Police Violence Has Been Going On Forever. No Wonder People Are Fed Up With It.

Police Violence Has Been Going On Forever. No Wonder People Are Fed Up With It.

The Huffington Post | By Natasha Bach | Posted: 08/23/2014 12:00 pm EDT
Excerpts:

"Protests continue following the Aug. 9 shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The marchers, though, are not just protesting Brown's slaying. They are also voicing pent-up anger at an old problem: police violence, often directed at black and brown people.

The horrific beating of Rodney King by five police officers in Los Angeles in 1991 - and the subsequent acquittal of his assailants - sparked the L.A. riots of 1992, leading to 53 deaths, some at the hands of police. It was also a video introduction to police brutality for those in America who may have doubted its severity.

Twenty years later, a police beating or shooting has a decent chance of getting caught on camera - either the one on the phone in everybody's hand or the surveillance camera pointing down at the street. The latter captured Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man, being beaten to death by authorities in Fullerton, California, after being mistaken for a suspect in a series of car break-ins in the area. They, too, were acquitted.

Footage shows Oscar Grant being restrained by BART transit officers on the train platform in Oakland, California, following an altercation. Unarmed and lying on the platform, Grant was shot to death by James Mehserle, who claimed to have mistaken his gun for his taser. The alleged accidental death of Grant at the Fruitvale BART station was memorialized in last year's film Fruitvale Station.

In June, Edgar Vargas Arzate was running from police in Santa Ana, California, near where Thomas was beaten, before surrendering in the front yard of a neighbor's home. He was lying unarmed and face-down in the grass, but officers still savagely beat Arzate. When he was taken into custody, he was charged with assaulting an officer.

In July, Staten Island resident Eric Garner was suspected by the NYPD of selling untaxed cigarettes. When he refused arrest, an officer put the asthmatic man in a chokehold. Garner repeatedly screamed "I can't breathe!" and died soon after.

In August, less than two weeks after the death of Michael Brown, police in the St. Louis area shot another man. Officers responded to a 911 call regarding an alleged robbery at a convenience store. When they arrived, footage shows Kajieme Powell pacing, and he yells "shoot me now." Officers said he had a knife. Within 15 seconds of arriving on the scene, the two officers opened fire, killing Powell.

These are only a few examples of the force employed by police officers across the country. Some experts contend that police are trained to shoot to kill. A recent Washington Post op-ed written by an officer told readers, "If you don't want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you ... Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?"

Others are calling for a new law that would require law enforcement to wear cameras to avoid police misconduct and maintain a higher level of accountability. Studies in which officers have been asked to wear cameras have shown the method can be effective - one California study found police brutality plummeted when cops were recorded.

The fact remains that we do not know how many people are killed in police shootings annually, but we do know that at least five unarmed black men have been killed by police in the last month alone.

As Andrew Sullivan points out, it doesn't have to be this way:"

read more:
:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/23/police-brutality-michael-brown_n_5700970.html?ir=Politics
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IMO: Does the entire police system need to be brought in for therapy, or have we bred killers dressed in police uniforms? This is an ongoing but scarcely recognized problem of police mistaking their duties to help people to actually killing them in a moment of fear, robot-like retaliation, or taking justice into their own hands, but whatever it is, it is showing us the value our lives have on the police.

Police have changed their agenda from helping people in trouble to assaulting and sometimes killing unarmed citizens, whose taxes pay their salaries. Where did their direction change if not in the Courts where justice means the amount of tickets you write, how many suspects you can arrest, and how many murders you can get away with.

There are 'good cops' and there are 'bad cops' ...we just need to keep the bad cops down.

 

So then get the hell out of America, seriously just leave it all behind and go find your paradise off in Africa or Syria or somewhere.

I'm sorry to be so uncivil here Agent but your attitude lately has reached new levels of extremism, which is saying something for you.

There is no police agenda that involves intentionally killing people.

You are certifiably crazy if you actually think that.

However there has been a change, its just not where you think.

The change is in society with our abandonment of morality, personal responsibility, and the majority rules doctrine courtesy of liberal forced "progress".

And because those things are no longer considered valued characteristics a door was left wide open that has allowed rampant criminality to become the norm.

Its so normal that you and other liberals are consistently coming here defending criminals!

You're a supporter of a party that has caused the very environment it complains about and yet you still think everybody else is to blame.

 

Right on! Very well said........

 

"Quote Originally Posted by Agent_286 View Post
Police have changed their agenda from helping people in trouble to assaulting and sometimes killing unarmed citizens, whose taxes pay their salaries."

Poor Agent. Conspriacy theorists abound. I can't decide if he's being humorous, is mentally ill, or just off on another liberal fantasy.

 

So because someone is against police brutality they should leave the nation? When did police brutality become an American value. For that matter when did total submission to authority become an American value? Why does the right think having well armed government enforcers walking around beating people who don't fully submit to their will, right or wrong, is somehow in line with being a free nation? I don't understand you people at all.

 

1. There's being against police brutality, and then there's thinking it happens on every corner every minute of the day. Agent is delusional and believes police officers wake up each day thinking about all the Negros they will get to shoot at today. So she can leave.

2. Well liberals submit willingly to any inflammatory fabrication their overlords tell them to be enraged about. But then liberals aren't actually Americans so, hmmm, good question.

3. I'd love to turn this question to the little acknowledged fact that Obama has been arming his enforcers, the EPA, IRS, BLM, DHS, but you'll ignore that. So instead I'll just point out that if you follow simple police instructions you will not be harmed. The police have the conditional authority to command your obedience and should they be in the wrong the correct place to dispute that is in a court of law, not on the street.

 

As usual, the Huff is quick to push the ant-cop angle and our resident agent posts it's garbage and adds more to the pile.

How does garbage like this stay in "current events"? .......OH, sorry I ask.

 

1) Police brutality is a daily event and it is colorblind. It comes from the police training to always use a level of force greater than the person they are talking to and their training to use for to gain compliance. These are things the right fully supports, even to the point of death for people who are suspected of comitting a non violent crime yet not cooperating with police as we saw by their support of the NY cops who killed that fat guy who was suspected of selling out of state smokes.

2) This is meaningless drivel and honestly I see more people on the left stand up for individual rights than on the right. The only time the right seems to care about rights is when some law interferes with their ability to discriminate or god forbid the gays or women and birth control, whatever the freakout over whatever minority group it may be at the moment.

3) I'm a libertarian not a liberal. Read my sig if you want my feelings regarding the government and the crazy expansion of arms and power, which started under Bush BTW. This is why the right annoys me when it comes to Obama; they say everything he does is the worst thing ever yet his term has closely reflected Bushes term when.it comes to policy. He could do exactly what he is doing now but have a "R" next to his name and you all would fully support him.

Disgusting.

 

That cig guy is a good example of people missing the point. Soon as he started to resist arrest his non-violent crime was no longer a factor in dictating the actions of the officers. At that point they were 100% justified in their use of force. If that criminal had just accepted the fact that he was being placed under arrest he would be alive today, but no, he had to act like a thug. And yes, we on the right fully support police officers following proper procedure when it comes to dealing with feral individuals because we think they shouldn't have to put themselves in any more harm than they already are.

And I wouldn't support Obama supplying the EPA, the IRS, the BLM, the DHS, NOAA, and the USPS with automatic weapons and sub machine guns if he were a Republican. The executive branch doesn't need its own paramilitary force but that's what Obama is creating, his very own Brownshirts.

 

You are intentionally not getting it. For one, criminals don't pay taxes, and therefore they don't pay the salary of anyone at all.
The cops are ALWAYS outnumbered. They absolutely MUST have control of the situations that they are called upon to manage. The ONLY way to keep them from feeling threatened is to keep from threatening them. I'm really sorry that this has to be explained to you. I'll get back to that.
Where do you get the idea that "the people" are so brain dead that it would be fine with us if Mr. Soetero were Republican? You're being dense on purpose here. ALL politicians are at the bottom of public popularity these days.
Now, as for the deal with cops and Citizens. Some while back, I found an abandoned car that had been shot up. The trunk was closed, and there were a LOT of holes in it. I called the cops. The lone Hispanic cop who responded had to drive over about 2 miles of dirt road to reach the location. He knew I had a loaded AK-47 with me, because it was laying on the hood of my car. I stayed up on the edge of the pit where the car was, while he went in to investigate.
If the cops are trained to treat the public with brutality, why wasn't I hand cuffed? Why did the cop walk 150 yards with his back to me, knowing that I had my AK? In the real world, where Citizens RESPECT Police, they know that we have their back. That's why.

 

You know the old line about rotten apples? Guess what? The barrel is rotten and even a new apple getting tossed in there is going to rot, but it will do so gradually.

There are very fed "bad" cops. I mean "bad" as in outright criminal. How you define a "good" cop is problematic. I was a cop for 40 years here in Australia, but in a policing environment very different to that in the States. A distinct lack of firearms makes the job here far less dangerous than in the US in general. Most cops here, at least in my experience, don't have to think about going into combat mode on a routine traffic stop. Try that in the States and a cop could end up dead really quickly.

But back to "good" cops. I worked with some real ********s who would be seen as good cops because they were go-getters, boots and all types who got the job done by nearly any means. I worked with some really good people who could, at times, descend into near-savagery given the right circumstances. And no doubt that latter crowd could say the same about me. I knew about a few "bad" cops but they were, for the most part, frozen out by everyone else when plenty was suspected but nothing could be proven. As for rules, they're broken every day you're out on the road. Not major breaches, just corner-cutting and the like. Does that make someone a "bad" cop? Nope, it makes them an ordinary cop, that's all.

You see the barrel rots your skin gradually. At first you're pink and shiny ("pink" has nothing to do with skin colour). No way will you cut a corner or get up to a bit of mischief. Then your skin starts to get bruised a bit. Just a bit. Then the skin thickens. If you're lucky you stay that way until it's time to leave. For some though the rot is bad. But understand this, it's that damn barrel that's causing the rot.

The barrel in the States has been built by those in power to protect those in power. They pour in the pink and shiny apples and don't give a flying (*)(*)(*)(*) what happens after that. The apples can stink to high heaven but as long as that barrel has a lid on it those in power don't give a toss. They clear it out occasionally, pronounce it clean and in go the new apples. And pretty soon there's more bruising and the rot sets in again.

There are bad cops and there are ordinary cops doing an extraordinary job in bad circumstances. Go after the barrel makers, not the apples.

 

And yet if it weren't for criminals there'd be no police or police violence.

 

Correct, he is a great example of people missing the point, because he died over a non-violent crime. I cannot see how that is justified at all. I cannot see how use of force was justified for a guy selling cigarettes on the corner to begin with. The politicians are partly to blame for this because they created the law that created the environment for the police put this guy in a choke hold and kill him (exactly the reason the police are banned from using the choke hold to begin with). Also it's very hard to say the police are putting themselves in harms way when they swarm on people and murder in the streets. Of course there will be no accountability here. All the cops will keep their jobs and none will see the inside of a cell.

 

What am I not getting and why does it matter if a criminal does or does not pay taxes? Does that mean they can be killed more easily or something?

First off that is not the case; the police will outnumber people just the same as they are outnumbered. Also lets not play the child game you're talking to a 33 year old man who spent 4 years as an Army Infantryman, I know tense situations and I know police work isn't easy. I also know my rules of engagement in Iraq were much more strict than the ones the police follow here.

For the people part, yeah, I believe that the right would fully support someone who did exactly what Obama has done if it was another person, say Romney, doing it.

As for the police that cop was clearly a rural cop (more likely to deal with people who have guns) and clearly did not see you as a threat because you called him out there and were not acting like one. Were things to get confrontational I guarantee he would not let you near your weapon.

Also, since we're swapping police stories, here are some of mine. I won't bore you with the teen years where I was searched about every other time I was stopped for violations such as being in a park, walking down a street, or, well that's pretty much it. Oh I got a ticket for jaywalking once.

Lets start with when I was 21. I was on leave from the Army, having just completed basic, and was staying at my moms house during that time. There was a 7-11 about 5 blocks down the road where I had just bought a 6 pack and a sandwich. It's about 1230 at night, 0030. I notice a cop car pacing me on my left as I walk down the side streets, no lights on, just mugging me. I have my headphones on and haven't done anything, and now that I'm in the Army I think "Hey, these (*)(*)(*)(*) heads won't harass me now, I'm an adult!" Nope. They left around the corner only to come careening down the street, lights on siren booping, and stop me right in front of my parents house. I ask them what the problem is and they demand my ID (2 v 1 at this point their advantage for the record). I gave them my Army ID to try to skip the BS. Shortest stop ever. Apparently I "matched the description of someone who was breaking into houses." Guess there was a rash of tall white guys with 7-11 bags breaking into houses while I was in basic. Surely it wasn't just some dumb(*)(*)(*)(*) excuse to stop me as per usual.

Next we'll go with my welcome home from the Army! I was in my crappy car, it was painted like an Iraqi taxi cab, and went to Plaid to get some beer for my buddies and myself. I see that a motorcycle cop has stopped someone across the street and hope my transaction is fast enough that he will still have that person stopped. It wasn't. As I predicted the dick head was immediately tailing me, and followed me all the way up to my friends house. It was there that, despite being back from the Army for less than a month, I was cited for failure to register (out of state plates you see). The best part is that fixing the car up would cost more than the car was worth, so I went to court, plead no contest, and asked to have the ticket dropped because I was going to have to pay to have the car towed. The cop refused, the judge dropped it by $20, "the most I can legally drop."

Finally we'll end with my attempted DUI! This was a really fun one. I was stopped in front of my house because I had a broken tail light (literally the casing was cracked, the lights worked and I had taped it but the tape wasn't good enough for this dick head). He comes up, talks about the tail light, smells alcohol on my breath and immediately decides I'm drunk out of my mind despite the fact that I was driving just fine and he had no indication of me having drank anything until he smelled my breath. For the record I had 3 beers over 2 hours, and at 6'3" 215lbs was no where near drunk. I also had not eaten anything which is probably why the booze smelled strong. Anyway he gives me 3 DUI tests which, being sober, I pass. He then tells me "well you passed the 3 tests you are legally required to take but I still think you are drunk so I'm giving you a fourth anyway." I of course pass the jack asses test because, again, I'm not drunk. He lets me go and I try to move my car forward where he immediately yells at me to stay the (*)(*)(*)(*) away from my car because in his mind I'm guilty and he just can't prove it. Not wanting to get shot or beaten by billy badass I just went inside.

Hell, you get one more, a bonus from when I was going to join the police (as an infantryman when you come back you either do cop, security, or school, I did school and now I'm very well off). After failing the oral portion of the test for various reasons including the fact that I would let a criminal get away to help people who were injured in an accident, the recruiter asked me if I could shoot someone in the back. I replied that I'd rather not, and that I'd try to stop with non lethal means, but this answer wasn't good enough. He told me "this isn't war, there is no honor. You have to be ready to shoot someone in the back." That ended my attempts to become a cop. Having to bust people over laws I don't agree with would be bad enough, but I'm not trying to work with people who think my home town is worse than a (*)(*)(*)(*)ing warzone.

I guess it depends on your life experience with the police but I way more see them as scary than as good. Not even doing bad things will get you harassed, and they will try to put you in jail or generally (*)(*)(*)(*) you over. Respect is earned, not given, and they have not earned my respect. They have clearly lost a lot of respect around the nation with their lack of accountability. It's not like Ferguson is a one time deal; this has been going on for a while and people are getting pissed.

 

For the record, it was a Las Vegas Metro cop. You provided part of the answer to your own rant: I wasn't acting like a problem.
When I was young and dumb, I used to cause the po po to view me as a problem. It took a long time to learn that I don't have to completely respect the guy, and I don't have to be entirely a "good ol' boy". Just learn to walk and talk that way. And that has always been the case, all the way back to Mesopotamia.
In another situation, I had found a wrecked ATM machine. The cop who responded that time had to drive more like 4 miles back into rough terrain, as I led him in. You can be pretty sure that he ran my plate in that time, but still, there could be no better set-up to ambush him, if that was my intent.
We talked while he messed with the wrecked ATM. He had been a motorcycle cop on the Las Vegas strip for 23 years before he became the guy who wanders around in the desert, and runs packages between 'Vegas and the surrounding towns. There is no place on earth more urban than the strip. He noticed my Glock 17 laying on the passenger seat, and didn't say a word when I moved it to leaning on a windshield wiper once we got out of the cars.
I say that a HUGE part of the problems we have today are due to the fact that by and large, people don't actively learn how to be responsible citizens. Not as members of the community, and not in the presence of the Police.

 

There are a lot of idiots out there for certain, there is no denying that. Still my experience with the police, and my friends experiences, have been very bad. We're talking cops barging into houses, towing cars, using unnecessary violence and lots of searches. Admirably my friends haven't always been "yes sir, no sir" as I do (not that it has helped), but at the same time it's entirely unreasonable for a cop to flip a U-turn, ID and search a guy just because he flips the cop off. That's basic freedom of speech, and the cop has the right to return the gesture (though it is unprofessional). There have been a few good experiences and as time has moved the cops are being nicer to everyone, but I wonder if that's just because we all have money now. Also since 3 of us own homes in walking distance we don't go out as much, making it less likely we will encounter the police on a given day. Still when I see the cops drive by I don't feel safer, rather I wonder what they're going to harass me about.

 

The red is a flawed argument because once he began to resist arrest it was no longer about selling cigarettes, it was about him resisting arrest.

The blue is the start of a reasonable narrative, and needs to be compounded with the reality of Black thug culture idolizing violence and criminality which leads nearly all police interaction down a hostile road.

All conversation should exclude the red, but it wont because that's where the media can make its bones by invoking emotionally ignorant reactions.

 

Bully cops for a bully nation. It's just the result of the people who live in... no wonder european policemen are considered pus*ies by americans.

 

All conversations absolutely should not exclude the red part. You may be ok with the police killing non violent offenders who resist arrest but many of us are not. It is absolutely unjustified.

 

A good way to stop police violence

[video=youtube;uj0mtxXEGE8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uj0mtxXEGE8[/video]

 

Police don't go out of their way to kill a person just because they resist and there are damn few killed resisting arrest.

 

There would be even less if there was accountability, but their won't be. I guarantee the cop will not be brought up on charges, let alone lose his job. He's just going to get away with killing a man, just like the rest of them do. That is honestly the very first step is to start making the police accountable for their actions. Actually I guess constant video surveillance of the police is step number 1 since it seems to lower the rate of police violence.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/what-happens-when-police-officers-wear-body-cameras-1408320244
So it is in Rialto, Calif., where an entire police force is wearing so-called body-mounted cameras, no bigger than pagers, that record everything that transpires between officers and citizens. In the first year after the cameras' introduction, the use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%.