One of my best friends is a police officer, but we live in the UK. Guns are really rarely used except in extreme circumstances. He says he can't imagine what the American police force are thinking when it comes to gunning down Black people. Over here unless you are an actual criminal people generally trust the police, it seems the total opposite in the USA. He reckons a lot of it is insufficient mental wellness checks and a overly macho culture where it is more convenient to shoot than talk someone down. Add racism to the mix and you get this. Such a waste of a life for no reason, so sad for his poor family and friends. At least the officer was arrested, but I guess we'll see what happens there...
Don't kid yourself. I would heartily disagree that only criminals in the UK don't trust the police. I'm speaking as a black Briton who grew up hearing far too many stories of previously healthy young black men who were arrested and died from "undiagnosed heart disorders" in custody, which were then shown, at inquest, to occur after receiving severe beatings in their cells.
If the police in the UK carried guns on an everyday basis, I would hazard that they'd be shooting black Britons to death at least as much as the US police do, or possibly even more.
And lets not even mention the RUC hits squads and their close ties to the Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, shall we?
Or the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad (Unofficial Motto: "If you want a serious crime, we're your men"), infamous for fitting people up to order.
Plenty of people in the UK who aren't criminals don't trust the police. And they have good reasons for not doing so.
It's the same reason they would not let Tamir's sister go to him, or Philandro's wife: they're afraid they might say something as they dieIt was monstrous
At this point, there are no good cops. They all stand in solidarity with the bad ones, out of fear for their own careers.What do people call the nice Germans who let the Nazis do whatever they wanted? Nazis.
So do I. But they've had decades - No! - generations to do that. They haven't. Ever seen Serpico? Frank Serpico did the right thing. And it was so outlandish and rare he got a movie starring Al Pacino. Also, he got shot in the face for his trouble. There is cultural, systemic resistance. There are truckloads of subconscious biases (we all have them) that are not trained out of the police but instead, when acted upon, rewarded; held up as good policing. There is powerful big money in the political arm of police culture that applies negative pressure to politicians who call for change.
In the Untouchables, Sean Connery's old, Irish cop - with the Scottish accent - steers Elliot Ness to the police academy for recruits saying, "If you're afraid of getting a rotten apple don't get it from the barrel, get it from the tree."
Well, the apples are rotten, the barrel is rotting, the tree is poisoned and the earth around the orchard is salted with right-wing talking points. So now what?
One of my best friends is a police officer, but we live in the UK. Guns are really rarely used except in extreme circumstances. He says he can't imagine what the American police force are thinking when it comes to gunning down Black people. Over here unless you are an actual criminal people generally trust the police, it seems the total opposite in the USA. He reckons a lot of it is insufficient mental wellness checks and a overly macho culture where it is more convenient to shoot than talk someone down. Add racism to the mix and you get this. Such a waste of a life for no reason, so sad for his poor family and friends. At least the officer was arrested, but I guess we'll see what happens there...
Don't kid yourself. I would heartily disagree that only criminals in the UK don't trust the police. I'm speaking as a black Briton who grew up hearing far too many stories of previously healthy young black men who were arrested and died from "undiagnosed heart disorders" in custody, which were then shown, at inquest, to occur after receiving severe beatings in their cells.
If the police in the UK carried guns on an everyday basis, I would hazard that they'd be shooting black Britons to death at least as much as the US police do, or possibly even more.
And lets not even mention the RUC hits squads and their close ties to the Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, shall we?
Or the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad (Unofficial Motto: "If you want a serious crime, we're your men"), infamous for fitting people up to order.
Plenty of people in the UK who aren't criminals don't trust the police. And they have good reasons for not doing so.
It's the same reason they would not let Tamir's sister go to him, or Philandro's wife: they're afraid they might say something as they dieIt was monstrous
At this point, there are no good cops. They all stand in solidarity with the bad ones, out of fear for their own careers.What do people call the nice Germans who let the Nazis do whatever they wanted? Nazis.
I don't want the good ones to get out.I want the good ones to step up and expose the bad ones. Instead of shielding them.
Thank you for pointing that out. I was so mad I wasn't reading right. Corrected.
So do I. But they've had decades - No! - generations to do that. They haven't. Ever seen Serpico? Frank Serpico did the right thing. And it was so outlandish and rare he got a movie starring Al Pacino. Also, he got shot in the face for his trouble. There is cultural, systemic resistance. There are truckloads of subconscious biases (we all have them) that are not trained out of the police but instead, when acted upon, rewarded; held up as good policing. There is powerful big money in the political arm of police culture that applies negative pressure to politicians who call for change.
In the Untouchables, Sean Connery's old, Irish cop - with the Scottish accent - steers Elliot Ness to the police academy for recruits saying, "If you're afraid of getting a rotten apple don't get it from the barrel, get it from the tree."
Well, the apples are rotten, the barrel is rotting, the tree is poisoned and the earth around the orchard is salted with right-wing talking points. So now what?
It can't come soon enough.
I know exactly what you mean!
Except then they will be shot in the back for fleeing in a threatening manner.
This is nauseating.
Just trying to snark here... Sorry about your experiences.
https://twitter.com/i/statu...
Manuel Noriega to testify as an expert witness at the trial.
nm - he dead.
Hard to say. I'd like to think he would, but fortunately, there hasn't been any obvious need to test the theory.
Yeah! What about his malignant neck and malignant torso, and the malignant personality that is inside him??
ALL MALIGNANCIES MATTER