Another day, another police beating in America

[Makeshift Python]

The greatest enemy of the police is the video camera. Why else do you account for the amount of times they popped their hoods up to cover the dashcam and turn off their bodycams because they "malfunctioned"? If Rodney King was never videotaped being beaten to a pulp by those cops, it would have just gone on as another normal day for the police.

[GreyICE]

In point of fact one "good apple" did move to help him, while another cop restrained him from doing so. I bet the one to help him was also one of the ones to resign from the riot police in solidarity. Because if he didn't, he'd have been targeted by the other cops.

Eventually you either quit, or this becomes your normal, and once it becomes your normal you're a bad cop. There's a great graphic here on how use of force spreads inside a police department: https://theintercept.com/2018/08/16/chicago-police-misconduct-social-network/?comments=1

You can see that the officers in contact with officers who were part of a use of force complaint subsequently were part of more use of force complaints with other officers. The "bad policing" spreads, as the one officer's attitudes and behavior comes to influence the department. You can see other pockets of disease as well, officers clustered together who are all involved in use of force complaints with each other.

That's why one bad apple spoils the bunch - this behavior spreads. That's why the departments need to be dissolved, and these bad elements flushed out. Changing the chief, or changing them manual is not sufficient. Kneeling on someone's neck has never been in the manual. They just do it anyway, because bad behavior spreads.

As the amazing article fuzzy posted shows, there's specialists who are much better trained at handling situations than cops. There's alternatives to our current police force, and it's time to make that happen.

[Makeshift Python]

Regarding the 57 officers that supposedly resigned as a protest against the two that got suspended, turns out that may not be the case: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/buffalo-mayor-police-union-protests_n_5edb06d0c5b67f2275c1ccee

Buffalo, New York, Mayor Byron Brown said Friday that the local police union was on the “wrong side of history” in a controversy surrounding two officers who were suspended without pay after a 75-year-old man was shoved to the ground at a protest, causing him to be seriously injured.

Late Thursday, a viral video showed police in Buffalo pushing an older man who approached them. The man is seen falling backward, hitting the ground with a resounding crack before he begins bleeding from his ear. The man was taken to the hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition Friday night.

After an initial statement said the man “tripped and fell,” the police commissioner ordered an investigation and the two officers were suspended without pay.

In an interview with CNN, Brown was asked about dozens of members of the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team resigning from their posts in the special unit earlier Friday. John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association union, said it had been “out of disgust” over “the treatment” of the two suspended officers.

“That was pushed by the police union,” Brown told CNN. “The police union indicated if those officers continued to participate in that unit they would lose the support of the Police Benevolent Association in Buffalo.”

Two unnamed officers reportedly told the local ABC news station similarly that they didn’t resign out of solidarity with the officers suspended but because the union wasn’t “legally backing” them. A copy of an email that Evans sent members on Friday morning also suggests the union wouldn’t be paying for the legal defense of ERT officers moving forward.

So basically, there was no resignation out of solidarity; the union forced them to.

I'm about as pro-union as possible... but the policeman's unions can get fucked. I put them on equal footing with the Klan.

[GreyICE]

Again, "good apples" being spoiled by bad. The system is literally forcing them to be bad cops?

Again, get rid of the system. Dissolve the police. When Camden did, quite a few cops were rehired. They had to go through training again, and Camden didn't rehire any of them with use of force complaints against them, etc. If there are good apples, they can return to a similar job as the one they had before - just one more community focused, and where they'll spend less time doing paperwork and driving to fender benders.

[Antiboyscout]

The greatest enemy of the police is the video camera. Why else do you account for the amount of times they popped their hoods up to cover the dashcam and turn off their bodycams because they "malfunctioned"? If Rodney King was never videotaped being beaten to a pulp by those cops, it would have just gone on as another normal day for the police.

And how many people have been caught out lying about police brutality thanks to those cameras? My favorite is the guy who jumped off an overpass to avoid arrest and then tried to claim the police beat him broke his legs and then pushed him over.

That's why BLM keeps flipfloping on bodycams.

[Antiboyscout]

[GreyICE]

And how many people have been caught out lying about police brutality thanks to those cameras? My favorite is the guy who jumped off an overpass to avoid arrest and then tried to claim the police beat him broke his legs and then pushed him over.

That's why BLM keeps flipfloping on bodycams.

The reason why BLM "flip floped" on body cameras is because body cameras became a technological panacea, that turned into more snake oil than anything real. It was seized on by defenders of the status quo, who were always living a pipe dream - change nothing about the police department, but add body cameras, and suddenly magically the police department becomes great!

In reality, what we saw was that the same people still did the same things. Body cameras just failed at convenient times. Cops would plant evidence, then turn on their body cameras to record them finding the evidence. Videos would be strangely unavailable. And the camera feeds themselves were being fed into a facial recognition database, and used to track people's movements.

In other words, it became evident that body cameras wouldn't fix the real issues. For proponents of the "magical panacea" theory, hearing that has become evidence that the person "doesn't really want change", because of course there can't be something wrong with the panacea. There's never anything wrong with these panaceas, the problem is always that "people just haven't fully committed to the miracle cure."

Here's a good article for you to read: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/21/15983842/police-body-cameras-failures

We can't take the police departments we have today, add body cameras, and magically get community-focused policing that normalizes safe interactions with the cops, emphasizes de-escalation, reduces use of force incidents, and creates a healthy environment where people don't fear cops, and cops aren't just waiting to use force on ordinary citizens. And we never could have. It's magical thinking, through and through.

[GreyICE]

And of course I don't go for a day, and the protests turn violent. Terrorist attacks, a shooting. All perpetrated by this guy.


youtu.be/1KZdii4Ep-g

Who, um... appears to be giving the cops a thumbs up? They also don't seem to have moved at all to stop him, or prevent actual violence occurring right in front of their eyes.

Huh. They choose the weirdest times to show restraint, right?

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

[Copy/paste - do not attribute]

The use of tear gas is a violation of the Geneva convention. Your police have gassed every major city.

False surrender is a violation of the Geneva convention. Your police have kneeled to draw protesters within range of tear gas.

Destroying and contaminating water is a violation of the Geneva convention. Your police have been destroying stocks of water used for the protestors.

Destroying medical tents and supplies is a violation of the Geneva convention. Your police have destroyed medical tents and attacked medics in various cities.

Attacking journalists is a violation of the Geneva convention. Your police have targeted and attacked journalists both native and foreign in multiple cities.

Your police are worse than war criminals, this isn't even a war and they've managed to violate major international codes. You truly believe "looting" or staying out past curfew is a valid excuse for actual war crimes to be committed against civilians?

[Makeshift Python]

You truly believe "looting" or staying out past curfew is a valid excuse for actual war crimes to be committed against civilians?

In Trump's view, the purpose of the police is to DOMINATE!!!! To even contradict a police just lightly is an invitation to getting your head split open like a watermelon. And the excuse made for those cops by some folks here seem to boil down to "they asked for it".