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Youtube Video Prompts FBI Probe of LAPD
PachecoJ writes "The AP has a story of a Youtube video showing police brutality that has sparked an FBI probe of the LAPD. A group called 'Cop Watch LA' placed the video online to draw attention to the actions by officers. The officers pictured in the video are now being defended by police defense attorney John Barnett, who defended the officers in the 'Rodney King' trial of 1991." From the article: "A search on YouTube for the terms 'police brutality' found more than 500 videos, including ones that claim to show police violence in the U.S. and as far away as Egypt and Hungary. A search of Google's video site also yielded hundreds of videos. In response to the surge in amateur videos, some law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers against false allegations."
Here in the home of Kerry and Kennedy, a couple of people tried to record their interaction with police. They were prosecuted under the state's privacy laws. And the police were full of righteous indignation about the "invasion of their privacy." As were we all ...
I've witnessed police brutality first hand before. An officer handcuffed a college kid when he tried to walk away from a speeding ticket, then the officer pushed him agaisnt the hood of the cop car (burning the kids cheek) and then pepper sprayed the kid right to the eyes (after handcuffing him and inflicting 2nd degree burns to the kids face). That was the third incident in a year for that officer and he didn't even get suspended. I was a witness in the civil case against the station, the kid's family won $150,000. I thought that was an exorbinant amount for a pinched nerve, burnt cheek, and stinging eyes but whatever.
/. who have ever dealt with the police for more than a speeding ticket. I think most people who don't deal with the police very much have a negative view towards them (as brutal or power tripping or whatever) and that is messed up because you are the people the police are protecting. Sooo, support the boys in blue!
Anyway, the video on youtube is a little brutal but I don't think either officer should be fired. Maybe a short suspension for the guy punching the perp in the face, because that is not a move that helps get the suspect into custody. We also have no idea what that guy did before the video starts. He might have just shot a little girl, spit in the cop's face, or jay walked. We have no idea what the context was, so it's hard to pass judgement. Either way, that wasn't all that brutal, at least he wasn't hitting the dude with his mag-light.
I have had a few bad experiences with the police (like the one mentioned above) and believe that it is always better not to get them involved. However, I have also had police save me from a machete weilding maniac that had me pinned in my bedroom (adn believe me, I wanted them to kick the crap outta him). They are necessary, and I think we should all try to keep open minds. Besides, I'm a rarity, a nerd who parties and gets involved with shady people. THeir probably aren't very many people on
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
1) Cops who are corrupt
2) Cops who are not corrupt, but ignore the corruption of others
3) Cops too stupid to know what's going on around them
I know plenty of cops that fit into varying categories above. Personally, I don't give a shit if some guy dealing drugs to kids (note to kids) or some guy abusing his wife gets an extra knock to the skull. At the same time, cops are typically dicks to people for no reason. They spend 90% of their time raising taxes (writing tickets) or playing cleanup after some dumbass.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
As a teenager I worked at an electronics company that built, among other things, circuit boards for in-car cameras for police cars. When I first got the job, the cameras were on if the flashing lights were on. That was it. Easy-peasy. A week into the job, we changed the design per the requests of the customers--the police departments wanted a way to leave the flashing lights on, but turn the camera off. Even at that tender age, I thought "Why would they want to turn off the camera?" Why, indeed. I still have never heard a remotely convincing argument why a police officer would not want to film his or her interaction with the public. Since they're so frequently accused of impropriety or even brutality, wouldn't a tape help them? Well, it would, unless they weren't innocent. The only time a cop would want the option of turning off the camera would be if they wanted the option of doing something they don't want a record of. I'm just amazed that more people aren't skeptical.
You need to go and find that book written by the former LAPD cop whose home was blasted and family threatened by masked motorcycling cops because he was threatening to expose corruption.
He wrote about how Darrel Gates (former LAPD chief) misdirected funding for the nearly secret, but windowless version of the LAPDs own CIA. The LAPD had NO business amassing an CIA-type quality to it, where they tapped phones in LAX, spied on Mother Theresa, Michael Jackson, and numerous celebrities who used pay phones in the airport. Such people were followed.
He wrote the book because the LAPD threatened to kill him or behaved in such a manner after he was deemed to much a threat.
You say cops won't beat you without a reason? That author was (IIRC-- it's been years since I read my copy of the book) dispatched to a location where he ended up in a shootout that was staged, and NO backup arrived. That's when he decided to blow the whistle via his book.
You cay the cops won't beat you for no reason? You know how the LAPD gets people to on amateur video appear to be resisting arrest: they wear a ring with a thumbtac on it. When KNOW they are being filmed, and still want to beat your ass, they grip you with the ring. What happens next? Well, natural instinctual reflexes dictate you mind grows enraged while your body jerks or pulls away. NOW, you appear to be resisting arrest. When they try to "restrain" you, you keep getting jabbed, and you resist, FOR REAL. Now, your ass is getting beaten. On film. The civilian review board cannot SEE the ring, so there is little they can do except let the bad ones back on the street.
I won't go into the few little episodes ***I*** had with some cops, except this one:
I passed thru what I found out minutes later was a murder scene. I'd dropped off a friend a mile or so away, and I for some STUPID reason was attracted to the blue and red lights and the crowd that was near a house that was near my home address. Not much ever happened in my neighborhood, so I made a second pass. When I couldn't see anything, I turned around to go home. Thinking I was a suspect, the lit up my car with their flashlights and then chased after me, by which time I had already been pulling over since I knew NOW that I'd fucked up by passing that crime scene when I should have taken my ill ass to bed instead. They ordered me out of my car, checked it, and found NOTHING. I wasn't in any WAY connected to the evens, yet they kept interrogating me and demanded information about a person named (first name withheld) and were INSISTING that I knew the suspect they were after. Despite my having meds in my car and a prescription and an obviousness that I was trembling and in ill health and should not have been in cold weather and such, the cop/s wouldn't let me sit in my car or in the back of THEIR car so I could keep warm. I offered the fucker BOTH sets of my car keys, pleaded for my health, and by that time came up CLEAN on their computer check of my DMV/DL records. No go. When he saw my hands moving from the pushbar to the warm hood, he didn't like that, probably since he must have felt I was playing dumb with him. I even RESPECTFULLY asked to be allowed to put my hands on the warm hood of his car so I could not shiver and shake so much. He ordered KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE PUSHBARS.
I was never physically assaulted by him/them, but I wonder how the report would look had I gone into a seizure or collapsed and hit my head on something...
And, this wasn't in some ass-backwards part of the US. This was in San Jose, CA, SILLY CON-JOB ALLEY.
You, I think, need to read more about police officers. Even that bad one or 3 in every 500 is too much to be allowed contact with the populace. They need to be under cover or DEEP cover and tagged to make sure their cover is not a cover for acting an ass.
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Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Several years ago, I was a volunteer for an organisation called The Legal Defence and Monitoring Group here in the UK. We were often invited to monitor the police during public demonstrations (marches and the like). Most of us had legal training of some sort, and an interest in public order legislation and its reform following a string of draconian laws passed under the Thatcher government during the 1980s.
Our aim was to observe the actions of the police and record what they did during the demonstration, be that behaviour good, bad or indifferent. We used written notes and (later) dictaphones for this. We did not use cameras (still or video) because we knew that photographic evidence was very problematic in court. It was too easy to challenge on points of detail. It was instead far easier to secure a conviction of police brutality by having detailed (and consistent) written observations of three or four individuals given as evidence by the prosecution. Having evidence that nothing happened at a specific time was useful if the police said that there was an incident, so we used to take notes at 5-minute intervals whether or not there was anything to observe.
When riots happend (and they usually did), I remember you needed a bottle of water to stop your mouth running dry as you had to constantly describe the events around you.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
Some of these replies are so fucking ignorant that I don't even know where to begin. ...OK, I'm taking a deep breath here. I promise the rest will not be a rant or a troll-fest.
Some are saying things to effect of "The guy was breaking the law, so he deserved it!" What about the fact that the officers who behave as such, meting out their own justice whenever it suits them? Are they obeying the law, or are they breaking it also? Why is one any better than the other? Should I, seeing an officer behaving badly, beat the living shit out of him, or should I record him acting badly and report him to his authorities?
By the way, I have seen this argument from both sides. I have been thrown on many hoods of many cruisers for no good reason. I have been harassed by police officers who later claimed "they were just bored". Also, 3 of my uncles are cops, and every one of them is crooked. Then again, when I was falsely accused, one particularly stand-up cop was my strongest advocate, and the charges were dropped. So what I'm saying here is that cops require no special modicum of trust outside of that which we afford them in their commission as an officer of the law.
Working in a DevOps shop is like playing in a band made up entirely of keytarists.
Jail time for politicians who break their campaign promises? That would be so fucking sweet that I'm getting diabetes thinking about it. Elections would actually mean something. Politicians might have to ... gasp ... make reasonable promises and argue sensibly and rationally!
You know, I actually read a newspaper article about a group of law school students (in Toronto, I think) who formed a legal aid society to press lawsuits against cops. The trick was that they did it exclusively in small-claims court, where the burden of proof is much lower. And if you lose, the amount that you can be forced to pay to cover your opponents legal costs is quite small, making it the society more economically viable. Getting cops put in jail is virtually impossible; taking a few thousand dollars out of the station's pockets (plus legal fees) and generating massive amounts of bad publicity for the police sends a dire message. They had actually won a number of cases, and established some (admittedly minor) precedents for suing police officers. They had a whole archive tracking greviances against various cops. Pretty impressive for a bunch of students. I bet they'll have no trouble making top dollar in their own practices someday. I wish I had a link to post to the story.
One winter back in the 1990s in Manitoba, there were some cops who picked up a local teenager, drove him to the outskirts of town, and left him there. It's important to note at this point that during a Manitoba winter, the temperature gets down to -30 celsius and the wind chill can easily bring it further down to -50. Unsurprisingly, the kid froze to death and died. Guess who covered it up? Every single cop in the entire city. No heroes, no whistleblowers, just a blue wall of evil, evil people.
Then it turned out that they did this regularly with anyone who was homeless, perceived as a troublemaker, or "First Nations". It took an extensive public inquiry to determine what happened and collect enough evidence to make a case. A good, decent, honourable cop would have spearheaded the investigation and crucified his colleagues for committing such a heinous act in inhumanity. A shitty evil cop would avoid doing an investigation because he doesn't give even the slightest thought to justice, the law, or even Human life.
Stonechild Scandal.
So what was the final outcome? The officers responsible were suspended WITH PAY, and the family got an apology from the current police chief. That's what a Human life is worth to the police: early retirement and some hollow words from someone who has nothing to do with the situation whatsoever.