Let’s get it going then.
The fucking Police Union is spewing its ususal bullshit about “using the amount of force necessary to overcome the situation.” never mind that there was no “situation” except what the cops created themselves.
The video is atrocious. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean. A bunch of cops beating the hell out of a 64 year retired school teacher. Their ostensible excuse for the beating is that he was drunk (a lie), and that he was “resisting arrest” (another lie. They assaulted him without ever even telling him that he was under arrest…and they attacked him from behind).
As bad as the video is, this pissed me off almost as much.
What the blue fuck makes these assholes think they have any right to tell somebody to turn off a videotape or to abridge the fucking freedom of the press? Couldn’t that be a federal civil rights violation all by itself?
This disproportionately agressive action by the officers just doesn’t seem to make any sense. I mean you’ve had this displacement of a huge number of people that seemingly brought out the worst in some, looting, shooting at officers, alleged incidents of rampant violence, etc., etc., etc., lots of serious offenses that definately required the interdiction of law enforcement and theses cops beat the shit out of a 64 year old man because he’d allegedly drunk to excess, plus threaten a news crew? It just seems so beyond the pale. Definately makes me wonder if some widespread Post Traumatic Shock isn’t in play down there.
Recognize the peculiar nature of the policeman’s job: it attracts the very best and the very worst in humanity. Those who truly mean to protect and serve, and those who like pushing people around. Your view as to the relative proportion of those people in humanity as a whole probably reflects your optimism, as statistics are entirely impossible.
Make an effort to compensate and respect the profession of policeman far above its current status. Concurrent with that will be a strict, even ruthless process of weeding out: lots of training, well compensated, with an eye to hiring not the best, but the best of the best.
Honor them. For the kind of people we want to attract, honor and respect are more of a motivation than money. And, of course, be generous in our application of support and counseling.
Some of the people we employ as police already fit these criteria, but woefully few. I fear that the greater number are people we shouldn’t even permit to carry a firearm, much less authorize to use it at their discretion.
(Caveat: I have had several unfortunate interactions with police, over the years, and my view of them can be fairly described as biased. Grain of salt proferred, sincerity nonetheless insisted.)
