Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Double-standards and Cops


This first video shows a police officer assaulting, in an extremely violent manner, a man who had surrendered to his arrest. You will also see this uniformed thug pull a gun on a civilian, who appears shocked by the assault comes out of his house. This is how the police treat the public all too often.

Now look at the next video and watch what kind of standards these thugs apply to the public. An 11-year-old boy is harassed repeatedly the bullies at this school. His parents complain regularly about the bullying, which include breaking the boy's glasses. The kid then says he wished he had a gun to get rid of the bullies. The boy is immediately arrested under zero tolerance.

Apparently many schools have zero tolerance when it comes to the victim expressing anger but look the other way when a kid is being harassed.

No rational adult would take the boy's statement as a real threat. It was an expression of anger, not a specific threat. But the same lack of common senses that encourages cops to act violently also encourages them to arrest little boys expressing frustration at unrelenting bullies. On the one hand police frequently turn a blind eye to the actual violence that is committed by their own while pursuing cases that clearly had nothing to do with violence, such as this poor boy.

On the surface it would look as if they were inconsistent. But that is not the case. While they do turn a blind eye to their own actual violence, while pursuing kids for expressing anger, there is a hidden consistency. In both cases they act in ways that give them power over others, reenforcing my view that the schoolyard bullies that harass this boy often grow up and become cops.

We need reform in the police departments and the best way to get it is to remove immunity allowing individuals to file criminal assault charges against police officers and making cops personally, financially liable if they violate the rights of others.