huh. interesting. not that reddit is necessarily a beacon of truth or anything, but i don't think this guy is bullshitting, based on a cursory look at his post history.
disturbing imagery from ferguson. i had no idea that st. louis has an army: here's a pastor who was shot with a "sub-lethal" rubber round last night: Spoiler this is a police officer: Spoiler Spoiler these guys obviously need more back-up: Spoiler Spoiler
this is the one that makes me angry, 2 snipers on military vehicles with high powered weapons pointed at people with their hands in the air.
pathetic that the governor of missouri has to send out a tweet urging "law enforcement to respect rights of residents & press". you know, the first amendment. source: https://twitter.com/govjaynixon/status/499785321400111104
one time i was on the wrong end of a federal police raid: my family and i had taken a air boat tour in the florida everglades to see the alligators. as our boat motored back to the dock, we noticed something just didn't quite feel right. then, as soon as our captain tied off the boat, about a dozen or so agents raided the docks, and several came over to the boat we were on. arms raised, whole shebang until they figured out who was who and then took us aside to give statements (we didn't see anything illegal). funny thing is, though every agent had a clearly-visible gun, not a single person raised theirs. even though these guys clearly had weapons on them, and several of the captains even said so directly. all the agents were extremely polite to everyone, and they even let us give a "gift" to our captain (though they made it clear that if it was a "tip" it would be seized as part of an allegedly illegal operation). after it was all over the head dude with the magnum pi mustache posed for pictures with us while i pointed to it and laughed. and keep in mind, this was in florida. point is, not all cops are bad, and not every raid looks makes city streets look like baghdad. but once in a while, bad shit happens, and that's what gets on the news. it's the whole idea of "there's not more storms, just more places that are heavily populated." what was once a tornado tearing up farmland, is now a tornado destroying joplin, missouri. there's not more police corruption, just more police corruption that you know about. what was a riot that made front-page news in the surrounding area, is now a riot that gets broadcast world-wide, in real time, delivered to your phone in updates.
the reddit post was interesting, but these are poorly trained, scared cops. i'm not going to chalk it up gun-toting, power hungry murica cops on a power trip as much as these cops have likely never been in major conflict and now react to anything with violence. to them "peaceful" protest is some gandhi shit, and these protesters are hostile cause they are yelling instead of swaying and singing "we will not be moved", that is what i'm seeing from these videos. officers "fearing for their safety" cause a minority was yelling at them from their yard. i also like that rocks or bottles being thrown are answered with volleys of tear gas and a flurry of rubber bullets. its just the over-weaponizing of an inexperienced and untrained police force. really though, how many cops are truly trained in riot control and use of crowd-taming tactics? i'd imagine not many. i think that is a more potent driving factor than some gun nuts trying to get their jollies off from firing at people. i'm gonna go on a limb and say the cop at the center of this is a racist idiot who had been having a frustrating week. either way, he'll get his.
now that the fuckhead county police have been relieved of duty, the highway patrol seem to be dealing with protestors by using logic. this guy is their captain: Spoiler ...that's how i like to see police. protecting and serving, not "what the fuck are you looking at?"
i think that might be referring to the "freeman on the land" fuckery, rather than average citizens, which is how i believe you're interpreting it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/freemen_on_the_land also, did anyone see this epic trolling from fox news?
i would highly recommend that anyone who hasn't read: 'rise of the warrior cop: the militarization of the police' by radley balko. it covers a lot of the stuff going on right now, and how there has been a dramatic shift in how the police interact with the population they serve. ultimately, i'm going to wait til something resembling facts come out regarding this incident. i wasn't there, nor was anyone i know and trust, so as such, i have no idea what really happened.
it doesn't stop there. the ma governor just signed law stating that police chiefs in this state can now deny someone a gun permit for any reason they want or if they deem the person "unfit". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/1 ... 75418.html meanwhile a budget passed last year to give police departments around the state better and more powerful weaponry. if that's not militarization, i don't know what is.
the issue is we're equipping police as a military force. they're more prepared for a patrol in kabul instead of a patrol in downtown usa. the idea of community policing is lost amid all the high tech surplus gear available to your average police department today. technology is replacing training and well, when you're only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. to me, the fact police often refer to the people they're charged with protecting and serving as 'citizen', etc...is a sign of the us vs. them mentality. it's frankly a method of dehumanizing and a rather frighting first step on a very slippery slope. these two articles discuss the issue better than i can: http://gawker.com/dont-call-the-pol..._source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow & http://www.defenseone.com/managemen...hey-lack-tactics-soldiers/91487/?oref=d-river
that's been the case for a while. there are a bunch of counties where the fid cards have to run through the police chief for approval. some counties, the chief is a rubber stamp; others, the chief sits there saying, "well, why do they need a gun," and still others, the chief sits there saying, "i'm not approving anyone. they can see me in court." nice to know that massachusetts is still the same as it's always been.
looks like #mynypd is shitting a fresh bed. they have ketteled mike brown protestors and news states they are starting to make group arrests.
one thing you learn from video after video after video is that for a frightening proportion of police officers, the term "resisting is simply shorthand for "i would like to beat the shit out of this man (or woman)." resisting arrest, or an officer merely suggesting that such resistance is occurring (because hey, who's going to prove him wrong?) becomes open season. watch this video, for example. if you can make it to the point where his arm is snapped without pausing, i admire your stomach. or this one, where the officer claimed that the man in handcuffs was "assaulting" him.