[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa

Im very serious.
Im going to end it here though because the last
anti-police post I put up I got an infraction from a
mod who is also a police officer.
Ill proabably get one for this, as it is.

I am sorry you are so deluded as to be serious in this belief. I am sorry you feel that your infraction was simply due to the moderator being a police officer.

I will also let this drop before I get an infraction assigned for chastising you as I feel you deserve to be.

[KoZmiC NinJa]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

I am sorry you are so deluded as to be serious in this belief. I am sorry you feel that your infraction was simply due to the moderator being a police officer.

I will also let this drop before I get an infraction assigned for chastising you as I feel you deserve to be.

Knowing nothing of the events that would lead to this
opinion, why do you feel your "deluded" chastising is
necassary ? Living in Texas, do you have any relevant
first hand information on Vermont police ?

[cosmonewman]

Originally Posted by arel

...Even before this incident, I have read of concerns about the Brattleboro police. Scary..

If you get scared by a minor incident like this one in Brattleboro you must be petrified in Brooklyn!

[brattpowered]

It sounds like a case of a bunch of small-town rube cops wanting to take their newfangled tazers for a spin around the block. I don't think most people in Brattleboro realize that tazers can prove to be deadly, especially after 4 or 5 shots, like what happened in Bratt. I live in a city where deaths have taken place through tazer abuse and the cops have NEVER used them with nonviolent protesters-- and I live in Texas!

Tazers were originally meant as an alternative to deadly force and gunshots, not as a tool of convenience for cops that are too lazy to do what they were trained to do in physically removing protesters by hand. If they had fought back with force against the cops, then tazer use would be warranted.

-Former Windham County Resident

[sordid]

wow, im moving to 'the bratt' very very soon... and this is just about the LAST piece of news i expected to encounter.

im sure there are parts of the story we are not getting. but it is scary - we have had our rights so crushed that even in a forum like this people are proud to declare that this is ok with them. unbelievable.

one should never, ever, be hit with a taser while they are not a danger to themselves or anyone else.

yes, even if they are blocking traffic, even if they are causing businesses to lose customers, even if they are causing property damage. the police officers job is to arrest them, not punish them.

god bless america.

[cosmonewman]

The chances of this happening again are slim to none. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

[arel]

Originally Posted by cosmonewman

If you get scared by a minor incident like this one in Brattleboro you must be petrified in Brooklyn!

I don't consider the taser incident in Brattleboro minor.

And no, I'm not petrified in Brooklyn. Most of my encounters with police have been positive.

I have had a couple of bad experiences, though.

Once, I was waiting for a traffic light to change. In the adjacent lane was a police car. When the light changed, I pulled ahead. The cop pulled me over. He said to me, in a tone I regarded as menacing: "Don't you ever get ahead of me!". The guy was obviously immature, or worse, so I just feigned submissiveness and told him what he wanted to hear. But the incident bothered me. It was troubling that such a person should be allowed to carry a badge and a gun. Years later, I told a cop about it while we were eating in a pizzaria. He said I should have made a complaint.

Another time, I asked a cop about someone I had sold some furniture to. The buyer had taken a drawer out of each bureau, presumably so I could not sell the pieces to anyone else before he came to pick them up. I was a little concerned about this. The cop gave me all sorts of instructions about how to handle the matter if there was a problem; the instructions included fraud and falsely claiming a burglary.

Once, I heard an ex-cop speak about a practice he knew about, called "collars for dollars". Cops at the end of their shifts would arrest someone at random and gain about 6 hours of overtime by doing the paperwork. Meanwhile, imagine what would happened to their "perp", whose life, finances and reputation would be seriously disrupted, if not ruined.

I once heard someone who worked with the police speak about them. She said, if I remember corrrectly, that about 1/3 are just doing their jobs. About 1/3 want to give back to their communities. And about 1/3 are sociopaths who would be criminals if they weren't cops.

Everyone knows about people being beaten or killed by cops in NYC, or of having cops burst into their homes and terrorizing them at gunpoint. Sometimes it is blatant abuse, but other times it is in error. I believe NYC pays out tons of money in damages.

Now there is a problem of phony police who pull people over and then rob or sexually assault them.

I heard of a guy who refused to stop for police, believing (or claiming to believe) that they were phony. The cops followed him home and violently arrested him. His reason for not stopping was rejected.

[sordid]

arel, i know you fear, trust me!

but, my actual experience, regardless of all those stories, is that the small town cops are not nearly as bad. the city cops are often to be feared in my experience, but thats another story.
small town cops might be nosy, or bored, or whatever, but they arent regularly the militant lunatic swat team type.

of course.... then i saw this story, but who knows.

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa

Knowing nothing of the events that would lead to this
opinion, why do you feel your "deluded" chastising is
necassary ? Living in Texas, do you have any relevant
first hand information on Vermont police ?

Only from family that lived there for a couple years. Small town I do not recall the name of anymore. I could ask if you really need to know.

The stories I heard never dealt with police being any different than anyone else around town. No stories of overzealous enforcement or abuse of position in any way. If there were problems I am sure they would have mentioned them as they described the differences in politics, attitudes, religion and economics between Vermonters and Texans in most of our conversations during those years. We were surprised how similar folks were in many ways. We frankly expected a much more liberal environment than they found. Despite the more conservative ways than expected, there was certainly not a overwhelming "red" influence in the area.

Plus I have grown up with people that have chosen a law enforcement lifestyle. Although they do not count as close friends, I am aware of their personalities and behaviors both on and off the job. I have also worked with people that once served in law enforcement capacities. A couple are ex-SWAT, which has the reputation for being the most zealous amongst law enforcement, and they are slightly more liberal than I am. Although both of them are fairly forceful in their actions and beliefs, I would not anticipate either of them to go overboard in the application of force in a physical confrontation. They both are well aware of their capabilities and how to apply minimal force necessary to achieve a goal.

I felt that this "chastising" was due to what appears to be an over zealous attack of police in general as opposed to addressing specific actions of specific officers. If this type of enforcement was out of line with the circumstances, then the officers involved could be called into question certainly.....but how can you accuse the entire city police force of being "angry, sadistic and overreaching authoritarian types"? That sounds like a gross generalization and not deserved by the example of behavior cited.

[cosmonewman]

Originally Posted by arel

I don't consider the taser incident in Brattleboro minor.

It's not Rodney King or Kent State either. But you wouldn't know that from all of the press coverage. Seems to me that the protesters are getting what they wanted—attention.

Originally Posted by arel

I once heard someone who worked with the police speak about them. She said, if I remember correctly, that about 1/3 are just doing their jobs. About 1/3 want to give back to their communities. And about 1/3 are sociopaths who would be criminals if they weren't cops.

I don't think the Brattleboro police are like that. John Martin is very professional. He would not allow the kind of problems you described.