Fuck the Police State

[buttslinger]

Hey, where the fuck is Natina? We need a narrative here! Should all cops be outfitted with cameras?

[Cuchulain]

"...if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/postev...-challenge-me/

"A more informed bottom line would go a little more something like this: when cops armed like an invading army force observers from Amnesty International to their knees, at gunpoint, they aren't enforcing the law, they are breaking it. They are criminals, they should lose their badges and they should be sued. They should not get to kill people without trial for walking aggressively." - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-...p_ref=politics

[Ben]

And meanwhile in Iceland...

Iceland grieves after police kill a man for the first time in its history:

http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-0...me-its-history

[Turlington]

Seen on Tumblr:

Please note: “everyone who works retail, admin, or labor” is pretty much everyone. I can’t remember the last time I worked somewhere without “security” cameras that monitored employees.

I’m having a good laugh right now because our associates just got collectively reprimanded for leaning on the counters during 8 hour shifts on their feet, because it isn’t “professional” looking. So apparently they can put up with a camera over their shoulder to make sure they do their jobs correctly, but a cop with a gun cant?

The people in retail get reprimanded for leaning on the counter, and yet a cop can execute someone and not even be arrested.

[NRT]

does anyone know if there is a colour/racial undetone to the deaths of unarmed suspects especially teens? Is it mainly white cops who are perceived to be trigger happy? what are the stats for white cops shooting unarmed whites? or black cops shooting unarmed whites? or black cops killing unarmed blacks?

[Stavros]

Channel 4 news has produced a 'FactCheck' which delves into the stats that are available, and it makes grim reading, even if one balances out some of the figures, for example 93% of Black Americans are killed by other Black Americans -but then 84% of White Americans are killed by other White Americans, because in both categories the murders are related to incidents involving family friends or people known to each other in some capacity.

Numerically, more White Americans are killed by law enforcement, but if you then calculate the percentages, Black Americans as a proportion of the whole population are more likely to be murdered by LE than other groups--

Divide the deaths by the average population and there were more than three black deaths at police hands per million people compared to about one in a million for whites.
The FBI also has some figures on this but it is very incomplete, with only a fraction of America’s 17,000 law enforcement agencies submitting data, so the numbers should probably be seen as the bare minimum.
We haven’t been furnished with the original data by the feds, so we’re relying on secondhand reports from the US media.
Vox.com says there were 426 “felons killed by police” in 2012, and 31 per cent of the victims were black – a disproportionately high percentage, and very similar to the Bureau of Justice figures.
The website ProPublica also looks at FBI figures but concentrates on young men aged 15 to 19 and finds that black people in this age group are 21 times more likely to be killed by the police.
When it was white officers who did the killing, the casualties were black nearly half (46 per cent) the time.
Finally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collect figures for deaths caused by “legal intervention”, which includes police killings but leaves out executions.
From 2010 to 2012, black people were two to three times more likely to be killed by legal intervention.


Full link is here-
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/...d-police/19423

[yodajazz]

I'm behind the curve and see that this post I made in the other thread was more appropriate here:

Here in my city police killed a 12 year old, with a toy (soft air) gun, three days ago. I guess he was too young to have 2nd amendment rights. And too old to be playing with toys. That awkward age, they say sometimes.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-boy/19471925/

Update: Most of the incident was captured on video. Apparently the kid did wave it around and point at people earlier, but when the police arrived he had it his waistband. He did not raise his hands when ordered by the police. Speculation, is that me may have wanted to show it to the police. The police already had their weapons drawn. There have been protests here in the city. But the strategy from the the city, has been to let the people vent. And they have gone home after the protest with no property damage.

[TempestTS]

And the video released show police shot and killed the 12yo boy 2 seconds after arriving on scene - TWO....

seriously how can anyone defend that level of force that quickly... they said they ordered the boy to drop the weapon 3 times in that time -before opening fire -

How fucking fast can you possibly drop a weapon and how can you do it without touching it?

I cant possibly think of an excuse that would work for this - death by cop - which would otherwise be called murder - yet again...

I'm behind the curve and see that this post I made in the other thread was more appropriate here:

Here in my city police killed a 12 year old, with a toy (soft air) gun, three days ago. I guess he was too young to have 2nd amendment rights. And too old to be playing with toys. That awkward age, they say sometimes.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-boy/19471925/

Update: Most of the incident was captured on video. Apparently the kid did wave it around and point at people earlier, but when the police arrived he had it his waistband. He did not raise his hands when ordered by the police. Speculation, is that me may have wanted to show it to the police. The police already had their weapons drawn. There have been protests here in the city. But the strategy from the the city, has been to let the people vent. And they have gone home after the protest with no property damage.

[Odelay]

So the union representing the St Louis police officers were not amused by several members of the Rams football team raising their hands as they made their entrance to the stadium. I'm also barraged on facebook from a couple of conservative friends/relatives with all these heartfelt stories about how tough and dangerous it is to be a cop.

I really don't get all the sympathy that cops and their fb friends are crying out for. Deaths of police officers has been on a steep decline since the 1970's and an even steeper decline on a per capita basis, from around 240/yr to 100/yr last year. In 1911 there were 128 cop deaths, with one third the total population in the US. Seems to me that being a cop has never been more safe.

Add to this that they're one of the few professions remaining that have really strong union representation, thus pretty good wages relative to many professions where unions have been destroyed. Not sure what they're whining about.

[martin48]

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