Originally Posted By ecdc <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04...ews&_r=0</a> Stop telling us this sh*t doesn't happen. Stop saying every time there isn't video that, hey, these unarmed black men ain't angels ya know and maybe if they hadn't resisted arrest.... This guy got pulled over for a busted tail light. He ran away and a cop shot him in the back like a coward, then planted his taser and made up some story. Then he and his fellow officers said they tried to revive the suspect. The video makes it clear every damn bit of it was a lie. If you think this is the only time this crap has happened in the past year, I've got a bridge to Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Agreed. Had the video recording not surfaced the murderer would have gotten away with it. Just a few days ago we had our very own "Comply or Die" incident in my lily white community. Of course there was no citizen with a smartphone nearby to record the incident where two municipal police officers shot an unarmed man, with no criminal record, who was an EMT, to death. The incident will be "investigated" by the Sheriff's department, who will no doubt pronounce the shooting death as "justified" To quote "V": "There is something terribly wrong with this country."
Originally Posted By skinnerbox One of my favorite movies. And we're starting to look sooooo much like that film. I'm beginning to think that Nazi Germany was just a warm-up for things to come.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^^Agreed I am seriously considering leaving the country when I retire. I would recommend that if anyone here can procure foreign citizenship and a foreign passport, that you get one.
Originally Posted By utahjosh I'm glad the video is there to expose the lies and get the truth. Hold the cop accountable. It's certain this kind of stuff happens all the time. But sensationalism that follows can damage the reputations of the good cops out there and damage the fragile relationships between cops and community.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Then maybe the "good cops" should do something to get the psychopaths off the force, instead of circling the wagons and ALWAYS saying that the murders are justified, except of course when a "brother officer" is caught red handed like this monster was. But since they won't do a darn thing to fix the problem then "sensationalism" is going to be needed. And based on the few encounters I have had recently with the police, it is my own observation that the overwhelming majority of them are thugs.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck So easy to just let the guy go, you have his car and address, get a warrant and pick him up at home. Hell, he probably would have turned himself in! But no! You disrespect a cop and for some cop-assed reason you should be killed. Based on the video, if this guy walks, Ferguson is going to look like a day at Disneyland. This could be a pivotal case in police vs civilian relations. If this guy is tried and found guilty we may finally see something...anything to rein in this brutal police state America has become. But if it's business as usual...Watch out!
Originally Posted By ecdc >>But sensationalism that follows can damage the reputations of the good cops out there and damage the fragile relationships between cops and community.<< The "good" cops who won't come out from behind the blue shield to speak out against the bad ones because they'll be seen as a rat? The good cops that put in the report that they attempted to revive the victim but we're unsuccessful, even though the video shows otherwise? This isn't an issue of good and bad cops, it's an issue of bad cops and a system that makes good cops paranoid and makes them see citizens as the enemy.
Originally Posted By ecdc Or as someone on Twitter put it: In America a cop can shoot a guy in the back multiple times, plant a weapon on him, all *on video*, and we still wonder if he'll get convicted. That is a deeply troubling sign of how powerful and how broken our police system is.
Originally Posted By Mr X Horrifying video. I went over to a popular right-wing message board, just to see what they were saying. Not a peep. No comments, pro or con. Nothing. It's the top headline on all the news outlets. Then, on a whim, I tried drudge. Nothing. No headline, no link. AT ALL. I actually took screenshots just to be sure I wasn't deceiving myself. I'll put them online if I can figure out how. It hit me then, that the right wingers quite literally can't say a thing until they get their marching orders. They're all waiting for a message from the noise machine. What I would give to be a fly on the wall in THAT meeting right now!
Originally Posted By Mr X Headline news on CNN, BBC and NBC - below the fold on FOX (though unlike drudge, at least it's there). I am so officially creeped out now. I'm also VERY glad I'm bringing up my daughter in Japan. Seriously.
Originally Posted By utahjosh I'm not disagreeing with you that there are too many guilty cops going free. I agree the police attitude of superiority has gone too far, add some racism to that, and you have a serious problem. However, when I read something like this, I could easily hear someone putting a race in for the word "police." "sensationalism is going to be needed. And based on the few encounters I have had recently with the [enter race here], it is my own observation that the overwhelming majority of them are thugs."
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Of course race will continue to remain a political issue. That's the whole point. Bad cops exist because they're being handpicked by conservative racist police departments, run by conservative racist police officers. Even here in San Francisco. You live in a bubble of white male privilege, Josh. Your church, your local government, your state government... all of it overwhelmingly lead by white men. And they feel threatened by the ever-increasing gains that minority groups have been making. They feel threatened by the fact that they're not going to be completely in charge in the future. So they're trying to stop it any way they can. We've got bad cops on the street acting as though this were the Antebellum South. Bad cops behaving as though their police department were part of the KKK. This video clearly demonstrates the "lynching mentality" running rampant in police departments across the nation. And until the white men in those departments and in government call out those bad cops and CONVICT them and SENTENCE them to JAIL TIME, nothing will ever change. NOTHING.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox White cops profiling again: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/07/1376129/-Pulled-over-for-no-reason-Minneapolis-cop-threatens-to-break-legs-of-teens-before-letting-them-go">http://www.dailykos.com/story/...-them-go</a> Minneapolis cop threatens to break legs of teens before letting them go <> This officer should be fired immediately. On March 18, the young men said they left Casablanca Foods in south Minneapolis, made a U-turn into a church parking lot and headed towards 33rd and Pillsbury. That's when police pulled them over, forced them out and put them in handcuffs. “They had their guns drawn,” Liban Yusuf, 18, said. “I don't know why they were so aggressive.” 17-year-old Faysal Mohamed said at first they were wondering what they even did to get pulled over. For the next 45 minutes, they endured a search of their vehicle and background checks. Then eventually let go. Officers said they were suspected of grand theft auto. The young men say they're still recovering from the startling traffic stop in south Minneapolis last month. “I think we got stopped you know, our racial profile.” Not only were these three young men treated like criminals for a crime they didn't commit, they were threatened in a way that cannot and should not be allowed. To harass and ridicule and threaten these young men, only to then let them go because they shouldn't have been pulled over in the first place, is wrong and outrageous. If not for this video (below the fold), the police would absolutely deny they ever made this threat. <> As with the video in the OP, the video of this particular incident is damning. They did nothing wrong to warrant this treatment, other than "driving while Muslim."
Originally Posted By utahjosh I'm quite well aware of the white male (and in my are, Mormon) privilege, thank you very much. And your general claim against "the man" trying to cling to power are too vague to have any meaning.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Josh, you need to stop defending the police. As others have pointed out here, the fact that they cover up for each other shows that something is terribly wrong. You worry about damaging relations with the police. Are you serious? What relations? They see us as the enemy, plain and simple. As an older guy I have seen the transformation. I remember the days when if a cop pulled you over for a moving violation you were treated courteously and respectfully (as long as you did the same). That is now GONE. My brother was recently pulled over by a cop. For the record, my brother drives SLOW, so much so that I tease him and call him Captain Slow. So the cop tells him that he was doing 65 in a 55 zone. My brother asks the cop if he is certain of that, because he was pretty sure he was doing the speed limit. That was a BIG mistake. The cop became verbally abusive. He then called for backup. They kept my brother detained at the side of the road for over half an hour, probably while they searched every database in the country for some excuse to arrest him. They found none, so he was eventually let go with a speeding ticket. And keep in mind, my brother isn't black. I can only imagine how they would have treated him in that case.
Originally Posted By fkurucz And then there is the issue Police Militarization. Even in my podunky, low crime, lily white town the local police have armored vehicles, and they use them. Why in Heaven's name do they need such equipment? We don't live in Gotham, where Jim Gordon needs heavy artillery to attack the Joker's lair. There is only one answer as to why they are acquiring such equipment. It's not for protecting the citizenry, they intend to use it against us.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Bad cops exist because they're being handpicked by conservative racist police departments, run by conservative racist police officers. Even here in San Francisco.<< Exactly, and this is why no amount of "dialogue" or "relations" with the police is going to solve the problem. A lot of officers need to be fired and replaced with decent men and women. But we all know that isn't going to happen.
Originally Posted By utahjosh I will not stop defending the police who are doing good. I will not stop denouncing police who are doing wrong. I do believe there is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed. <You worry about damaging relations with the police. Are you serious? What relations? They see us as the enemy, plain and simple.> Umm....I think you said it pretty well right there. This relationship needs fixing. And painting ALL cops as terrible is not going to help.
