It’s not just racism, though. That’s a symptom, not a cause. The cause is systematic oppression that begins with conditioning people to live in fear, distrust everyone (ironically, especially the government), and believe that society is always on the edge of an end-of-days meltdown. All of this is in the service of maintaining a political and economic order that benefits a tiny fraction of the population. It’s necessary (to the ones that benefit from it) because the only thing they fear really is that everyone else will realize that despite the lies they’ve been told, they aren’t any different from those other people they are told to fear, and that in fact they are part of the vast majority getting boned. To prevent that from happening, racism is one of the tools, among many.
It’s been this way since Jamestown, and it hasn’t really changed much.
Oh, word.
This morning as I was walking home from the corner shop two armored patrol cars rolled into the neighborhood, looking like the army, with a mounted machine gun manned on top. So, someone is getting raided; is the 50 cal really necessary?
I turned to my fellow, casually pointed and said “are you seeing this? That’s f%&^$ed up”. Without breaking his thousand yard stare, he said “…yeah”.
At risk of sounding trite, this has to be killed with kindness. Best case scenario, it’s for show, which makes it terror. They want people to be afraid. If they plan on actually using that piece of army equipment in certain contingencies, then I just don’t know what to say.
I’ve lived here for six months, we are not that well armed, if at all. Needs more CIA, less G.I. Joe. Fear is the mind killer.
The thing is, communities are like organisms. Stress occurs, and the response to that stress determines success or failure.
Yesterday the news was that cops in Los Angeles killed a double amputee who had lost his legs from a previous interaction with Texas police.
Now, police the world over have issues, but something tells me that being pretty much immune to the rules creates problems that other countries don’t have. Of course, having to justify every time you shoot people will create it’s own issues, pick and choose.
“See? That hooligan had a history of crime!”
Well, you shouldn’t be shooting people verry often, either. The immune from consequences thing is one of the biggest problems for sure. The response from the police and their sycophants is always the same: “if cops are worried they’ll be prosecuted for using their weapon, they’ll be easy meat for the killer criminals out there!” Which is screwed up on so many levels.
rho21
3308
The core principle of law about police in the UK is that they have a privileged position (their evidence is more readily believed in court and they hold limited authority to tell people what to do), so in turn they are held to a higher standard and can expect harsher sentences if they are convicted of abusing their position. Armed police even more so.
This is enforced by a mandatory independent review for every occasion where someone is killed or seriously injured as a result of interaction by police (including a car crash while being chased for example).
It’s a good balance but of course it doesn’t work as well in practice as it does on paper. The independent reviews are carried out by other police forces, who perhaps aren’t fully objective. And it’s obviously possible to conceal evidence of abuse from the enquiries. Not to mention the problems we have surfacing at the moment (particularly in the London police) with misogyny and lesser abuses of power.
Still, we’re definitely in a much better place than the US. Of course helped by the relatively minimal gun crime levels.
Richard Ward family files lawsuit in Pueblo County fatal shooting - The Washington Post
Ward had driven with his mother and her boyfriend on Feb. 22, 2022, to pick up his younger brother from middle school in Pueblo, Colo., according to the family’s lawsuit. As they waited, Ward got out of the car to take a walk.
When he returned, he mistook a similar-looking white SUV for his mother’s car, opened its door and briefly entered it before realizing his mistake, apologizing to the surprised driver and exiting, according to the lawsuit. He then returned to his mother’s car.
The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office then received a report of a suspicious person in the school parking lot, according to statements from the sheriff’s office and attorneys representing Ward’s family. McWhorter responded to the call, approached Ward as he sat inside his mother’s car and began to question him.
After the exchange about Ward’s previous experience with law enforcement, Ward explained that he was there to pick up his brother and mistakenly approached the wrong car, the body-camera video shows. He added that he apologized to the driver of the other car.
McWhorter then asked for Ward’s identification and if he had any weapons. Ward searched through his pockets, pulling out two lighters, and told McWhorter he might have a pocketknife. He didn’t, according to the lawsuit.
Ward then took out a prescription anti-anxiety tablet and placed it in his mouth, according to the lawsuit. McWhorter asked, “What did you just stick in your mouth?” and, before Ward could answer, dragged him out of the car and onto the ground, the video shows.
“It was a pill!” Ward can be heard protesting. Body-camera footage shows McWhorter and another officer, Cassandra Gonzales, struggle on the ground for a few seconds. Three muffled gunshots can be heard. McWhorter shot Ward three times at point-blank range in the chest, according to the lawsuit.
CraigM
3313
Try them for murder. Lock them up for life.
Timex
3314
It sounds like at this point, the cop doesn’t really have probable cause. I can understand in some situations a cop might want to prevent someone from eating illicit drugs to conceal them, etc., but I don’t think in this situation a cop would be able to prevent you from eating something, right?
The video is infuriating to watch. DA said no to any charges.
Well he didn’t prevent him from eating it but he did certainly punish him for disrespecting his authority. How dare that civilian take any action without explicit instructions? Summary execution.
CraigM
3317
Recall the morherfucker then. What? No charges? Are you shitting me?
Maybe we should add ADAAB to ACAB
This is a police shooting in Fairfax County VA. A man stole some designer sunglasses from a Bloomingdales in a mall, and ran. Police chased him into a “small wooded area” near the mall (like 30 trees) and shot & killed him. They spent a good 24 hours searching the wooded area (for a gun I’m sure) but have found nothing. As usual, the article reporting on the shooting is working overtime to try to imply the victim may have had a gun.
Jaws_au
3319
Maybe the cop watched too much Roger Ramjet as a kid…
ShivaX
3320
DAs are Cs at the end of the day, despite what they might say.
