Deadly force by US police compounds global disdain

[Kondiao]

The writer is reporting news and you are mistaken in saying that the people of the U.S. don't give a damn what the writer thinks. I am a person of the U.S. and I care what he thinks and what is going on in the mean streets of American cities - and so do you - give a damn - as you got so upset by reading what this writer wrote.

I get upset any time someone without a clue takes it upon himself to pontificate with presumption and prejudices.

Now look at Tywai's post above for my answer about what you said. I support the police in their very dangerous jobs.

So get upset. I get upset that people in uniform are murdering people in the United States. It upsets me whenever people like you don't look at the issue in question.

So cops get killed on duty. I am not in favor of cops getting killed on the job. That does not help make my country any safer. So you support the police. So that makes you better than me! Who is pontificating? Who doesn't have a clue.? Why don't you tell me to get a life too? The fact is that every year more people are killed catching fish in America than catching criminals. Yes, get with the facts man. More people die each year in the U.S. fighting fires and doing construction work than working for the police departments. I am stating the fact that cops have less dead on duty than firefighters, fishermen and cosntruction workers. And fire-fighters - tough, macho guys that they are - don't go around murdering people when they are bored. Cops have been known to do that. I know it.

I have seen girls had their brains bashed in by cops with billy clubs at a wedding - for what ? to defend society? There was a certain smell in the air, which drew squads of police high on adrenalin, <deleted> up people because they could. I have known friends to be maced by cops at demonstrations, after they were already on the ground, out of action. I have worked in the California prison system - (as a professional librarian - not an inmate) and listened to the war stories of cops: the falsifying evidence, losing evidence, smoking the evidence. I have known about the police force in a small town in the Sierras where the police force was contaminated by two cops who repeatedly beat up, shot and intimidated citizens over minor traffic violations - I am not making this up - it was front page news. The grand jury eventually took them down.

But there are many others, many others that get away with their savage behavior, protected by the cop culture of us-against-them - "them" being you and me and other civilians that potentially might draw the attention of the police for spitting on the sidewalk, or having the same last name as someone who is wanted. Once you are in the system, you stand a serious chance of getting hurt - by the guards or the inmates - before the system gets around to deciding you are innocent. It could ruin your life.

I have known myself a police officer holding up an inmate due to be released from prison - by not letting his name get on the list for the bus ride to L.A. where he was to be released. That is the same thing as kidnapping. But the cop could not be prosecuted for it. Someone working in the office overrode the effort and the guywent. I knew of another case where a murderer was released from a prison by a mistake in paper work. The order to hold him pending new charges was delayed and so he "walked" - by police error. You support this shit! You think these things balance out.? Who doesn't have a clue.

What I want - what I have been raving about - is that the police be held accountable to do their jobs, just like everyone else. The fact that MOST POLICE OFFICERS ARE DECENT PEOPLE RISKING THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT has nothing to do with this argument. It is the cops that do beat up women who annoy them, shoot kids who are playing with toy guns - when they break the law they should be subject to the law. When the police are above the law then everyone suffers - including you.

[The manic]

Well said. Well written. The USA police are out of control. They dress and behave like an army of occupation and have been disregarding the civil rights of poor people, unionists and whole swathes of society for decades. The USA itself has created criminals via legislation and a profitable prison service. The beating, murder and assault of men , women and children by the police must stop. If they need to behave like para military thugs and militia it means they are governing without the consent of the people. The USA is approaching 'Failed State' status

Edited June 10, 2015 by The manic

[rijb]

'global disdain' ... that sounds serious.

[The manic]

Global disdain lead to 9/11 and other terror acts against America. Americans are so insular they forget who else is in the globe. And they forget the lesson of Vietnam. Just to remind you : You lost.

[rijb]

Global disdain lead to 9/11 and other terror acts against America. Americans are so insular they forget who else is in the globe. And they forget the lesson of Vietnam. Just to remind you : You lost.

Death to America!

Are you from NZ?

[The manic]

What is happening in urban America is nothing new. It is just being recorded and the whole world is watching. Para militaries in mirror glasses, jack boots carrying weapons are terrorising ordinary American citizens more than Muslim terrorists.

[impulse]

What is happening in urban America is nothing new. It is just being recorded and the whole world is watching. Para militaries in mirror glasses, jack boots carrying weapons are terrorising ordinary American citizens more than Muslim terrorists.

Even scarier are the states passing laws to make it illegal to video a police officer while he's on duty.

Most of the cops I've met in my life have been professional and courteous. But I've run into enough nimrods that I actually worry more about the consequences of running into a bad cop than a terrorist when I'm in the USA.

And that's sad, given that I'm not a criminal, don't speed, don't drink, don't do drugs, dress conservatively, and generally mind my P's and Q's.

[The manic]

And look at how they imprison their own people. The stats are shocking

Especially California Home of the free my Arse.

In America, habitual criminals end up being recipients of correctional services. What is so shocking about that, lol. I would be curious to know what they do with criminals where you come from. Maybe sometime when you aren't hearing voices or hallucinating, you can share what your country does with criminals.

Police who kill, rape and abuse with impunity are criminals. Please read a history book about your own country and the way the police have brutally terrorised wholes communities for over a hundred years and have been steeped in corruption and institutionalised predudice since their inception. But digital videos are exposing them now.

[rijb]

Another moral expert on America.

Why don't you pick on Canada?

Edited June 10, 2015 by rijb

[Publicus]

And look at how they imprison their own people. The stats are shocking

Especially California Home of the free my Arse.

In America, habitual criminals end up being recipients of correctional services. What is so shocking about that, lol. I would be curious to know what they do with criminals where you come from. Maybe sometime when you aren't hearing voices or hallucinating, you can share what your country does with criminals.

Police who kill, rape and abuse with impunity are criminals. Please read a history book about your own country and the way the police have brutally terrorised wholes communities for over a hundred years and have been steeped in corruption and institutionalised predudice since their inception. But digital videos are exposing them now.

Sometimes I agree, sometimes disagree, but I though this post could be elaborated on, so I suggest the following links which I hope can be agreeable.....

http://plsonline.eku...2757.1428977624

http://storage.globa...42815114290.pdf

[slerickson]

Twice the writer states that the US has democracy which doesn't and never did have and that shows how much inside information he has.

He repeatedly states "unarmed" when it's irrelevant. A person doesn't have to be armed before he is killed. If he's big enough and threatening enough to cause "serious bodily injury or death" or if the shooter is outnumbered by people who appear ready to do the same it's lights out.

I only have to have "reasonable fear of serious bodily injury or death" to myself or even a stranger to make a legal shoot. That's how it should be.

I really don't think the people of the US give a damn what the writer thinks especially since he doesn't have a clue about what really happens.

Yea especially when cops shoot unarmed suspects running away, or with their hands up, lying on the ground. You surely have no clue.

[CMNightRider]

Twice the writer states that the US has democracy which doesn't and never did have and that shows how much inside information he has.

He repeatedly states "unarmed" when it's irrelevant. A person doesn't have to be armed before he is killed. If he's big enough and threatening enough to cause "serious bodily injury or death" or if the shooter is outnumbered by people who appear ready to do the same it's lights out.

I only have to have "reasonable fear of serious bodily injury or death" to myself or even a stranger to make a legal shoot. That's how it should be.

I really don't think the people of the US give a damn what the writer thinks especially since he doesn't have a clue about what really happens.

Yea especially when cops shoot unarmed suspects running away, or with their hands up, lying on the ground. You surely have no clue.

If a police officer were to shoot a person for no valid reason, rest assure he or she would be held accountable just like anyone else. Law enforcement in America, are not running around shooting unarmed people at random. Accusing NeverSure of not having a clue would be projection on your part.

If people don't like the interaction they are having with police, all they have to do is try obeying the law.

Life can be tough but even tougher for someone who is stupid. After reading some of these anti-police comments, I can't imagine how tough life must be for these posters.

[CMNightRider]

Well said. Well written. The USA police are out of control. They dress and behave like an army of occupation and have been disregarding the civil rights of poor people, unionists and whole swathes of society for decades. The USA itself has created criminals via legislation and a profitable prison service. The beating, murder and assault of men , women and children by the police must stop. If they need to behave like para military thugs and militia it means they are governing without the consent of the people. The USA is approaching 'Failed State' status

"Well said. Well written"??? You have got to be kidding, lol. Where on earth do you people get your information from? OMG!

[Kondiao]

One must realize that when a cop stops a driver today for a traffic violation they can't be sure they won't be shot as they walk from the police car to the offender's car. That, unfortunately, is the the environment today. Then you have the areas when no policeman would patrol alone. While I am sure there are cases where the police surely over react let's face facts that there are just too many thugs out there and it seems that every time there is a death resulting from an altercation with the police it is from that fact that the idiots just don't do what the police ask them to do. If I am walking down the street and for some reason a cop tells me to do something, I am going to do it. I can always make a complaint later if I feel it is police harassment. The idiots being killed are stupid thugs in most cases and not the innocent beings presented by the minority community. Why are there more minorities in prisons? It's because they commit a disproportionate amount of the crimes. This is not white cop against minorities, it is cops against thugs.

The point of contention here is that too many times cops have "over-reacted" to a situation in which they were in no danger but "idiot" did not feel like being insulted by a cop when there was no offense committed. No matter how you twist the facts the truth remains that many times police have harassed people because they were bored or wanted to add some arrests to their record or thought that the person might have resembled someone of interest and was vulnerable by virtue of being poor, female, black, ..... erratic in some way and so drew the attention of an officer.... and the person died..... was injurred, locked into the endless prison system - had his life ruinned.

If a person is taken into police custody because he was apprehended doing armed robbery and he somehow gets dead while in police custody then I don't lose sleep over this.

But when someone is apprehended because of having a bad hair day, making an illegal lane change, swearing at the ATM for not giving him his money... and the police inflict their cruelty on on him or her and he or she becomes dead -

then the police are responsible for this person's death.

Why can you not get this simple truth?

If you are in my motor vehicle and you die - then I have to account for your dying. If you die in a hospital operating room or die of old age at the VA Emergency - then someone has to explain the reason for your death.

If you die in a paddy wagon it is not enough to claim "O well the m/f probably had a heart attack .... he was going to die anyway... it was not due to police intervention".

If the death was the result of the savagery of cops behaving like mad dogs then then the law calls for their crime to be investigated and the police have to be imprisoned if found guilty in a court of law.

This part of U.S. law has been blocked for a long time. Now police are not being held accountable when they commit crimes on innocent people.

If the officer charged with excessive force or murder is in fact innocent of wrong-doing and was acting according to the law to protect himself and restrain a dangerous person then why should the incident not be investigated so the facts become clear - if the cop is innocent of wrong-doing then he will be cleared by the legal procedures that he works within.

How many times have you made a formal complain to the police department about an offense committed by a cop and had it taken seriously?? I have never known anyone personally who got listened to and the complaint followed up on. In every case that I know of the complain got lost in the bureaucracy, with the the useless, blanket excuse that the cop is under a lot of stress and reacted properly. This doesn't justify cops feeling under women's dresses in search of weapons at traffic stops or people dying in the paddy wagon on the way to the station with multiple tazer burns and bullet holes, while handcuffed.

Clearly there are cases of "rogue" cops acting outside of the legal limits to their behaviors (or normal cops acting out on their savage impulses because they can get away with it) and they should be treated as crimes and the cops investigated as other criminals are.

No matter how much you admire police or fear them you should be able to grasp the idea that any police force would be better off if the officers were subject to the law when they break the law. The alternative is that police are above the law - and so can commit any crime on little people and get

away with it. Then everyone loses.

[Roadman]

Global disdain? Doubt it. Some of us are just thankful (correct to conclude smugly) that our countries do not have the same issues the US has, and are far more inclusive and stronger democracies.

[55Jay]

Global disdain? Doubt it. Some of us are just thankful (correct to conclude smugly) that our countries do not have the same issues the US has, and are far more inclusive and stronger democracies.

LOL.