Police Brutality / #BlackLivesMatter Movement / #MuslimLivesMatter

So, unless you've been living under a rock since 2014, you've pretty much heard about all the cases of police brutality and fatalities against unarmed men and women of color. Eric Garner, Jordan Davis, Rekia Boyd (which hits close to home for me because it happened in Chicago), Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott. Tamir Rice. The 12 year old black girl in McKinney who was thrown to the ground by a cop. The list goes on and on and on and increases daily. You may have also heard about the #BlackLivesMatter Movement as well, unless that rock is really really cool.

The purpose of this thread is that I really want to get everyone's opinions on these cases and the #BLM campaign and truly see how you all feel about these events. Now, just so you guys know, the #BLM movement is not exclusive to black victims. The movement is also fighting for the lives of non-black men and women of color that are killed by authority figures such as cops and the federal government.

Me? I'm fed the fuck up. All of this is sickening and heartbreaking and makes me want to give up on life. It's also especially sickening and heartbreaking when I hear people both white and black (mostly white but it's especially heartbreaking when I hear black people do it) try and defend and justify these killings.

"Mike Brown was jaywalking and stole some cigarillos so he deserved to get shot six times."

"Sandra Bland was talking back to the arresting officer so she deserved it."

.

"Walter Scott was running away from the cop so he deserved to get shot in the black."

"Tamir was playing with a toy gun in Walmart so he deserved it. His parents were probably on welfare and people on welfare are criminals."

"That 12 year old was no saint and was talking smack to the cop so she deserved to get tackled."

It's like....NO. THE COPS are the ones who need to be held accountable. Why is your first instinct to shoot an unarmed person? I'm 100% sure cops are TRAINED to use non-lethal force against unarmed "suspects."

And the media is making it even more sickening. CNN, which at one point in time used to be incredible moderate, has now become a new version of Fox News. They take every opportunity to demonize every victim of this brutality. They even try to demonize the peaceful protestors of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. They take the very VERY slim cases of looting in Ferguson and tried to make it seem as if EVERY protestor was just trying to loot and riot.

It's just.....UGH. I just want to give up on humanity sometimes.

Please guys, try to keep this as intellectual as possible. Remember this is the Intellectual Discussion section.

Okay, I'm going to just say this first off. I do think that SOME of the deaths and incidents are very odd to me. Something is not being told fully with some of them and it really messes things up. I do think that in almost all of the cases, the cops acted wrong in it. Lethal force should ONLY be taken when you are being shot at or attacked with a weapon that can kill you. Why must you shoot multiple times as well, if theres distance, shoot for legs, arms, etc, something that could stop them but most likely not kill. What the hell happened to tasers to stop violent people as well? Sure, they arent very accurate and can be unreliable. But why dont we try to fix them and make it actually work nicely.

Police need to learn to stop people without killing them. There is times where its impossible I know this. But theres plenty were it is. Other countries have nowhere near the trouble we do. Gun laws are really a big reason as to why. Everyone things guns are what will keep us safe, no, not really. More and more guns being out there only makes it worse for crime. You can look at almost any country where you can't get a gun and see that theres less deaths.


Theres really a whole lot to say on this matter, more then I can actually think of and form into words at this moment. But I do really hope that people actually see the good cops out there. I see so many people just wanting to dismiss any cop, hate the person just for being a cop, some would even just kill them because of being a cop, and thats just completely terrible. You only ever get to see the bad in anything because no one really wants to sure the good deeds in the news, media, wherever cause it doesnt get viewership or shit. You'll always see stories of blacks with drugs, killing, rapes, crimes in general, you won't see the ones where they clean up after a protesst, where they'll make a big block party and treat everyone nice. You'll always see cops on TV now with killing people, with corruption, and so on, while the good cops that actually care for people, that want to make the world better, will get stuck in the mud and get shit over. They'll even get killed for just being a cop and getting attacked for it for no reason.


It's really sad, its 2015 and we're still having this sort of problem when we should have long gotten past this. So much for being Americans, we all live as one country thats suppose to be together and yet we fight amongst ourselves more than anyone else. It's truly... disappointing.

The #1 thing I have against "good cops" is that almost none of them seem to hold the bad ones accountable or turn their backs against them or arrest them for committing crimes. Ferguson PD stood alongside Darren Wilson. Not one cop in that department tried to stand up against him (at least, I haven't heard about any of them trying to do so). NYPD stood alongside the cop that choked Eric Garner to death. It's just....how can we know who the good cops are when they're all standing up and covering for the bad ones? Even cop shows prove this. The first thing a cop is told by his/her partner when they commit a crime or do something against regulation or when they overstep their authoritative boundaries is "Don't say anything. Call your FOP/union rep."

I know this is more than likely because of the deep deep corruption in nearly all police departments. Trying to go against a bad cop might turn the whole force against you, placing your family and yourself in danger.

Edited by Crimson Jazz, 19 August 2015 - 11:21 PM.

Yea, thats most likely how it is. There are good cops out there, but when they turn in the bad ones, their jobs are in danger, their families livelihood is in danger.

You usually have a police chief or someone in a high position being corrupt, and as just a normal officer, you can't do a thing about it. If you try to turn in the bad ones, you get your job take, you get assigned desk work, shit happens to you for it. It's not just with cops either, we've had people blowing the whistle on government, corporations, and they've been fired, 'silenced', and look at Snowden, what he did was 'bad' but it exposed a ton of fucking shit that is done yet he's been treated as some really terrible criminal when he just exposed crimes and bullshit that happens.

The good cops I see are the ones that take time out and play with kids, that when they see an old person trying to cross the street they stop and either give them a ride where they need to be or help them cross. I've seen cops that go to 'ghettos', run down places, poor neighborhoods, etc, and help the community out, talk with the people and try to be there for them.

A friend of mines father is a cop, has been for nearly 30 years. He's one of the greatest guys in the world. I remember when I was around 7 or 8 and he came to pick up my friend from school, he talked to my mother about the police department in my town, how he hated a lot of the guys cause they used their position for shit all the time. They'd break minor laws, thought they were above the law, talked shit openly at the department about mexicans, blacks, etc and it really go under his skin really badly. But he couldnt do a thing about it. Not when a lot of the force does it, not when even his boss would join in on it. All he could do was just go about his own job, do the right thing and help where he could. I remember my mother telling me things about how the cops would have quota in a month for arrests, fines, and the sort. If they didnt pull over X amount of people, didn't give X amount of fines, they'd get a write up and if it happened to much they'd get hell for it. So you'd have cops stopping people for no cause at all and searching their vehicles for something to bust them. All sorts of bullshit.

The corruption goes up pretty high in the chains honestly and its pretty bad... one thing I'd like to point out as well is something I noticed with the new cop cars my town has gotten. They're white cars with just police written on the sides, if you arent on the side of one, it looks just like a normal car. Hard to see the lights on the top because they are completely clear. Basically just hidding themselves. A cop car in other countries? Well, look at this, https://s-media-cach...3b9d75e6a70.jpg , See the difference? I know not all Cop cars are like that in America and other countries but it still is just messed up...

 

The #1 thing I have against "good cops" is that almost none of them seem to hold the bad ones accountable or turn their backs against them or arrest them for committing crimes. Ferguson PD stood alongside Darren Wilson. Not one cop in that department tried to stand up against him (at least, I haven't heard about any of them trying to do so). 

Just gonna say that while Wilson's case may seem like he had a lot of FPD support, it is significant to note that after he was fired, he was not hired back by the same PD or any other PD in the state for that matter because of 2 reasons:

His high profile image and likely tarnish he would cause to any PD that hired him.

His higher ups put in a bad word for him and called him out on bullshit.

He and his wife (who was also in the same PD) were discharged and are now unemployed with a newborn child. Not gonna say what he did was right or justified but at the same time, I think it IS bullshit that a man found innocent in court and by law is unemployed and unable to find work to provide for his family. In the end, Brown was a thief but he didn't deserve to get shot for his crimes.

We all know the problem rose from the fact that the FPD was using ticket revenue to fill a quota for state income - the incident occurred because of the inherent tendency of the police to pull over/stop/bug black people over white people when it comes to these trivial violations. And honestly, that was the real problem here. I don't know about trigger happiness etc but the fact that the situation for ticketing even arose because of the de facto segregation in the PD is sickening.

Hopefully they amend what ever bullshit bill that allows them to pull this nonsense and do something about that.

There are cases of good cops calling out bad cops for their bullshit and it definitely doesn't look like all PDs put up with this absolutely filth behavior. 

Edited by Dion, 20 August 2015 - 07:43 PM.

The problem with what I skimmed through these posts (seriously wtf is with these short essays every post gaddamn) is that there are generalizations being made.

Of course there's going to be a vocal minority saying stupid shit. People are stupid. They're gonna say dumb shit. What matters is the big picture. The problem does lie within the police departments and some of the lax restrictions, improper training, and overall callousness that these minority of officers exude. The problem lies in the fact that minorities are afraid of the police because years of abuse, mistreatment, and other horrible things have lead to this. It's hard to come back from, honestly, and it's going to take small steps and time.

I know a ton of police officers who were guys i went to school with and many of them are nice people who are caring. One person, however, who was a very old friend of mine was telling me a story about a routine stop he made at night. He felt threatened by the situation he was in and hand his hand on his gun ready to down the guy if he felt threatened. It was interesting hearing his conflicting things, but when it comes down to it you never know the people that you're stopping and you, as the officer, are always supposed to be the last person to act. It's scary, man.

The thing is that society has put people and the law at odds with each other and we treat them as the bad guys who are trying to get us. Media plays a large part in this as well, and it's become something ingrained in our society. Systemic oppression of minorities is still rampant in this country and I feel until that changes, nothing else will.