As badly bungled as this robbery is, you have to hand it to the Canadians -- they arrested the couple without shooting

[NotHardUp1]

What a strange appellation.

Texas is not viewed as a strange place by Americans so much as it is a place of distinctive heritage and great commerce and wealth. It has had political and social quirks that rival California's, but that is probably a product of its population size and composition, a genuinely cosmopolitan one.

And, among Americans, Texas is renowned appropriately for its genuine hospitality. In 2012, Texas recorded 220 million domestic visitors, 70% of whom were travelling for pleasure, not business.

A more apt comparison might be to Idaho or Alaska, where the nation knows little of the local culture, and perceives it as oddly atypical rather than bold and gregarious.

 

[gsdx]

What a strange appellation.

The 'appellation' refers to 2 things: oil and political conservatism.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The 'appellation' refers to 2 things: oil and political conservatism.

I didn't get that. "Strange" was the appellation. Texas is politically conservative in some ways, but it is more a haven of strong characters in general.

After all, they elected Ann Richards as governor too, and Barbara Jordan to the U.S. House of Representatives.

San Antonio is a famously progressive area for Latinos, as Julian Castro so ably demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention.

Austin is one of the most progressive metropolitan areas in the nation.

The only people associating Texas with only conservatism don't want to see the rest of the population there. That would go for some conservative Texans as well as those outside the state who want to portray it as backwards somehow, or simply see too many tropes on TV and cinema.

 

[NotHardUp1]

That seems like a total non-sequitur. My video was a comically bungled convenience store robbery, and both criminals were apprehended surprisingly peacefully. There was no apparent racial component of the arrest.

Your article is about the shooting of three people, including a rapper, with no apparent comical events or police interaction or arrest.

It would seem you might want to post your link in a new thread and start a discussion about the dead rapper rather than it be lost in this thread. I have never heard of him, but I could not name any rap stars or new musicians of any stripe.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Would that American cops could do this. We'd have sadly shot the fool long before he was subdued.

I'm happy you noticed that.

 

[gsdx]

I didn't get that. "Strange" was the appellation.

Sorry. I was referring to his usage of 'Texas of the North'. I don't know why Thad and Mikey call it 'strange'.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I'm happy you noticed that.

I know no one who is happy about the trigger-happy police force when it is. We all understand that they put their lives on the line every day, and we do not take that for granted either, but the prevalence of unnecessary force is unacceptable.

As I say every week somewhere in Hot Topics, we know that we live in a nation of 350 million souls, so it is inevitable that some misdeeds will occur in the name of public safety. We know that some activists and some media outlets will magnify those deeds and portray them as typical when they are the opposite.

I'm glad we live in an era in which cameras are more present and help keep in check the forces of excess that previously went undocumented.

 

[Alistair]

I think we see why store owners just shoot robbers.

Is the back door required to be unlocked if it is not a marked exit? And it's Canada, so maybe not the same.

I don't know about Canada, but all doors in businesses have to be able to be exited without impedance. That door would have been required to have a lit Exit sign above it, if it wasn't an exit door, it would be required to have a sign on it saying it was not an exit.

Of course I was just joking about suing, but if the fire department came in to do inspections that would have been a hefty fine. We got charged $1k for having an exit light fail on 2 visits. ( the battery back up was drained. warning first time, fine the second. The second failure was something wrong with the sign itself but they didn't care )

 

[gsdx]

I don't know about Canada, but all doors in businesses have to be able to be exited without impedance. That door would have been required to have a lit Exit sign above it, if it wasn't an exit door, it would be required to have a sign on it saying it was not an exit.

Only doors which lead to the outside require red exit signs. They can be locked, but they must have a means to open it quickly from the inside - usually a push bar.

EDIT: I suspect that it was a storage room, probably refrigerated. It wasn't an exit. If it was a refrigerated room, the door would push open from the inside.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Why was my first comment on this thread removed?

Seems totally arbitrary. That arbitrariness is probably why the damn forum is in limbo.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The door in the back is definitely an external door. Either they are in violation or there is some exception when the door is in a private area of the business and a security issue. It obviously had a breakbar for push exit that was either locked or had a hasp holding the door fast.

I'm usually a hawk for fire codes, having reported the Kroger's numerous times in Albuquerque for blocking the rear fire exit with pallets of inventory and grocery carts and crap. Warning the manager never seemed to help. A local restaurant here in Huntsville was packed to the gills a couple of months ago, so I didn't stay and wait, but I did warn the manager that her sandwich sign and easel were blocking the egress to the fire exit (to a patio door) and she promptly fixed it, so not all managers are cavalier.

High crime stores like convenience stores often break the law in various ways in their struggle to stay in business and thwart the thugs, so this one may well fit the mold. I know Aristomaniac is former state police, but do we have a fireman in the house?

 

[NotHardUp1]

Why was my first comment on this thread removed?

Seems totally arbitrary. That arbitrariness is probably why the damn forum is in limbo.

So, it wasn't likely frontal nudity.

Or under aged photographs of children.

So that likely leaves content that either is off topic, or insults a member, or follows a member from thread to thread. If so, I suspect the snarkiness of the post, or a political theme, would be more responsible for the state of affairs in Hot Topics. The thread is a fun romp and a farce, with a nod to the serious problems of crime and police use of force. Anything more than that would be a different thread.

I never saw your earlier comment, so I wouldn't know. I am certain a mod would.