The US police misconduct thread

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

That has gotten the attention of even my more jaded compatriots.

The story appears to be that the student's initial transgression was chewing gum in class.

What is increasingly clear to me is that there is a not insignificant number of my countrymen who believe that the slave overseer model of "discipline" is still appropriate and a class of overly aggressive individuals who are more than happy to oblige.

[Jah Womble]

The US police misconduct thread

The story appears to be that the student's initial transgression was chewing gum in class.

I'd heard 'verbally disruptive' - like any of this would justify the response.

[beak]

The US police misconduct thread

Meanwhile in Baltimore...

A Baltimore City man is no longer an Anne Arundel County police officer after he was charged for public intoxication and biting a man in the testicles during a fight outside a bar in May, officials said.

Michael Flaig, a Northern District officer and 10-year veteran of the department, became involved in an argument with a man outside Looney's Pub in Canton after the man told Flaig to stop groping the man's female roommate, police wrote in charging documents.

[Toby Gymshorts]

The US police misconduct thread

Jah Womble wrote:

The story appears to be that the student's initial transgression was chewing gum in class.

I'd heard 'verbally disruptive' - like any of this would justify the response.

There are people clambering over themselves to justify it on Twitter. As you might expect.

[Guy Profumo]

The US police misconduct thread

Here's a follow-up story -

http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2015/10/27/second-student-arrested-spring-valley-hs-speaks-out/74665360/

[Incandenza]

The US police misconduct thread

The first thing that struck me when I watched the video was how none of the kids you see watching it react in any way. They're either too afraid to do anything, and/or aren't surprised to see that happening.

[Bruno]

The US police misconduct thread

I watched The Seven Five last night, a thin blue line documentary about Brooklyn's 75th precinct during the late 1980s and early 1990s when there was an epic dirty cop scandal.

trailer -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM0IOHiZSl4

It's a lot of listening to ex-cops talk, maybe not "WILDLY ENTERTAINING!" but pretty absorbing.

[Guy Profumo]

The US police misconduct thread

Meanwhile, in the Big Apple, someone is not happy with the idea that "The Guys of the NYPD Choir" should be somehow held accountable in law for their actions -

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/10/26/ny-cops-call-boycott-tarantino-films-after-he-protests-police-shootings/74626192/

Patrick Lynch, the volatile head of the cop union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, lashed out against Tarantino on Sunday, calling him a "purveyor of degeneracy" and his remarks "slanderous 'Cop Fiction.'"

"It's no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too," Lynch said in a statement posted on the union's website. "The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls 'murderers' aren't living in one of his depraved big screen fantasies — they're risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.

"New Yorkers need to send a message to this purveyor of degeneracy that he has no business coming to our city to peddle his slanderous 'Cop Fiction.' It's time for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino's films."

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

Lynch just may the most disagreeable piece of work in my hometown, which is saying a hell of a lot.

[Furtho]

The US police misconduct thread

A propos of nothing, nothing at all, McSweeney's interactive guide to ambiguous grammar is worth a look, here.

[Incandenza]

The US police misconduct thread

In case it hasn't been seen widely, about 10 San Francisco PD officers surrounded a man and executed him this week. Really, it looked like a firing squad.

http://gawker.com/victim-of-fatal-san-francisco-police-shooting-caught-on-1746084750

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

Jesus Christ

The family of a suspected drunken driver who was shot by a Paradise police officer released a statement Friday condemning the shooting and calling for justice.

[Incandenza]

The US police misconduct thread

Good lord.

[WOM]

The US police misconduct thread

That's mind-boggling. Surely the cop's radio call "Suspect refuses to exit the vehicle" should be all they need. Yeah...cuz you shot him with his hands up. And then the Police Chief's statement? Holy fuck...

[caja-dglh]

The US police misconduct thread

That is absolutely terrifying.

[Etienne]

The US police misconduct thread

That's an execution.

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

The even more shocking thing (given the tape) is that the cop isn't being charged by the local prosecutors.

Though I seriously hope that there will be a federal Civil Rights action.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

The US police misconduct thread

Some paradise, that. It's hard to pick the worst of a bad bunch, but the police departments of these small apparently-idyllic Republican towns seem particularly sinister to me. After all, what wouldn't you do to preserve paradise from being corrupted by undesirable outsiders?

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

The US police misconduct thread

ursus arctos wrote: Jesus Christ

The family of a suspected drunken driver who was shot by a Paradise police officer released a statement Friday condemning the shooting and calling for justice.

Lets condemn him for driving drunk and committing murder... Stop the BS... So sick of ppl trying to turn the the tables. He drove drunk and killed some one!

Yeah, let's grant police complete unaccountability. Stop the BS indeed.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

The US police misconduct thread

Unfortunately this story may do more to raise awareness of police brutality than any human tragedy.

[Paul S]

The US police misconduct thread

The US justice system as a whole is fairly crooked going by this BBC article. It defies belief that something like this could happen.

[Bruno]

The US police misconduct thread

Most depressing article ever!

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

The US police misconduct thread

Vulgarian Visigoth wrote: Unfortunately this story may do more to raise awareness of police brutality than any human tragedy.

It seems I spoke too soon. The veredict on the Internet seems to be "liberal anti-police campaign". It seems the police could use babies to make soap and people would still cheer for "the boys in blue". What degree of uniform fetishisation must a society reach before we can speak of a fascist society?

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

I'm quite confident that a minority of the population reached the necessary degree of fetishisation sometime ago (notwithstanding their personal lack of dress sense).

The more pertinent question is how large that minority is, and I think it is still less than a third of the population (which is terrifying enough).

[ursus arctos]

The US police misconduct thread

By the way, we just had a hung jury and resultant mistrial in the first of the prosecutions of the Baltimore PD Officers charged over the death of Freddie Gray.