TV, I had six stiches and a scar by my eye to prove it and it wasn’t pretty, believe me, I looked like Carrie. BUT it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
OTOH, the perpetrator ended up with a broken nose, :-), which was far worse though not as noticeable.
“Well, I’m going to take the view that, if he was cooperative, he wouldn’t have been taken down.”
Gee, he must be guilty, or else he wouldn’t have been arrested, right?
The US courts don’t work that way. But I guess you could get out of jury duty with that kind of statement.
So far this thread has seemed to overlook the history of the last year in this country, in which black people have been shot by police in various states. Killed, dead. No warning, no justification other than “I was scared.” And the police are let off. Over and over. Afterward, you get justifications, allegations, representations, but the bottom line is that unarmed black people are shot by police. Now, as a middle-aged white female, I know that if I am stopped by a policeman and I argue with him, I will probably not be shoved around. The worst that will happen to me is that I am arrested, and probably not even that, even if (horrors!) I swore at him or her. Drunken white people do that kind of thing ALL THE TIME, and even sober white people can swear at police without fear of being slammed to the ground. The argument that “If only he had been respectful to the nice policemen he would have been fine” is completely unsupported by the experience of most young black men, as I understand it, and as actual studies have shown, in the disparity of treatment of people of different skin colors.
And the argument that police are authority figures who ought to be respected ignores two points: One, if they have behaved disrespectfully to you, why have they earned your respect? and Two, police vary. There are police who are excellent defenders of the public safety, and police who are, in fact, jackbooted thugs. My own feeling is that police who act like jackbooted thugs are not worthy of respect, no matter what uniform they may or may not be wearing.
Perhaps we will find out what “really happened” in time. I have less faith in the truth-finding abilities of self-interested parties than others may. Meanwhile, I continue to be troubled by the treatment of young persons of color by persons who have been put in positions of power.
Whether you are white, black, brown, red or yellow, it is bad idea for a lone unarmed person to mouth off to a group of people who have guns, night sticks, handcuffs and badges. It is 360 degrees of stupid every time no matter what the circumstances. If you find yourself in a bad situation, doing that is only going to make it worse.
The kid likely was belligerent and/or uncooperative. The ABC faux cops likely over-reacted.
@FCCDAD…I have no idea what you mean. Please clarify. Are you saying that ABC officers or other police would throw a person to the ground if that person was polite and respectful? If that’s what you are saying, I simply refuse to believe that would occur.
Then, robertr, you have very little experience of actual psychology. There are lots of people who like to abuse persons they view as marginal, however that person behaves.
I am saying that police can and do abuse innocent people, make false arrests, and sometimes even kill unarmed civilians. And that they are more likely to assume the worse of you and abuse you, falsely arrest you, or kill you if you happen to be young, black, and male.
Would they throw him to the ground if he was polite and respectful? I think they would, but that’s not what is alleged here. What is alleged is that he was polite at first and innocent of any wrongdoing (he showed his valid ID and left when turned away), then they arrested him anyway (why?), then that pissed him off and rightly so, and then he was injured (not clear how, he might have simply fallen).
I have no idea why you refuse to believe that would occur. It does occur. We have multiple instances of police, recorded on video, shooting and killing black men who were already in custody, in cuffs and on the ground. It does happen. As mentioned above, we had a squad of ABC cops pull their guns on a girl here with a case of sparkling water. Actual innocence of any wrongdoing is no protection whatsoever from cops taking unwarranted action against you.
Disrespecting someone who carries a gun - often, but not always, a cop - is not illegal, but it can get you killed.
Given the terrible injustice suffered by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO, I hope UVA and its illustrious president exercise restraint until all of the facts are revealed. Let’s not forget these ABC officers have families and careers at stake.
Would anyone care to show me the list of police officers who have risked their lives, and all too often lost their lives, to protect the citizens of this country? I guarantee you it dwarfs the list of bad cops that many of you seem to be convinced are running rampant in our cities.
Let’s wait until investigation is done. No one was killed here, no tragedy to untangle. I’m not assuming the cops were good OR bad, I’m simply saying there is no reason to eliminate either possibility yet.
@marysidney - if you think that a drunk white person can yell and curse at a cop and not get arrested you are completely tuning out all evidence to the contrary. Don’t think that being a middle-aged white woman is going to protect you from the consequences of your bad behavior. On the extreme end, unarmed white people are shot and beaten too. We have the UMD student who was beaten severely by Park police and left with a concussion and broken bones and an extended stay in the hospital. We have in Fairfax county an unarmed white man shot and killed in the door of his home. We have the white autistic kid who didn’t want to leave the movie theater. He was large and overweight and was taken down by the neck. Like the guy in NYC he died of suffocation. We have the kids in Fairfax county who thought they would eat at a pizza restaurant and run out without paying the bill. They tried to drive off in their car but the cop was standing in the exit. He shot and killed the passenger. All of the victims were white, unarmed, and shouldn’t be dead for the crimes or non-crimes that they committed. Fortunately, all of these events are the exception rather than the rule.