What is up with the United States police?

[Topcatyo]

Here's a couple of articles I read today.  Now, with everything I read online (or just read in general, really) I take it with a grain of salt.

Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters
Shows 10 different videos and images of police using excessive force and in one situation committing acts of violence against protesters that is prohibited in war.
Just so you don't get the wrong idea, here's what that act of violence was:

This video shows the moment when Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen was wounded by Oakland police officers on October 25. There are two things to keep in mind here. First, the Oakland police manual forbids police from deploying teargas or flash-bang grenades directly at a crowd of protesters, regardless of what's happening on the street. Second, after Olsen is wounded, a cop throws a flash-bang grenade directly and apparently purposefully at those trying to assist him. Even in wartime, it's a violation of international law to fire on unarmed medical personnel tending to the wounded.

The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy
In this article the reporter writes about how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had an 18-city mayors conference call telling them how to "suppress" the Occupy movement, which they explain requires quite a bit of planning to do that. According to the article, it is illegal in our country to have a federal police force.  In order for the DHS to make such a call with the mayors of those cities, they have to get orders from the president.
Here's a quote:

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces ââ,¬â€œ pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS ââ,¬â€œ to make war on peaceful citizens.

And, finally, to make sure this article isn't just about the Occupy Wall Street movement and is just on the state of our police force, here's another article.

Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime
This article states that, ever since the police force have been put in a competition of sorts to crack down on drug crimes in order to receive grant money, the police have been circumventing the law in order to get the money, screwing us over.

"When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside," Downing said.

And this problem is on the rise all over the country. Last year, police in New York City arrested around 50,000 people for marijuana possession. Pot has been decriminalized in New York since 1977, but displaying the drug in public is still a crime. So police officers stop people who look "suspicious," frisk them, ask them to empty their pockets, then arrest them if they pull out a joint or a small amount of marijuana. They're tricked into breaking the law. According to a report from Queens College sociologist Harry Levine, there were 33,775 such arrests from 1981 to 1995. Between 1996 and 2010 there were 536,322.

I figure this is good enough a topic to discuss as any, so have at you.

[Topcatyo]

To be fair, some cops are actually on the other end of it.



Oh fuck you facebook I wanted the big image

EDIT: Okay better, now it's a linked thumbnail.

I read about that guy, he gets all my respect, as well as that NY supreme court justice.

[pop-tart]

Middle America. Now it's a tragedy, now it's so sad to see, an upper class city..

[Topcatyo]

Honestly, with the privatizations of the police force, medical industry, parts of the military, prison system, and many other things, I don't see anything other than us being screwed :\

[buttplug]

Police brutality? It's patriotism, essentially.

[DWARFINATORclock]

start a civil war

[PolyhedronClock]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/26/occupy-los-angeles-eviction-monday

all eyes are going to be watching the occupy LA movement come tomorrow.

[VuBawlsClock]

this cop let me get away with speeding once

[RobClock]

Relevant: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114381-Grandpa-Tastes-Concrete-Over-Videogames

[GearBoxClock]

fuck da police

[Topcatyo]

http://news.yahoo.com/swat-teams-shooting-marine-causes-outrage-184928360.html

[F U Clock]

True story: My brother and I used to make a lot of home movies. He loaned our camera to these kids in his class who were going hunting and wanted to film it back in high school. I was going through the old tapes recently, and found the one they made.

Apparently they'd managed to capture a wounded crow (not sure if they wounded it, but I assume) and were taunting it and kind of kicking it around their garage. It obviously couldn't fly, something was wrong with its wing. They made some crack about not letting "blacks" onto the [insert last name here] residence. Anyways, they eventually take the poor thing outside and put a bullet in it.

I'm pretty sure at least 2/3 of them are cops in the same town now.

The moral of the story is most of the people who choose to become cops are the same guys who were bullies in high school, never had much motivation so they choose to settle into a decent-paying career in their hometown where they get to carry a gun and boss people around all day.

[Topcatyo]

that is all kinds of fucked up

[GodClock]

fuck da police

While you say this in a joking manner, I seriously hate the majority of police

The moral of the story is most of the people who choose to become cops are the same guys who were bullies in high school, never had much motivation so they choose to settle into a decent-paying career in their hometown where they get to carry a gun and boss people around all day.

This is why

[MentosClock]

The moral of the story is most of the people who choose to become cops are the same guys who were bullies in high school, never had much motivation so they choose to settle into a decent-paying career in their hometown where they get to carry a gun and boss people around all day.

I hope that what you say is true, but I am worried that there is something inherent in the institution of law enforcement that causes formerly 'good' people to abuse their authority. If what you say is true, then police brutality can be eliminated by more carefully screening police candidates. If, however, the people don't turn bad until after they are accepted into the police force, then I'm worried that police officers will always be malevolent.

While you say this in a joking manner, I seriously hate the majority of police

Also, this

[pop-tart]

You blame the cops as if they were acting as individuals and not just following the marching orders of the totalitarian democracy that employs them.

It's about controlling the people through fear, brutality and oppression so they stay numb and obedient.

[MentosClock]

You blame the cops as if they were acting as individuals and not just following the marching orders of the totalitarian democracy that employs them.

It's about controlling the people through fear, brutality and oppression so they stay numb and obedient.

I don't think that the government is consciously encouraging police brutality. It wouldn't make sense if they did, as police brutality makes the common person more angry, not numb and obedient. I think its just a negative side effect of creating a group that has authority over the common person. When a group is given authority, it is natural for a sense of superiority to go along with it. And then you have cops who feel loyal to the group, so they are reluctant to report any wrong-doings committed by their fellow officers. So, I think that the institution was created for a good purpose, but the way it is constructed promotes abuse.

Still, I can see where you are coming from. While I don't think the government encourages the brutality, it seems that they are doing little to discourage it. I'm just not sure whether this is due to ill-will or ineptitude.

[pop-tart]

You'd think so, Menty. But look at the larger picture.

The U.S. government told us for years that the communists were out to kidnap our children in the night and make them wait in long lines for bread.

When the USSR collapsed, instead of realizing there never were any foreign boogeymen.. we went right into the first Gulf War to take on some more foreign boogeymen who were out to kidnap your children in the night and take them back to their rape rooms and eat yellow cake.

America controls its population through fear. Fear that there is someone out there less white than you that is coming to get you. And people are so stupid they buy into it.

We can all look back now and say this country was ignorant for allowing Japanese American internment, the McCarthy hearings, racial segregation, . In 20 years our 'enlightened' children will be saying the same about us for targeting Muslims.. while convinced the Yanomami Indians of the Amazons are out to kidnap their children.

[Silly Putty Clock]

Nah, it's human nature. Ugly, ugly human nature. We can only feel good about ourselves if we've got someone else to shit on, to distract ourselves from the fact that we're getting shit on by those above us. This is ultimately why cops behave the way they do. Because it feels good.

Of course, when you get down to the bottom, there's nobody left to shit on for concrete reasons... This is where racism and the like come from. Ever wonder why poor rednecks are more violently racist than well-to-do members of rich families? Wonder why they beat their wives and clamor for the destruction of deviation? It's because they're about as low as they can get. The only way you can go down from there in a social heirarchy is by being a member of a minority, be it ethnic or social in nature. Of course, once this bigotry has taken root, there's nothing preventing politicians from taking advantage of it. You take a frustrated, downtrodden lower class and show it some smudgy people to blame. They do the rest on their own.

Everything is horrible.

[Silly Putty Clock]

I mean, god damn. Does it occur to no one that maybe the government AND the people are evil?