Probably more of a discussion for the politics thread, but there are a lot of things in the US that have unions and don't need one (grocery stores for example where high school kids are forced to join a union and pay dues for a part time job of maybe 20 hours/wk bagging groceries).

I've seen some discussion about raising the qualifications to be a police officer (and the pay along with it).  While I don't think that's a bad idea, I'm not sure it solves the problem either.  I'd be interested in seeing where the current police staff comes from...how many are ex-military?  How many college educated in criminal justice? 

A LOT of things are ass backwards - people that do important things (police/fire/teachers not in big unions like Chicago) aren't compensated well and entertainers and politicians make a fortune.  Now many of those roles not compensated well do have really nice benefits that people in private industries would kill for.

I'd never thought about it either.  If you own multiple properties, you have the right to vote on local representation (I would think).  Do you have to identify a "permanent" residence and that is where you vote on national elections?  Not sure...it's an interesting point.

If you stop and think about it, it makes sense if you own property you use as a residence you should get to vote in the local elections for each property.  Now if you use them as rental properties, the lines get blurred...you should have representation for local issues such as tax increases and things like that.  It's interesting...never really thought about it.

I assume you picked this article to post because of who was identified...it's safe to assume this isn't a one-sided thing that's happening.

I don't agree with this.  I think we have to discuss all of it (which is what I'm trying to do) to dig deeper and find the nuances between everyone has an opportunity and systematic racism.  Everyone might have an opportunity, but that doesn't mean they have the same opportunity.  Absolutely decisions made when presented with opportunities make a difference, but so does the number (and type) of opportunities presented to people. 

For example, I grew up poor.  We were on food stamps at times.  Our big family vacation of my childhood was driving from Chicago to St Louis to go stay at a Howard Johnson.  I was a smart kid but got bored with school easily.  Here's where things start to veer off though.  I didn't have anywhere near as many "negative" opportunities available to me.  I wasn't surrounded by gangs, drugs, prostitution, etc.  The worst decisions I made as a child was some very minor shoplifting.  Once we moved out to the suburbs, there were even less opportunities for bad choices.  I drove by Cabrini Green in Chicago.  I went to games at Comiskey Park and Chicago Stadium.  I didn't live there and I didn't live that life.  I didn't have to dodge that many pot holes just to survive.

I'm not here to blame everything on systematic racism, but I'm not going to pretend it doesn't exist on some level.  What I want to know is why?  If it's not at the micro-level, then what at the macro-level is allowing this to happen?  I think environment matters, and while some of that is socioeconomic more than race, cities like Chicago while they are very diverse, the neighborhoods themselves aren't as much.  There's something to it and while I don't blame it for everything like some do, I think the only way we can get past this and make it better is to have real discussion about it.  Hard discussion.  It's going to hurt people's feelings (not here, in general).  But progress will never be made until it happens.  Honestly.  Lay it all on the table.