Although we cannot assume a majority of police practice excessive force, these videos are proof of its existence.
I wonder why they would be allowed to do so without punishment from their superiors. Does this only happen in America? Does this type of brutality happen more than we think? Are videos being confiscated by police because of the evidence left behind from such events? Has there been an unofficial gag order?
I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say on the topic.
If the Police don't cool it with this type of behavior, they may be in for a war. Back in the late 80s and 90s, citizens in California began targeting Police. They were called Cop Killers. There really is only so much that people will put up with, and the abuse from Officers is on the rise as we speak.
Just last week a man was beaten severely in the streets of NYC, and a couple days later an 18 year old kid was gunned down in his house for possession of weed.
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You should look at Youtube for more of these ridiculous incidents. You may change your mind. My buddy was just pulled over by the Police for a non functioning taillight, which was functioning. He was given a ticket, and when he went to challenge the ticket in court, he wound up paying court expenses, which dwarfed the original tickets price. There are more abusive Police out there than you might think.
So, my personal experiences with the police are interesting...
at 17-18 I was busted with a pipe, and had the police lecture me about how i was bothering other people when they pulled up in their drive way and busted us in front of a civilian's living room. The other one is where I was busted with 20+ grams and a scale, though I ended up laughing at one of the officers because he tried to laugh at the fact I was also a neuroscience researcher.
Anyways, I think this type of brutality is actually only an American phenomenon. I'm not saying that police are held to a higher standard throughout the world (in fact, police in Canada are essentially immune to any sort of accountability), but that police in America are not held to a common standard.
This is totally a Canadian thing, but I remember trying to bring up the Berkley pepper spray issue with my parents, who watch the news nightly. They had no idea what I was talking about, yet were instantly supportive of the police.
I have no idea how to address this kind of thing, but the problem seems to be that even those who are up on current affairs are willing to excuse police actions by default.
What a loud mouth who makes a few good points but is pretty much wrong about everything.
If he actually knew what the Police did, he'd change his tune. Maybe he should spend a few months at a police station reviewing various cases and the happenings of just a section of a medium size city?
These stories of yours are interesting. I want to know more!
Do you have more stories? The one about the weed bust sounds cool.
The best I can deliver is the following:
I was driving on a Toll Highway at around 70 MPH. A highway patrolman was merging onto the highway. I was about to pass him and he turns his lights on. I start to slow down as to not pass him because I thought he was responding to an emergency call. He sticks his arm out of the window and points in the direction to pull over to the right in front of him.
So I sped up to pass him so I could pull over to the right (it was a two-lane highway and we in the US merge from the right into the left...so I was passing his left).
Well, that was my mistake. Since he was driving around 60-65 and I around 70 before he turned his lights on, I had to speed up to pass him. He "clocked" me, at that point, and I registered as going 78 (It was probably closer to 74 since he didn't use his radar but "pace" measured my speed). It really pissed me off that he did something like that and I fell for it like a chump.
The speed limit was 70 and it is a "no tolerance" zone. Meaning, you can get a $110 citation for driving 1 MPH over or under the speed limits.
When he approached, I kept my eyes forward and my hands on the wheel. I was very calm. Why would I do those things? To keep the officer from being nervous about where your hands are: they notice these things and greatly appreciate it. Also, being relaxed but not TOO relaxed makes the officers at ease. They want respect so call them "sir" or "ma'am" and "no sir", etc.
When he asked me, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I feigned as though it was painful to admit, "Man...is my tail light out???" Nope. It sure wasn't.
He asked for my license and insurance. Then he walked back to my car.
After running my record and seeing that the only citation I have ever had was from not wearing a seatbelt as a 17 year old PASSENGER, he came back with a warning that would NOT show up on my record and explained it was my speed that he clocked (he didn't clock me, he paced me as he marked on the warning ticket).
He could have written me a ticket. I would like to think he did not write the citation because of a combination:
1. How douchy it was to pull me over after directing me to pass him and then lying that he clocked me when he could not have clocked me while trying to merge.
2. That I didn't act like an entitled and irritated jackass.
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Last edited by dadudemon on Feb 8th, 2012 at 02:40 AM
this happens far more often in poor black communities I haved lived in one when i first came to usa and cops beat up people they arrest 70% of the time there.
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Last edited by Colossus-Big C on Feb 8th, 2012 at 02:59 AM
Yep. Of 100% of people arrested 50-55% are Black
25-35% are Hispanic
10-20% are Caucasian.
This type of thing has been going on constantly for over 10 years, and the NYC Chief of Police, and the Mayor are fully behind these questionable practices.
Being an irate citizen has little to do with things. As long as you fit a certain look, you are likely to be harassed by the Police or worse. Otherwise, explain the reason behind elderly Black women being stopped and frisked for no reason.
Killing cops are another extreme. I like the idea of publicizing their brutality though the media, but properly identifying them. This holds them more accountable. I think that they should also lose their badge and be released from the police force.
There is a good amount of gray area though. One thing that makes it easier for officers to relinquish personal responsibility from these actions is that they act under the name of the law and are nameless "agents of justice." This makes me wonder if the idea of a police enforced state is inherently flawed. Perhaps this is just because humans themselves are flawed.
I agree! Android police officers would eliminate this issue completely.
Someone please tell me why my speeding ticket costs $594. Granted I was going 90 on a 70 mph, but this just seems over the top and unfair. This kind of money can put a person on the streets.
I don't think the fact that some cops are abusive is the problem - some subset of every group is abusive, that's just unavoidable - its that cops who abuse their authority are unlikely to suffer real consequences for it. Like at 2:25 the officer who breaks the man's leg is the one acting criminally, his two partners that do nothing are the real cause. The narrator starting at 3:30 hits the nail on the head, IMO.
People seem to pick one side or the other in my experience. So long as nobody is dead or has been shot I tend to err on the side of the police, especially in protest/riot situations.
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A juvenal prank.
No it doesnt only happen in america thats for sure and yeah it happens more than we think.My friends brother was pulled over one night for a DUI and he started cussing the officer out and the guy wailed on him with a billyclub several times and just like I knew he would,the officer got off scott free at the trial even though there was overwhelming evidence against him that he did it to him.
the reason I knew he would get off scott free is because you got to remember in a case like that,you are suing authority,the people that makes the laws against you.The lawyers are corrupt,the judges are corrupt and the system is corrupt.
There was never a doubt anywhere in my mind he would get off scott free because its a messed up world,theres no justice in the world. Things can change where the government serves the people instead of we serving them like it is now but it takes time.It could take several decades before things like this could change unfortunately cause again,it takes time to change things.It just doesnt happen overnight.
That makes sense.No wonder my ticket the other day was over over a hundred dollars just for not being aware that I did not stop at a stop sign.I could not believe it was so high.a couple years ago it would have only been like $30.00.Yeah makes sense now why the damn thing was so high.
I'll can help, no problem. Could you take a picture of the citation (but be sure to black out your real name and any other personal information like your license #...I don't need that to help you)? I would be more than happy to look up the "reasons" and bill of citations for your municipality. It's like an adult version of "where's Waldo" to me.
I got pulled over once because the insurance on my car had lapsed and a cop ran my plates. Not expired, lapsed. There was a problem with the computers and while it was still valid, it didn't show up that way or something.(can't remember the details on how it was explained). He said he was giving me a ticket for no insurance, and was going to tow my car. Didn't even care if I had a way home or not. Luckily I was only a mile or 2 from my house. So I asked him to explain the whole situation, and he said I couldn't drive the car until I got the insurance fixed. So I asked if I could get a friend to drive it to my house and I'd park it until we got the problem solved.(Seriously, no person should be dumb enough to drive after you get pulled over for something). He said fine, but he only gave me 10 minutes. Long story short, my friend pulls up just before the two truck. Turns out the guy called them anyway, because he didn't "trust me". I'm 6'1, black, and I've got dreads so I get the stereotype, but he was from Nigeria or somewhere and had this incredibly heavy accent. Goes to show Cops don't consider themselves, black, white or whatever; they're blue.
Another time I'm going to the mall with my friends, and we pull into a gas station to fill up and ask for directions. Out of nowhere, two plain clothes walk up and one slams a briefcase/laptop onto my hood while the other tells me to step out the car. I ask him what's the problem, and he says we match the description of some guys who stole a car and robbed some people earlier. The cop calls in on dispatch and says "We got four dreadheads in the car". At the time, 2 of my friends had afros, 1 had braids, and I had braids. They weren't even that long and they were clearly cornrows. They give us all kinds of shit for a few minutes, despite knowing the whole time that we weren't the guys, and the car wasn't even the same make and model.(I was driving an 89' Buick Riviera). So when they finally let us go, one of em says, "you know we could have arrested you, right?" No reason he legally could have, but he probably would have made something up. Then he tells us to be safe like he didn't just threaten and harass us for nearly 10 minutes. And again, both of them were black.
On the other hand every other time I was pulled over I talked my way out of a ticket, and the cops were nice, polite, the whole nine. So I agree that it's not all cops, but a percentage of them do what they do because they know they can get away with it. And they don't want anything filmed because once you're caught on camera, that's it.
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Feb 8th, 2012 12:52 AM
Nope. It sure wasn't. 
this happens far more often in poor black communities I haved lived in one when i first came to usa and cops beat up people they arrest 70% of the time there.
