Thread: Out of control Police

This isolated incident is being painted with too broad a brush...Who's pushing this stuff? Whose agenda does this serve?

These few incidents do look bad but don't condem all law enforcement. Or the use of tasers by Police based just upon them. Would you had rather the cop grapped and wrestled the guy who refused to sign a traffic ticket in Utah? maybe the guy would have taken his gun, then. As is with the taser both walked away unhurt. Remember that.

The other thing is there are a few bad Police Officers out there, but thats out of Hundreds of Thousands of very good officers!

Tasers are a vital tool for law enforcement and actually save lives by giving Police an additional use of force option thats highly effective to stop someone but is not deadly.

not act as enforcers for a tyrannical police state.

Please say you don't actually believe this CRAPOLA! I have to ask do you actually know anybody that is employed in law enforcement? Telling them they are acting as "enforcers for a tyrannical police state." is insulting and a huge slap to the thousands who have died serving this Nation! The majority of Police Officers are Military Veterans who actually paid something toward protecting the Nation and keeping it free.

If you have a problem with a law enforcement officer's actions file an official complaint.

I THINK TASERS ARE BARBERIC AND POLICE USE THEM WAY TOO OFTEN!

Originally Posted by ICEChargerRT

This isolated incident is being painted with too broad a brush...Who's pushing this stuff? Whose agenda does this serve?

These few incidents do look bad but don't condem all law enforcement. Or the use of tasers by Police based just upon them. Would you had rather the cop grapped and wrestled the guy who refused to sign a traffic ticket in Utah? maybe the guy would have taken his gun, then. As is with the taser both walked away unhurt. Remember that.

The other thing is there are a few bad Police Officers out there, but thats out of Hundreds of Thousands of very good officers!

Tasers are a vital tool for law enforcement and actually save lives by giving Police an additional use of force option thats highly effective to stop someone but is not deadly.

not act as enforcers for a tyrannical police state.

Please say you don't actually believe this CRAPOLA! I have to ask do you actually know anybody that is employed in law enforcement? Telling them they are acting as "enforcers for a tyrannical police state." is insulting and a huge slap to the thousands who have died serving this Nation! The majority of Police Officers are Military Veterans who actually paid something toward protecting the Nation and keeping it free.

If you have a problem with a law enforcement officer's actions file an official complaint.

I'm sorry but facts are facts. It may not be every single police officer, and God Bless those that are decent and heroic, but you simply cannot dismiss what is going on around the country. It is out of control and innocent people are being KILLED who did not pose any threat. It is NOT an isolated incident. This is serious stuff.

The media like FOX News, has actually suggested that it's OK for unarmed nonthreatening civilians to be tasered. They are trying to condition the populace to accept it. Don't fall for it. Please open your eyes and look at the facts. Something has to be done about it:

Critical Juncture
America's Police Brutality Pandemic
B25317 / Mon, 8 Oct 2007 19:46:18 / Civil Liberties
Paul Craig Roberts | September 26, 2007

Excerpts:

Police brutality has crossed the line from using excessive force against a resisting Rodney King to unprovoked gratuitous violence against persons offering no resistance, such as the elderly, women, students, and elected officials. Americans are not safe anywhere from police. Police attack Americans in university libraries, in public meetings, and in their own homes

Last week we had the case of the University of Florida student who was repeatedly Tasered without cause for asking Senator Kerry some good questions in the question and answer period following Kerry’s speech. Two days after the Florida student was gratuitously brutalized, Senate Republicans defeated Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy’s bill to restore habeas corpus protection.

A UCLA student was Tasered by police without cause for studying in the university library without having having his student ID on his person. Following police orders to leave, the student was walking toward the door when police grabbed him and repeatedly Tasered him.

On September 19, 2007 a young woman was repeatedly Tasered without cause by a large brutal cop in a parking lot outside a night club in Warren, Ohio.

On September 14, 2007, Roseland, Indiana, city council member David Snyder was ejected from a council meeting by dictatorial council chairman Charlie Shields. Snyder had protested being limited to one minute to speak. Police goon Jack Tiller escorted Snyder out, and as Snyder exited the building, Tiller, following behind, pushed Snyder to the ground and without cause began beating Snyder in the head with a nightstick. Snyder was hospitalized.

Local TV news stations throughout the US offer an endless stream of police brutality videos, which are then posted on the stations’ web sites, often with an opportunity for citizens to express their opinion of the incidents.
There are many disturbing aspects to police brutality cases.

One disturbing aspect is that the police always arrest the people that they have gratuitously brutalized. There was no justification whatsoever to arrest Councilman Snyder, or the UCLA student, or the University of Florida student. The cops committed assault against innocent citizens. The cops should have been arrested for their criminal acts. Instead, the cops cover up their own crimes by arresting their victims on false charges that are invented to justify the unprovoked police violence against citizens.

Another disturbing aspect is that no one tells the police to stop the brutality. “Freeâ€

If Tasers aren't deadly how come it has killed so many people. I wonder what the ratio between Taser deaths and Police shootings.

Part of the problem is that there are trends and fads in law enforcement as there are, for example in k-12 teaching methodologies (remember 'whole language' reading and writing?). There is a somewhat new philosophy being pitched to police sometimes called 'broken windows' that encourages them to get VERY tough on minor situations in hopes of holding the whole neighborhood to higher behavioral standards and preventing a slide into more serious problems.

denver & the west
Cole-Whittier leaders critical of police effort
They tell the mayor that a strategy of concentrating officers on small crimes to prevent more serious ones is failing to bring cops and the neighborhood closer.
By Manny Gonzales Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/09/2007 01:06:39 AM MDT


Twice in the past two weeks, community organizer Roger Cobb has been pulled over by police in his Cole-Whittier neighborhood. He believes it's solely because he is black.

On Wednesday, Cobb was among two dozen community leaders meeting with Mayor John Hickenlooper to address their concerns that stepped-up policing of Cole-Whittier - referred to by some as the "broken windows" campaign - was resulting in unfair treatment of the poor and minorities.

Hickenlooper said the city would listen to community input in designing the policing effort but assured residents that the goal was to make the neighborhood safer.

"I'm not going to say that racial profiling doesn't happen, but it exists less now than it did three years ago and it will exist even less in two or three years," Hickenlooper said. "We can't just snap our fingers and have it all suddenly be right."

A "knee-jerk reaction"

In recent weeks, community organizers have placed leaflets on doors denouncing broken windows. They're planning a series of resident surveys about whether the increased police activity solves the crime problem.

"I think the knee-jerk reaction in addressing crime has been to make a bigger police presence," Cobb said. "But more eyes and ears out in their patrol cars isn't necessarily going to get to the roots of the problems."

One of the concerns Hickenlooper addressed is that the program has resulted in more police patrols rather than officers getting to know residents.

"I always see police cars in my neighborhood, but have yet to see one police officer (patrolling) on foot," resident Juana Rosa Cavero said.

The theory behind the effort is that targeting smaller crimes such as loitering, graffiti and public drunkenness is a way to prevent more serious crime.

Assessing their strategy

City officials have shied away from using the "broken windows" term, fearing that the name promotes negative perceptions in the community.

But the department waged a broken-windows-type effort in the city's Westwood neighborhood last year. It resulted in a 24 percent reduction of crime while arrests increased by about 53 percent, officials said.

However, there has not been an in-depth study of Westwood, residents pointed out.

And the mayor agreed that data should be compiled to better show what problem the police are solving.

"If this isn't serving the neighborhood and making it safer for its residents, then we'll stop it," Hickenlooper said.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5850767

Here's more on the stern 'broken windows' school of police strategy. It's important to remember that if this is instututed in your area, the police will view you in a new light even if you are white and middle class, so you will have to filter out the emphasis on minorities and discimination below. If they are going to target a broken tail light, and you have one, they will be coming after you too. We have this in our area, so I know. During these years we and others have experienced serious crime that went largely uninvestigated and unpunished, but the cops kept jumping all over ordinary people for little or nothing. For example, my son's car was stolen and stripped in 2004 - the gang that did this is still in business. All the police do is have a little squad that goes around once a week to look for stolen cars that have been dropped off. You may eventually get a letter from the impound lot.

[quote]Policing Urban Crimes: The Broken Windows Theory
Written by Socrates
Published September 26, 2006

He who steals an egg steals an ox. - A French saying quoted from The Scholarly Myths of the New Law and Order by Doxa

Just two days before the French riots of Oct 27,2005, sparked by the deaths of two African teenagers in the underprivileged northeastern suburbs of Paris, the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy famously remarked, "Vous en avez assez de cette bande de racaille? Eh bien, on va vous en débarrasser." ("You've had enough of the dregs of society? Well, we're going to get rid of them for you.â€

I stand by my prior statement, Tasers are a vital tool in law enforcement that save lives daily. Yes, a few people die from them as some also die from pepperspray, police holds car chases etc... but it is rare. Those few are a lot less then would die from other weapons that would be necessary if tasers and pepper spray were not available.

Where does your knowledge of the issue come from is it the media, maybe the ACLU? Maybe just maybe, they have an agenda that you would not agree, driving this? I am a longtime law enforcement officer and have seen these devices actually used and have even been tasered and pepper-sprayed myself in training. They work and prevent serious dangerous situations from escalating further. The end result being that everyone "walks away" afterward including the person who was tasered or sprayed.

Again, I'll ask are you employed in law enforcement or do you know someone who is? If so, talk with them about this I'm sure you'll get a much better understanding of the actual issue and not just the ACLU version thats presented by the criminal rights groups. I'm not in the mood to write a long response to the quote about "broken windows", etc...Who has an agenda the ACLU, National Lawyers Guild or thousands of separate COP's?

I actually have had cop friends and neighbors in the past and I don't envy them. They are in much the same position as school teachers: overwhelmed and underpaid. Neither one is as badly underpaid as is commonly believed, but they have a lot of hassle to go through before they can rise in the ranks. Right now where I'm living, the police are widely hated even by the middle class homeowners. We supposedly have police liaisons for our neighborhood, but in all the times I've called they've never returned the call. So, I'm frustrated around here, it's like they care about little stuff but for the big stuff you're on your own.

ICEChargerRT,

I have two family members that sound just like you. They are both police officers.. The town they work in in the last 20 years has more then doubled in population and size. Yet they have the same amount of officers as they did 20 years ago. They got a raise a few years ago because the city as a stall in negotiations wanted a outside firm to poll the other towns around there and see there rates. Found out they were under paid.. They handle twice as many if not more calls per day by a population of bad guys that are better armed and much more violent then ever before.

Tazers save lives. police are not paid to go one on one with a bad guy. Police are not Gods they are doing a job. The guy in the video was doing a bad job and that needs to be addressed.

Right now where I'm living, the police are widely hated even by the middle class homeowners.

I couldnt imagine any police officer wanting to work in a town like that.