A Maryland police officer was convicted on Friday of charges that he joined a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and hurled a smoke bomb and other objects at police officers guarding a tunnel entrance.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden heard two days of trial testimony without a jury this week before he found Montgomery County Police Officer Justin Lee guilty of two felonies and three misdemeanors. The judge, who also acquitted Lee of two other misdemeanors, is scheduled to sentence him on Nov. 22.

Lee, 26, ignited and threw a smoke bomb into the tunnel entrance on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where a mob of rioters attacked a group of outnumbered police officers. The device struck a police officer’s riot shield and filled the mouth of the tunnel with a large plume of smoke, prosecutors said.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    you really have trouble with analogies.

    “you know this is like tying cement block to your ankle and trying to swim”

    “yeah but what if the block floats though”

    the whole point of using a cement block is that it doesn’t float. saying a T-Rex would lick your face because it’s one of the good ones doesn’t work. the analogy was lions vs rhinos because you asked how someone helping in one instance could ever be described as a bastard.

    since you’re not an analogy guy let me say it plainly: having a bastard get rid of a son of a bitch doesn’t make the first one not a bastard. especially since there is always a chance the bastard would get rid of you first.

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Our discussion aside, I want to let you in on a rhetorical tip because this is the kind of shit I study: Analogies are frankly terrible to use in a debate/argument. They are more useful in non-controversial things where there is not strong often emotionally-charged disagreement, such as a classroom to help explain a concept. Best just to avoid them in general because at their core, analogies are pretty much never 1:1, and thus will be scrutinized and nitpicked to oblivion.

      The problem isn’t that I disagree with Lions or T-Rexes being inherently bad… It’s that even if all police were as feral as a lion, it still doesn’t make sense because a lion would go for the most vulnerable, wounded prey and not the hippo or rhino lol.

      Moreover the premise of the analogy itself just does not apply to the circumstance at hand, and helps me convey why all cops != feral cats.

      • You believe Police are inherently feral cats.
      • I am arguing against the notion that all police are feral cats.
      • You contrive a scenario where Police are Feral cats to prove to me that Police are… Feral cats.

      … Do you understand how this is the classic logical fallacy that is circular reasoning? When there are clear examples of police coming to your aid and NOT acting like feral cats and in fact can act like good domesticated house cats, then I reveal the exception. And if there is merely one exception, then not ALL cops are feral cats, or bastards.

      So please explain how Eugene Goodman, specifically, is a bastard.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        for someone who studies this kind of shit you seem to miss the point of the analogy consistently even when i said the same thing without the analogy.

        so I’ll try to go another level in stripping the premise:

        your question: cop sometimes help, how help bastard

        my answer:

        • sometimes there’s a threat
        • state says only help is bastard
        • bastard may help or hurt
        • threat is likely to hurt
        • you roll the dice with bastard
        • bastard may help if you’re lucky but might also kill you on sight
        • even if bastard help, bastard may kill you later for protesting or being homeless or being black or some shit

        as to your last request, he’s a cop. that’s how.

        • lennybird@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          as to your last request, he’s a cop. that’s how.

          Okay now let’s distill it down to a specific individual within the group and not be coy about it: How, specifically, is Eugene Goodman — besides the color of his skin I mean the title of his profession make him a bastard? How does the individual who comes to aid your mother from a rapist and does NO HARM to you or your family at any point from here until forever and treats you with decency — how is that person whose title remains cop, specifically and with detail, behaving as a bastard?

          Your rhetoric is thus far identical to that used by racist bigots. Guilt by association, Generalization fallacy, etc.

          • pyre@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            if you can’t tell a difference between a race and an occupation idk what to tell you. here’s a couple more “bigoted” statements:

            all billionaires are immoral

            all murderers are bastards

            all venture capitalists can go fuck themselves

            wow I’m such a racist

            • lennybird@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              TIL I can act like a bigot and use generalization and guilty-by-association fallacies if it’s something people can choose: Name, Gender, Career, Religion, Region.

              Fascinating…

              Think about it. Your logic is circular.

              You make the claim that all cops are bastards, then I ask how a specific cop is a bastard and you just refer circularly to the original premise that all cops are bastards. Newsflash: You never provided proof to the original premise and clearly struggle to demonstrate bastard-behavior of a specific individual within the set.

              If you cannot show bastard-like behavior of a specific cop, then it must be true that NOT all cops are bastards after all. Your desperate attempt to deflect this shows how cornered your argument is.

              • pyre@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                it’s your logic that is faulty. not surprising for a guy who doesn’t understand how metaphors work, but no, choosing a career is not like choosing a name. one has to do with what you do for a living, and the other has no bearing on anything.

                if you cannot find something that does not mean it MUST NOT exist. you should really brush up on your if-then statements there.

                all kkk members are bastards.

                GUILT BY ASSOCIATION! if you cannot show bastard-like behavior of a specific kkk member, then “it must be true that NOT all” kkk members “are bastards after all”.

                just fyi guilt by association is only a fallacy if the association doesn’t inform the guilt.

                • lennybird@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  6
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  The thing is, I’m not challenging you on your assertion for the KKK.

                  If, for example, we decide to focus on the KKK or better yet just plain Murderers… If you said as you mentioned earlier, “All Murderers are Bastards,” and for some reason I challenged you on that saying, “Okay… Can you prove to me why this murderer is a bastard, specifically?” You’d be able to point to a behavior of… Well, murder.

                  If you go with the KKK, well we can fairly surmise that most if not all KKK members are bastards. I’m not really in disagreement… Especially since the actual overarching GOAL of the institution that is the KKK is inherently bastard-like. And if we scrutinized individual members of that group, we’d likely find them all to be bastards. (side note but while Eugene Goodman stood against fascism, I’m sure KKK members were in that January 6th crowd).

                  But with Law Enforcement, that’s a bit different, isn’t it? After all, the essence of law enforcement itself is not ostensibly wrong like it is self-evident with the KKK — yes?

                  … So ultimately, when I challenge you on, “What makes THIS cop SPECIFICALLY a BASTARD?” — you should be able to point to a specific behavior.

                  Thus far, you cannot. So generalizing the population when selecting specific individuals within that population yields no findings of bastard-like qualities… Well, then perhaps our claim of all is logically unfounded.

                  • pyre@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    3 months ago

                    no, it’s not a bit different that is my point, oh my god why are analogies so hard for you

                    no it’s not different. in both cases I’m talking about an organization whose main purpose is oppression. you’re disagreeing with one of them, but that doesn’t make my point inconsistent. a specific cop is a bastard because they’re a cop the same way a specific kkk member is a bastard because they’re in the kkk.