Police Brutality and Militarized Law Enforcement

[BlueStreak]

Aside from race and the Michael Brown incident, what are your thoughts on this?

Here are my thoughts, taken from another thread;

I don't understand why it is so important to so many whether or not Brown was a "thug". It is only relevant in this one particular case. The overarching issue is police brutality and the growing militarization of law enforcement.

And, it's about darn time THAT issue was brought into the public conscience.

If the Brown case is erroneous, so what? I'm just happy to see people raising awareness of the dangerous trend towards police (and others under SYG) becoming judge, jury and executioner.

Where does that sort of thing lead, folks?

Yes, people (including police officers) have a right to defend themselves. But we need to be very careful with this. It's easy to become jaded and start assuming every case is legitimate. It's also easy to let the desire for security turn into a nightmare.



I moved this here to separate it from the Brown/Wilson case as a standalone topic. Let's keep it that way, please.

Dave

[CarlV]

Where does that sort of thing lead, folks?

I guess they are trying to establish precedent that shooting unarmed people of color is an OK thing to do.
Kinda like hunting down and killing Trayvon Martin less than 50 feet from his Dad's front door for walking while black is acceptable behavior.

So WTF ever happened to using Tasers anyway? They violate someone's civil rights or something?


Carl

[Rajoo]

"We put our lives on the line every day, so we reserve the right to eliminate each and every threat". Is this acceptable in a civilized society? Think not unless you want to live under a quasi LE dictatorship.

Then there is the argument that if you don't commit a crime, none of this would happen to you. If you live in a utopian society, we will not need any law enforcement either would we? Laws are meant to be broken, they do get broken and why we have a justice system to mete out punishment.

[Tom Joad]

There's obviously a problem.

And it's obviously widespread.

People don't get worked up like this over nothing.

I think the scrutiny and media exposure that these cases are now receiving is a good thing.

[ZeroJunk]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

There's obviously a problem.

And it's obviously widespread.

People don't get worked up like this over nothing.

I think the scrutiny and media exposure that these cases are now receiving is a good thing.

I think the police should back off law enforcement for young black men.

Particularly in Tom Joad's community.

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by ZeroJunk

I think the police should back off law enforcement for young black men.

Particularly in Tom Joad's community.

Zero and David Duke walk off into the sunset, hand in hand.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by CarlV

I guess they are trying to establish precedent that shooting unarmed people of color is an OK thing to do.

If you can reasonably be conceived of putting another's life at risk by your actions?

Using potentially deadly force against anyone is "okay." (If you define "okay" as absolutely horrid but demanded by the obligation of being law enforcement trusted with maintaining public safety.)

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

"We put our lives on the line every day, so we reserve the right to eliminate each and every threat". Is this acceptable in a civilized society? Think not unless you want to live under a quasi LE dictatorship.

Then there is the argument that if you don't commit a crime, none of this would happen to you. If you live in a utopian society, we will not need any law enforcement either would we? Laws are meant to be broken, they do get broken and why we have a justice system to mete out punishment.

Would that we did have a justice system, unfortunately it seems we only have a legal system.

[ZeroJunk]

Originally Posted by Ike Bana

Zero and David Duke walk off into the sunset, hand in hand.

Well, what are you asking for Ike ? The whole message is to leave these black hoodlums who commit the violent crime from police scrutiny.

I think that is what they should get.

How is that going to work out and who is it going to hurt ?

Don't answer the question.

[Tom Joad]