Serious Police Brutality in the U.S.

Do you believe the U.S. has a problem with police brutality?

  • Yes, especially towards black men

    Votes: 187 53.3%
  • Yes, but not specifically biased against black men

    Votes: 101 28.8%
  • No

    Votes: 63 17.9%

  • Total voters
    351

tcr

sage of six tabs
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funny i was gonna talk about the death of Daniel Shaver as well but you beat me to it

Body Cameras are but a small step in asserting the wrongs committed by Law enforcement. The whole point is to allow a windowview for the public to see through the lies of "I feared for my life" and the benefit of the doubt given to the officer. Its such a small thing that people think is a catchall when in reality the problem with law enforcement in America is the faux patriotism, cop worship culture that breeds heavily in rural areas. The amount of "Blue lives matter" "I stand with police" stickers mixed in with Confederate flags on trucks I've seen in my state is ridiculous and a testament to this culture. People believe that cops can do no wrong, they automatically jump to the officers side in a case between accused and law enforcement because one is a decorated law enforcement officer and the other is an accused thief / murderer / public threat. The concept of "innocent until proven guilty" simply doesn't exist anymore, the preconceived notions about a person's life and character are under attack the minute you get into a confrontation with the police. This culture that protects law enforcement (when in reality those with the authority and power over others should be held to the highest scrutiny) extends all the way from dozens of different police unions that essentially force a brotherhood on the job (where you get the "good apples" that refuse to talk about the actions of the "bad apples") to corrupt judges (like the judge in the Daniel Shaver case who refused to allow the jury to see the etchings on the offenders gun that described "You're Fucked" because it was "too prejudicial"), to the existence of grand juries in the first place. A pre trial that determines if a trial is even necessary? Are you kidding me? Combine this with for profit prisons and many politicians in the hands of those huge corporations to where they unduly influence laws (drug war) to keep as many targeted citizens on lockup as possible and you end up with America, where we lock up the biggest portion of our country relative to other countries and thank our law enforcement for being so militarized. Those who claim second amendment rights in case they need to raid the government yet bootlick officers is laughable as they don't realize that police officers are strikingly similar to the peacekeepers from the Hunger Games or some other Orwellian nightmare.

What can start happening is a conglomeration of accountability, transparency, retraining, and vetting. What I mean by this is for accountability, police officers need to be held to the same standard as citizens. Their entire job is to preserve the peace and protect the citizens and that goes out the window when they indiscriminately go on power trips and eliminate citizens simply because you don't follow their game of Simon Says, or because you don't put away your phone when recording them (completely legal in all fifty states no matter what they tell you.) When shit happens the police department is never punished for it and simply uses funds acquired from taxpayers to pay out the suits, when it should come from the offending officer's paycheck. Don't want to lose pay and be unable to feed your family? Do your best to de-escalate situations and preserve lives. Body Cameras and changing perception is one step that is in the right direction for holding police accountable, but worship culture needs to stop. For transparency, police officers need to be transparent with their stories. As officers they are perceived to be paragons of good. They're the ones who catch the bad guys right? How is it then that a littany of lying, corruption, and planting evidence happens? Look at the 2015 Walter Scott shooting for non-transparency, when you testify that the man reached for your stun gun despite numerous civilian recordings showing the opposite and then plant the stun gun on him to corroborate your story. 38 different states restrict police officer records, making it near impossible to find out if an officer has been disciplined or in 15 states cases only allowing you to see severe disciplinary actions such as suspension or termination. To achieve this leadership needs to change. Police chiefs can't just be allowed to go from department to department if suspended, officers can't just go to a different branch if terminated for misconduct, etc. Retraining needs to happen. Officers are expected to be the peacekeepers of society, not the executioners. Militarization and the culture of "war on crime" as well as poor post-military options lead to aggressive and belligerent tactics / officers on the force, some itching for an excuse to use their weapon. That doesn't include the multitude of white supremacists that the FBI has stated have been infiltrating our police force for the past several years, just the "good apples." Look how police in Japan operate, or Australia, or England. They de-escalate the situation because they understand that criminals aren't "the enemy" oftentimes they're just people in hard times. I've seen videos where foreign police officers talk down criminals with blades and guns into hugging them and voluntarily giving up their weapons, where the minute police officers in america see anything remotely similar to a weapon they open fire. If you aren't willing to control your emotions, keep them in check, then you don't need to be in such a high stressful job. Shooting should be a last resort yet so often its what officers open with. Lastly, vetting needs to happen in our forces. Police departments need to stop letting those with a past history of violence, those with clear mental issues, those who are prejudiced against race, into their department. You want to change police perception nationwide and have people stop yelling "Fuck 12" every time a cop car passes? It starts with holding yourselves accountable instead of doubling down on your fellow officers and circling the wagons.

Until a complete reformation happens within training, application, accountability, and legal issues, then the police will continue to be a growing militarized effort to round up the citizens and prevent them from speaking out on controversial issues. Distrust for police will happen as long as you can still be stopped for going .5 miles over the speed limit or having your seatbelt off and then immediately escalating that benign traffic stop into an illegal search and seizure because your "drug dog signaled." Nothing will ever change as long as law enforcement is always given the benefit of the doubt in every single scenario, as long as whoever they arrest is perceived as criminal scum no matter the cause. As long as people say "well if you don't want to get shot just don't disobey the laws and follow police orders!", completely undermining the entire premise that police are fallable too. "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
I feel like I never have much to say in this big discussion / political threads. I have issues putting thoughts into typed words when it comes to things like this.

However, the situation involving Daniel Shaver has me absolutely devastated. I'm thankful to live in a City where the Police generally are in understanding with the common-folk, a strong united hate against Frank Rizzo and a handful of other City Big Cheeses.

I really hope the Daniel Shaver situation opens a lot of peoples eyes, mainly White People and people in "Safer" Areas who don't really have to deal with Police Violence or any sort of Police related issue.

Where I grew up, the police LOVED to harass younger people, mainly Highschool kids or kids fresh out of Highschool. It was a really uncomfortable experience when the first time I ever interacted with Police was when they thought I had stolen a bunch of Car Radios and decided to just grab me and seat me down, throw my bike pretty hard down onto the sidewalk, and pretty much bad cop / bad cop me. I'm so thankful the detective on the scene was the father of a friend of mine (we lived fairly close, only a few houses down and we'd hang out quite often as his home). He kind of chewed the cops out, I had absolutely zero idea why they targeted me to this day other than they just wanted to bully some kid.
 

Myzozoa

to find better ways to say what nobody says
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Past WCoP Champion
Doesn't matter how much the police understand the ppl they police in America because literally most white police officers, and especially the non-PO, detective, no-beat-shift-having officers, such as the officer in the case, are seriously constitutionally mentally unsound already from growing up in a society that teaches them that hurting others makes you a strong man, a hero, and if you check the facts of the case again, you notice the officer is an archetypical creepo looking to kill 'the bad guys' or really anyone (sorry to say, that he engraved his special-departmental-permission AR-15 with enthusiasm about hurting ppl http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/...pon-used-by-mesa-officer-facing-murder-charge), and thats just what some little boys with an ego-savior complex can grow up to become in America: legitimate authorities that can kill or otherwise harm citizens with impunity if they have enough wealth and/or institutional privilege (our president, wall st thieves, energy corporations, other corporations etc). The failure to bring a successful prosecution against the officer is nothing new, it is literally merely legal precedent. Remember all those failures to indict in past cases of police officer slayings of black ppl? It has never been more difficult to prosecute a police officer for wrongfully shooting or otherwise harming a citizen while on duty.
 
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tcr

sage of six tabs
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School officer who pledges life to protect and serve the citizens of the United States suddenly values only life over the lives of 17 other people. This fucking pig now has wasted tax dollars by requesting other officers to guard his home because he fears retaliation. Imagine swearing an oath to protect and serve, growing up watching old cop drama / propoganda and thinking you could and should end up being a hero, a badged officer who is quite clearly one of the "good guys with a gun" but when it's time to step up to the plate you decide "nah fuck that." This sickens me to my core yet I act surprised as if this singlemindedness is somehow unique, even though the supreme court has already ruled that police have no obligation to protect someone. So imagine that, police are not required to protect anyone. Sure you might get the occasional hero who sacrifices his life to stop a shooting, or a bombing, or to neutralize a man pointing a gun at 3 little children, but more often then not you get the mantra of "police officers have to go home too" and "safety at all costs" or whatever it is those police unions say. So if a public facility such as a city's police force has no obligation to protect is citizens, whats the point?

If a police officer's right to personal safety somehow trumps the rights of safety for the people he's supposed to protect, whats the point?

if a police officer has no constitutional obligation to protect the populace, i.e. perform what is commonly seen as his "job" then whats the point?

can someone explain to me what the point of law enforcement is if not to protect citizens who pay for that into taxes?

and people really want more police officers in schools and more arming in schools, when the security we already have in schools decides "nah not for me"

this country is a joke
 

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