Oh, I'll absolutely acknowledge that, all of it. And I still hold that what we have set up as a system is not good enough, because it is not working, and it's ONLY when there is video that this is coming to light, because it's the cameras that work -- not the self-policing. Will you join me and acknowledge that? |
Different poster, but it's not "only" working when it comes to light. Most complaints against cops are filed by other cops. You just don't hear about it because it's handled by the department as would any other employment related complaint. Police get fired for misconduct and you never hear about it. Video, on the other hand, makes cheap easy news for our media. Don't take it as representing the entire universe of police conduct or misconduct. Because it's not. |
I'm talking about beatdowns like this. Extreme violence, not questionably maybe a little too much stuff. Do you really think incidents like this, Rodney King, George Floyd. etc., ONLY happen to occur when there is video of it? Shouldn't there be at least a couple such hyperviolent episode that was solely addressed because of colleague report and no video evidence? Or is there an account of this? I am assuming that if a police officer was found to have killed an innocent person in a violent way, there would be at least one newspaper article in the local paper about it. What am I missing here? (I really, honestly hope you are going to post links to a couple of stories online, because I would actually like to be wrong about this.) |
No, I won't. You don't hear about the LE officers that are fired due to excessive force - precisely because there is no video of it. There is nothing to go viral, so you don't hear about it. You don't hear about the police officers who are reprimanded or punished because of some infraction - because there is not video of it. Videos of LE breaking the law go viral. And, they get the public all up in arms about policing and send the public the message that all police are bad. When police officers are fired or reprimanded or punished because of misconduct, but there is no video of it - you won't hear about it. But, it happens. I know. I come from a family who has a LE background. |
So you are telling me there are cases of truly excessive force -- leading to death of the individual -- and there is absolutely nothing about those cases online, not even a single news blotter note? That is what you are saying? People are dying at the hands of police and it never gets mentioned anywhere? |
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^^Because it's either that, or all brutal bad apples are stupid enough to drag their beatdowns in front of cameras, or there is a pattern of coverups when it gets really really bad and there isn't a video (even though that is a rare encounter when taken in context of the total encounters)?
One of those has to be true. |
IU am not the pp, but will provide at least one incident that doesn't appear to be on video.... https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article270987052.html I know there are more, but I am not going to search for them. I would also point out that many, if not most, encounters with police today are captured on camera - either because of body cams or because of cameras everywhere on the streets. Just do a search for "police fired for excessive force" and you will see that it happens.....and video isn't always available. I will also point out that any occupation has bad apples - health care, teaching, lawyers, etc. You just hear about the police officers more because of viral videos. |
Right, that guy did not end up needing medical intervention. He was medically cleared and put in detention. I am talking about true violence -- beatdowns, the stuff that goes well beyond the pale. Not a guy that ends up being cleared by doctors as perfectly stable to be left alone in a cell. |
PP here. This was the context of my question, about which I am truly hoping to be shown wrong:
My concern is that our licensed law enforcement is incapable of self-policing when things are really bad. It seems a reasonable question to ask how we are supposed to know how often this happens, if it only comes up on video? Since there are other PPs here, can you please weigh in on the other professions' self-regulation you are bring up. Doctors, for example, have licenses that are tracked from state to state with double-checks to ensure you can't just move to practice in a new area. If you try to get licensed in a new state, everything, even just patient complaints that were deemed without merit, follows you. Are you all in support of a law enforcement licensure that is tracked across your entire career, which is used to evaluate fitness for duty of all LEOs before being hired somewhere new? |
Stop making this about a race issue of the cops. If this was done by white cops and there was as much evidence, the results would be the same. |
Despite what you believe, these kinds of incidents happen rarely in today's word, thankfully. This is because police DO police themselves. They get rid of officers who demonstrate excessive force BEFORE they can cause harm or death to others. And, when they do, they are generally captured on video because more and more police depts. use body cams and because of video cameras everywhere today. When someone dies at the hands of police, it is always in the news. And, it is not always the fault of the police officer. You try to find a story of someone who died at the hand of police in the last 5-10 years that was NOT captured on video. It is a rare occurrence. |
This latter assertion is a red herring. The standard for a lawful police stop is mere “reasonable suspicion,” a preposterously low bar that permits even pretextual stops in many instances. Further, fleeing and eluding the police is itself a “high and aggravated misdemeanor” in Georgia. Whatever the merits of the charges in this case, the authorities do nothing but weaken their position by grabbing at straws for something else like this to add. |
Okay, so even with the relatively widespread number of bodycams that don't work / are not turned on / tape gets damaged, you believe we are so very lucky that all these extreme violence events (even if rare, we are talking about all of them) are getting caught on external cameras. Let's be clear that when new officers arrived on the scene, one or two of them flashed lights up at the pole cam, and the behavior of their fellow officers changed. And recall that there is, on tape, cop voices reviewing what they are going to say about what this young man said and did (which he didn't say or do). I'd like to make sure we are all on the same page about what the initial police report claimed happened:
https://twitter.com/MEM_PoliceDept/status/1612057507937095680 |
"Most" includes all people, regardless of race. |
You disagree with the chief of police for this city, then? That's an authority whose assessment you do not accept? Memphis police chief says officers had 'no proof' to pull Tyre Nichols over https://www.businessinsider.com/tyre-nichols-traiffic-stop-no-proof-memphis-police-chief-says-2023-1 |