An 84 year-old Chinese man was walking across the street in NYC the police beat him and gave him a bloody face and … well … you can read it for yourself.
I don’t live in the USA. But I have always wanted to live there because it is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
I do love Americans - at least most all the ones that I have met. But American cops scare me. They really do. Even if they are retired and elderly and were captains.
No kidding. What is going on?
First it was an 80-something year-old retired Florida cop who shot and killed a man in a movie theatre for texting. Now some other cops beat up an 80-something year-old man for jaywalking. I know it couldn’t possibly be some kind of retaliation.
The man supposedly didn’t understand the officers command and tried to walk away, when grabbed he struggled, and that is all the justification the cops need to tune him up.
I believe the use of force on those who can’t understand (deaf/retarded etc) is disgusting.
But I also believe you should speak the language where you take up residency.
I certainly agree with you. People should learn the language when they take up residency in a new country. But at age 84, don’t you think many people would find that very difficult? How would you feel if it comes out that he is enrolled in an ESL course and he is trying to learn English? Or he is deaf or hard of hearing or had any one of a number of other reasons why he didn’t understand what was going on.
But just like the retired police captain in Florida, I believe policing should be done with some degree of moderation and understanding. Things can just go so terribly wrong when police act in a rigid manner without any moderation. What is the word I’m looking for? Was there really any need to beat on an 84 year-old man? What was the worst he could have done to them?
Doesn’t it just seem so ridiculous for the police to beat on an old man who is trying to walk away from them? Can you put yourself in their shoes? Was there any real need to do this? Would you be teaching a lesson to anyone?
Don’t you see how unnecessary it was to employ violence in this case? I’m just trying to ask you to consider their over-reaction. Just like the over-reaction of that retired policeman in Florida.
I do think it is way outa line to stomp an old person.
I do think our cops (I’m and American) mostly act like stormtroopers. They lie to and intimidate citizens way too often.
I often hear that only 1-2 % are bad. But I never hear of the other 99-98% busting/ratting on the corrupt cops. It’s always some outside agency that brings down the corruption.
I believe this man could have been way better off if he learned the language here. Not that a language barrier give the cops a moral right to stomp him, but his actions and ignorance gave them a legal right unfortunately.
If I understand correctly this was done as part of an initiative to save New Yorkers from injury when they jay walk. And they only charge a $250 fine for their good deed (the beating was free but not the hospitalization).
I think you are completely correct and it’s a crying shame the so-called “thin blue line” is so intimidating to the ordinary police officer. Seems like no uniformed cops are ever willing to talk about a bad cop and work towards getting rid of them. They call that being a “rat”. But, IMO, and I think you are saying the same thing, it’s **not **coming forward that is wrong. If American cops are ever going to regain their image as “heroes” (and I truly hope they do) that has to change. Maybe the first step might be to institute some kind of “anonymous” system where they can report bad cops? How did it ever come to pass that dirty cops have somehow achieved untouchable status?
Magiver,
Thanks for the laugh. That was a good one!
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They should have just cuffed him and locked him up at the nearest McDonalds.
Seriously though the police should invest in an electronic ‘speaking’ phrasebook with common crimes. New York gets lots of tourists, should it really be compulsary for them to speak perfect English?.
Not necessarily the thin blue line. We had an officer who pepper sprayed a Wendy’s employee because he thought she short changed him. The department didn’t want him back but the union fought to retain him. If he’s the same person I had the misfortune of meeting he was a real piece of work.
There is nothing in the article that states how long the man lived in America. He may have lived here a very long time, decades even, and still never learned English. Or at least he doesn’t understand when it’s inconvenient for him to understand. I know some people may think I’m a horrible person for saying that, but I live in NYC. I know the type.
But NYC officers should be used to having people not understand their orders and have some sort of training in how to deal with that. NYPD are very much the “Respect my Authoritay” type.
Such a strange police decision. We’re making the streets safer by giving out jaywalking tickets. They sure missed the mark by beating up an elderly man.
What a wonderful idea! It may not be feasible in exactly the way you suggest. But, no matter how it is implemented, IMO, if the police can get the wrongdoer to focus on the device and to work with them by pushing some buttons to indicate their language, many good things would be bound to follow. In this case, the old man would stop walking away and would be engaged with the device. He would have pushed some buttons to indicate his language was Cantonese or Mandarin and then the device would tell him that it’s a problem to walk away and request that he please stand still.
With a little more technology, it could then explain to him just what the problem was and the longer both the police and the old man were engaged together, working together, the more their attitudes would improve and instead of viewing each other as enemies and working against each other, there is a good chance they could then begin to work together to solve the problem without any violence. But you have put forward a superb idea and I think it could have excellent results. Can you imagine if the police force moved away from being “thugs” and towards being “nerds”?
Many cops seem to think the most important thing is compliance. Any amount of force is justified in ensuring that someone obeys a police order, regardless of the situation.
A group mentality probably also contributed to this situation. When one cop started to apply force, a bunch of others rushed in to help him. The fact that a group is involved reduces the feeling of responsibility for any one of them.
Lazlo Hapsburg, I’m curious about where you live. You say you don’t live in the U.S.A., but your profile gives your location as “Upper U.S.”
When I was about ten, I moved to a new city and many of the kids in the new school would ask me where I came from. I came up with this kind of slang term “Upper U S” as in “Uppah You Ass!” It was meant as a jest for the girls who would ask me. I didn’t like girls too much back then and thought they should mind their own business. I changed my mind about that soon after and after all these years, I guess that it just stuck with me.
NYC is an international tourist destination. At any given time there are a shit load of non-English speakers bumping around the city, no doubt jaywalking.
I’m pretty sure no one here would be blaming themselves for not knowing the language well enough if they found themselves visiting a foreign country where the cops roughed you up for jawalking.
People will look for any excuse to let bad cops off the hook.
