Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/04/harrowing-video-shows-new-jers.html
…
4 Likes
We could fire the whole force but they’d just form another criminal gang. And then we’d have two problems.
6 Likes
They are a group of people who commit crimes. They already are a criminal gang.
14 Likes
That’s the time honored “New Jersey Welcome”, I grew up there, I know it when I sees it.
16 Likes
Remember kids, violence is never the answer…unless you’re a cop and someone isn’t complying, then you’re allowed to beat them within an inch of their life. Don’t worry, proud patriots everywhere will back you up by pithily stating “play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” as if cops aren’t rational human beings with the ability to restrain their aggression and apply only as much force as is necessary to enable compliance.
21 Likes
Damn, the fashion police are getting pretty aggresive.
3 Likes
I think the chaotic incompetence is part of the whole set-up.
If everything is ruthlessly efficient, then people get the feeling that there is a system, an organisation, a way of being that will keep them safe.
Authoritarianism doesn’t approve of that. You should constantly be concerned that the long arm of the authorities could land on you.
A bunch of Keystone Cops flailing around idiotically (but damagingly) is far more scary to the unaffected bystander than if the cops deal with the situation quickly and efficiently.
10 Likes
not just bare knuckles
15 Likes
Surely even the authoritarians would prefer their agents of order be less chaotically incompetent?
I expect the authoritarian crowd would take this story in another direction: The cops beat this kid up on purpose, so it’s not incompetence. “Incompetence” would be allowing whatever the behavior or circumstance was that pissed them off (or that can be invented to justify all this) so much go unanswered.
2 Likes
And it shows their impunity. If they can be blatantly chaotically incompetent in their brutality, and face no consequences, they’re showing they can get away with anything. So there’s a clear message: there’s no point in trying to hold them accountable - you’ll lose.
12 Likes
This sort of violence by the police is totally unacceptable. Unfortunately, like in many of the cases I read in my criminal law class in law school, it turns out the person having their rights violated is pretty scummy. It doesn’t at all make what the police were doing right, but it makes it harder for the general public to see how badly the police acted.
Well, only if you go out of your way to draw attention to it, which is why certain people routinely do that as a response to this kind of video.
The context is more or less irrelevant here. They are beating someone while he is securely restrained and that’s a crime. It’d be a crime even if he was insulting their mothers just before the video started. The whole point of cops is that they’re supposed to act professionally even when dealing with unpleasant people. The best way to hold them to that standard is to deliberately ignore the context, because otherwise all we’re doing is establishing the kind of excuse we will accept.
20 Likes
IAL, so totally agree that we should analyze these issues regardless of the context. However, anyone searching for more information about this story online will see the context. It’s not a matter of going out of one’s way to see it.
Not so sure this is a trend as much as it is longstanding policy. Cops have been violent, racist and opportunistic for… forever. We just have cameras now. I’m not being argumentative, but think it’s important to note this because of we just assume it’s a few “bad apples” or a specific department’s deficiency we miss the broader antecedents to this type of authoritarian violence. In the US we have seen policies and judgements intended to shield and exonerate this type of unspoken policy such as Graham Vs Connor as well as the militarization of police forces post-Afghanistan/Iraq that puts more space between LEOs and civilians, therefore creating a sense of protection and abstraction, but I would bet just about anything that fear of reprisal, the “thin blue line” and a 20th C. culture that assumed the best about any service members kept our awareness of daily police violence at a minimum.
5 Likes
Ironic that they bleep out swear word - ironically the least offensive part of this video.
5 Likes
I’m gunna pass on watching the video, but seriously even if body cams don’t stop bad cops from misbehaving this is exactly why we definitely for sure need them. Would also be great for cops to get a lifetime ban from law enforcement and security type jobs, usually these garbage people end up getting a similar or better job elsewhere.
4 Likes
This happened in my home town. Our mayor is also pretty corrupt. On one election day, he was parked in a fire lane and when one of the pollsters asked him to move, he refused. She said she’d call the police and he said, “I own the police.” I haven’t watched the video but yeah. This is pretty bad.
1 Like
Hats off to the camera dude (even if he did shoot in vertical mode). He keeps shooting the violence and saying all the right things while the pigs try to scare him away.
“We need all you’re badge numbers!”
1 Like
Is this Dover or Morristown?
You fix police by trying and executing those abuse their position. Suddenly the job will stop appealing to the wrong type of person.
1 Like
