I don’t need to read the mind of a cop to know that punching a suspect in the face repeatedly is wrong. Use some other type of force. Is it really that hard to understand?
Oh well, it’s okay then. Get any Kung Pao?
So you’ve changed it to “repeatedly” now. Keep shifting the goalposts and eventually you’ll make sense.
You start by observing what’s actually happening and why, not making something up that fits your prejudices. In this particular instance, you need to recognise that cops are ordinary everyday people, neither especially good nor evil, and work from that. Instead people here alternately expect perfection from them and consider them utterly stupid and/or evil.
There are a couple of obvious ways to start this. One is body cams, which are being introduced at the moment. The other would be banning police unions, which like all unions exist at least in part to protect bad workers and to reinforce the us-vs-them attitude I’ve been talking about.
What? I’ve repeatedly used the word repeatedly. Nice try though.
I don’t think I’m making up videos of cops punching people repeatedly in the face. There are a few to choose from, maybe you should look at them.
Besides, why are you talking about this anyway? You said things are going to change.
Then get the fuck out of our thread, asshole. We aren’t going to stop talking about this. Since in your opinion there’s no point in you continuing to try and get us to stop talking about it, just get the fuck out of our thread.
We’d all be happier, even you.
Gaahhh, this should be “aren’t going to change”
Great use of irony!
Is this actually how you see the world? Just black and white, with no in-between?
You have just described how you are the one that refuses to see that there is a middle ground, between treating police as saints or as demons. They are people, though not ordinary everyday people, as they have been entrusted with power and authority that everyday ordinary people are not entrusted with.
What we are looking for is better screening and training. Better screening to make sure that they are they are not just ordinary everyday people, but are better tempered and balanced, and better training to make sure that they can handle and react to situations properly.
We do need to make sure that they are not so fearful that they will shoot someone for no reason than the officer is twitchy and scared.
We need to ensure that officers are not taking out their anger and personal frustrations on the public.
We also need to prevent officers from being corrupt, in planting evidence or lying about the actions of someone they have taken into custody.
And finally, we need to make officers hold each other accountable for their actions, rather than helping to cover them up.
I know that you are against the first and last, and don’t consider the second or third to be important, but those are the things that are causing divisions between the police and the communities they are supposed to be protecting.
I’m not so much against any of those things (with one exception) as I am sceptical that you can change human nature so much that you can achieve those things, without such strong military style discipline that it would be close to brainwashing. It would perhaps be possible to only employ the best and brightest as police officers, or to provide years of intensive training, but it would be hugely expensive and possibly detrimental in the long run.
As for “we need to make officers hold each other accountable”, how? It doesn’t happen, for the most part, in other workplaces, and that’s without including the dynamic of protecting each other’s lives. Whistleblowers almost never get looked on well either by their colleagues or superiors, because they are considered untrustworthy.
As for the one I actually disagree with, it’s obviously the claim that cops are shooting people because they are twitchy and scared. That is already illegal and already punished when it happens. But cops shooting someone who appears to be a threat to them? That’s fine. Same as it would be for anyone else.
Are you saying that if s suspect pulls a gun or knife on a cop it would be wrong for the cop to punch him in the face? You did say “Every single time”.
Please give us an example of this happening, so we can tell if you are curious as to our reaction to the situation, or if you are going for the “Your answer doesn’t apply to 100% of all possible situations, so I get to toss it out, Ha ha!” crap.
If it weren’t for the fallacy of the excluded middle, this thread would have been two pages long.
Regards,
Shodan
Yes, that would be wrong. See? Easy question, easy answer.
But what if the bad guy has poured Gorilla Glue into the barrel of his gun, and his partner has disappeared into the coffee shop for refreshments, the bad guy with the gun and/or knife just holds it and walks up within punching distance and waits for the cop to go first, huh?
Hmmmmm, is it the clear Gorilla Glue or the white Gorilla Glue?
The white Gorilla Glue, so you KNOW the gun won’t work.
And also, the radios are down because of a sunspot, so you can’t call for backup.
White Gorilla Super Glue, or White Gorilla Wood Glue? Maybe a run-down of the exact models of all the other equipment the cop is carrying at that moment.
Also, what he ate for breakfast and his weekend plans.
White Super Glue, he is a special liaison to the Mt. Baldy Nudist Colony so all he is wearing is his copcap and a gun holster holding his (currently non-operable) weapon.
He didn’t have breakfast because he is fasting for Ramadan, and his weekend plan was to buy more sunscreen.