Our Militarized Society

[Spexxvet]

Officer Friendly
He’s just a good guy with a gun


https://medium.com/the-nib/officer-f...y-28e8d9399bbb

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh yes! Tom Tomorrow's Officer Friendly nails it, Spex.

[DanaC]

Oh man! I am loving that comic strip. I followed the link and haven't been able to break away for half an hour :P

[xoxoxoBruce]

Tom Tomorrow is a classic. One of those cartoonists who can plow away the bullshit and cut straight to the heart of the matter. Of course if one were of a conservative bent, one might not find it quite as entertaining.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by glatt

Amazing how when the State Police took over from the local cops and showed up dressed like this:
Attachment 48861

the reaction from the crowds was like this:
Attachment 48862

Damn good news that some police can be professional.

Originally Posted by sexobon

In the OP photo, I'm amused by the tactical officers wearing bright, tan, desert boots ... an urban-camo fashion faux pas.

They're gonna get laughed off the paintball course.

[Undertoad]

Really good Ross Douthat column in the NYT yesterday

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/op...e-suburbs.html

Last week, The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis ran the numbers for Missouri and found that the state’s Department of Public Safety received about $69 million from the Department of Homeland Security in the past five years alone. Which helps explain why the streets of a St. Louis suburb flooded so quickly with cops in gas masks and camouflage, driving armored cars and brandishing rifles like an occupying army. It’s our antiterror policies made manifest, our tax dollars at work.

And it’s a path to potential disaster, for cops and citizens alike. The “S” in SWAT was there for a reason: Militarized tactics that are potentially useful in specialized circumstances — like firefights with suicidal terrorist groups — can be counterproductive when employed for crowd-control purposes by rank-and-file cops. (The only recent calm on Ferguson’s streets came after state cops started walking through the crowds in blue uniforms, behaving like police instead of storm troopers.)

To many critics of police militarization, of course, the helmets and heavy weaponry are just symptoms. The disease is the entire range of aggressive police tactics (from no-knock raids to stop-and-frisk), the racial disparities they help perpetuate and our society’s drug laws and extraordinary incarceration rate.

[Big Sarge]

years ago, i was a ballistic breecher on my tac team for the drug task force. we only geared up for felony warrants where the suspect was likely armed. we rode in an old donated bread truck.

police are going way to far with these armored vehicles and other surplus equipment. the main thing is most of them don't have a clue to how to use it.

btw, i support the officer. he had this 300 lb kid pounding him and when he tried to take him into custody the guy charged him. fits totally within the accepted use of force continuum.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, the kid was big... don't let him take control, big. I'm sure the cop went from wary to scared to panic very quickly. It's a shame it ended like that, but I can think of a couple equally bad endings. From that point on it's like the contrived script from a Bollywood movie.

The witnesses said, boy=good, cop=bad. No surprise there. I can see them all wearing warn-a-brother shirts, locked arm in arm, high kicking in unison like the Rockettes. This is the reaction to years of cops covering up mistakes/misbehavior by cops, truth be damned. First allowing, then (probably as part of rationalizing to others & themselves) condoning, finally approving, cops bullying citizens.

I've seen it to many times. I can understand a cop thrown into a situation where things could go bad in a hurry, so he/she must be large and in charge quickly. No, we will not discuss it, you will do what I say. That said, I've seen some sadistic fuckers who have no business wearing a badge, abusing scared and bewildered people, for no discernible reason other than breaking the boredom, or perversion.

It's part of the polarization of America. Aiding the divide and conquer strategy to retain control of the minions, by the oligarchs. Strategy, is giving them too much credit, though. They do guide and nudge, but the path to division is human nature. There must be an Us and Them, otherwise I wouldn't know who to watch out for, and more importantly I wouldn't have anyone to blame when I fuck up.

[DanaC]

The autopsy would seem to suggest that the witnesses who say he had his arms up in surrender were right. The bullet wounds (all six of them) suggest that he had his hands raised into the air and was at some distance away when he was shot.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A view from the black side.

[DanaC]

What a well written article. Made me want to cry.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

...
btw, i support the officer. he had this 300 lb kid pounding him and when he tried to take him into custody the guy charged him. fits totally within the accepted use of force continuum.

I don't think either side's version has been vetted properly yet.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The witnesses said, boy=good, cop=bad. No surprise there. I can see them all wearing warn-a-brother shirts, locked arm in arm, high kicking in unison like the Rockettes. This is the reaction to years of cops covering up mistakes/misbehavior by cops, truth be damned. First allowing, then (probably as part of rationalizing to others & themselves) condoning, finally approving, cops bullying citizens.

Maybe not a civilian/cop issue so much as a black/white issue

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

It's part of the polarization of America. Aiding the divide and conquer strategy to retain control of the minions, by the oligarchs. Strategy, is giving them too much credit, though. They do guide and nudge, but the path to division is human nature. There must be an Us and Them, otherwise I wouldn't know who to watch out for, and more importantly I wouldn't have anyone to blame when I fuck up.

True dat

[Big Sarge]

Originally Posted by DanaC

What a well written article. Made me want to cry.

It could also be a nicely written work of fiction. Notice the lack of details as to location or identity of persons involved. Her only photograph is of a vacant sidewalk. No sign of street musicians, etc.

As far as the autopsy, the only released reporting is from the forensic pathologist hired by the family. His assistant was interviewed on CNN and admitted that they didn't know what wounds might have been caused in the car and the autopsy could not refute the officer's account.

supporting the officer is http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014...uson-shooting/

In use of force classes I taught for years, we played video tapes illustrating that a person with a knife at a distance of 26 feet could rush and stab an officer before he could draw his weapon. This is info is to illustrate the danger zone for officers.

We had an injured officer facing a man that seconds before had tried to take his gun. If the officer was in legitimate fear of his life (I would have been), he was justified in shooting to stop the threat of a charging much larger assailant.

Don't think Big Mike is such a sweet little lad. Minutes before he had committed a strong armed robbery where he had turned back as leaving the store and advanced again on that victim.

Two sides to a coin. What would you have done if he was charging you with intent to commit another felonious act??

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

I don't think either side's version has been vetted properly yet.

True words. The cop who shot the kid may end up being the only innocent person in this whole mess... or not. Importantly, he events have finally shined a light on the direction policing is going in this country.

I see Egypt is criticizing our use of force. If Egypt is scoring on you you're running the wrong defense.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

It could also be a nicely written work of fiction. Notice the lack of details as to location or identity of persons involved. Her only photograph is of a vacant sidewalk. No sign of street musicians, etc.

We know who wrote it, it's on her webpage, complete with her picture. She said los Angeles, does the street address make a difference?
I doubt she got the name of the street performer, and bet she didn't get the names of the hecklers. Would the name of the man make a difference? Gonna run him through R & I for his rap sheet to see if he ever sat on bench W?

C'mon, you were looking for ants with a magnifying glass, and missed the anthill.