this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024

193 points (99.0% liked)

politics

19144 readers

5938 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

outrageousmatter@lemmy.world

aidan@lemmy.world

jordanlund@lemmy.world

HLMenckenFan@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

193

Arizona ballots damaged after USPS collection box set ablaze in Dem-leaning county: report (www.rawstory.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Arizona law enforcement officials are conducting an arson investigation after election ballots were damaged when a USPS mail collection box was burned in Maricopa County, a Democratic stronghold.

ABC 15 reported that crews responded to the USPS Osborn Station around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday and found a mail collection box on fire.

"Approximately 20 electoral ballots were damaged, along with additional miscellaneous mail," Phoenix Fire Department officials revealed, according to ABC 15.

top 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 103 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s funny how one side repeatedly interferes with elections and then projects that shit outward as if they’re above board.

[–] kobra@lemm.ee 18 points 1 week ago

With consequences few and far between 😞

[+] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world -17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This particular situation looks more like someone just setting a mailbox on fire. It happened to have ballots because of election season but they weren't the target.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How can you know the intent unless you set the fire?

Oh, because it's hearsay based on your feels. Okay, that checks outs.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If anyone bothered to read more than this shitty reblog version of the story, the guy is clearly not driven by politics. He's a run of the mill criminal that just wanted to be arrested so he did something he knew would do that. That is not exactly uncommon, jail will give you a place to sleep and guaranteed meals. For some people, that have little to nothing else in their life, that little bit of security is worth it. It had nothing to do with the ballots.

But this is the internet, no one reads past a headline. And even fewer are going to look for a better source, even the one linked in this exact reblog crap post.

From the actual ABC15 article:

Phoenix police say surveillance video helped them quickly track down and arrest the suspect, a 35-year-old male, for an unrelated warrant. While in police custody, he allegedly admitted to starting the fire but claimed he "wanted to be arrested" and that his actions were not politically motivated and unrelated to the election.
A USPS spokesperson and postal inspector told ABC15, "This does not happen often and is rare," and urged people to place mail in collection boxes before the last collection time each day.

His motivation for doing it makes no difference to the laws broken or sentencing. There's no reason for him to claim it wasn't political if it was.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

right...

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world -4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Not everything is about the elections just because it's that season. Arson doesn't care about the election.

It wasn't a ballot drop box that was set on fire, it was a regular old mail drop box.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On the flip side, election season is the ONLY time an arsonist can burn people's votes. Maybe that's exactly why it happened after all 🤷

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Or, a guy with an criminal record already, with an existing warrant out, just committed another criminal offense unrelated to the explicit 4 weeks we happen to be in where there are ballots in the mix.

Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.

If he was targeting ballots, there's a lot of better places to do it than one random mail dropbox. He wasn't even found in the act, they found him after the fact from surveillance, he probably would have destroyed more boxes if he had a more complicated reason.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 76 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Welp, that's a felony.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Federal. Multiple times over.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago

But if it results in the riding going R, those felonies may be pardoned.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Don’t mess with usps. They are funded and bored.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

And the postmaster general is a trump ally.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh good. We'll spend 4 years doing as little as possible to prosecute and then hand out a lenient non-sentence.

[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No dude…you do not fuck with Postal Inspectors. They are armed and mean business. They’re the ones who took down Steve Bannon for his border wall donation scam lol

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Ok, just like you don't fuck with the DOJ, while Trump is 3 inches away from becoming president again, and they're not quite sure if Musk's current actions are crimes, right?