Police brutality

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Irrelevant. We are protesting those that are.

Be prepared to defend that outrageous accusation.

I neither “ran amok” nor “took part in a riot”, as I have been over several times. I and everyone else I saw at that rally expressed our opinion in a loud but scrupulously non-violent manner. The ad hoc leaders of the protest told people at the beginning to behave peacefully, and everyone I saw did. Except the police.

Fuck you! I do not recall appointing you my personal boxing coach! Your callous statements are unwelcome. I am not interested in having you go “might as well be nasty to Matt because everyone else is going to be.” How fucking callous is that?

Note to everyone else: Don’t flake off. I prefer hearing from you to hearing from this kind of a loser.

Thanks for calling my best friend, who witnessed the event, a liar.

42

Thankfully, it works both ways. John Ralston Saul went from being an oil-company executive to being one of Canada’s most noted political philosophers, espousing in his best-selling books and worldwide-broadcasted lectures a humanist, anti-corporatist philosophy.

43

My two cents:

Give someone a baton, a gun, a car with a siren, and authority, and it becomes very tempting and easy to become a bully.

Thankfully, I’ve never been on the recieving end of any police brutality (I avoid cops), but it does happen.

It seems to me that all Matt did was protest. If the cops really felt there was a riot situation, there are ways to control it.

Those ways do not include running two civilians down and threatening them.

Matt, I applaude your courage and tenacity.

You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.

44

Monty, I have to side with Matt on the side issue you are discussing. If 99% of an assembly are behaving lawfully, and 1% are rioting, you restrain and arrest the 1%. Or are you suddenly NOT an advocate for individual responsibility?

The issue of police brutality is becoming a growing issue in major metropolitan areas. We’ve already seen shocking cases in L.A. and New York, Cleveland has MAJOR police brutality problems, and it’s coming to light in more and more places. As frustration grows among the police over both real and perceived barriers to enforcing the law, they lash out at suspects and prisoners. This does not excuse their behavior, however.

Anyway, the following article may explain some of it. I sure found it funny:
Judge dismisses lawsuit of man deemed too smart for police force
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG

09/09/1999
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 1999. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A man who was disqualified from joining the New London Police Department because he scored too high on an intelligence test was not a victim of discrimination, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Peter C. Dorsey, in a ruling made public this week, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Robert Jordan against the city of New London. Dorsey agreed that Jordan was denied an opportunity to interview
for a police job due to his high test scores but said that doesn’t mean he was a victim of discrimination.

[snip for copyright purposes]

In other words, the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected, and Jordan wasn’t singled out.

The case caused an uproar among residents of New London, a seaside community of 27,000 which boasts a low crime rate. Jordan’s lawsuit left many police officers red-faced because the complaint brought to light a
long-standing practice by the city of only interviewing applicants who scored
within a particular range on a general intelligence test .

[snip]

Jordan, 48, of Waterford, holds a bachelor’s degree in literature and today is
an officer with the state Department of Corrections. In 1996, he scored a 33
on the test , the equivalent of an IQ of 125. Such a score would be expected
of a chemist, electrical engineer, administrator or computer programmer.

The average score nationally for police officers, as well as general office
workers, bank tellers and salespeople is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of
104.

New London police interviewed only those candidates who scored 20 to 27,
based on city officials’ rationale that candidates who score too high could get
bored with police work and leave not long after undergoing costly academy
training.

[snip]

Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“Come on, Phonics Monkey–drum!”

45

Actually, PLD; I was reminding everyone, including Matt, about this little tidbit:

matt_mcl
Member posted 11-24-1999 08:53 PM

And I won’t even grace his ridiculous assertion about the requirement for “reading the riot act” other than to say that Cecil’s already covered that bit of malarkey.

46

What of it? They’d just tried to bash my head in. What’s your point?

47

My point is that you said you’re scared of the police; you imply by that comment you’re scared of all the cops. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But you certainly rely on their services regardless of what you’ve posted above.

Now to the group calling itself Citizens Against Police Brutality -

Isn’t that the same group which demanded some police officers be fired prior to the completion of legal procedures required by Canadian law?

48

And my point is that it’s a sorry state when people (not just me) are terrified of the people who are supposed to be protecting them.

49

That’s not really a valid point in this case. Are you truly living in fear of the entire police force in your city? Are you living in dire fear of the RCMP? Do you think they’re watching every move of yours just waiting to pummel you into the ground because they dislike your looks or your manners?

I doubt very seriously that you are. And I’m pretty sure you’ve presented a very one-sided view of the happenings of the night in question.

How about it? Did the demonstrators who didn’t run get beaten?

50

Well, I think that my description of the factual events is truthful. But if it’s not, the reason, you oaf, is that I was writing to express my anger and fear at a time of great emotional upset.

And frankly, yes. I AM afraid that police officers will take exception to me on the basis of my looks (sort of queer Goth lite) and harass me. It’s happened to my friends.

I don’t know. Eric and I was too busy running for our lives to look backward. But since the police were swinging billy clubs, I assume that they intended to use them.

51

Because as everyone knows, Corrections is where the smart folks work.

52

Okay, Matt. You’ve convinced me. Because SOME police are corrupt and SOME police are brutal, ALL police are corrupt AND brutal.

But, only the students who resisted arrest are guilty of that and only the students who threw the rocks are guilty of that.

That’s the way you see it, right?

Of course, I’m being sarcastic. Only a fool, er, oaf would believe it’s not that way.

53

Or to be precise, enough police are corrupt and brutal to make me afraid of and angry at them, which is not supposed to be the function of a police force under a democracy.

Gevalt. Try reading what I write once in awhile rather than assuming I wrote what you thought I wrote.

54

Well, Matt. For your own sake, I hope whatever exams you take in college are open book as you apparently have a very short memory of your own words.

Okay, let’s go with the words you wrote which I addressed in particular. Please note that I addressed what you WROTE not what I THOUGHT you wrote.

posted 11-24-1999 08:53 PM

posted 11-27-1999 12:01 PM

Now, since you’re so hep on folks reading what’s written, feel free to read what I posted above in response to these statements.

For further edification, we’ll also draw attention to you own admission that you were “freaking out” and “hysterical.” That makes you what’s known as an unreliable witness to the events.

FYI: another group of protesters, this time in Seattle, caused quite a ruckus. A good number of people in this country, to include the media, have soundly denounced the atrocious behaviour of the rioters and have commended the police there.

I am curious about your comments about the riot act and the wearing of badges, though. Again, I believe Cecil’s covered the bit about the riot act. The badge is required to identify the individual as a police officer, correct? Apparently you had no problems with identifying those without badges but in police uniform as police officers. What’s your beef with that? More precisely: for both assertions (the riot act reading & the wearing of badges), what’s the relevant code of Canadian Law?

55

Police badges have ID numbers on them, and they’re supposed to be worn with the uniform at all times, for identification purposes.

Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green

56

Thanks, Rilchiam; but, I’m still wondering if that’s the whole story about the badges. After all, when a police officer is wearing “riot gear,” doesn’t the gear cover the badge?

57

I’m with the rest of the posters here. Daniel is a freaking moron. Just so you understand my bias before you read any further.

I honestly can’t express enough contempt for someone like that. So fricking smug, so pampered it’s obvious they’ve never been away from their safe little rich neighborhood.

If you have to insult Matt and resort to text three times the size of default, it’s obvious you haven’t got a credible thing to say.

**As For the rest of you–FLAKE OFF!

If you baby him with too much sympathy, you will hurt him, not help him. “Whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger.”**

So, are we to read this as an invitation to beat you with a baton? I mean, you don’t object to getting stronger, do you?

James Carrol: Don’t worry Matt, you won’t always feel this way. Someday you’ll graduate from college and hafta get a real job. You’ll have more important things to do than walk the streets taunting police; you’ll have rent to pay, food to buy, and maybe even a family. You’ll cut your hair (or stop cutting it all off, whichever) and watch kids 10 years your junior doing exactly what you’re doing now and wonder why these kids aren’t getting with the program. And as you’re walking your dog around the neighborhood you’ll see a cop
car roll through and you’ll thank God for 'em. That’s just life. Sorry.

You’re saying that at a certain age you stop caring about injustice? Or don’t have enough energy to do anything about it?

I’ll suggest though that a good part of the reason you aren’t wary of police is because you’ve had less interactions with them recently, not because you’re quieter, but because your demographic is quieter and they don’t target it as much.

When I passed twenty I noticed a marked drop in the number of times I got stopped for walking the streets at night (I work from home and keep the same hours I did when younger). I even look more counterculture now than when younger.

I myself started to feel police misuse of power was a thing of the past until the APEC problems reminded me that it still goes on. The difference is that I’m not as much involved, not that it happens less.

I understand the reason for police. I understand the need for someone to have deadly force to back up laws. But I am more insistent now than ever that we not tolerate a misuse of the power we give them.

If even 1% of the police are violent, or corrupt, the whole system suffers. We need to be able to trust police, to be able to call upon them in an emergency. If we’re on the end of police brutality even once, that expectation is gone and the police force might as well be a bunch of armed thugs.

The police are being held to a higher standard than anyone else. They should be able to stand there and be insulted without snapping. We arm them with guns, we need to be able to count on them. Maybe we aren’t paying them enough, or are doing something wrong in hiring, but it shouldn’t be silly to expect that the police not break the laws.

But it’s our responsibility to protest the police injustice. And it’s the responsibility of the police to stand there and accept the protest, arresting only those who break laws.

58

What about the rioters, WhiteNight? Is it too much to expect that they also obey the law?