Hyperbole ruins stories

[fvkasm2x]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a- ... d6dad2b1f3


Two things I'd like to address with the story (if you're too lazy to read, a retired police chief who has lived in the USA for 42 years was detained by Customs for 1.5 hours because he's half Somali).

1) When I hear stories like this, it really makes it hard to support any sort of travel ban, restriction or screening process (whatever you want to call it). When small children can't get back into the USA to come home, it's ridiculous. When people who've spent 42 of their 52 years in the USA and have been in charge of a police department, it's ridiculous.

There's no way you can justify or excuse any of these types of incidents and it makes the entire thing look like a sham and is quite simply, disgraceful.

2) Now, on to the meat of my issue.

WIth ANYTHING (not just the travel ban), when someone exaggerates or makes ridiculous accusations after a bad incident, I immediately lose all interest in supporting that person/cause. This is a prime example. When I hear about what happened, I am 100% on board with this ex-cop. But then I read something he says about the incident, such as:

“This experience makes me question if this is indeed home.”

He immediately loses me. He's been there 42 of his 52 years. He'll remember 2 or 3 years at most from his childhood home, so is that where he feels his home is? Give me a break. He's American as Joe Smith down the road. He can be disgusted, frustrated and any other negative word in the book, as his situation truly is mind-boggling. But he's not about to give up his citizenship and move back to Somalia or wherever he was born.

Another example is this one from Edmonton:

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/edmonton-man ... -1.3312086

Long story short:

Customer got double charged by store. Went in to sort out the problem, staff were rather incompetent. Customer got angry because he wasn't refunded his money. Security called, customer refused to leave the store. Security escorted him out, he allegedly pulled away or resisted and was roughed up a bit.

So terrible customer service. I'm on board with the old guy.
Causes a scene, refuses to leave... so security called. I'm losing faith... as it's still overkill by the store, but the old guy is probably going about it the wrong way.
Security roughs him up because he is being difficult. I'm still probably on the customer's side, as there's no need to rough up an old man, even if he isn't cooperating. You can just let him go. He didn't steal or assault you.
But then... the RACISM cries and how the family "can't believe this would happen in Canada."

You lost me. You got booted from a store, because you were causing a scene and the staff were too dumb to de-escalate the situation. You didn't get booted because you were Asian. You got roughed up because you resisted and the mall cops were power tripping idiots. You didn't get assaulted because you were Asian and being in Canada has nothing to do with the situation at all.


So, after those examples...

Does anyone else ever lose interest/support in a story because of something "ridiculous" the victim claims? Have you been on one side of a situation, only to change your opinion based on how the person handles the media?

[Bsuds]

Does anyone else ever lose interest/support in a story because of something "ridiculous" the victim claims? Have you been on one side of a situation, only to change your opinion based on how the person handles the media?

Yes.

[What_the]

Im not sure I agree with your first example as hyperbole as I think he was stating how he felt, but I'm picking up what you're throwing down. So yes would be my answer. We see it often on here by posters. Like when using allegory or metaphor to illuminate one's perspective the reply is usually grossly out of context and content.

[maryjane48]

You lost me. You got booted from a store, because you were causing a scene and the staff were too dumb to de-escalate the situation. You didn't get booted because you were Asian. You got roughed up because you resisted and the mall cops were power tripping idiots. You didn't get assaulted because you were Asian and being in Canada has nothing to do with the situation at all.

how can you be so sure ? yesterday an american admited refusing to serve 4 mexican looking americans until they proved they were legal

[Fancy]

Link?

[whitecandle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... 29167f2af0

[fvkasm2x]

how can you be so sure ? yesterday an american admited refusing to serve 4 mexican looking americans until they proved they were legal

The racial tensions between far right Americans and Mexicans is vastly (and I can't emphasize vastly enough) different from Canadians and Japanese men.

[Fancy]

Nothing about Mexicans

[fvkasm2x]

Nothing about Mexicans

What? Do some research or actually look into the topic before commenting your jibberish.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world ... -residency

[JollyGreenBully]

“This experience makes me question if this is indeed home.”

He immediately loses me. He's been there 42 of his 52 years. He'll remember 2 or 3 years at most from his childhood home, so is that where he feels his home is? Give me a break. He's American as Joe Smith down the road. He can be disgusted, frustrated and any other negative word in the book, as his situation truly is mind-boggling. But he's not about to give up his citizenship and move back to Somalia or wherever he was born.

How exactly do you know how he felt? He was detained and who knows what was said to him while being questioned. To say his words are all hyperbole is being intellectually dishonest.

[krocky]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-retired-police-chief-is-detained-at-jfk-for-one-reason-his-name-is-hassan/2017/03/20/2c618fe2-0d7d-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.8cd6dad2b1f3

Two things I'd like to address with the story (if you're too lazy to read, a retired police chief who has lived in the USA for 42 years was detained by Customs for 1.5 hours because he's half Somali).

1) When I hear stories like this, it really makes it hard to support any sort of travel ban, restriction or screening process (whatever you want to call it). When small children can't get back into the USA to come home, it's ridiculous. When people who've spent 42 of their 52 years in the USA and have been in charge of a police department, it's ridiculous.

There's no way you can justify or excuse any of these types of incidents and it makes the entire thing look like a sham and is quite simply, disgraceful.

2) Now, on to the meat of my issue.

WIth ANYTHING (not just the travel ban), when someone exaggerates or makes ridiculous accusations after a bad incident, I immediately lose all interest in supporting that person/cause. This is a prime example. When I hear about what happened, I am 100% on board with this ex-cop. But then I read something he says about the incident, such as:

“This experience makes me question if this is indeed home.”

He immediately loses me. He's been there 42 of his 52 years. He'll remember 2 or 3 years at most from his childhood home, so is that where he feels his home is? Give me a break. He's American as Joe Smith down the road. He can be disgusted, frustrated and any other negative word in the book, as his situation truly is mind-boggling. But he's not about to give up his citizenship and move back to Somalia or wherever he was born.

This writer is obviously not a Liberal.. LOL...

Petula is a columnist for The Washington Post's local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things.

Anyway, I think it is all a bunch of over reaction. If the guy was a Police Chief he should know better, he has undoubtedly "detained" people for questioning in his time. We are talking about ONE guy here so what. I got asked more questions than usual the last time I crossed over to go to the US too. It will take a while to work out the kinks but a reporter like this will scour the universe looking for that ONE case that will allow her to show inhuman the proposed EO is and how it hurts the entire world. I say take a pill people we live in a world where terrorism exists so deal with it.

[fvkasm2x]

Anyway, I think it is all a bunch of over reaction. If the guy was a Police Chief he should know better, he has undoubtedly "detained" people for questioning in his time. We are talking about ONE guy here so what. I got asked more questions than usual the last time I crossed over to go to the US too. It will take a while to work out the kinks but a reporter like this will scour the universe looking for that ONE case that will allow her to show inhuman the proposed EO is and how it hurts the entire world. I say take a pill people we live in a world where terrorism exists so deal with it.

If he's a US citizen, has valid papers, part of the Fastpass/Nexus program and quite undoubtedly a retired police chief... there's no reason to talk to him for more than 5 minutes, let alone 1.5 hours.