Police brutality

[Jagos]

So I had a story recently about one cop that was doing quite well in respecting people.

Well, here's the other foot. I will warn people that the link I put up is quite graphic, so you have been warned.

Link


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Kelly Thomas' father, a retired Orange County police officer, did not recognize his own son when he went watch him die at the UC Irvine Medical Center after police beat him into a coma on July 5. The officers were responding to a call about vandalized cars when they found Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic, and attempted to search him. Thomas' father says his son may have been off his meds, which would explain why he resisted arrest. Nothing explains the gang-style murder committed by Fullerton cops.

While there's a Youtube of this, it doesn't show the beating, instead showing the screams from him being tasered after a fifth time. How police came to be SO worked up as to beat the ever loving crap out of a homeless man, is beyond me. It's a sad state of affairs when the ones meant to protect and serve, are the ones taking away your liberties.

RIP Thomas...

[pochercoaster]

This is extremely upsetting even though it's unsurprising. Nothing excuses that kind of force, but society is all about band-aid solutions (more police to "fix" crime) rather than taking the time to come up with solutions to complex social problems.

And no one cares about homeless people or the mentally ill. They are stigmatized and blamed for circumstances and problems that are beyond an individual's control. If they can't get the professional help and support they need they end up either on the streets or in prison.

There was an article in the Toronto Star a couple days ago about how numerous youths (kids under 18) in Ontario with mental health problems were shunted off to prisons that didn't have the necessary care workers and ended up killing themselves. These kids weren't even homeless in the first place but the system failed in so many ways that it just made things a whole lot worse for some kids who just desperately needed some help.

I don't even know what else to say, it makes me so angry. There is so much corruption going on here, among the police, among the government for cutting spending towards programs that would help disadvantaged people, among the general populace for its bootstraps attitude towards the homeless, among corporations for running prisons. It's disgusting and depressing.

Edit: Which is to say, an approach to "solve" police brutality, which is in itself is completely inexcusable, has to be multi-faceted. There won't be an improvement in this area until there's an improvement made in other areas as well. Particularly with the whole affordable and accessible support for disadvantaged people.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Jagos

So I had a story recently about one cop that was doing quite well in respecting people.

Well, here's the other foot.

what do you mean? there are already other stories you've linked to about "police brutality" or "police violating rights". Abit silly calling this the other side when that story was the exception in a series of anti-police threads

[Jagos]

My last thread in regards to police was literally about a police officer respecting someone's rights. You don't see that everyday.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Jagos

My last thread in regards to police was literally about a police officer respecting someone's rights. You don't see that everyday.

thats the thing that confuses me. If you think police being respectful is so rare it requires special mention, then doesn't that mean this isn't news but just business as usual? Unless you are saying police brutality is a rarity as well.

[Jagos]

All I'm saying is that my last thread was about one other police incident. Literally. I'm not even going further back in history to say otherwise. I'm taking the last thread that I had on police and saying this thread is the exact opposite.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by Jagos

My last thread in regards to police was literally about a police officer respecting someone's rights. You don't see that everyday.

You're right. You don't see a thread about the 98% of police officers that do their job the right way very often.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

thats the thing that confuses me. If you think police being respectful is so rare it requires special mention, then doesn't that mean this isn't news but just business as usual? Unless you are saying police brutality is a rarity as well.

You're really gonna call police brutality business as usual?

Dude, quit trollin'.

[Jagos]

*Rise from your grave*

It seems that the police have been charged with the murder of Kelly Thomas.

I'm at a loss how you can have SO many police officers at a scene, but only TWO get charged. Seeing as how Alyona is also saying what their counts are, it just doesn't feel right that other people are escaping justice when they could have stopped this at any time.

[Bells]

that's probably because any legal system in most civil countries is made of shades of Grey, and even if you are found bloodsoaken in a alley with a gun on your hand with a body next to you killed by said gun you are STILL innocent until proven guilty... and even then, if you're proven guilty, we still have room to debate "why" you did something and "how" it got to that, before defining a fitting punishment... it's societies rulebook, love it or hate it...

As for Police brutality, it's not as "Epidemic" as people make it seem sometimes. There are bad professionals in any give trade, even is it's law and order. The Power, the authority of being a police officer, does indeed draw out some bad seeds (or turns good ones around) from time to time. The only "normal" thing about out of this is that we can call this a consequence of having the institution. The ebst we can do, is maintenance. To make sure that you don't keep around the bad ones for too long.

Police Brutality is as common as brutality itself, because sometimes people just do really, really stupid things. But when it's behind the shield of a Society-approved institution that is meant to provide order, it's just hurts more to look at it.

[Jagos]

And on the next episode of police brutality...

Would you tase this boy?