That's the way I was brought up. Cops good. Bad guys bad. Cops help good people. Cops stop bad people. The other thing I remember was that cops were good because they played by the rules. The cops didn't just stop the bad guys, they did it by the rules. As a kid I didn't understand "civil rights". I did have respect for "the rules", whatever those may be. Doing good stuff for good people and stopping bad people from doing bad stuff by following the rules made cops brave, and good.
For the most part TV and movies backed this up. Andy Griffith was a good cop. Even when cops weren't the hero's of a story, like sheriff Roscoe on Dukes of Hazard, it was for a laugh, not because they were really bad. Things started to change on TV and movies with the cops. The hero cops were the guys who didn't "play by the rules". The reason was drugs. Drugs were so bad that anything a cop had to do to stop them was justified. It was no longer possible to keep good people safe, unless they broke the rules. Don't worry the cops always know who the bad people are, at least in the movies.
Something changed in police work. Once a cop had to be at least a little brave to do his job. It takes a certain amount of guts to wait for the bad guy to actually do something bad before you arrest him. The cops don't wait anymore. They assume whomever they are in contact with is a lethal threat, no matter what they observe. They no longer use any sort of reasonable standard of observation or fact collecting.
Police Beat, Stun Deaf Man After Confusing Sign Language With Threatening Gestures
Jonathan Meister was retrieving some stuff he was storing at an ex-roommate’s home when he looked up to find several members of the Hawthorne Police Department approaching.
The South Bay man claims officers didn’t give him a chance to explain what he was doing before placing him in handcuffs, beating him and using a stun gun to shock him into submission.Beating up a deaf guy isn't brave, it is almost as chicken-shit as it comes.
The situation deteriorated from there.
Police put Meister in handcuffs and officers say he began struggling.That bit about struggling is the bit that the cops use to justify the beat down. If you are struggling, or trying to use sign language, that's resisting arrest. Resisting arrest is what justifies using the stun gun and beating you with batons etc. In case you didn't catch it, the guy was cuffed BEFORE they started beating him. That's not just chicken-shit, that's about as cowardly as you can get.
The phrase "brave men in blue" has at least two problems. I've looked and I can't find the word "brave" defined anyplace as "beating a helpless man who can't fight back by a number of strong men with guns". Maybe you can, if so leave a link in the comments. Second, the word "man", normally denotes some sort of a mature, responsible and competent male. Anyone who can't figure out that a deaf guy that can't talk, is deaf and can't talk in the first 30 seconds of trying to talk to him, isn't a smart enough to be a man. He's not smart enough to be a cop either.
Despite the fact that the cops beat up a deaf guy, for being deaf and not able to talk to them, nothing will likely be done to the cops. The victim is white. He'll sue, he'll get some money, likely after the lawyers figure out the cheapest way to buy him off. The deal will be done with a non-disclosure clause and the story will be forgotten.
For what its worth:
Police initially charged Meister with assaulting officers but those charges were eventually dropped.How generous. I don't know ASL. I do know one "sign". It involves using one finger on one hand. I would never consider giving it to Sherriff Andy Taylor or his deputy, they were brave men. Too bad we don't have them around.
There are many reasons for the problems going on right now with the police in this Country. One of the problems could be is that they are good men who have gotten tired of the ACLU types who have allowed criminals back out on the street. ACLU types also had an obvious and extreme bias against the police back in the 60's/70's when I was growing up. Being treated like you were scum even though you were a decent guy trying to do the best he could to survive his day would be trying under the best of circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that when they had to dumb down the rules and qualifications to allow women to join the ranks, this also allowed for some really ignorant men to join also.
I have also read in various places that applicants who were turned down were told that they were "too intelligent" for the job. That is some scary stuff right there. Deliberately hiring the ignorant over the intelligent? This tells me that when it hits the fan, it may not be so hard to grasp that the unintelligent would be more willing to "fire on their neighbors" than the intelligent who would question the orders.
There really is no excuse for this form of stupid though.
Where I live we have 3 levels of LE. The state has highway patrol. Those guys focus on accident investigation, and speed enforcement on the interstate and state highways. Unlike most states our state police isn't a division of "super cops". The state boys have a reputation of being decent cops. The next level is the sheriffs dept. They are also decent cops, perhaps because the sheriff has to stand for election.
ReplyDeleteLastly we have the unelected and unaccountable city police. Not good cops. They abuse their power and have no respect for the citizens. They stop people for not breaking laws. I got to spend one Sunday morning waiting by the side of the road till the K-9 Unit could come check my truck for drugs. No probable cause. They were bored.
I think accountability and funding are two big issues. When the cops have no accountability and unlimited funds they have no sense of priorities.
Oregon has that 3 level LE too. I have watched cops in their cruisers just sit while cars run red lights right in front of them. I would love to have gotten one cop's badge # and turned it in to his superior.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things the last governor did in a petty fit of anger, was to cut the budget of the State Police lab. That lab handles the majority of lab work for LE in the State.
But because the voters would not give in to him about his pet tax issue, he got petty with the State Police boys instead.
These Oregon libs always hit Oregonians deliberately where it will do the most damage. In the stuff that they are actually supposed to be funding, as opposed to the social welfare stuff that they should be cutting back on.
That was the other day. Today on Drudge there was a story about a young female jogger who might have jaywalked and ended up with 4 cops taking her away. Seems her headset & music didn't let her hear the officer while she was jogging.
ReplyDeleteThe Blue Bullies seem to like to respond in great numbers and overreact.