ronn

The CCP would be foolish to invade a sovereign nation. Which means it's bound to happen sooner rather than later. I think Taiwan and it's partners have plans ready for launch once the CCP goes full-on crazy.

WilliamM said:

There are also a lot of other third-party booksellers online such as Goodreads.

Maybe it's different in the US but where I live Goodreads seems to be a book review site, not a bookseller.

Yes. And no. Amazon bought Goodreads for $150M in 2013 and has heavy integration of its Kindle store. Yes, you can purchase books from other storefronts on the site, but it's really geared towards Amazon customers. It went from 16 million users as an independent to nearly 100 150 million users now (just double-checked). That's a big ROI for Amazon.

I just joined a rival book review site on the recommendation of a friend that doesn't want anything to do with Amazon: StoryGraph.

AI totally lost me by including the dum dums at GT Advanced Technologies in the article. They and other suppliers bit off much more than they could chew and Apple did right by the terms of their contract sand business principles (not to mention shareholders) by going elsewhere. Nothing illegal. Nothing unethical.

9secondkox2 said:

ronn said:

MplsP said:

beowulfschmidt said:

It's a good thing that assaulting officer in NYC wasn't held to the same standards as the other citizens of NYC.  Who knows what kind of chaos and societal breakdown that would lead to. /s

A bit more information would be hepful. Was the man resisting arrest or threatening the officer or customers?

There were no other customers in the store. The customer was actually not under arrest until after he was punched and pepper sprayed by police.

"[Defense attorney Stuart London] highlighted body-camera footage that captured [Police Officer Salvatore] Provenzano, asked by another officer after the incident, 'What the hell happened?' saying, 'He swung at me so I hit him,' while shaking his hand in apparent discomfort."

"Assistant District Attorney Tavish DeAtley said the video footage did not support London’s assertion of a visceral self-defense reaction, but actually showed Provenzano pulling back his hand and lunging forward in to strike Cheikhaoui in the face as he turned away towards the door."

You can decide yourself if it was self-defense or a frustrated cop going overboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caIpAdFrm7k&t=32s

ronn said:

MplsP said:

beowulfschmidt said:

It's a good thing that assaulting officer in NYC wasn't held to the same standards as the other citizens of NYC.  Who knows what kind of chaos and societal breakdown that would lead to. /s

A bit more information would be hepful. Was the man resisting arrest or threatening the officer or customers?

There were no other customers in the store. The customer was actually not under arrest until after he was punched and pepper sprayed by police.

"[Defense attorney Stuart London] highlighted body-camera footage that captured [Police Officer Salvatore] Provenzano, asked by another officer after the incident, 'What the hell happened?' saying, 'He swung at me so I hit him,' while shaking his hand in apparent discomfort."

"Assistant District Attorney Tavish DeAtley said the video footage did not support London’s assertion of a visceral self-defense reaction, but actually showed Provenzano pulling back his hand and lunging forward in to strike Cheikhaoui in the face as he turned away towards the door."

You can decide yourself if it was self-defense or a frustrated cop going overboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caIpAdFrm7k&t=32s

The one body cam represented there obscures the incident.  he shifted his weight into the officer to deliberately try to slam/strike him. Worse if he stuck his elbow out. The guy tried to mask it by spinning around like he was just changing direction, but nobody does it like they, especially this old guy. Cops deal with that crap all the time and immediately knew what he was trying to do - get one in without paying consequences. The punch was a near instant reaction to an already tense situation that seemed to escalate from the suspect arguing and bossing the cops around disrespectfully to then attempting to strike a cop with his shoulder/ebow with his little spin move. The guy did shift his body weight in the cops direction. I’m sure the court heard much more and saw the other body cams and store Footage for far greater clarity. It did seem clear even from the lone body am on that video that the agitator was “in a mood” and purposely attempted to bump into/strike into the officer. It’s not anything crazy, but it is assault. You don’t do that. Especially to an officer of the law. 

genius trying to tell the cops to give him “his stuff” which appears to be items he was going to shoplift/purchase/ etc. either way he hadn’t bought yet so clearly wasn’t his. 

You've created fantasy. The victim was not shoplifting. He alleges he had his bag ripped from him by the Apple security guard -- the same security guard he alleges he had a prior verbal disagreement earlier in the year. When the NYPD arrived, they refused to allow the victim to file a report for the alleged action of the security officer. Probably because the offending security guard was a former cop. If he had been in the act of shoplifting, the NYPD officer in charge would have placed him under arrest after Apple apprehended him for shoplifting. The NYPD was called for an unruly customer complaint by the offending Apple security guard and were escorting the victim out of the store when the cop went berserk. Provenzano's actions were extreme with other officers caught off guard, asking him "What the hell happened?" He changed his story from "He swung at me so I hit him..." to he "was reacting to a perceived threat of violence" due to the victim raising his arm before Provenzano punched him in the face. Then and only then did the NYPD charge the victim for anything. All charges were dropped against the victim about a month later. Provenzano was offered a plea deal to a single charge of harassment, a simple violation below a misdemeanor but he refused. His ongoing anger issues caused him to be suspended without pay for an entire year and then restricted office duty since. He has several prior complaints against him and has been disciplined by NYPD supervisors in the past. He's currently involved in at least two lawsuits (counting the lawsuit the victim in this case has initiated against him, other NYPD officers, NYC, and Apple). And Provenzano "still faces a departmental trial to determine whether he acted appropriately and in accordance with NYPD policies and procedures." Hoping he's given the boot as he's already cost NYC 100s of thousands with his bad conduct.

MplsP said:

beowulfschmidt said:

It's a good thing that assaulting officer in NYC wasn't held to the same standards as the other citizens of NYC.  Who knows what kind of chaos and societal breakdown that would lead to. /s

A bit more information would be hepful. Was the man resisting arrest or threatening the officer or customers?

There were no other customers in the store. The customer was actually not under arrest until after he was punched and pepper sprayed by police.

"[Defense attorney Stuart London] highlighted body-camera footage that captured [Police Officer Salvatore] Provenzano, asked by another officer after the incident, 'What the hell happened?' saying, 'He swung at me so I hit him,' while shaking his hand in apparent discomfort."

"Assistant District Attorney Tavish DeAtley said the video footage did not support London’s assertion of a visceral self-defense reaction, but actually showed Provenzano pulling back his hand and lunging forward in to strike Cheikhaoui in the face as he turned away towards the door."

You can decide yourself if it was self-defense or a frustrated cop going overboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caIpAdFrm7k&t=32s