What's up with the pigs?So its not just a Black thing, the police are killing everybody.
A white community college student who alledgely beat up another white college kid and stole two Playstaion 3 consoles was shot by a white police officer in his apartment.
He was unarmed but the officer thought he heard shots, which other officers present didn’t hear.
2006-12-13
Cops keep killing unarmed people
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3 comments:
I think you are shifting to my view on police and race. To the extent that the police have problems, these problems are largely non-racial.
What is up with them? They belong to a big govt agency, and as such operate often very inefficiently and stupidly. For the most part, Americans live without fear of cops. I conclude that US cops are mostly just fine, but that there does exist some non-trivial portion of the time that they behave deplorably. The only thing I can say good about them is that they are better than just about any where else on earth, and gradually better over time.
But I definitely think they need some work.
I believe that if this particular punk was black, we'd have much more protest about this police injustice, and charges of racism, including "if this was a white college kid he wouldn't have gotten killed."
"I think you are shifting to my view on police and race. To the extent that the police have problems, these problems are largely non-racial."
I don't think my view is shifting. The statement at the top of the post about police killings not being just a black thing was from the linked blog post. Not my statement.
The primary function of the police is to protect property not human lives. That's a problem. They are a militia for the municipal power structure - the mayor's office, the business elite and rich property owners. They are charged with maintaining order and the status quo.
The issue of police brutality has to do with the typical psychological profile of the people who enlist in the police force. There is a certain power trip that people get when they carry a gun. Couple that with the authority granted to police officers, and you have a recipe for arrogance, superiority complexes and combative attitudes.
The criminal justice system is unfairly balanced against blacks. Black communities are overpoliced. Crime is more prevalent in those communities because poverty is more prevalent in those communities.
The last twenty years have seen a growth in arrests for non-violent "quality of life" crimes like loitering and non-violent drug offenses. Because the black community is overpoliced by arrogant, combative cops, blacks are most often the victims of police brutality.
Young people are also a demographic that is overpoliced and seen as a potential threat to order because youth are "unruly" and "unpredictable".
The murder of Peyton Strickland and the failure of the system to indict the cop who murdered him is a tragedy. Unfortunately, it is a tragedy that happens in black communities far more often than in white neighborhoods.
The murder of 16 year-old honor student Brandon Moore by a cop in Detroit has gone all but unnoticed by the mainstream media. Why is that?
Strickland was being sought for a crime. Moore was shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Strickland had stolen some Playstation consoles. Moore was guilty of shopping in a store that profiled him because of his neighborhood and his age.
http://lastchocolatecity.com/2006/12/10/detroit-police-officer-shoots-16-year-old-in-the-back/
Officers are high strung. It's a very stressful job. Working long hours and living off of coffee and doughnuts can put a lot of stress on the human mind. It's no exuse of course for using deadly force on an unarmed person. Thats why it pays to don't make any sudden move when a police officer confronts you.
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