I have no idea giddyup. I was just saying that the reason that there was a less outrage about the horrific Denny incident may be because it wasn't four cops who did it, just four thugs. How would you feel if it was your son who got physically harassed by a cop?
And when they don't keep those survival instincts under wraps, they should have to pay the penalty. We can excuse anything. Growing up in South Central LA is stressful and can be very dangerous. Is it unrealistic of us to expect people from South Central to follow the law then? Being married can be quite stressful, is it unrealistic for people to expect me to not beat my wife? To take this to a bigger extreme: where is the line drawn? How far can the police break the law before citizens should be upset? Can I, for example, call an officer a name without getting beaten? If an officer has to actually get out of his car to write me a ticket for speeding, is it okay for him to bash my head into the trunk of his cruiser? Where is the line set to be realistic? If it is unrealistic to expect these officers to not break the law, perhaps we're hiring the wrong kind of people to be police officers. Personally, I prefer my police officers to not be criminals. Is that really too much to ask?
CONSIDERATION . . . . if the shoe was on the other foot .. . some guy blows away a cop or beats them into oblivion . . . WHAT KIND OF CONSIDERATION DO WE GIVE THEM??? I mean his wife left him. . .he got fired. . . his son was killed last week . .. GUESS WHAT IT WOULD NOT MEAN A D*MN . . IF HE INJURED A COP. HE GOING DOWN VERY HARD and FOR A LONG TIME!!! Rocket River Susan Smith got consideration Andrea Yates got consideration Cops get consideration
Here's another question I have. Why did they need six police officers to give someone a ticket for driving with a suspended license? Interesting question. The other question is, according to the lawyers, the kid and his dad were already stopped at a gas station when this incident took place (they were getting gas when the cops stopped by). I'm curious what they did to make the cops come to them and ask for ID in the first place. This, of course, assumes that what the lawyer says is true, which isn't confirmed at this point.
In both the King story and this more recent one, the cops have stated that the person that they beat attacked them. If that is the case, then I would think that they should be given the leeway to hit them back. In the Denny case, he was dragged from his truck and beaten nearly to death because he was white. There is no comparison between King or this kid and Denny. The guy that was dragged behind a truck and decapitated because he was black, Matthew Shepard, etc. have more in common with the Denny case. I have posted this many times before, but here goes: Don't run from the cops, don't attack the cops, and this kind of thing will be much less likely to happen to you.
<B>RM95</b>: It doesn't matter what the colors are. It matters what happened? I'm sure I would be upset if it were my son, but that is just my selfish concern. What did he do that was wrong? I onlysaw one cop involved with the kid -- and a bunch of hangers-on -- kind of like road construction! It seems like only two of the cops actually struck Rodney King. <b>Mr. Paige</b>: I guess it IS too tough because this kind of thing happens fomtime to time. I'm not saying that some kind of discipline or punishment is not called for but I think going after their hide is outrageous. Aren't penalties more severe for cop-killers? Why is that? How does it relate to this issue? When officers are in the throes of apprehending a criminal, they often times will speed excessively. That too is breaking the law, but it is necessary pursuant to apprehending the suspect. Do we know what either this kid or RK were saying as the blows continued? Were they still being verbally defiant? If so, they need to still be intimidated-- by blows if necessary. <b>Rocket River</b>: I'm not sure I get your drift. Cops exist in this tensiion constatntly. <b>Timing</b>: Lucky guess! <b>Mrs. JB</b>: Disqualified due to prior knowledge.
Don't be black or hispanic and this this kind of thing will be much less likely to happen to you too.
Just saw the video on TV. SLAM!!! And the other cops that watch this while it happens should also be kicked out of the force, put in jail or whatever happens. Guilty by association. I trust about 1% of the police out there. They're all aholes on a power trip. Can't handle the stress? Find another job. F*CK THE POLICE!!!! Man this makes me mad!
What if you don't know they're cops? Anyone remember this little gem: In the predawn hours of October 31,1989, 24-year-old Alex Gonzales, an intoxicated off-duty HPD officer, after an all-night drinking binge, was cruising the freeways with two other off-duty officers. At the time, HPD had no policy forbidding an intoxicated off-duty officer from carrying a weapon. After leaving a bar early that morning, Gonzales's attention fell on Ida Lee Delaney, a Houston Post employee driving to work, when she abruptly pulled in front of the car in which he was a passenger. In a fit of rage, Gonzales and the two other officers chased Delaney down a 13-mile stretch of freeway. Apparently in fear for her life, with no way of knowing that the men were police, she fired several shots before finally pulling over. When she did, Delaney shot and wounded Gonzales; he, in turn, shot and killed her. Excerpted from a Houston Chronicle article.
Yeah, we need to keep these punks from using their constitutional right to free speech by beating the crap out of them after they're handcuffed and subdued for saying bad things. And, by the way, it is not illegal for officers to speed to catch fleeing suspects in nearly all jurisdictions. It is, however, always illegal to commit battery against a handcuffed and subdued suspect. Think of it this way. If someone comes at me with a knife, I can protect myself and use force to do so. If, however, I subdue that person, handcuff them, what-have-you, I cannot then shoot them in the back... even if they say something nasty about me (or even about my sainted mother). If I did, I would likely go to prison for the rest of my life. Same deal here. The suspect was in custody. Once that happened, they are no longer defending themselves. Anything that happened earlier is irrelevant. Any battery that takes place after the suspect is subdued is a violation of law. There is enough evidence to arrest this officer and charge him with the crime. Why the police have yet to do so is beyond me. Let the courts decide if it is justified to beat up a subdued suspect, and if the suspect was saying something, let's see if a jury thinks it's okay to then beat the guy up.
I think it's outrageous that this kid is going to be put on trial for the same crime that was committed by this officer, yet the officer will likely never face trial. Kind of a double standard. Why not drop the charges against the kid if these small beatings are so unimportant? Certainly even the police officer's description of a "lunge" is not on par with what the kid received. I find it outrageous that people are so willing to condone illegal behavior from the very people who are supposed to enforce the laws.
Too bad most of us don't really control what color our skin is chameleon man. This next part might be a bit controversial, but I believe that black people have a higher incidence of criminal behavior in proportion to population than white. That might be why cops associate criminal behavior with African-Americans. I happen to think that it is more a matter of a higher incidence of poverty among black Americans, but thats just me. Not true, the cops in the Rodney King case faced charges, as this cop is likely to as well. The reason to not run from/attack the cops is to avoid the beating in the first place, regardless of the potential for the officer to be prosecuted or not. Mrs. JB, Definately don't shoot at the cops. All, I didn't say it would guarantee safety. It is just a common sense thing to reduce chance of bodily harm. I don't know the exact figures, but I would be willing to bet that violence by the police is more frequent, percentage-wise against criminals resisting arrest than it is against those who surrender peacefully. You are more likely to be hit by a car if you are walking in the street. That doesn't mean you won't be hit by a car walking on the sidewalk. Nor does it automatically indemnify the driver that hit you if you were walking on the street.
Of course, you can get a beating even if you did nothing wrong. Ask Donato Garcia or Leonard Mitchell. All they did was assert their constitutional rights (and actually, Garcia was not even trying to assert his rights. He apparently didn't really understand what was being asked of him). Another way we might prevent these beatings is to come down extremely hard on the offending police officers, even the ones who don't happen to be caught on tape. There is enough evidence to arrest and charge the officer involved in this beating already. Why haven't the police done so yet?
I think we all just need to SLOW DOWN here. Let's wait for all the facts to come forth, then make a decision. It seems to me as though people saw about 10 seconds of the clip, and automatically assumed that the cop acted wrongly. What is not evident from the short clip is what happened up to that point. Perhaps the officer's conduct *was* justified. Perhaps not. Right now we have very little facts and therefore we should not rush to judgment.
There's enough evidence to sustain an arrest. The tape shows the suspect on the ground and handcuffed. He is lifted up by his arms and slammed against the trunk of the car. There can be nothing to support that kind of treatment. Once the suspect is in custody, the police are no longer potentially defending themselves from whatever may or may not have happened prior to the tape rolling. At the very least, there is enough evidence to support an arrest of the officer and to charge him with battery. If there are facts that excuse his behavior, a jury can hear them once it goes to trial. The kid has already been charged with a crime. They didn't spend any time investigating his actions that day before arresting and charging him. Why aren't they waiting for all the facts to come out before arresting and charging him?
