The Police Brutality Thread

[Uncle Ted]

One thing that I would insist upon (I got this from the ACLU) if we require this of officers: the camera should only be on when they interact with the public. Recording everything they do at all times can take a huge psychological toll on them from the panopticon phenomena. However, in return for respecting their psychological well-being while sitting somewhere doing policework that doesn't involve the public, if they do interact with the public, and don't switch on the camera, there should be an automatic consequence with some teeth, and if an allegation of abuse happens when the camera isn't on, the onus should be on the officer to prove that the abuse didn't happen.

I would like the ACLU to just tell the cops to leave me alone when I am taking some pics or a video of them doing their job. My family and I were at the state fair some years back and witness a beat- take-down of a couple young kids. One of the cops saw me with my phone out, came over and told me to put my phone away or he would take it. He had his hand on his night stick so I followed his orders. However, here is one of the pics I took before my constitutional rights were violated:

DallasPolice.jpg

Edit: Here is another... Note how the officer has this poor kid's face down on the Texas hot concrete and the other is picking up what looks like the kid's teeth all while his buddy is forced to watch.

DallasPolice2.jpg

[byu71]

Yes, it did wonders for Rmoney's campaign...

Of course, he was just stating the obvious.

Yes he was. Of course saying that now puts us in with the anti old people, anti poor, anti people of color, anti single women, etc.

Romney though made a big error. Social Security is not an entitlement. The governement is paying on a loan just like they pay on their loans to China, Japan or elsewhere.

I have loaned them my money all these years aand they are paying me a pretty darn crappy rate. I had no choice.

[SteelBlue]

Not brutatlity, but an accident involving the police. "Cops" crew member accidentally shot by police during a shootout he was filming. Having watched many episodes of Cops, I have often wondered if something like this would ever happen.

http://www.courant.com/entertainment...,1389974.story

Dion's death is likely to raise new questions about crew safety on reality TV and could contribute to scrutiny over police use of force after a string of high-profile shootings across the U.S. resulted in the deaths of several unarmed people.

The incident began when Omaha police responded to a report of an armed robbery at a restaurant. Dion handled the sound equipment for the show's cameraman and had been working with Omaha officers on the show since June, police said.

Police said the suspect, Cortez Washington, 32, fired at officers with an airsoft pistol, which looks and sounds like a real handgun but does not fire lethal rounds. Washington was killed after the three responding officers returned fired, police said.

Dion was inside a vestibule at the restaurant when one of the police rounds struck him beneath his armpit in an area unprotected by his vest.

It's “as if we lost one of our own,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer told reporters during a televised news conference. “He was an incredible man.”

[ewth8tr]

Guy shopping at Wal-Mart, walking around with pellet gun from the shelf, is shot and killed by police, who then lied about what happened.



http://gawker.com/lawyer-video-shows...ium=socialflow

[Nakoma]

I am all for this. It will be nice to see law enforcement exonerated most of the time.

There is a family suing a Bakersfield Police Officer and the Department for the shooting of their family member.

You see....he took a gas pump hose out of a ladies hand and started dousing her with gasoline. Police responded within 1 minute. When they arrived the man was trying to light this gal on fire. (She was a complete stranger to him).

He started coming at police and they dropped him with one shot.

Family is using for use of excessive force and brutality.

Their main complaint?...police should have used a taser instead. You know....use a taser on a man covered in gasoline standing next to a woman that he covered with gasoline....standing next to a car filled with her children.

And who is taking on the case? Jonnie Cochran himself.

Did Johnnie Cochran return from the grave to handle the case?

[The_Tick]

Did Johnnie Cochran return from the grave to handle the case?

Cochran Law Firm.

I don't pay attention to if the famous lawyer that owns the group is alive or not.

[Eddie]

In all honesty, I think the biggest thing cameras would do would keep the asses from being asses.

I've interacted with a lot of cops over the years in various capacities - usually on their side

And one thing I've found is that there are very few truly dirty cops, but there are significantly more cops who will be complete dicks if they are in a hurry, or don't want to hassle with paperwork, or just want to be done so that they can get back to whatever it was they were doing. They can say stupid and/or offensive things. They can make threats that may or may not be true or real. And they can tell people to do/not do things that they have no right to.

I get the argument that video doesn't show context. And I would be very hesitant if video were the only evidence presented. That said - how can having evidence of an actual series of events be a bad thing? So long as it is taken in context and as a piece of evidence combined with eyewitness accounts?

[Soccermom]

I have always tended to side with the police in situations where they are accused of brutality because when dealing with dangerous criminals, especially those armed and high on drugs like PCP, they don't have much time to react. A good friend's brother who is a police officer was just exonerated for such a shooting in San Jose.

Having said that, the events of the last few weeks have me wondering. After learning that my dad's sister died the day of my baby's birth 3 1/2 weeks ago, and this death was just two days after her husband passed, we learned that this sister's daughter's son died in jail. He was epileptic and had been taken to the hospital from the jail and when returned to the jail they put him in solitary confinement and he had a seizure and died. I"m wondering why someone known to have such seizures would be left alone like that. The ACLU has contacted the family and is looking into that. And just a week after that, another sister of my dad's grandson was shot 14 times by police. Witness accounts claim he was just sitting in his car and the police shot within seconds of arriving on the scene. Unlike the relative in jail, this guy had never had any issues with the law. He had tried to reconcile with his wife and she told him no, and he said he wanted to commit suicide and was sitting in his car threatening to take his life. Witnesses say there was no gun, but police say there was. Witnesses say the police who shot him moved his body before other officers arrived and are worried about tampering. Anyhow, I don't know what to think of all of this. Trying to stay open minded, but if the accounts are true and he was just suicidal, why did the cops kill him? If he was in his car and no threat to anyone but himself, why would they shoot first? I don't get it. I hope an investigation will yield more answers. Cameras at this tragedy would have been nice though--maybe some questions that will probably never be answered could have been clarified with cameras

[Topper]

Soccermom. That is really horrible. Let s hope some answers are found.

[wuapinmon]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...powell/378899/

Here's an article that does a mostly fair job of dissecting the video of police gunning down Kajieme Powell in St. Louis last week. This video shows him provoking police and he brandished a knife, so I'm not claiming that this is brutality. But, it does speak to the problems of escalation, due force, and neutralizing a threat. While it might be within the police's guidelines, I argue that the guidelines that see it as normal to shoot someone with a knife 9-12 times need some due consideration of what constitutes authorization to use lethal force. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if the police don't come at him with weapons drawn, they could've gotten him the mental-health treatment that he needed, without killing him. There's nothing illegal in the video, but something still seems wrong to me.

Here's the video of the shooting. It contains graphic language and shows him being shot, repeatedly.

[old_gregg]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...powell/378899/

Here's an article that does a mostly fair job of dissecting the video of police gunning down Kajieme Powell in St. Louis last week. This video shows him provoking police and he brandished a knife, so I'm not claiming that this is brutality. But, it does speak to the problems of escalation, due force, and neutralizing a threat. While it might be within the police's guidelines, I argue that the guidelines that see it as normal to shoot someone with a knife 9-12 times need some due consideration of what constitutes authorization to use lethal force. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if the police don't come at him with weapons drawn, they could've gotten him the mental-health treatment that he needed, without killing him. There's nothing illegal in the video, but something still seems wrong to me.

Here's the video of the shooting. It contains graphic language and shows him being shot, repeatedly.

why does the number of holes they put in him matter? and how are they supposed to avoid approaching with guns drawn? you can't give armed crazy people the benefit of the doubt when they immediately threaten lives.

[wuapinmon]

why does the number of holes they put in him matter? and how are they supposed to avoid approaching with guns drawn? you can't give armed crazy people the benefit of the doubt when they immediately threaten lives.

There is a difference between approaching someone in an aggressive posture, weapons drawn, versus easing in to a situation. What's someone with a steakknife going to do to two cops in a police cruiser? As for the number of shots they fired, don't be coy. Of course it matters if you continue to shoot someone lying prone in a heap on the sidewalk.

[beefytee]

Canadians are on board with the distrusting of the American police force:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/america...oney-1.2760736

[CardiacCoug]

The Saratoga Springs Samurai Sword Shooting (SSSSS) isn't going to go away -- seems pretty clear that the kid was shot in the back while running from the police.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/15/justic...lice-shooting/

[TripletDaddy]

The Saratoga Springs Samurai Sword Shooting (SSSSS) isn't going to go away -- seems pretty clear that the kid was shot in the back while running from the police.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/15/justic...lice-shooting/

What kind of samurai runs away??