DAYTON, Ohio (CN) - Dayton police "mistook" a mentally handicapped teenager's speech impediment for "disrespect," so they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat him and called for backup from "upward of 20 police officers" after the boy rode his bicycle home to ask his mother for help.It took twenty cops to Taser, pepper-spray and beat the snot out of one retarded teenager?
Brave cops they have in Dayton. True justice would end in a multi-million dollar settlement and a number of cops in prison for this. The first will probably happen anyway. The second, not so much.
Rob Allen's reaction is interesting:
I’m getting sick and tired of all these stories like this. I’ve gone from wanting to be a cop to developing an involuntary distrust of officers in only a few short years. From what I can see, police are losing sight of who they are and where they get their authority from (hint, Officer Friendly, it’s not the shiny badge). I still believe the majority of cops are good people, but the good ones can’t just sit back and continue to let this happen.He'd have developed that "involuntary distrust" a lot sooner if he were a minority, be it racial, ethnic or sexual. But be that as it may, Rob is exactly right in his point that the police, and yes, that means the guys on the street, not just the rat bastards in Internal Affairs, need to start cleaning up their own shithouse. At the very least, they need to stop covering up for their asshole brothers in blue.
Beating the shit out of mentally handicapped boy for no goddamn reason other than he has a speech impediment? That's acceptable to you boys in blue?
Rob is right about another thing: If over 20 cops show up to "get some" at the expense of a retarded kid, then layoffs are in order, for clearly Dayton has too many cops.
I want to like cops. I have a few for customers. They seem like such nice people. Growing up I my best friends wanted to be cops and they got their wishes. I thought I wanted to be a cop till I rode along with one of my friends for a night. I'd known this guy for years, I'd hunted with him, I knew his family. I saw him do an illegal search on a guy and arrest the guy for possession of a half a joint. When asked about it he stated "Sure it was an illegal search, the DA will throw it out. But the guy spent a night in my jail."
ReplyDeleteSince that night I have had very little respect for cops. I'm sure some of them are good guys. But they hide behind that not so thin blue line with crap like this. We have turned this country into a war zone and the people with the weapons seem to think we are all against them. They have forgotten, if they every knew, that they work for us, not the other way around. The citizens are the government in this country, or at least they are supposed to be. I'm not sure we ever were but at least a majority used to think they were. Not anymore. Ask anyone you know if they trust the cops. I'll bet that very few give a positive answer. That ride along where I lost my trust? That happened 40 yrs ago. I try very, very hard never to have a cop see me in any way other than a law abiding, cooperating citizen. Anything else risks my life, even if there is absolutely no reason.
Trust cops? Not on my life.
These day's I trust no one...
ReplyDeleteSometimes I even distrust myself.
Who's left ?
It's odd that cops don't mind their reputations being dragged down further and further, every day. They used to get a lot of actual respect from putting on the badge. Now, they earn fear and loathing, and a growing wave of resentment and anger.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long before average citizens spit at the thought of their kids trying to join the filth.
I don't know why this doesn't bother them. Perhaps they ARE the monsters they appear to be.
When did cops become Cartman-esque "Respect My Authoritah!" caricatures?
ReplyDeleteRuckus, cops have always been pretty much their own law. Back in my youth, cops regularly boasted of going "nigger-knocking" in the black neighborhoods of my home town, of rousting random people on the street to see if they had concealed weapons and simply taking the weapons for throw-downs rather than arresting them, of beating the crap out of a "boy" for looking at a white man straight in the eyes rather than looking down like a proper servant, and so forth. But at least the cops of my youth had stones. They didn't need 17-shot autopistols to keep public order. They didn't need more body armor than a medieval knight. They didn't need SWAT teams with assault rifles and tanks to arrest ordinary criminals with outstanding warrants. They at least weren't Cartman caricatures. One of the clanging cops of my youth would have probably beat down this kid, but he at least wouldn't have required 20 other cops to do it. What we have today is a ridiculous combination of cowardice and venality in our boys in blue -- a combination which is worthy of only contempt.
Nan, where is this mythical time that cops automatically got respect for the badge? The labor wars of the early 20th century, when they were regularly spit upon as traitors to the working class for protecting scab strikebreakers? The 1950's, when photographs and film of cops beating civil rights protesters shocked the nation? The 1960's, when they were called "pigs" and had rotten tomatoes and feces thrown at them by anti-war protestors? Maybe for a time in the 1970's and 1980's, when a relentless wave of pro-cop propaganda on the airwaves paid off, but they've certainly squandered *that* brief moment of respect.
- Badtux the History Penguin
"He'd have developed that "involuntary distrust" a lot sooner if he were a minority, be it racial, ethnic or sexual."
ReplyDeleteActually, Rob is Hispanic, just in case you didn't know.
I did not know that, Bob. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBT
ReplyDeleteAgree that cops use the badge as a license to do whatever the fuck they want and have done so for longer than any of us have been around. Your point that they didn't used to need all the armament and armor to do the job badly is right as well. But I think that is part of the problem, it makes them think that if this is the equipment needed to do the job then it must be a very dangerous job. And that most people they interact with must be bad.
I used to think that some cops are assholes but most are good people. Now it's the opposite, most are or can be assholes at a moments notice and there are a few good ones.
If you click on the link to Rob Allen's blog and read through the comments, I think that some of the commenters have it right: Even if they don't start out as assholes, they become that way, what with their "us versus them" mentality.
ReplyDeleteNothing says it more for me than the fact that the cops regard us as "civilians". I got news for he Barney Fifes: To the armed forces, the cops are "civilians".
Where I live there is not a town police force, there are the county deputy sheriffs and the staties. Nobody trusts the deputies; the force has a long history as operating as a goon squad for the local political machine. The last sheriff incurred millions in damages due to politically-based prosecutions.
The neighboring county deputies have a reputation of busting people for Driving While Black, especially after sundown. You'd think that shit like that was a Southern deal, but you'd be wrong.
I have scant respect for the cops.