Originally Posted By TomSawyer Police brutality is a concern on both sides of the political divide. Conservatives worry about it when it is against people like Randy Weaver, while liberals worry about it when it affects African Americans.
Originally Posted By KiroyIsHere I think you missed it my road trip________ my first post was an accidental use of "naval" So I decided to continue with that motif "admiral, sea, sub, fathom" So you are teasung me sort of late......I already started on myself and it feels good to make some fun.
Originally Posted By ecdc I'm going to quote from the conclusion of Balko's book, then I'll drop it. I can't recommend it enough. It's truly stunning what we let police get away with in this country. If you think the following words are overstatement, he spends the previous 300+ pages carefully detailing why he's exactly right: >>[Cops are] given greater protections from civil and criminal liability than normal citizens. They’re permitted to violently break into homes, often at night, to enforce laws against nonviolent, consensual acts—and even then, often on rather flimsy evidence of wrongdoing. Negligence and errors in judgment that result in needless terror, injury, and death are rarely held accountable. Citizens who make similar errors under the same circumstances almost always face criminal charges, usually felonies. Police today share a bond tighter than that shared by soldiers who fight in wars together. There’s a strict code of omerta that’s enforced more ruthlessly and thoroughly than in any other noncriminal profession. Cops who rat out other cops tend not to remain cops for very long. Lying and exaggerating in police reports and on the witness stand isn’t just common, it’s routine and expected. It’s a part of the job. Today, there are entire communities in which a large percentage of residents refuse to talk to police, under any circumstances. These so-called “Stop Snitch’n” movements are often derided by politicians and police officials, but there’s a pretty astonishing revelation driving them: There are large swaths of the population who fear the people who are supposed to protect them from criminals more than they fear the criminals.... Police officers today are a protected class, one no politician wants to oppose. Law enforcement interests may occasionally come up short on budgetary issues, but legislatures rarely if ever pass new laws to hold police more accountable, to restrict their powers, or to make them more transparent. In short, police today embody all of the threats the Founders feared were posed by standing armies, plus a few additional ones they couldn’t have anticipated.... Even if the officer does violate the citizen’s rights, the officer is protected by qualified immunity. In the Introduction, I noted that this is not an anti-cop book. And it isn’t. Despite all of this, there are still good cops. A lot of them. But we have passed laws and policies that have elevated police officers above the people they serve. As Tim Lynch of the Cato Institute has written, you could make a good argument that police should be held to a higher standard than regular citizens. And you could make a good argument they should be held to the same standard. But it’s hard to conceive of a convincing argument that they should be held to a lower one. But that’s exactly what we’ve done. Systems governed by bad policies and motivated by incentives will produce bad outcomes. Today, laws, policies, and procedures select for personalities attracted to aggressive, antagonistic policing; isolate police from the communities they serve; and condition police officers to see the people they serve—the people with whom they interact every day—as the enemy. We shouldn’t then be surprised when cops then begin to see a world divided between cops and their families . . . and everybody else.<<
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Cops are indeed held to a different standard. I remember a college buddy who took us all out to where his dad, a San Francisco police officer, and six or seven fellow policemen were camping and fishing in a state park. These guys drank, yelled, raised Hell, drove a jeep into the river, and partied late and loud into the night. They did not behave well. The rangers in the park, knowing they were police, just laughed it off. Anyone else doing the exact same things would have been ejected from the campground, or even arrested.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Yes, and I think it talks to a much broader problem than racism on the part of police. As I told my wife last night, Missouri cops are assholes to EVERYONE. Yes, they probably target blacks... they also target young people and people who appear poor. In our suburban town it is illegal to have a car on the street more than 24 hours. It is routinely violated by people around us with no police issues. Once when my niece was living with us she had a car that became totally inoperable. It sat on the street about a week while she tried to arrange for a place to come and haul it off as salvage. Although it wan't that old a car the paint looked like crap. During that week we had a cop come to our door twice telling us we had to get rid of it or face significant fines. Meanwhile, nicer cars park on the street all the time including one actual police car down the street. Apparently they don't have to follow the rules.
Originally Posted By TeaPartyWave So ECDC, a long time LP fool posts this in August <<Police in Ferguson, Missouri shot an unarmed black teen, and a community of people sick of being targeted because of their skin color has risen up. And how do police respond? By massing for battle. They also arrested two journalists and fired tear gas at more journalists.>> We of course know this is NOT what happened, and for ECDC to say this without any proof or evidence is why guys like this PURPOSELY enflame race riots and division in the most UNRACIST nation on earth.. America. So ECDC...from all of us who knew this was not a white cop shooting a " innocent unarmed black man" simply because he was black. Screw you for not bothering to get the facts before you once again race baited like all your liberal weasel pals love to do.
Originally Posted By TeaPartyWave Notice that Dabob was one of the Michael Brown race baiters who didn't bother to get the facts. Now that we have the facts he pretends he never said what he said. Of course he won't talk to me or anyone about it...it's why he hangs here with a few toothless wonders instead of going to a Tea Party page where he would last about 4 minutes.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Dabob, your new community at Sock Puppets Anonymous welcomes you. Please join us!
Originally Posted By TeaPartyWave Hey, bottom line is that Dabob, Skinbox, ECDC ( a gay bath house regular in Portland ) all sttempted to make a white, respected police officer into a racist monster in order to push their race baiting BS. Its what liberals do...its one of the reasons the country hates liberals. The thread is the proof. I rest my case.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Dabob, your new community at Sock Puppets Anonymous welcomes you. Please join us!> That's what NFTT means - "not feeding the troll."
Originally Posted By Yookeroo 'That's what NFTT means - "not feeding the troll."' I think the point of skinnerbox's Sock Puppets Anonymous thread is to consolidate message board support for this idea which will encourage others to stop engaging. And maybe help people like skinnerbox to avoid the bait.
Originally Posted By GrannnnyFannnny you police bully you leave that black boy be he needs our prayers now help our black boys from that trouble
Originally Posted By fkurucz I envision a future archeologist finding one of Doobie's old hard drives in a landfill. It's taken back to a lab to be examined, with the hope of finding clues on what 21st century civilization was like. And they find the World Events section.
