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The media trots out indictments of the cops left and right, as if most encounters with the cops end up with someone getting their face pulverized or their spine severed. The cops are made to be the universal enemy, not protectors and keepers of order. The most high profile cases bandied about have people who already ran afoul of the law, put themselves in danger by not obeying routine orders, then ended up taking their lives into their own hands, and lost. I don't feel sympathy for most of them.
1) Michael Brown - attacked the officer. How far he would have gone had he maintained the upper hand is debatable, but the officer was under a legitimate threat for his safety, and possibly his life.
2) Tamir Rice - kid brandishes an unknown firearm-like weapon. The officers didn't have time to ask "hey kid, what kind of weapon do you have" and check it out to see if it was harmless. Had he not brandished the weapon and complied with officer's orders, he'd be alive today.
3) Walter Scott - runs from the officer. Running itself shouldn't be a license to have your life killed, but it was unknown if he was running to get friends to attack the officer, perhaps running for a nearby weapon he had placed somewhere, etc. I can see the officer did what he did and don't have sympathy here.
4) Freddie Gray - it sounds like he was combative with the officers and then who knows what happened in the car. If you believe the fellow prisoner, it seemed like Gray tried to injure himself. Other sources dispute that. Regardless, the guy had a rap sheet a mile long and was consistently placing himself in danger.
5) Eric Garner - this is the most disturbing and the only one I feel sympathy for. His legal violation was minor at the time, and it seemed like way too much force was used for the offense. IMO, he should have been sent a citation akin to a traffic ticket.
I've had my own run ins with police especially when I was a teenager although I wasn't doing anything wrong, and I'm white.
The police generally have been too quick to attack or jump on someone, they aren't trustworthy generally speaking and people fear them.
There are always going to be bad and overeager cops, but it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more people react negatively to the cops, the more overeager the cops get and tensions keep getting raised on all sides.
Ive been overseas, in most countries people view the police as there to help, in the US the viewpoint is much different. ts all about the training and militarization of our police driving viewpoints both inside the police force, and the outside publics view. We need to reconsider our policing strategies in my mind.
The massive incarceration levels don't help either.
Ive been overseas, in most countries people view the police as there to help, in the US the viewpoint is much different. ts all about the training and militarization of our police driving viewpoints both inside the police force, and the outside publics view. We need to reconsider our policing strategies in my mind.
The massive incarceration levels don't help either.
Part of this is ending the war on drugs and to stop putting away potheads. It leaves legitimate concerns, but a law is still the law, and if people didn't afoul of it, they wouldn't have an issue.
It's quite surprising that you, along with many others, don't express more concern over the issue of fellow citizens having their rights violated and lives taken as the result of police strong-arming. Such logic is akin to blaming shareholders for incurring losses resulting from the imprudent decisions of management, as the former should have conducted further due diligence.
In my opinion, the actions of those officers who willingly break the law and abandon the ethical guidelines inherent within their oaths should receive fitting reprimand. To make excuses for and rationalize such actions does more harm than good, especially in regards to the already strained relations with urban police departments and the citizenry.
There are always going to be bad and overeager cops, but it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more people react negatively to the cops, the more overeager the cops get and tensions keep getting raised on all sides.
And the more overeager the cops get, the more people will react negatively to cops. It works both ways.
And BTW, Gray was falsely arrested, so anything that happened after that is on the cops.
2) Tamir Rice - kid brandishes an unknown firearm-like weapon. The officers didn't have time to ask "hey kid, what kind of weapon do you have" and check it out to see if it was harmless. Had he not brandished the weapon and complied with officer's orders, he'd be alive today.
Tamir Rice was 12 year old boy, sitting alone in a park, playing with a toy gun.
A police car charged across the grass at him, stopping just feet from him, and police immediately jumped out and shot him. He was shot within 2 seconds of the police car's arrival. There were no commands given for him to ignore or comply with. Look at the video, he was not "brandishing a weapon" at the police.
The police officer was fired from his previous police job for being "emotionally unstable" and "unfit for duty".
How can you defend the police officer in this case?
How can you not "feel sympathy" for Tamir Rice?
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