations is user-definable. The frequency of occurrence in the text of each noun that corresponds to its singular form is determined. Each frequency of occurrence is assigned as a score to its corresponding singular form noun. Each combination of singular form nouns is assigned a score that is equal to the sum of the scores of its constituent singular form nouns. The user-definable number of top scoring singular form nouns and combinations of singular form nouns are selected as the topic of the text.

Inventors: Berkowitz; Sidney (Baltimore, MD)
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Director National Security Agency (Washington, DC)
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This paper was coming out about the time I started to get interested in the possibility of analyzing for semantics and stuff. Good thing someone smarter figured it out.

Modeling public mood and emotion: Twitter sentiment and socio-economic phenomena
Authors: Johan Bollen, Alberto Pepe, Huina Mao
(Submitted on 9 Nov 2009)

Abstract: Microblogging is a form of online communication by which users broadcast brief text updates, also known as tweets, to the public or a selected circle of contacts. A variegated mosaic of microblogging uses has emerged since the launch of Twitter in 2006: daily chatter, conversation, information sharing, and news commentary, among others. Regardless of their content and intended use, tweets often convey pertinent information about their author's mood status. As such, tweets can be regarded as temporally-authentic microscopic instantiations of public mood state. In this article, we perform a sentiment analysis of all public tweets broadcasted by Twitter users between August 1 and December 20, 2008. For every day in the timeline, we extract six dimensions of mood (tension, depression, anger, vigor, fatigue, confusion) using an extended version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS), a well-established psychometric instrument. We compare our results to fluctuations recorded by stock market and crude oil price indices and major events in media and popular culture, such as the U.S. Presidential Election of November 4, 2008 and Thanksgiving Day. We find that events in the social, political, cultural and economic sphere do have a significant, immediate and highly specific effect on the various dimensions of public mood. We speculate that large scale analyses of mood can provide a solid platform to model collective emotive trends in terms of their predictive value with regards to existing social as well as economic indicators.


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Cheers,

Vairetube