Now, before I start ranting, let me say that I know police officers. I have one in my family.
That said… what the fuck? I was at the gym this morning, treading along the treadclimber, watching an episode of COPS. (What do you expect is going to be on Fox at 4:20 am?) The episode is filmed in Las Vegas, apparently, and – one after another – people are being brutalized for… standing… catching things… having their hands in their pockets…
Seriously. One guy caught someone’s bike as it was falling down some stairs. The owner chased it and I thought everything would be fine – then a COP knocked down the guy who caught the bike. “Were you trying to steal it?” he shouted. The victim insisted, “I wasn’t trying to steal anything.” “Not once you saw me,” the COP smirked.
Another COP was told to look for a white guy with red hair. He pulled up to a guy standing next to a store with his hands in his pocket. “What are you doing?” the COP yelled. “I’m sorry? Am I doing something wrong?” the man asked. Then, the COP throttled him, punched him, knocked him to the ground, and put his knee on his neck. The victim kept asking, “What did I do?”
Now, back in my day (granted, this was the 1970’s and 1980’s), footage like that was usually shown in court, not on TV. How did police brutality become entertainment? Are we so afraid of the boogeyman that we’re okay with allowing the police to brutally beat innocent people or have we forgotten that we are innocent until PROVEN guilty?
And normally, I would dismiss this as TV CRAP.
Normally.
But on the next TV over, on a local news channel, the scene of a black guy standing in a parking lot, looking confused, getting jumped on and beaten by a bunch of cops was shown and the “reporter” was stating that he had “resisted arrest”.
I can’t wait for the day when we all really start to resist.
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