three (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threeplusfire) wrote2006-11-16 10:44 pm
threeplusfire) wrote2006-11-16 10:44 pm
the UCLA incident
From a comment that just got too long -
I just caught the video on YouTube with the UCLA student getting shocked, and I certainly don't want to excuse the actions of the guy who threatened a student asking for his badge number. That is scary, and needs to be handled right away. It was so out of line and out of control. I'm frankly a little surprised they didn't end up with a riot with all those students shouting and screaming.
But I think the issue isn't a bad cop. The real problem is the culture of fear, the laws, the climate that contributes to creating actions like this. Yes, there are some bad cops out there. There are some mean motherfuckers who want to abuse their power. But there are far more honest, decent and brave people working in law enforcement I believe. I talk to police officers on an almost daily basis, and they are all out there fighting the good fight. It's not the cops that are the problem. It's people like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, the lawmakers who passed the so called anti-terrorism laws that suspend rights, the culture of fear this country has been breeding since the World Trade Center was destroyed - that's what leads us to the kind of moment when a college student can get tased for not being able to produce ID and get out of the library fast enough.
I saw a news headline comparing this something that would have happened in Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union.
I just caught the video on YouTube with the UCLA student getting shocked, and I certainly don't want to excuse the actions of the guy who threatened a student asking for his badge number. That is scary, and needs to be handled right away. It was so out of line and out of control. I'm frankly a little surprised they didn't end up with a riot with all those students shouting and screaming.
But I think the issue isn't a bad cop. The real problem is the culture of fear, the laws, the climate that contributes to creating actions like this. Yes, there are some bad cops out there. There are some mean motherfuckers who want to abuse their power. But there are far more honest, decent and brave people working in law enforcement I believe. I talk to police officers on an almost daily basis, and they are all out there fighting the good fight. It's not the cops that are the problem. It's people like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, the lawmakers who passed the so called anti-terrorism laws that suspend rights, the culture of fear this country has been breeding since the World Trade Center was destroyed - that's what leads us to the kind of moment when a college student can get tased for not being able to produce ID and get out of the library fast enough.
I saw a news headline comparing this something that would have happened in Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union.
no subject
I agree. It's the climate that clothes the bad cop in an aura of believing, or making it easier for him to believe, that he's actually doing good.
(no subject)
no subject
I haven't seen it but--why did he shock him?
They threatened to taser a kid at my school once but, well, he was out of control. It was the first containment I saw. The next one I had to participate in and. It was.
Brutal but necessary.
Somehow though I suspect UCLA students have slightly different behavior than my kids.
(no subject)
(no subject)
woah.
no subject