@gotlucky: There is no word I know to describe how infuriating that news article is.
Clayton -
Your ‘Duty’ To Protect and Serve the Police
For those who are interested, William Norman Grigg regularly writes about police abuse.
I read every article Will Grigg writes for LRC with gusto, even though they invariably raise my blood pressure. I recommend him to everyone.
I agree with John James, that incident was me being stupid, we dont know what the guy said, police probably thought it was more than it really was, etc,etc. Its the past, lets not argue over this bullshit.
Watch 1:12 -Kick on throat/chest
2:00 - 2:15 - Slam on police car.
This will make you mad.
Poor guy. If i was there i would have done something. Its hard to do something about this since police carries weapon.
If ever William Grigg could get your blood boiling, this one will do it!
Woman Hit by Police Officer
The woman gets punched in the face by a police officer. If you watch closely, you see that someone else tosses water on the cops, but they are claiming that this woman used silly string to assault them or somesuch. We don’t see that in the video, but even if that were true, this was a disgusting and despicable act by that thug in a uniform.
Here is the youtube video of the incident.
EDIT: If you watch really closely, you do in fact actually see her shoot silly string or something at the very very beginning. However, what that officer did was disgusting.
Update to the above post:
Officer Who Hit Woman Will Be Fired
His fellow police officers think firing him was overkill, but if you or I punched someone in the face for shooting silly string or throwing water, we’d be charged with assault and probably sued.
Police Fatally Shoot an Unarmed Driver on the Grand Central Parkway
P.S. - How can I make a link clickable and show up as text (ie make the words “Police Fatally Shoot…” appear so when clicked takes the user to the address)? I’m specifically wondering what text/syntax to input to do this.
Wow, that’s just sad. EDIT: What’s really funny about that article is how the author lists a bunch of other police shootings and states the various ways that those were justifiable. Nothing like adding in damage control to a news report about an atrocity.
About the link, if you look closely at the buttons in the reply box, there is a world with a chain link on it in the second row of buttons, right below the spell check and to the right of the paragrah button. Type the text you want, select it, click the button, then paste the link. That should do the trick.
If any of you suffer from low blood pressure, this column by William Norman Grigg will turn that right around:
Man tasered by police for trying to save his own house from burning down
Good Samaritan treated like thief by cops, he says, sues for $1 million
This idea that a police officer can order anyone to do anything has got to stop. Traditionally, an individual standing on his own property has the right to do anything the hell he pleases so long as he is not in the process of committing a crime - that includes pointing a gun at himself, running into a fire, or whatever.
And the “that’s what insurance is for” remark is a perfect illustration of how, to a disinterested observer, the house is merely its dollar-value. But to the owner, there are a lot of irreplaceables in his home - keepsakes from his childhood, family photos, unbacked data stored on hard drives (which nowadays includes a lot of family photos). I would be devastated if I lost all the little hand-written notes, pictures and cards I’ve received from my kids. While it is technically true that tehse things are not “priceless”, people are willing to risk their safety to preserve them… they place a very high value on them. Which is where the complete absence of any understanding of the subjective theory of value comes in.
And what is the crime in turning in valuables from an unattended bag in a park? He’s “no innocent”? Is that what we’ve come to, now, Inquisitorial prognistications on the contents of someone’s conscience by unqualified baboons?
I pretty much avoid the news now, it’s withering.
Clayton -
But Clayton! They’re entrusted to preserve “public safety”! That guy could’ve burned to death if he’d been allowed to run into that burning house! He would’ve lost his life, but the government would’ve lost an otherwise productive taxpayer, and that’s the important thing!
Yeah, Clayton, where are your priorities?
Someday these cops are going to tase the wrong guy.
Caught On Camera: Woman Goes Into Cardiac Arrest During Traffic Stop
Holy fucking hell. Police abuse with tasers.
The lobotomized level at which discussion of the risks of TASER use is prosecuted never ceases to amaze me. I’ve taken Judo and one of the primary goals of Judo when used in self-defense is to use the force of gravity in combination with the ground surface to do as much damage to your attacker as possible. In other words, the takedown (throw) is a major component of creating trauma in the individual which often causes a “stunning” effect which can then be exploited to conclude the fight favorably. The Florida Highway Patrol tasered this 20-year old girl and her collapse onto the ground caused massive blunt traum to her head as it hit the pavement - she is now brain-dead. This illustrates the massive and neglected risk of trauma created by the effect of TASER.
The effects of high voltage shock are difficult to describe verbally. I lived on a farm as a kid where we had a high-voltage electric fence - a mere 10,000 volts compared to the 50,000 administered by TASER. The primary effects are burning of the skin at the point of shock caused by the high-voltage arc, pain that distributes throughout the entire nervous system (the pain is not localized anywhere, it is felt everywhere simultaneously, including inside the head), and msucle spasm or “lock-up”. The first two effects are merely degrading and inhumane (torturous). The last effect is what is dangerous. The TASER is nothing more than a cattle prod in the shape of a pistol.
The muscle spasm induced by high-voltage shock will, of course, cause an erect individual to the ground without the possibility of breaking or correcting the fall in any way so as to minimize trauma to sensitive areas such as the knees, elbows, shoulders, tailbone, chest, back and head. But in addition to this risk, the TASER can also cause trauma even to an individual who is already on the ground as the muscles spasm in response to the electrical shock, causing body parts (including the head) to slam into a brick wall or curb or the inside of a closed, patrol car door.
The TASER manufacturer promotes its product on the assumption that every use of a TASER is a substitution for a supposedly “worse” alternative (from the victim’s perspective), such as a night-stick, manual combat or firearm. I don’t have any numbers, but this is doubtless false. The fact is that officers are far more willing to deploy a TASER for “non-compliance” than to get up-close and personal where they are likely to experience resistance from the victim of their attack. The TASER encapsulates the cowardice of the firearm without the virtually-guaranteed lethality of the firearm. It is the worst of all worlds.
In combination with the “qualified immunity” of police officers and the notorious difficulty of holding police officers individually accountable for abuses, it is my view that TASERs should simply be banned for use by public police departments. Only individuals subject to ordinary liability for assault (such as security officers or private citizens) should be permitted to carry this dangerous weapon - though I doubt there will exactly be a rush to purchase them precisely because they are so dangerous.
Clayton -
Clayton -