Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine
It's totally unfair to generalize about US police. A lot are too brutal, a lot of local cop agencies seem to accept too much brutality but saying US police are, in general, too brutal is a bit like saying Muslims are generally terrorists. We take the good with the bad.
A lot of people in every profession are assholes.
Would a thread called "Lying American Attorneys" be any fun? No. How about "Unethical American Businessmen"? No. Both of these subsets of professionals are givens. Same with the segment of cops who abuse their power.
It is interesting to see the responses in this thread though. Reactions to citizens do seem to be based on the officers' personal biases. For me, every time I've been stopped or questioned by a cop none have ever given me any trouble but maybe that's because when they do, I'm an acquiescent charming whiteguy.
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Right, right.
I've never had a bad run-in with the police. I don't know anyone that had. But I've seen countless videos of police overstepping their boundaries, or trampling on citizens rights, etc. and they infuriate me every time.
The three examples I think of when I think police brutality are:
UC Davis police spraying protesters sitting in a circle on the grass with bear mace/pepperspray repeatedly, from the Occupy Davis protest this last fall. That's where I went to college, and if I was still there, I would certainly have been with them and gotten maced. Made me so mad. And then the reaction of some of the public was "They deserved it". For what? Sitting, making a peaceful protest? "They were blocking people's path" No they weren't, they were sitting on the quad. I went there, I know the place. It's a huge one block by one block grass field with a walkway down the middle. There's so much room to go around that that argument falls flat in an instant if you know the place. "They shouldn't have been protesting." Ok STFU, you're ignorant. Sorry, reliving old arguments.
The Thomas Jefferson monument "dancing" arrests, from page one of this thread.
and
Police raided a guys home, and shot and killed his dog because it was barking and running towards them. They had the wrong house. The dog wasn't a vicious type, and it was probably going to run up and smell them, barking as dogs do to raise awareness to the owners and possibly scare off an unwelcome, surprise intruder. I hate hearing about pets getting hurt by the police, especially when they are at the wrong place. I would rather a dog bite the officer and pay for his treatment/bill than have the dog get shot. There are plenty of similar stories about how police handle animals, and I remember another incident in Oakland, CA where a dog chained up in the backyard was shot and killed, causing a community uproar and increased animal awareness training.
Makes me afraid for the pit bull in my house. If the police EVER come in, he will most certainly be shot. And he's a sweetheart. The first thing he does when someone comes in that he doesn't know is bark, run up and jump on them, smell them, and then lick their face. Even strangers. It's often startling, but he's just a giant puppy. He's never bitten anyone, ever. But if the police happened upon him, they'd certainly shoot him for being himself. Police need to work on how they deal with animals/pets in general.