greg775

He definitely did NOT pass the eye test but did a nice job for the most part. Don't think he's a big leaguer in terms of talent.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 07:36 AM) They are already starting to go outside of the city of Ferguson which I am sure they will continue to do At least that makes sense and may get some of those looters/burners killed. They try to burn down some neighboring towns? I wouldn't think that would go over too well with the cops in those towns. Some heads are gonna be busted I bet.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 07:30 AM) This will continue for multiple nights, probably a week or longer. Should be enough time to burn down ALL the businesses in town and all the vehicles in town. Maybe they'll start burning down their own houses, too. So stupid. By now we ALL know the outrage, people of Ferguson. We know you are sad and furious and ashamed to be living in America after this decision. So unless you want to move, you better stop destroying your own town. You know, none of those businesses are going to rebuild. Most towns want to attract new business; guess you all want to just end the existence of your city.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 05:16 AM) Injustice!! Burn that little Caesars! Amen. It makes so little sense. It's like the folks of Ferguson are saying, "We're mad as hell ... so we must burn down ALL OUR BUSINESSES, and ruin the lives of our business owners, folks just as upset at the grand jury decision as we are! Yes, let's burn down all our businesses and we'll have no town to live in! That's what we do to show we're upset. Ruin our own town!!!" QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 07:00 AM) I don't know why I bother with you, greg. Clearly you do not read anything you respond to. If they announced it at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the rioting would begin at nightfall on that very same day. The national guard already had days to prepare. Nothing would be different. But this way, innocent people had plenty of time to get to their homes. I just happen to disagree with you, that's all. If they had to, then, call off school on Tuesday in advance of a 9 a.m. decision. If there still would be riots once it got dark at 5 p.m., at least it wasn't all set up like tonight. It was all too much a perfect storm. Wait til it's dark, announce, and on cue, film the folks burning and pillaging.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 10:46 PM) I think with a little kid, I would be more willing to take a risk that maybe the gun is fake or if it is real the kid doesn't even know what he's doing with it. I think I would rather take the risk of getting shot at than to shoot a little kid. I could never live with that. Amen. But that would take high quality, top notch police work. Some people are giving the cop such a free pass. If the guy does an exemplary job, no 12 year old dies.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 06:54 AM) I assure you that if they waited until morning to make the announcement, the riots and looting would begin when nighttime rolls around. They announced it at night so that the innocent people who work or go to school would have ample time to get home safely before it began. If they announced it at 9 a.m., Tuesday, nothing would have happened at 9 a.m. The Army would have had all day to prepare for nightfall. A whole day would have passed. This is just f***ing ridiculous setting the city on fire. The announcement and presence of all the media at nighttime was setting it up on a tee, just daring the people of Ferguson to, on cue, pillage the town. Very very sad.

So people of Ferguson are burning down the city of Ferguson tonight. That makes so little sense. Just go ahead and turn your own city into a burned up ghost-town. Ridiculous. I tell you. Sometimes the people in our great country are just downright stupid. This makes no sense to burn down their own town. And how f***ing stupid to announce this at night. Announce it at f***ing 8 a.m. People LOOT at night. They BURN at night. The light of day is much different. Stupid assholes announcing the decision when they did. Why not wait until morning?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 09:10 PM) But you don't know that and the concerned citizen didn't know that, hence why he called the cops. Being "ok" with it and not wanting to make the tragedy worse by ruining the officers life even more (the guilt and PTSD for this will be life long probably) are two different things. No one thinks a 12 year old being killed is "ok." And when you get shot and killed for waltzing up to someone who is waiving a gun in the air we can all be "ok" with the fact that Darwin won again. This is the really annoying commentary permeating the country in response to these shootings. You and others have this mentality that cops are mythical figures that can do the right thing 100% of the time. Cops are people. People make mistakes in judgment in emergency situations. People fear for their safety. Cops in particular are targets of violence. Why cops have to risk their lives even more than they already do to make someone on the internet using hindsight feel better is beyond me. If a cop walks into a situation with a potential gun toting person, young or old, and that person doesn't comply with orders and becomes a threat to the safety of the officers or others, the decision of the person in that situation - not the person sitting on his computer reading articles about what happened - should prevail. Yes, there should be a review. Yes, there should be some bar that a cop has to meet before using deadly force. But absent something practically egregious, you don't second guess that decision because no one can replicate that moment. None of this "but maybe there was time to try X and Y, and why didn't they at least try this or that." You know what, I look at the cop's situation in terms of his having a job to do. I also work for a living and am under contant scrutiny and get yelled at or fired if I do a poor job. I think this cop did a very poor job. I may be wrong. That's how I feel. My bottom line is he is in a dangerous line of work and he didn't need to shoot to kill a 12 year old. It's a more serious line of work than mine, but in judging him before seeing the tape, I think he gets a big, fat FAIL for what happened. At this point in time I think he should definitely find a new line of work. Again, if this proves false when the tape comes out, my bad. I'm going by what I've read which is a dangerous thing to do in the day and age of social media.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 08:38 PM) What part of "person with a gun" and "scaring others" would make a sane, rational person just waltz on over to see what is going on? Assuming all the facts are true, I see nothing but a tragedy all around here. You've got a concerned citizen doing their job, a cop doing their job, and a kid being a dumb kid. It doesn't sound to me like the scene was threatening. Again, it sounds like the kid was more an irritant than a threat. Nobody was fleeing or anything because of this toy gun. If anybody was really worried they'd be heading out of there. If we're at the stage of our lives people can accept 12 year olds getting killed in a situation like this, I think we're at a bad stage. Not saying you, but some people seem OK with the outcome. I'm saying if the situation had played out like I am thinking it played out, yes I probably would go over to the table and say something or grab the toy gun. Would I get punched by the kid's parents or maybe even the kid? I guess. I'm anxious to see the tape which exists. Again, I'm going more by "12 year old kid" in this deal. Twelve year old kids are not all that menacing. Now could a 12year old cause trouble with a real gun? Sure. I do think the cops have to be fired in this case. There had to be a different outcome than this one. How bout using a tazer? Oh I know, they don't always work. I guess the 12 year old might have only been knocked off balance a bit with a tazer.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 08:25 PM) Sure, just like there were going to be huge riots when the Zimmerman verdict was announced. Ferguson is very volatile.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) Yeah, announce it while the jurors are still in the building. Much easier to track them down that way. Then wait until tomorrow. 9 a.m. announcement. There are going to be riots beyond belief tonight since it's not bitterly cold and not raining.

If the verdict is reached, announce it. Are they planning on waiting until right as it gets dark?? Bad timing.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 03:16 AM) Last month at the park there was a kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old, running around with a fake Russian machine gun strapped around his neck. (Of course his parents were polocks like me) We live in a town that has had about 2 murders in 10 years, but still, what the f***? I can't imagine any situation today where it's OK for anybody to run around with a fake gun like that. And yet that kid with the fake Russian gun is not dead. Hmm. That situation actually got resolved. QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 04:34 PM) Then the parents should have intervened and taken the toy gun from him or not allowed him to remove the orange cap. There's a chain of events and you are looking at the end result and saying "he shouldn't be dead." It's the same thing as looking at people who die from a drug overdose and saying "they shouldn't be dead." Those people shouldn't have been using so many drugs that it ended up killing them but controls and steps were not taken to remove the stimulus from the equation and that results in bad situations for the party. Immediately pointing fingers at the cops is not the right thing to do. Parents need to take control of their families and not allow them to be in that situation. You know what, I disagree. s***, I never even heard of an orange cap. You still don't need to die over something like this. How bout a cop in this case do a better job of solving this situation? It's possible you know. QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 04:37 PM) Greg, the real issue is that most departments offer bonuses to any cop that gets into a shooting. The bonuses grow if the person is paralyzed or killed. And some even have kickers that depend on the age of the person shot, often increasing on either end of the age spectrum. You mean to tell me this situation couldn't have been resolved without a death? Pretty poor police work, sir. It's my right to say we expect better from police. You know, we do pay taxpayer dollars. People expect me to do a f***ing good job in my line of work; I do EXPECT you, Milkman, to do a better job in your line of work rather than to f***ing kill 12 year olds with toy guns. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 05:14 PM) I'm pretty happy I didn't get shot to death when I pulled the orange cap off of a bb gun when I was probably about 11 or 12. My mom wasn't too happy with me though when she saw it. Exactly. I guess you could have died and some would say should have died had you pointed it in a park at somebody, maybe even at nobody, just if people were around.

I think the cop should at least be put on trial. Hopefully that's the outcome.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Nov 23, 2014 -> 11:19 PM) Nope. But LDF and I have wondered recently if things discussed here at SoxTalk end up being written about. In other words, sometimes it really seems like writers read SoxTalk related proposals/ideas here and then write about it. Writers like Levine, Heyman and Merkin come to mind, especially Levine. I've seen Levine write up articles on Sox needs and trade possibilities after other writers have already written about them, guy is a hack. Before this gets too anal, I'm not saying all writers and I'm not saying that is what's happening. Just a funny observation is all and possibly a credit to the Sox community here. Who cares if they read the site or not? The site exists and if they have come across it they might be amused by it. It sounds like there are 1-2 insiders on here and if the writers are smart they'd at least see what the alleged insiders are saying about things. No biggie either way. It's a nice website and if they have time they are probably smart to peek at it.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 07:33 AM) If you see someone with a gun and you don't call the cops. You are being a moron. I know you are very naive and live in some sort of Mayberry bubble in Kansas but come on now. I was stabbed in my leg in lovely Mount Greenwood when I was in the 5th grade by another 11 year old during a fight. I am sure he was a wonderful boy and just got mixed up. Maybe he thought he was reaching for his legos. Maybe he thought it was a fake weapon. I don't know. That wonderful child wound up in prison later in life. Some children are not the lego playing rapscallions messing around and goofing with the local kids. Some of them are warming up for a bad decision that can affect someones life. Or the other possibility. We see plenty of examples where they get a real weapon that their wonderful parents left out. They decide to show off, play around with it. It could be that he doesn't understand that a real weapon is loaded or not. And sometimes accidents happen. Enough examples of kids accidentally shooting a family member or a friend with a real gun they thought was not loaded. So if I see something that looks like a weapon I am not going to confront the kid. I don't know if its real or not. And to be honest I don't trust the judgement of a child when it comes to things like that. I will call the police. Now I don't know if the police officer acted correctly, but the idea that you see a person with a gun and can determine if its real or not its amazing. Greg they don't have the big orange ends on them and shoot sparks like the ones you played with as a kid. This is a tragedy. A young life is gone and will never come back. http://www.news4jax.com/news/police-12year...ss-man/27243908 http://wnep.com/2014/10/13/10-year-old-boy...year-old-woman/ http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisc...n-girl-stabbed/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-22...r-sentence.html I do appreciate your comments. And it's awful you got stabbed by an 11 year old. I resent the naive stuff. I also grew up in Mt. Greenwood and we moved when my dad started to make some serious money and we fled to suburbia partly to escape some of the punks roaming the streets. I got chased a few times myself. I just have a sneaky suspicion this situation was not that dangerous. Nobody seemed too concerned about this kid with the gun. We hear no reports of anybody fleeing or anything. I will say your description of the possible scene seems a lot more implausible than mine. The cop said the weapon was on the bench for a while. Then the kid picked it up again. Without being "naive" I do think it might have been possible in this situation for somebody to diffuse it. If this situation developed like I'm picturing it (quite an assumption I know) yes I probably would have gotten involved in the manner I described. 12 year old kid? Have you seen the picture of the kid yet? Baby faced kid. I know danger lurks everywhere and I realize you got stabbed, but my initial reaction is this is a BLATANT overreaction in killing this 12 year old. p.s. I reread your post and it probably does make sense to call the cops. It's very sad the message didn't get to the cop that the one caller said it was probably a toy. That's inexcusable. This 12 year old shouldn't have been killed over this.

These cops needed to be fired ... period. 12 year old boy dies in this case? Disgusting. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2...related_stories

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 23, 2014 -> 11:21 PM) Greg, how would you like the cop to be your dad, or brother, or son? What are these police officers supposed to do when this kid takes a toy gun, with the orange safety indicator removed and is waving it around? How does he know it's fake? What if the kid shoots someone? Or fires at the officer? I agree it would be nice if he could have fired at his leg or something, but the kid put himself in a position to be killed, and unfortunately he was. People and parents have to be much more careful than this. I'm assuming some things here, but let me quickly give you this scenario. I imagine I'm at the park in the afternoon and kids are playing. There's a 12 year old kid with a gun and he's scaring people. He hasn't shot the gun. He's just being a bully or whatever. A pest. Obviously nobody thinks it's a real gun or people would flee the park which apparently wasn't happening. Instead of calling the fricking cops, I walk over and pick up the gun off the table when the 12 year old puts it on the table. Yes I actually get involved. Yes I am risking getting beat up by the parents of the 12 year old or shot by the 12 year old, but I'm pretty sure it's not a real gun. When I grab the gun I see if it's real or not. If it's not real I put it down and say something to the kid that's not real mean, just maybe you shouldn't scare the other kids. If it's real, well I keep it and call the cops and quickly tell them to NOT SHOOT ME when they arrive to pick up the gun. I really truly don't think you need to end the 12-year-old's life over this. If my assumptions in this case prove false, then I'll change my position. But I don't think the cops need to show up and kill a kid over this transgression. Yes ... if I'm brother of the cop I don't want some 12 year old ending my brother's life. I just happen to believe this situation did not need to end with a cop killing the 12 year old. I think this situation also dictated some onlookers perhaps getting involved. If it's police protocol to kill in this situation ... fine.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 23, 2014 -> 09:23 PM) Obviously the busy body onlooker thought the gun was real, so why would they just go over and grab it? Sad situation but not blaming the person who reported it. They thought it was real. According to the story the guy who called the cops said it probably was a fake gun. Why can't people ever observe, assess and do something? Didn't sound like this was that dangerous a park scene. Be that as it may, does the cop have to remove the kid from this world? No other alternatives to fix this situation?? I mean remember the kid was 12. Like I said there's a lot of bratty behavior in our world; you used to not have to die for being a punk or a bully or whatever he was doing. Maybe death is the proper outcome for this situation. That's what the cop obviously decided had to be the solution to this problem. I think not, however.

So a 12 year old kid has a gun at the park and is "scaring" some people with it. An onlooker calls the cops instead of walking over and grabbing the toy gun off the picnic table and seeing what is going on with the kid. Cops are called. According to the cop he sees the gun on the table, then the kid ultimately picks it up, has it in his belt. Cops tell him to drop it. He doesn't and they kill the kid. Things IMO that went wrong that cost a 12 year old his life. ... a.) The busy body onlooker should have walked over and grabbed the toy gun when it was on the table. Was there really an eminent danger here? Nobody was leaving the park during all this time the kid was scaring people because they probably were sure the gun was a toy. b.) Does protocal really call for shooting and killing the kid when he won't respond? There are no alternatives? More details will probably come out or might not, but just because a 12 year old kid is a brat and "scaring" people by having a toy in the park doesn't mean he needs to die. I'm sure when I was a kid, bratty neighborhood kids did inappropriate stuff that didn't result in the cops killing you. Details aren't all out and probably will never be, but this sounds like an unnecessary death. The guy who called the cops is the first person I think erred in this case. So we can't investigate things ourselves? We always got to call the cops who over-react? http://news.yahoo.com/boy-fake-gun-dies-sh...-170034176.html

QUOTE (MDWhiteSoxFan @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 01:44 PM) I'm pretty meh about this signing. Laroche can't hit lefties very well. His career average is about 30 points lower than righties. Also for most of his career he had definitely been a second half player minus last year. He tore it up up until July. Then was terrible for 2 months saving himself with a decent month in September. We still have to find another guy who can hit RHP to platoon DH with him. But hopefully he brings some leadership now that Dunn and Paulie are gone. It's a good attempt at getting better for chump change in today's climate. I just hope that the Sox scouts targeted the right guy. If he stinks it's only a two-year deal, but you can really get sick of a guy in two years. He is kind of old which means he could most certainly be a flop. Hahn gets an A for effort on this one. But results should be the only thing that matter in his job performance review.

I would say they'll sign a closer. I'm assuming some are out there. I haven't studied the FA lists. Sox want to contend, it's obvious, and nobody on the current roster classifies as a suitable closer. I'm thinking they'll make a trade. I can't imagine them trading Alexei only because there's literally nobody to fill that spot if Sox hope to be a contender. Nobody. They can't trade with the Dodgers without trading Alexei, so I don't know what they're going to do. Part of me says Hahn realizes he needs upgrade at 3B and upgrade in OF. You guys better than me can tell me how we get a new 3B and OFielder.

Well, this is the type of signing I expected. I wanted Butler a few days ago, but LaRoche appears to be a good alternative to that. He's in the same salary range as Butler. He is 7 years older (7 years!) but this on paper appears to be a good gamble as much as Billy would have been a good gamble. In pouring over his stats, I see LaRoche has had a couple off years amid pretty good years. Hoping he doesn't get hit by the White Sox free agent jinx and have that off year. I would say as of right now, I approve of the deal, though as a caveat there is a chance he's at the age he could simply start sucking. I'm not saying he will, but he's 35. Like I've said in other threads, I hope our scouts thorougly discussed his pros and cons and how he PROJECTS from this point forward, rather than just looking at his past performance. I pray they did that. Sorry I'm all over the map, but my take is this is a deal in which if it DOESN'T work out, some people could say, "they should have known. He's OLD by new baseball standards!" Or apologists could say, "On paper, it was a great move; nobody could have predicted such a demise." If it does work out? Well Hahn has acquired a great piece. He's acquired a power hitter for the Cell. I'll say, "Thank you Mr. Hahn" as of today, Nov. 21. p.s. I will say he's known as a good fielder, so I'd say make Abreu the DH. Maybe it'll piss off Abreu, but if LaRoche is a gold glover type first baseman and he's being paid 12.5 million, have the best man play first base.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) How do you know the White Sox didn't have interest in Billy Butler? Maybe they did but didn't want to sign a fat ("if Billy gets fat"...please, he already is), slow, right handed hitter whose power is declining and adds nothing defensively on a 3 year contract worth $10 mill a year. His value isn't that far off of Adam Dunn's except that he trades a few of those walks and home runs for singles and doubles. Billy Beane is also not a SABES GOD. He makes mistakes and bad moves and they can be criticized too. I think signing Billy Butler to a 3 year, $30 million deal is absolutely a bad move, but any and all moves can work. Torii Hunter is almost 40 and should also be a DH moving forward. He had a knack for making phenomenal plays early in his career, but he's an absolutely dreadful defensive outfielder at this point in his career. The word sabes is still ridiculous, by the way. Frankly, I can't take you seriously anymore greg. He's only 28. And he's not fat yet. Beane is regarded as king of Sabes. Sorry if you don't like the term, but I think the rest of my post makes sense, especially the part about the Sox needing to sign the cheaper free agents who still have upside. If Butler was 34, sure I'd agree he's worthless. I'm not crazy about Hunter as I was signing Butler, but I think Torii for one year might help and he fits into the affordable category as well. One year six million.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 06:33 AM) Billy Butler doesn't hit left handed can't play defense is slow hits for little power plays the same position as Sox best position player, eliminating any DH flexibility I still see zero reason why he would have been good for the Sox, thank you Billy Beane He's basically coming for nothing. Again 8-10 million is nothing today. Sox could have had a 28 year old guy who knows how to hit for NOTHING. What the hell did they pay Keppinger? Since the Sox can't compete for highly priced free agents, he would have been a perfect gamble. He's only 28. We've had slow as molasses type guys before. I think he would have looked great in our lineup if we are serious about ever winning again. WHo the hell are the Sox going to sign? They can't afford anybody hardly. Beane is an EXPERT. He is the Sabes god and he wanted Butler. I think this is sad the Sox obviously had zero interest. I really truly don't think Butler is gonna stop hitting at 28. Cell is perfect park for him.