Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xantalos]

I remember you saying about that one.
Were any of them even punished? I assume no since I don't remember, but pays to make sure, maybe this was an exception.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Glowcat]

This Scott murder story developed over the past few days.

Cop murders unarmed black guy who is running away. Thinks nobody recorded him so claims he was just "fighting back" against Scott who was, according to Slager, reaching for his taser and thus like the Michael Brown story...

A statement released by North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said a man ran on foot from the traffic stop and an officer deployed his department-issued Taser in an attempt to stop him.
That did not work, police said, and an altercation ensued as the men struggled over the device. Police allege that during the struggle the man gained control of the Taser and attempted to use it against the officer.
The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him, police alleged.

“When confronted, Officer Slager reached for his Taser — as trained by the department — and then a struggle ensued,” Aylor said. “The driver tried to overpower Officer Slager in an effort to take his Taser.”
Seconds later, the report added, he radioed that the suspect wrested control of the device. Even with the Taser’s prongs deployed, the device can still be used as a stun gun to temporarily incapacitate someone.
Slager “felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon,” his attorney added.

And he would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those kids and their meddling video cameras. Or rather, he's at least charged after video evidence came to light.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I think that we should be happy that we live in America. Let me just state, I don't know how bad it is, but frankly it seems like people are dredging up every single bad thing a cop had done and telling the public that cops are bad. Even if things are as terrible as they appear to be, its much better than a lot of countries. A South African friend of mine just told me how the cops in her town tied a Zimbabwean immigrant to their truck and dragged him over the road to death for not having his papers. In fact, i'm pretty sure that as far as corruption goes the US is pretty not when it comes to our law enforcement. There are over 300 million people in the US and ~1 million (from what I can see anyways) police officers or other law enforcement agents and there are 200-400 "justifiable homicides" (police shootings) a year. That's pretty fucking good if you ask me. As far as discrimination goes, I can't really say. I'm not racist, and I have never personally see a cop treat black, hispanic, or asian person differently than a white one. So ya.

Also, being a cop on duty is rough, I know a few (which doesn't make me an expert, but hey they're people and I'm sympathetic to them). It's not like everything is so clearcut when you have to deal with situations that have been called in and you have pretty much no idea whats going on, are there some blatantly brutal killings? yes, but who are we to judge what it was like for many cops in these sort of incidents? That's a lot of pressure.

As a side note, has anyone here actually been a victim of police brutality?

[Rolan7]

First off:  It's amazing that they didn't see the recorder.  I know violent situations cause tunnel vision, and he was zooming, but still...  Really surprised they didn't notice him in the aftermath, they even looked right past him.

I wonder if any of the officer's story was true.  Like, if the suspect even grappled him or went for the tazer.  I kinda doubt it was, since the local police clearly covered this up on purpose.  If nothing else, the man was obviously shot in the back.  That just doesn't fit with the officer's lie, where the man was supposedly attempting to taze him.  Yet they accepted his story, even announced it.

Even if there was a struggle first, and they just wanted to avoid a Ferguson-like media debacle, this was a coverup and all involved should be held accountable.

@Urist
I agree, most of these incidents of supposed police misconduct are highly questionable, and it's disturbing how people jump on each one of them and make wild assumptions.  To read this thread, one would think cops are hunting down black people and inventing reasons to shoot them.  It's despicable.

Even in this case, I think it's premature to call it murder.  But it certainly is a coverup and injustice.
Edit:  And my opinion on Ferguson is that it was probably justified, but there really REALLY should have been a trial to determine that.

[NullForceOmega]

It is definitely true that the problem is not as widespread as current media attention indicates, it is also true that it is a problem and it does need to be resolved.  Almost no police officers in the states receive formal training, the vast majority simply attend college for a two-year law degree than have a week or so of on-beat training before they are turned loose.  The largest issue is that the current numbers indicate a growing trend of civil rights violations (not just discrimination) perpetrated by our police force, and those same police forces then attempting to censure, often aggressively, public media.

Our officers are undertrained, overworked (in many places), and do infact have one of the most difficult civilian jobs there is.  But the largest item by far that they have to deal with is that their power is entirely derived from public perception, and every one of these incidents erodes public trust in law enforcement and makes their lives more difficult and dangerous.  They are still in the wrong for allowing this to occur and they need to grasp that this behavior is going to get them killed in the long run.

[Leafsnail]

Yeah the despicable thing going on here is not cops killing and injuring black people on a regular and systematic basis, it's people pointing out that cops are killing and injuring black people on a regular and systematic basis.

[Rolan7]

I agree, except replace "pointing out" with "baselessly claiming".  Accusing people of genocide is not a victimless crime, even if you do it with friends.

[Leafsnail]

So the people who are making baseless claims are the ones posting news articles supporting what they're saying, rather than the ones whining about how cops are actually all OK really.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Glowcat]

It is definitely true that the problem is not as widespread as current media attention indicates...

No... the sad fact is, what makes its way up to the media is only the tip of the iceberg. And I use that idiom both to indicate the scope of the problem and the visibility of the cases we see. Most of it is lost in the murky depths of confounded information and even that which makes its way into the light is often viciously attacked as an optical illusion past the point of reason.

[NullForceOmega]

My statement regarding how 'widespread' the phenomenon is has more to do with the fact that there are places where this almost never occurs at all, and other places where it is endemic.

[Rolan7]

So the people who are making baseless claims are the ones posting news articles supporting what they're saying, rather than the ones whining about how cops are actually all OK really.

I don't agree with your recollection or the words you put in my mouth there, but I agree that citing sources is important.  Like the Ferguson witness testimonies, for example.  Hopefully we can move forward with more citation and less meaningless whining.

[SalmonGod]

Urist: 

There are are a lot of numbers on racist policing, covering a lot more than just unjustified killings that have been gathered over decades.  Look them up.  The Justice Department report on the Ferguson situation would probably be a good introduction.

Pointing out that worse things happen in countries that are less developed and more volatile doesn't mean anything.  Compared to the rest of the developed world, our record is fucking horrible. 

As far as corruption goes, I'm just going to ask for the millionth time why police show such universal solidarity, even in clear cut cases of intentional wrongdoing, if it's only a few bad apples.

I have friends who have been mistreated by police (both with and without race as a factor), and a former co-worker whose relative died in jail due to severe negligence.  I've been in one domestic dispute situation myself where I would have likely been brutalized if I weren't a young clean cut looking white male at the time.

[Zangi]

I reckon it is pretty easy to justify any action if you plant evidence supporting that justification, after the fact.  A cop's word is worth more then a random bystander's word after-all.  Oh yea, they can also confiscate recording devices for 'evidence'.  "Whoops, apparently there is no evidence on that device."