Reasons I am "down on policemen".

[SleeplessInAlabama]

Feel free to add your own.

1. Rodney King
2. No-knock search
3. "Disorderly conduct"
4. Deaf, disabled man tazed and called "crazy" in Mobile, Alabama over occupancy of Dollar General bathroom
5. "Probable cause"
6. Professor Gates
7. 430,000 instances of reported "excessive force" in 2004 from DOJ.
8. 725 per 100,000 in jail.
9. Police beat 62 year old lady
10. Police shoots a 15 year old mental disabled kid
11. Deputy sentenced for molesting 11 years old girl
12. Police shoot and kill a man after traffic stop
13. Police abusing and beating 64 years old man
14. Police dump disabled man out of his wheelchair
15. Police abusing an homeless man in Greece
16. Police strip woman and left her naked for 6 hours
17. Policeman beating teenage skaters
18. Police officer molests 3 minor girls and cow
19. Two Toledo police officers are caught on tape beating 14 year old boy
20. Police officer kicks the suspect in head and high fives with another officer
21. Russian police torture a football fan
22. 8 police officers beating 1 guy at student protests in Serbia
23. NYPD attacking a bicyclist
24. Police shot a father in his house after he called 911 for help, shot in the back "by mistake"
25. A 12-year-old autistic boy got tased for making trouble at school
26. 8 police officers shoot and kill homeless man
27. Ohio Federal agent shoots unarmed women in the neck
28. Police arrest and handcuff 8 year old autistic girl
29. 12 year old boy arrested after deliberately "breaking wind" in school class
30. Officer tried to have oral intercourse with 12-year-old orphaned boy
31. Police officer arrested on child pornography charges
32. Police officer released easily after sexual acts with children
33. Police deputy sentenced for molesting 11 years old girl
34. NY police officer charged for sodomizing a 13-year-old boy
35. Police officer tried to buy 2 children to use them as sex slaves
36. Police sergeant raped 16 year old girl in her cell
37. A police officer who dressed up as a clown and performed for children charged guilty for sexual assault involving two 4 year old girls.
38. Police officer stole from dead man
39. Police veteran accused of robbing a bank
40. Police officer robbed a bank!

[blueamy66]

1. Police ociffer in AZ

shoots and kills a woman, from behind her car, cause she was trying to get Xanax with a fake script....he states that she was trying to run him over...court proved he shot her after she was way past him and he lost his job....thank God he didn't shoot her one year old in the car seat.

Oh, but he was re-hired in another county this week.

:eyes:

[Fire1]

2. S.T.R.E.S.S. (Stop the robberies enjoy safe streets).

This police unit enjoyed a 30 year rampage of abuse until finally abolished by Detroit's first AA mayor, Coleman A. Young.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Ah. The massively abridged version.

[Union Yes]

4. Police in Chicago '68. Police in St Paul '08.

recd

[WeDidIt]

18. Police in Chicago '08

Beating a waitress in a diner.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

21. Chicago Police motto: "What the fuck are you looking at?!?!?"

From a prominent Chicago cop blog. This fits with every cop I have ever known and how they brag about "testilying":

http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2006/09/problem-1-hiring.html

I got hired in the early 90's. After our first law class, an instructor walked in for the class right afterwords. He looked at all of us, pulled out his pen, and asked us what it was. A few replied in unison, "a pen". He looked at us like we just got caught screwing his underaged niece, shook his head and said something that I will never forget: "It's probable cause...."

[ThomCat]

37. You have to wonder if that's true,

that cops that use anything, including something as innocuous as having a pen as probable cause. If that's true then then that alone denies people any real protection against unreasonable search and seizure. :(

[Hassin Bin Sober]

75. The pen CREATES probable cause.

In other words, whatever the cop writes down is true. Cops I have known BRAG about "the power of the pen"

[bdamomma]

5. going over the top with tasers.

[noamnety]

6. Police shoot and kill deaf man in detroit

Detroit police officers on Tuesday shot and killed a deaf and mute man whom they say was “menacing” them with a garden rake. Relatives and neighbors who witnessed the shooting of 39-year-old Errol Shaw Sr. said police ignored their shouts that the man could not hear or speak and their pleas not to shoot him.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/aug2000/det-a31.shtml

(police found innocent)

[noamnety]

12. 9 cops assault deaf black man in DC who hailed a policeman for help

"One night in October, he walked outside his apartment and
hailed a patrol car. He had endured a week of break-ins, and no
matter how many times he called the police on his special phone
for the hearing impaired, not a single cop showed up to even make
a report. Frustrated, Eric decided that if the police wouldn't
come to him, he'd go to them.
As Eric stood near the police and wrote down the information
for them, a car pulled up. Gunfire followed, and one of the
police officers collapsed to the ground, shot and killed by
someone described as a reputed drug addict. Another cop returned
fired and killed the shooter. Eric, meanwhile, had run for cover.

Backup arrived and nine cops approached a much relieved Eric.
He never even saw it coming. They maced him. They beat him with
clubs and large flashlights. They broke his wrist and put a gash
in his head that required six stitches to close."

[noamnety]

15. One year later, police shoot and kill the same deaf black man

"Two white cops with no training in sign language see a large Black man waving his hands.
What the cops insisted was Eric striking his mother was in reality an agitated Eric signing with his hands as he argued with his
mother. The cops biased conclusions ensured that their only communication with Eric would be with a metal baton and a gun
barrel.

..Both women watched as police continued to beat Eric. They watched as Bernal shot Eric in the stomach. They watched as
Lawruk shot Eric in the back. Lillie rushed over to her grandson as he lay bleeding on the ground. Once more, Eric attempted to get
on his feet. He grabbed onto his grandmother, tried to rise - and both tumbled to the ground. All Lillie could do then was gently
cradle her grandson's head in her hands.
By that time, Eric was anything but a threat to the police. His body had taken five bullets - most of them hollow point
bullets, designed to do serious internal damage. His insides were torn up and bleeding. His bones were broken. Yet the cops
weren't finished with him. Perhaps he jerked or slightly moved. That was enough excuse for Lawruk's trigger finger. "He was lying
there right on the ground and he just shot him, right there in the stomach and finished him off," said Wanda. "

http://www.cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu/countermedia/articles/9611.ericsmith.txt

[noamnety]

20. Police assault deaf man in Texas

"It began with Christopher Ferrell, 43, being pulled over in his maroon sedan for speeding.

... Officer J.A. Miller said he was concerned Ferrell was reaching for a gun. Miller withdrew his gun, grabbed Ferrell, swung him around and slammed his head into the rear windshield.

"He was trying to show his identification to the officer so that the officer would know that he was simply unable to communicate with him on a normal basis," Goetz said.

Ferrell was then forced into the car.

"It did break his nose," Goetz said of the incident. "There was a lot of blood."

http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/040909kvue_fw_traffic-cb.bab85af8.html

(The officer was fined 2 days pay.)

[proteus_lives]

7. flamebait.

I could reach into internet wishing hole and come back with enough reasons to be "down on" ANY group.

[Fire1]

9. How about digging down there for 'experience?' n/t

[SleeplessInAlabama]

11. Stopped for 39 in a 35, trunk searched, detained for 3 hours, let go with no charges.

in retrospect I misread the post, I think, but that's my personal experience.

[tridim]

8. I once called the police because my neighbor was beating up his wife very loudly..

First the officer accused me of being in a racial fued because I'm white and the neighbor was black. That REALLY pissed me off, and I let him know about it. Then he left without checking up on the wife (I assume because she was black too). Fuck that cop.

I also got pulled over once for chewing bubble gum while driving. Seriously. My friends and I bought a huge bucket of super bubble and filled our mouths while driving around. Teenagers like gum, go figure. The cop thought we were high. Idiot.

[Uzybone]

10. Oscar Grant, Robbie Tolan

[blondeatlast]

13. I live in Maricopa County, AZ, home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Of course, the Phoenix police

hate him as much as I do.

[Gabi Hayes]

14. three for the road:

rolando cruz + 1 framed by COPS/prosecutors for murder, brainwashing parents of victim for 2 DECADES into believing the frameup

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/ilCruzSummary.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/07/mayor.warrant/

................

SWAT team shoots mayor's dogs in deranged pot bust

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/07/mayor.warrant/

.....................

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[RoccoR5955]

16. That's the three millionths of one percent edition.

What about Joe Arpaio, the jerk who's sheriff of Phoenix?
What about the cops that shot Sean Bell, or Amadou Diallo? Two unarmed men, who were shot for nothing more than being black, by the NYC police.

Remember, in a police state, the police don't have to obey the law, they ARE the law!

Time for real change on this.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Police shoot, kill off-duty officer

http://gothamist.com/2009/05/29/white_cop_shoots_kills_off-duty_bla.php

[slampoet]

19. Police in Providence shoot an other cop who was their CLASSMATE!!

http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/top/multi/documents/03544089.asp

[and-justice-for-all]

22. Sorry I can not be "down on the Police" with you

My partner is a Cop and so are several of our friends as well as a Sheriff, all of which are good at what they do and have not abused their authority.

As with any job, some people are going to abuse their authority/position; no matter what job it is, people are people and I can not agree that all police officers are corrupted but some are going to be. They should not be sheltered from their crimes but given the same treatment as any other law breaker would receive.

No matter who commits the crime, they need do the time.

We went to Gay Pride in Indianapolis, there were cops everywhere and some of which were actually out Gay cops and sheriffs. There was no incidents or problems with the IMPD...

[SleeplessInAlabama]

23. That's okay. Your opinions reflect your experiences. Mine leave me down on 'em. n/t

[WeDidIt]

25. Do you know why people think ALL cops are corrupt?

It's the cop culture where a so-called "good" cop looks the other way from the so-called "bad" cops because any cop who takes on another cop, no matter how bad that other cop is, is never trusted by any other cop on the force ever again.

It's a culture of corruption and it makes every member corrupt to the core.

Fix that, and I'll stop distrusting every cop I ever meet.

[and-justice-for-all]

31. "it makes every member corrupt to the core." I disagree...

and I can not change your mind, that will have to be done by a decent officer. I wish I could make you feel better about them, but there really is nothing I can do.

all I know is what I see and hear from my partner of 15years, who is a cop and the other officers we socialize with. Is there bad cops on the local force? I am sure there are and I can not justify their misbehavior, but not all of them are bad people.

[Balbus]

62. You're not reading what he said.

I'm sure your partner is a fantastic cop. But if you're partner was forced into a decision whether to report or testify against a bad cop or not, he'd choose "not" in a heart-beat.

I know it, and deep down, you know it. That's why all cops are bad cops.

[Hawkowl]

45. EXACTLY!

The code of silence makes THEM ALL CORRUPT. There is no honor in turning a blind eye to atrocities and covering up for those that abuse power.

Until cops start cracking down on cops, they are a culture of scum and vermin.

[Mr Natural]

56. Ninety-nine percent of cops give the rest a bad name.

[asdjrocky]

73. Welcome!

And boy am I going to use that one.

[superduperfarleft]

61. Oh but that means there's something wrong with you.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with cop culture. Nothing that needs to be fixed, nothing that needs to be changed. Why can't you internet bullies stop calling the poor wittle officers names?

:sarcasm:

[Odin2005]

69. Does your partner and you're friend stand up to bad cops or enable them?

"Good" cops that enable bad cops are part of the problem.

[MellowDem]

24. Anyone can compile such lists...

as reasons to be "down" on a whole group of people.

Hell, go to a white supremacist site, they'll give you some good tips on how to be "down" on whole groups of people because of their experiences.

If you're "down" on cops because of your experiences, just realize that you are prejudiced.

[SleeplessInAlabama]

26. No other group is held to the standards police officers are.

I realize I'm prejudiced against this group, albeit not in a violent, supremacist way - "your opinions reflect your experiences".

It's the people who are defending the group with no experiences with them one way or the other who are blind.

[MellowDem]

32. Well, as long as you realize that...

it's quite normal to be prejudiced after having bad experiences time and again. It's just best to realize that your experiences are not all of reality, which I assume you do.re

Those who are defending cops as a group do have their own experiences as well, and their experiences are just as valid as yours. They are not blind, just have a different perspective. I assume they might think the same of you otherwise.

Cops should be held to a higher standard. But I think what some of the cop bashers on here are missing is that bad cops are not only the fault of individual bad apples. Like any "group" that is deemed to be a negative force in society, it is often that the negative aspects of that "group" are caused by society itself, though few that are part of the wider society want to blame themselves for it.

It's funny, because abuse among cops and the level of corruption in society are generally good indicators of how advanced a society is. It's one of the biggest hurdles of developing nations. It definitely was that way when the US was a developing nation during the industrial revolution. The way cops are recruited, their pay, their treatment, etc. all must be looked into and adjusted in order to have a force that is working for the community and not for themselves.

For example, if cops are paid diddly, have poor training and funding, and are treated with disrespect by society at large, you are not going to be recruiting the kind of person you want to necessarily and you will also push a lot of cops to acting in their own interest and not in professional ways.

But you can even look at more direct examples. Just look at the ultimate public servant, the Congressperson. They are about as corrupt and self-serving overall as you can get. It is openly acknowledged that they take money from the healthcare industry and then push against healthcare reform, and nary an eyebrow is raised. If that's how our public servants in the highest office act, then maybe our expectations have lowered too much overall. It's an indication that apathy has allowed us to not only not pay proper respects to those in society that serve the public (cops, firemen, teachers, soldiers), but that lack of respect has led to a lowering of standards of all those services, which just continues the vicious cycle.

[ThomCat]

38. It is not a prejudice when cops have unchecked power over all of us

and a history of using that power abusively without any real oversight. It is recognizing a real and growing problem.

[defendandprotect]

67. ...and are used by the elite to prevent Constitutional rights . . .

In fact, police are being taught to look with suspicion on people who mention
Constitutional rights!

[frogcycle]

27. nice cherry picking

I am down on all humans. My list is longer than yours

[Strong Atheist]

28. I am just lucky not to happen to be DWB:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=4795210


Edit to add: When I told him about hating being tailgated, the first words out of his mouth were "It is my job to tailgate people". Fucking asshole! :mad:

Never forgot that... luck I was not DWB...

[ThomCat]

39. It is not his job to tailgate people.

x( So the fucktard is a liar as well as a bad driver and a bad cop.

[Strong Atheist]

41. I was livid. He obviously was itching for a reason to ticket/arrest me, FOR NO

FUCKING REASON AT ALL! Had I be African American, I am SURE the result would have been different (worse)... x(

[hfojvt]

52. I was tailgated at night in a construction zone

I know darn well it was an attempt to get me to speed up. I also had no idea it was a cop since all I could see was headlights. Huge annoyingly bright headlights. When we got out of the construction zone, he turned on his sirens to pull me over and ask why I had stopped in his town. I was not shocked by that. It was, after all 1 or 2 a.m. and I had pulled into a semi-private parking lot because, of course, nothing was open in that podunk town at that hour and I had to stop.

[Strong Atheist]

53. "His town"

Why, the nerve of you! :sarcasm:


:hug:

[hfojvt]

54. I didn't meant that the way it sounds

I don't think he said 'my town' but I call it 'his town' in the story just like I would call where I live 'my town' in a story. But since he spent some time watching me, and I had done nothing and was leaving town, he coulda just let me go on my way after I deprived him of the satisfaction of getting a "fines double in construction zones" ticket. Who knows, maybe if I hadn't told him I was going to meet a whole mess of relatives less than 100 miles away, he would have manufactured some trouble for me. As it was, it was just a slight delay. But mostly given the hour and the non-public nature of the place where I stopped, I don't blame him for having concerns. Tailgating like that in a construction zone was a dirty trick that I didn't appreciate, but I had the satisfaction of know that I won and he failed.

[Strong Atheist]

65. Tailgating is illegal; I HATE it, and it is a blatant abuse of power... nt.

[DatManFromNawlins]

29. Too bad there isn't a Darwin Award for internet posts

You'd be a shoe-in.

[SleeplessInAlabama]

30. Too bad you have to die to win a Darwin Award. Come see me when you have something meaningful to say

[DatManFromNawlins]

33. It must be sooo tough to find 40 incidents involving a group you don't like and denounce them

It's really simple and easy to do, regardless of how narrow the demographic. It's called stereotyping. Funny how some groups find no problem with it unless it applies to them.

Also, you might wanna look up analogies. You practically cut your own throat on this subject with the idiocy you displayed in your OP. The Darwin Award reference is most appropriate.

[noamnety]

34. check your math

"430,000 instances of reported excessive force in 2004 from DOJ" is more than 40 incidents.

[timtom]

66. Wow!

What crawled up your kilt, missy?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

35. The Darwin Award doesn't mean what you think it does.....

I'm sure that's the case with a lot of things.

[TexasObserver]

43. Oh, the irony. Yours is the most inane post on the thread.

Would you like to buy a clue?

[UrbScotty]

36. No need to lump all cops together.

[ThomCat]

40. When good cops start standing up to the bad cops,

instead of protecting them, then you'll be right.

[UrbScotty]

42. Shame, shame, shame on you too for lumping them together.

These cops have jobs to do.

Why should we expect them to be in a position to stand up and do anything?

[ThomCat]

50. Are you being sarcastic?

:shrug:

[TexasObserver]

44. Good cops who tolerate bad cops aren't really good cops.

The cop who will not tolerate bad cops is the exception, not the rule.

You're upside down, not those you criticize.

[Cid_B]

46. No knock's.....

What would you prefer?

*knock knock*

POLICE! You have 30-60 seconds to flush and burn as much as you can and then we are coming in!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

47. I'd prefer innocent senior citizens not being killed and set up:

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/51151/

[SleeplessInAlabama]

48. This is why no-knock warrants are a bad idea

Kathryn Johnston (June 26, 1914 - November 21, 2006) was an elderly Atlanta, Georgia woman who was shot by three undercover police officers in her home on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006, where she had lived for 17 years. She fired a warning shot into the ceiling after officers pried off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no knock warrant. None of the officers were injured by her gunfire, but Johnston was killed by the officers. After the officers shot Johnston, they left her handcuffed on the floor while she bled to death, and then planted marijuana from their patrol car in her basement to try to help justify the shooting.

Actually, that's a twofer!

----

Fifteen former Los Angeles Police Department officers have plead guilty to running a robbery ring, which used fake no-knock raids as a ruse to catch victims off guard. The defendants would then steal cash and drugs to sell on the street. This tactic lead Radley Balko, editor of Reason Magazine, to complain "So not only can you not be sure the people banging down your door at night are the police, not only can you not be sure they’re the police even if they say they’re the police, you can’t even be sure it’s safe to let them in even if they are the police."

----

Tracy Ingle was shot in his house five times during a no-knock raid in North Little Rock, Arkansas. After the police entered the house Tracy thought armed robbers had entered the house and intended to scare them away with a non working gun. The police expected to find drugs, but none were found. He was brought to the intensive care, but police pulled him out of intensive care for questioning, after which they arrested him and charged him with assault on the officers who shot him.

----

Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant, was shot and killed by SWAT team officers in Denver, Colorado who were performing a no-knock raid that was approved by a judge acting on false information contained in a search warrant. The police believed there to be drugs in the house, but no drugs were found on the premises, and it was later revealed that the address given to the SWAT team by officer Joseph Bini was the wrong one.

[Mariana]

57. Yes. Better that than innocent people and pets being shot.

Not to mention police officers who may very reasonably be mistaken for criminal intruders.

Water can be cut off and sewer lines can be blocked before the search, by the way. And most drugs don't burn readily.

At any rate, even if the suspects are successful in destroying their drugs, money, paraphernalia, etc. then those particular drugs are off the street and the suspects have taken a financial loss.

[jeanpalmer]

49. It's like any other profession

There are good ones and bad ones. Most police departments try to weed out the bad ones.

[ThomCat]

51. Really? It seems that most police departments try to weed out

the disloyal ones, not the bad ones. If you're bad but loyal, you stay. If you're good but disloyal you go.

But part of being a good cop is being disloyal to the bad cops and turning them in, reporting them and testifying against them, so if the departments are weeding out disloyal cops then they're getting rid of the good cops they need most.

[Raineyb]

60. When?

Because cops can use illegal choke holds and keep their jobs. They can shoot someone 41 times in the vestibule of the building they live in and the cops will get off. Illegally arrest someone. No punishment there. When are these bad cops weeded out because it appears that they can do whatever the hell they want and almost never see the inside of a prison cell and rarely lose their jobs. And when they do lose their job some other idiot police department will hire them.

Weeding out? More like planting more and fertilizing.

[blueamy66]

71. Sure.

There are good and bad in every profession.

Thank goodness my co-worker doesn't carry a taser and a gun nad a chip on her shoulder to the office every day.

:think:

[hyphenate]

55. In SoCal, sheriff's deputies

stop elderly male drivers and steal credit cards from their wallets.



that's all I've got right now.

[Vidar]

58. Good list. Recommended.

[TheKentuckian]

59. The ability to write off systemic and widespread issues is stunning.

What would it take to convince naysayers that we might possibly have a problem here? Will they have to become vikings en mass or something? Rape your grandma weekly? Torch and pillage a suburban neighborhood?

What the fuck would it take to reach the bar where some of you guys will at least consider questioning?

[defendandprotect]

63. A much needed reminder . . . thank you!

Locally here in NJ we had a woman strip-searched for a traffic violation . . . !!
That was a while back --

We had the local captain sexually harassing an African-American female officer --
telephone calls, visits to her home, etc -- and eventually tried to attribute some
questionable policing to her when all his advances failed! Cost the town a bunch of money.
Enough that they didn't want to release the figure! And the captain simply moved on
to the next town which hired him.

There's the entire situation in our prisons which seems to be run by sadists for sadists!

In NYC, who could forget Abner Louima being tortured with a broken off plunger by Justin Volpe --
others involved one way or another were 0Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, and Thomas Wiese.

Some say Volpe was sniffing cocaine from the dashboard of his police cruiser just before
assaulting Louima.

In 1997, 30-year-old Abner Louima was married, had one child, and had been living in Brooklyn,
New York for the previous six years. Although he had trained as an electrical engineer in Haiti,
Louima worked as a security guard in a water-and-sewage plant in Flatlands, Brooklyn.

Abner Louima - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background and incident|Public reaction|Criminal trials|Aftermath
Abner Louima is a Haitian immigrant who was assaulted, brutalized and forcibly sodomized
with a broken broom stick by New York City police officers after being arrested outside
a Brooklyn nightclub in 1997.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima - Cached

And -- we certainly shouldn't forget our police departments harassment of citizens during
political rallies. "Free Speech Zones" -- "netting of crowds" -- pepper sprays, etal.

Not much much to be happy about here --

[Starry Messenger]

64. Casper Banjo

http://www.mleestonefineprints.com/exhibitions/banjo/

Casper Banjo (1937 – 2008) An Appreciation
Art Hazelwood

Casper Banjo, born in Memphis in 1937, died tragically in Oakland, California, his long time home, on March 14, 2008. The outlines of the story of Casper’s death were widely reported in local media. He was shot to death by a police rifleman at the shopping mall near his house. The police say that he was holding what turned out to be a replica gun. The details of his death may never be known.

At the very time of his death the print dealer Lee Stone as well as the curator of prints from the Library of Congress, Katherine Blood, were expressing interest in his work. Since then the Library has acquired three of his prints, an etching portrait of the artist’s mother, a lithograph and a mixed media print including Casper’s trademark brick imagery. M. Lee Stone Fine Prints is now representing the estate of Casper Banjo.

Though he was active in the art world, Casper lived quietly in an apartment in Oakland and arranged his life around his artwork. He did the majority of his work there, printing by hand, without any press, his elaborate embossed prints and mixed media work.






I worked at an art center where he exhibited. A gifted man and a total sweetie.

[Odin2005]

68. As an autistic person #25 and #28 scares the shit out of me.

I don't want some pig to taze me because I'm having a sensory meltdown.

Oh, and those rapist and pedo cops should all be shot.

[backwoodsbob]

70. my uncle is chief investigator in my small town

he actually was the one who put my wifes nephew in prison for theft and drugs...and is the cleanest cop you'll ever meet and WILL take on bad cops

are you down on him too?

I bet in ten minutes of google I could get a 40 item list of why I should be down on teachers or pretty much any profession you choose

[Echo In Light]

72. Why power attracts specific personalities. K&R

[ThatsMyBarack]

74. Well put!

Don't care for cops myself--for all those reasons.

[pipi_k]

76. We shouldn't stop there...

How about if we replace the words "Police officer" in that list with the word "black man" instead.


Would that be justification for someone to be down on ALL black men?



just askin'


:shrug:

[SleeplessInAlabama]

77. It's a good place to start making an assumption on the group when you have 430,000 incidents

The phrase "down on policemen" wasn't even originally my words, which is why they're in quotes, although I'm certainly not going to try to disclaim using them in my title. I find myself more frightened by police than angry towards them - and that's the feeling I have until I'm actually interacting with any one specific officer. Sure, I've chatted with a few before and they seem friendly enough but the treatment is not similar when I'm being pulled over and just as cordial.

And as I said, no other group is held to the same standards as police, and yet when they commit crimes, it is often resolved with an "internal investigation". The corruption and violence are systemic and that's why I generalize about the whole profession.

Plus if I had made a list about black people I'd have to include myself ;)

[noiretextatique]

78. what "black man" did all the things described?

if you can name one, your post might make sense then :eyes: having said that, some of the police officers involved in the cases mentioned in th OP were black.

[deaniac21]

79. You left out "go".

[Soylent Brice]

80. agreed, but this would be way more powerful with links to each.