Police State USA gets away with murder...again

Ransom wrote: This incident involved a tiny subset of the police population, but the fact that it wasn't one officer losing it and the rest trying to stop him gives me chills.

+1. Out of that many officers someone should have said "Hey, this isn't right, we need to stop."

Whatever psychiatric evaluation police officers need to pass to get a badge, it isn't enough.

It seems pretty often that they are power hungry shiny happy people with a penchant toward violence and intimidation.

This is what happens when the police become basically paramilitary.

These kinds of incidents are going to happen with increasing frequenrency I fear.

America is no longer the land of the free.

93EXCivic wrote: This is what happens when the police become basically paramilitary.

Yeah, I either want to see the police demilitarized, or held accountable for berkeleying up as they would be in a military. Preferably both.

I can't remember exactly when it happened that I began fearing the police. This does not help.

This does not surprise me at all. My brother is schizophrenic and has lived on the streets of L.A. before. Basically, the police would either beat him up or arrest him regularly. If they beat him up, no arrest (usually.) One time, they put him in the hospital for several days from the beating. Funny thing, but the hospital records vanished. There was no police report. It never happened.

Dr. Hess wrote: This does not surprise me at all. My brother is schizophrenic and has lived on the streets of L.A. before. Basically, the police would either beat him up or arrest him regularly. If they beat him up, no arrest (usually.) One time, they put him in the hospital for several days from the beating. Funny thing, but the hospital records vanished. There was no police report. It never happened.

Hess, that is downright terrifying, yet totally unsurprising in the light of all this...

Appleseed wrote: I can't remember exactly when it happened that I began fearing the police. This does not help.

For me it was when I heard the tern "no knock"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-knock_warrant

Wikipedia wrote: allows law enforcement officers to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Guerena_shooting AN IRAQ MARINE VET killed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Johnston A 92 YEAR OLD WOMAN killed

https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/no-knock-warrant-resulting-denver-mans-death-should-not-have-been-issued-aclu

These cases abound, and as a man who is supposed to protect my home from intruders, it scares me more than even the Kelly Thompson case, because I can almost always steer clear of the police in public, and understand what to do to avoid any confrontations that could be violent. On the other hand, if a bunch of plainsclothes guys break into my house at 3 AM, I am going to be shooting.

tuna55 wrote:

Appleseed wrote: I can't remember exactly when it happened that I began fearing the police. This does not help.

For me it was when I heard the tern "no knock" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-knock_warrant

Wikipedia wrote: allows law enforcement officers to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Guerena_shooting AN IRAQ MARINE VET killed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Johnston A 92 YEAR OLD WOMAN killed https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/no-knock-warrant-resulting-denver-mans-death-should-not-have-been-issued-aclu These cases abound, and as a man who is supposed to protect my home from intruders, it scares me more than even the Kelly Thompson case, because I can almost always steer clear of the police in public, and understand what to do to avoid any confrontations that could be violent. On the other hand, if a bunch of plainsclothes guys break into my house at 3 AM, I am going to be shooting.

Agreed.

Here is a good thread with TONS of similar incidents. It's incredibly frightening/disheartening/etc.

http://www.miataturbo.net/current-events-news-politics-77/new-warrior-cop-out-control-73864/

I'm not sure what I find more disturbing--the beating, or the fact that 12 citizens thought that it was acceptable.

Pick up that can.

remind me to buy more ammo...I feel like Im going to need it sooner rather than later...

A dark part of me wants to get even. The more rational part wants me to move to New Zealand

Will wrote: I'm not sure what I find more disturbing--the beating, or the fact that 12 citizens thought that it was acceptable. Pick up that can.

makes me sad that I am only allowed to plus one this a single time...

z31maniac wrote: Here is a good thread with TONS of similar incidents. It's incredibly frightening/disheartening/etc. http://www.miataturbo.net/current-events-news-politics-77/new-warrior-cop-out-control-73864/

Yeah.... that thread is scary.

This is not new behavior, MDC has song about it. Recorded in the early 1980's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtZarJte8g

Will wrote: I'm not sure what I find more disturbing--the beating, or the fact that 12 citizens thought that it was acceptable.

Don't be too quick to blame them. They ruled on the information that was given to them based on the guidelines they were give (beyond a reasonable doubt etc.). E.g. convicting the cops of murder (which I believe implies an intent to kill) would be pretty much impossible. Remember, O.J. was innocent also.

pilotbraden wrote: This is not new behavior, MDC has song about it. Recorded in the early 1980's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtZarJte8g

Certainly not new, but definitely more prevalent. I hear stories from Dad all the time about beer cruising in his Corvair with the buddies, getting stopped by the Sheriff, and being told to pour it out...

Up in da UP, with my girlfriend for Thanksgiving weekend, I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard. Two cars, three Sherriff's deputies, all of them looked younger than me. Claimed they smelled alcohol on my breath (had two beers at dinner about six hours beforehand). They made me get out; with their hands on their guns, made me do the whole field sobriety routine in the middle of a snowstorm, flashlight in my face, and I could tell they were getting a rise out of it the whole time. After about a half an hour of the nonsense they told me to get back in the car, said "we could haul you off to the drunk tank if we wanted to" among a few other condescending remarks and chuckles and sent me on my way. Probably the one time in my life I was sitting there thinking "where's the damn breathalyzer when you need it?"

Is it sad I watch that show more for trying to remember pre 9-11 America than I do car spotting?

In reply to SlickDizzy:

I agree, it is too damn common.

Dr. Hess wrote: ...One time, they put him in the hospital for several days from the beating. Funny thing, but the hospital records vanished. There was no police report. It never happened...

I am pretty sure the same thing would have happened here if there was not a camera.

A brother of a friend of mine (big drinker) told me years ago he was walking in the San Fernando valley late at night (drunk) when a cop car pulled up, two cops got out, beat the piss out of him, then drove off.

I see how these things happen, a couple of thug cops get frustrated by something from earlier in the night (someone spits on them, whatever), so they take it out on the next "opportunity". Doesn't excuse it, and it should not happen, but I can see the mechanism.

I would also add to my characterization of why cops become cops and say that after a few years, the "idealists" likely slip into one of the other categories "doing just enough not to get fired" and "thug"...

Some police departments are going to put cameras on all the cops. One reason is of course to prevent false reports against the police, but things like this are certainly another good reason.

In reply to aircooled:

Another thing to consider is the shrinking wage of LEO's in most communities. Milwaukee cops, for example, make about $34k a year and have to put up with a LOT of bullE36 M3 to earn that paltry pay (this is a city that has so far this year surpassed Chicago in gun violence rates). If you make policing a job worth having, obviously the quality of candidates will be much higher...sadly the opposite is also true.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:

This is when (it started at least):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejD1Gml-ZGc