I bet the cops hate when there is video footage that doesn't match their story. Too often, however, that ends up not mattering anyway as cops get the benefit of the doubt almost regardless of what the evidence says.
North Charleston officer faces murder charge after video shows him shooting man in back
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North Charleston officer faces murder charge after video shows him shooting man in back
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5 comments:
Tsk. There's that attitude again. My guess is that he'll be prosecuted and found guilty and go to prison where he belongs. Try subsisting among the crowd you put in there, fella. There are definitely some who have no business carrying a badge. Shot to death for a traffic stop! The trouble is, these types of incidents are expanded to condemn the entire police force, which is so unfair. The next time somebody's breaking into your house or car, who are you gonna call, the very people you've been badmouthing? That'd be embarrassing, wouldn't it?
He killed the guy, planted/moved evidence, and lied on the report. So he's a bad cop.
Other cops were there and saw him do this.
His report also said they tried CPR. None of the cops there did. They are also bad cops.
So all the cops seen in the video are bad cops. How many more of these do we need to see to strip the (unearned) aura of righteousness? they need to be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard.
Of course. And the vast majority of them are decent, hard-working people with families and bills and worries and concerns the same as you and I have. The ones you HEAR about don't. And that condemns them all to be painted with the same brush. Social Media causes more distrust and fear of the police than any of these incidents could. Nobody knows all the facts, so they pick and choose whatever serves their own agenda, it propagates through endless, I mean 24/7, retelling, until presto! It's a "known fact" that all cops are evil and we should fear them and fight them. Man, I'm glad I got out of law enforcement before it became satanism itself.
So, you're saying if somebody broke into your house, you WOULDN'T call the cops? If their so-called righteousness is unearned, then would you take the risk? I'll bet you would, and I'd also bet that your matter would be handled professionally and as efficiently as the responding officers could manage. Unless, of course, a) you got one of the maybe 3-4% of careless bad apples, or b) you were arrogant and confrontational and rude. In which case, I'd say the officers would have the right to turn on their heels and vacate the premises, while making a report to their superiors as to why they did so. If you want to be treated with respect, it's a two-way street. You're not out there putting your life on the line every day. You sound as if you think they somehow owe you decency and respect, when they aren't owed the same thing. Most of these incidents have resulted from victims being argumentative and confrontational, with a generous dollop of racism thrown into the mix. And unless you were there, you don't actually KNOW what really happened. All you or I know is what the media want us to know.
I might call the cops, but I would feel very uneasy around them.
There are two groups of people who want to be cops:
* They want to help people
* They like having power and throwing it around
The big problem is you can't tell the difference by just looking at them.
Police have an us vs. them attitude and close ranks to protect those that abuse their power and our trust. If they prevent bad cops from being fired or from going to jail how can you come to any conclusion other than they are all bad.
They should be owed respect, but they have squandered it. I don't respect cops, I fear cops and I am a white middle class male.
Policing has changed over the past 40 years from keeping the peace to enforcing order. The militarization of cops fosters an us vs. them environment. Rise of the Warrior Cop is a good book that explains this well.
Of your two choices, the ones who want to help people far and away outnumber the power grabbers. I worked around enforcement officers for over 30 years, and I'm here to tell you the power abusers do exist. I've seen it in action, although I never saw anyone physically abused or, god forbid, killed. It requires a certain attitude to take an enforcement job. You need a sense of duty and a certain fearlessness to carry a gun and a badge. As far back as the 60s, enforcement officers have been subjected to spitting, being pummeled with rocks and bottles and generally defamed. I knew one of the National Guard officers who confronted the SDS students at Kent State in 1970. He was my brother's best friend, and he said they were literally afraid for their lives at the hands of the ax-wielding militant students. It has not gotten any better, as criminals are less and less afraid of authority. Instead of "Officer Friendly," cops are not safe walking down the street. They are targets, sitting ducks. I remain amazed that so many people are still willing to take on this kind of dangerous and thankless responsibility, in the face of such as you, who think they're all dirty and compromised. I haven't been able to find actual stats about the number of bad cops vs good cops. Nobody cares about the good ones, so their efforts go unnoticed and unchronicled.
Yes. There ARE bad cops out there. The power can go to their heads. There are bad actors in all walks of life, from financial advisers to private eyes. But to assume that the vast majority of them, even all of them, are bad puts us in grave danger of chaos. If only the records of Internal Affairs investigations and terminations could be made public, maybe, maybe some reason would come back to the country at large. As long as journalists such as Stossel and Balko get all the headlines, that'll never happen. Good guys don't make news. If it bleeds, it leads. Sensationalism is all that gets published. I'm not blaming the journalists, entirely, since John Q Public wants to hear about the blood and gore (the public's "right to know," ya see.) But it's circular. The media provides what the people want to hear and the problem gets worse and worse.
For the record, I was one who believed George Zimmerman to be a thug, and, based on his subsequent actions and arrests, it seems I was correct. He was one of those power hungry cop wannabes with too much perceived authority. Whether or not you believe his confrontation with Trayvon was justified, it never would have happened if he hadn't had a gun and confronted Trayvon based upon who and where he was. That case got worldwide coverage for months. During that time, how many stories did you see about heroic accomplishments by enforcement officers? They happen every day, but they aren't newsworthy. It's pitiful how much the media has shaped the opinion of the population.
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