One hell of a race riot in 1921. Or better characterized as a local war against blacks by whites.
Quite frankly, it is not just black people. The police seem to sniff around a person to assess whether they are a good mark. Anyone who is a bit slow-witted or simply marginal (just above poverty) will be easy to urinate on, and so they do. People who are better off, or mere more measured and confident, will tend to be treated with more respect.
It sounds paranoid or communistical or something, but the police give the impression that their job consists of enforcing the class divide and even perhaps of widening it. Nonwhite people take more of the heat because they are easier to spot.
Florida deputy stops unarmed black guy on bike, shoots him 4 seconds later
The bicyclist is now paralyzed from the waist down.
The officer never faced any charges because the state’s attorney office determined it was a “good shot”.
There’s video so you can judge for yourself.
Some rioting now in downtown Baltimore; some looting, arrests.
“Do what the deputy says and no will be injured” = “do exactly as you are told with no hesitation and we won’t kill you”
That’s a police state
I just wish these people would only riot for good reasons, like winning and/or losing a sports game.
It’s funny because it’s true
No it’s not. The cops have a legitimate fear of armed citizens in the US. The perp wasn’t in compliance mode (ok by me). But he also had a cell phone in his hand which apparently was mistaken for a gun.
Sucks all around. Not sure what to do about it. Is there a problem? Probably: [INDENT][INDENT] In roughly one of every four shootings, Palm Beach County deputies fired at unarmed suspects. The Department of Justice has criticized jurisdictions where the percentage of shootings at unarmed suspects was sharply lower. Deputies disproportionately shot at young black men, a third of whom were unarmed. Non-deadly force options, such as Tasers or batons, were seldom used prior to shooting. PBSO rarely found fault with a deputy’s decision to shoot, sometimes basing its decisions on cursory or incomplete investigations.
All of those issues figured prominently in the Stephens shooting.[/INDENT][/INDENT] The data appears to indicate that the standard police procedures of Palm Beach County are wanting and in need of review.
This thread’s police malfeasance occurs during an era of falling criminal activity. Crime rose from 1960 to about 1992, dropping briefly during periods of economic expansion, then returning to their upward trend. Then something odd happened: crime fell. And kept falling. Today we’re about where we were in 1972. Incredibly, violent crime was falling or flat every year during the Lesser Depression of 2008-2013. [1]
This may have been due to some easing up on systematic lead poisoning. Lead tends to mess up with the early developmental process making its victims stupid and mean. Leaded gas was phased out starting in the 1970s: the drops in crime occurred a generation later.
At any rate, I’m guessing that policing practices were formed during the tough on crime era. And that they may very well be mismatched to the current environment. Just as the current environment in the US doesn’t align well with that of the Afghan or Iraqi war zone, as experienced by many cops including Florida deputy Adams Lin.
[1] The lesser depression will probably end this year, but we don’t have data that far, obviously.
I totally misunderstood your use of “lead poisoning”.
Jesus Christ. Just because a cop decides to harass someone does not make that person a “perp”. And what the hell is wrong with this cop’s eyesight that he can’t recognize a damn cellphone in broad daylight, in a non threatening situation?
Cell phones non-threatening? The constables have been getting shot by those things quite a lot lately, and in some cases, it has been very injurious, to more than just the primary victim.
Let me try again. Crime rose and fell. Frankly, nobody knows why. But the reason could be low level lead poisoning in early developmental years. Exposure to lead at any level of concentration may lower IQ and lead to behavioral problems.
Americans were dosed twice during the 20th century. In the early part, they were exposed to lead paint. From 1940 to the 1970s they were exposed to leaded gasoline. Kevin Drum: [INDENT] Lead paint use rose in the early 20th century, peaking in the teens and then dropping. Then, in the late 40s, gasoline lead started to rise, peaking in the 70s and then dropping. Since lead primarily affects small children, you’d expect that kids exposed to lead paint would grow up and become more violent in the 30s, then taper off, and then become more violent again in the 60s. It should be a double-humped curve.
And guess what? That’s exactly what we see in the data: [/INDENT] This is a tangent though. The point I wanted to make was that crime has fallen over the past 20 years and our policing practices may be out of sync.
Well what occurred happened off camera. But when you have a non-compliant person reaching for their waistband, it tends to worry cops, soldiers and presumably ex-soldiers. The cop saw a moving object in the guy’s hand. So he got trigger happy. I won’t pretend there wasn’t a racial element involved.
The victim was an ex-con, but calling him a perp was dickish. I retract.
So you think the cop was lying about the guy riding his bike illegally and trying to flee from the cop who was trying to stop him?
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/opd-starts-internal-investigation-excessive-force-/nk3Wd/
If it was just one bad apple, a few cops, we could fathom there’s some bad apples. But when it happens over and over and over, everywhere, it really looks like a much bigger problem.
As a matter of logic that’s not quite true. There are millions of interactions with cops monthly, and we only learn of a tiny share of them in the news and on You-tube. Anecdotes are not data.
But we have data. For example,
So yeah, we have a problem, a problem that disproportionately affects American people of color.
I am not a criminologist and I’d wager neither are you. Any significant change will probably involve some unintended consequences. We may not understand things in a fundamental way. (I sure as hell didn’t grok to this, say, 5 years ago.)
But FWIW, I agree. I suspect the lynchpin is police perjury. Here’s my proposal.
[ul][li] A state level police oversight commission with prosecutors who can investigate police homicide and perjury. All police killings receive automatic review. [/li][li] Make police perjury a civil matter as well, so that it can be tried on the basis of a preponderance of evidence. [/li][li] Sunset clauses on the above, to address unintended consequences.[/li][li] At the local level, all weapon discharges should receive automatic review, as they do in NYC. Police perjury would be grounds for dismissal. The latter is an attempt to address the power of police unions: I’m guessing it would be difficult to oppose. [/li][li] Officers should be paid a professional salary. [/li][li] Teachers should be paid a professional salary. Just kidding: let’s not go crazy. [/li][/ul]
ETA: Oh yeah.
[ul] [*] Enhanced data gathering at the national level as well as research division charged with studying best practices. [/ul] This is actually the easiest part. We have a Bureau of Justice Statistics. There’s an ex-cop who has the best dataset on police misconduct. He currently has a grant from the National Institute of Justice to continue his work. But it would be nice if states would pass reporting requirements.
Post 1968:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18315109&postcount=1968
NYC cops hate folks who “rat” on them. Even to this day they hate Serpico.
I know this has been linked here before, but I believe not in this thread.