190 points

And to think that you guys pay to be there. Imagine loading yourself with massive student debt for a place that stocks up on weapons as if its at war with you.

They are right. I can’t wrap my head around it.

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62 points

I am glad my biggest worries as a student were if I wasn’t failing any classes and not how many weapons the university was buying to control the student body.

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25 points

Hey Jones! If you fail one more test, I’ll have you taken out the back and shot!

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1 point

Good point, only students should be allowed to carry guns.

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130 points

I’m an Indiana University alum and my dad was a professor there. During the protests there, they had a fucking sniper on the roof. The protests were in a park next to the student union which had been used for protests since the Vietnam War. I was there in middle school in a shanty that was protesting the 1990s Gulf War. Now the new semester has started and there’s a chain link fence around the whole thing.

The president just got a raise.

Makes me fucking sick.

Here’s the sniper:

I used to climb up to that roof where that sniper is with friends when I was in high school to smoke weed, so that was a trip to see.

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-8 points

I agree it’s insane what they do, but the sniper is needed with the direction we’ve gone. The sniper is there in case someone with a gun comes to kill protesters, not to kill protesters or they would have done it by now. They really are there for everyone’s safety. Now the guys on the ground who attack people or the guys firing pepper rounds/spray at protesters, they’re the ones we should be complaining about. The ones who are actually applying violence to protesters. The sniper may appear worse if you aren’t paying attention, but they’ve yet to actually shoot anyone, while protesters have been assaulted.

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42 points

Nonsense. The sniper is part of the same police force as the one attacking protesters.

Which side did the cops take when protesters in New York were attacked?

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10 points

They are a part of the same police force. I’m not saying they’re good people. I’m saying this role is not one doing harm, and is actually useful until we get our shooting issue under control. You’ll see the same snipers at sporting events and anywhere else with a large gathering. They’re obviously not there for the protesters, but in case someone decides to do something to start killing others.

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111 points

European here. “Pepper munitions” aren’t military weaponry as they’re banned for use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention. This all reads like riot control stuff. The only weird thing is that american universities have their own police departments.

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27 points

Private railroad companies also have their own police departments.

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11 points

Does that actually count as a police department or is that more like a private security company and they have to call the real police if anything happens?

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23 points

It’s a real police department, The United States postal service also has their own police department.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Police_Department

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12 points

Neither are the bean back rounds and launchers

But yeah, this was a shock for me a few years after I graduated. My school made a big deal of “Campus Security” becoming spcertified as a police force “University Police”, but the only reason they ever gave was so they could carry guns.

I’m not denying there may be a gun threat occasionally, but this was in a small university town, not near any cities. This was as safe a place as you could expect, and I’m sure almost all their calls were kids binging on new intoxicants, and kids fumbling through dating and relationships

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(not so) Fun Fact:

They’re banned in war because in War you’re unable to run away. You have to decide to stay there in your trench which amplifies the gas and suffocates you or run and get shot.

That’s why they’re banned in war and why they’re perfectly fine for police

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3 points

Agreed. The “Pepper munitions” might be paint-ball style rounds shot from paint-ball style guns. I’m not sure in this case, but other police departments have had them. The grenade launchers are for tear gas grenades. Perhaps also flash-bang or stun grenades.

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91 points

How is a private entity allowed to buy military grade weaponry to use against their students?

Oh right… 'Merica. You guys have a problem with weapons, a problem no civilized country has. But then again, we’re not talking about a civilized country but a capitalism ruled country.

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34 points

There are plenty of capitalist countries where this sort of shit doesn’t happen.

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41 points

Because none of them are ruled by capitalism. Capitalism is their economic system, not their government system.

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32 points

Because none of them are ruled by capitalism.

I with you were right…

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1 point

lol

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31 points

Don’t say, “against their students”, say, “against their customers”. Which makes it sound even more ridiculous.

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-36 points
*

Capitalism isn’t the problem.

Edit: I would argue wealth inequality is the problem. You can have (a form of) capitalism and still fix wealth inequality.

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20 points

Capitalism is a tool, used by 2000 people to rule the rest. Hierarchy is the problem. The idea that one person is better than the other.

This idea needs to die already.

But yes, money is a good tool to brainwash people into misunderstanding the worth of their work and their property. This „inflation“ treadmill is insane and makes you run faster in the hamster wheel while the rich dont work at all!

And may the odds be ever in your favor.

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2 points

Agreed

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11 points

Capitalism may not be the problem, but “country being ruled by capitalism” definitely is.

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9 points

It’s THE problem

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5 points
*

Capitalism will seek profits over all else. If that requires implementing corporatism as a form of government it will endeavour to do so. That is the point of the whole god damn thing.

Capitalism is an extremely potent and powerful tool to create profits. Whatever else it does is incidental. If the food system can get away with creating a profit by making you eat sawdust then it will. All costs are externalised as much as possible and all profit is privatised as much as possible. This is not a bug but a feature.

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57 points

“to escalate its warfare on its students”

Yep, my mind doesn’t understand this phrase at all.

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