I was, not fifteen minutes ago, at 7-11 to buy beer. I pulled into the lot at the same time a squad car from my town’s PD came in. There was a guy next to the door talking on speakerphone in spanish, and seemingly not being a problem of any kind.
The cop immediately got out and approached the guy as I went in. A couple of minutes later when I came out there were two more squad cars in the lot, and the cops were conferring with each other. They phone guy was still talking on the phone.
I very badly wanted to step a few yards back and start video recording… But I didn’t feel like getting my head kicked if the pigs didn’t like me doing that. Yeah, internet tough guy stuff. I’m a coward.
We live in a police state. This is utterly unacceptable.
It is important to highlight the actions of bad cops and condemn their actions, but I find the growing anti police sentiment disturbing. Police are human as the rest of us, yet there is an expectation for them to act super human in situations we can’t handle - that is why we call them. The police see the very worse of humanity and that has to take a psychological toll. Instead of condemning the police, would it not be better to provide them and all first responders, doctors, and nurses with regular counseling and psychological help without implying that them needing it is some sort of weakness?
It is no wonder that police turn into authoritative bullies with guns when they feel besieged by the public and are provided with no constructive way to deal with situations and their own feelings.
Evidence of sexual and physical abuse by police when the police are in no danger causes anti police sentiment? It would be much more disturbing if it didn’t.
I agree, however, that the US police are under severe psychological pressure, but there seems to be a reluctance to talk about the reason - and a tendency to deny it.
Open and concealed carry and the readily available weapons means that for the US police, any incident means that there is a high probability that someone is armed. Whether it is a criminal, or some gung-ho self appointed vigilante, hardly matters. I don’t see how this can fail to affect their attitude. Over here the main risk of violence to police is knives, and they have anti-stab vests. Police attending an incident are not expecting to be shot. Around here we have an occasional criminal who has been threatening shopkeepers (rather unsuccessfully) with a knife or crowbar, and the police response has been to say that anybody who knows him should tell him to stop because his use of a weapon means a mandatory prison sentence; not that he risks being shot by police!
I can therefore understand police in the US overreacting to an event that might result in their getting killed pointlessly. But pepper spraying students? Sexual abuse of people already stopped by the police? Shooting at harmless children as mentioned above?
Yeah, well, they seem to have forgotten the rest of us are humans, especially the people of color in this country. They turned into authoritarian bullies on their own. They need to fix this shit.
Then cities need to spend on psychological help. Feeling out of sorts isn’t an excuse to shoot children.
If they want to feel less “besieged” by the public, they need to stop shooting or brutalizing people for no reason.
Well, there are good cops, bad cops, and the abstract idea of cops. When @kuato makes the blanket statement “shoot cops” he’s not differentiating-- just randomly shooting at police officers means you could be killing a cop who is valued by the community. Is it reasonable to assume all cops are assholes? And in your hypothetical situation there could be a lot more going on then is obvious at first-- are you willing to shoot a cop in defense of a unarmed person if it later turns out the guy is a murderer who just escaped prison-- hypotheticals can go in many directions. Nevertheless, it’s a rare, unique situation, and not the broad “shoot cops.”
Last year Quentin Tarantino said “if you believe there’s murder going on then you need to rise up and
stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.” The police unions immediately took that as an anti-police statement, when it’s an anti-murder statement. I can’t sit here and claim to be anti-murder then make an exception for a well-meaning bystander shooting at police as an attempt at bringing social change.
I’m angry too, how can you not be enraged when police officers cavity search a guy in public for no good reason, but random violence is unlikely to bring about meaningful change. Shooting at cops will only justify the “us-vs-the-public” attitude they already live by, it’s 100% counterproductive.
Okay. Still didnt find your estimate. And if I did find the same number from a POLICE source, I would not believe it. The state has lied WAAAAAAY to many times about… well, everything. I wouldnt believe a report like that unless it came from a neutral source like, say, Amnesty Int, because when you live in a police state, the police are going to lie. Wake up sheep.
They actually are police sources… I think. But here’s some Huffpost info on the subject… they’d probably fact check enough for you to accept it.
The statistics aren’t good. You are right that its a huge problem. We agree on that… we are just talking about whose responsible. I think its about 25% of police and established institutional problems… which is all that’s required to fuck things up as bad as they are presently fucked up.
I know the saying, thank you, but I was speaking directly to YOU. Singular.
All it would take is ALL those good cops telling on the bad cops. It does not happen, the blue line is real. They truly believe that we are all bad, and they are here to save us, that is not hyperbole. They are not fucking soldiers, they are our employees, and if one kills somebody or fucking rapes them gang style on the street, no matter why, they should be fired. Every job I have ever had tells me, “there is a line of people waiting if you dont like your job.” Well, same is true for cops. Here is a shirt cops like to wear:
