Riot Police With Pepper Spray Vs. Violins? I'll Take This As Another Police Department...

[TrollBuster9090]

...BEGGING to be defunded and reformed in a very subtle way. By actually FOLLOWING the outrageous order to bust the heads of violinists at a vigil for Elijah McClain.

If you made a MOVIE of this, it would be immediately dismissed as being too corny and unrealistic. A poor kid is killed by police brutality and systemic racism. Then, some other kids hold a violin vigil in his honor, and ON CUE the police riot squad shows up to bust their heads.

[Normanart]

1. What will it take?

Are authorities waiting for an actual massacre to take place?

[AJT]

5. It would only matter to the powers that be if it were

a massacre of white people.

[stillcool]

2. Insanity. Everywhere you look. n/t

[Newest Reality]

3. Police state

We seem to be moving in this direction and should take these blatant abuses of power and public demonstrations of force as an indicator. Of course, the heavy militarization of police across the country is another unavoidable sign of a shift in that direction.

This has to be met with resistance and strong condemnation before that becomes a crime, too. This not the kind of behavior that is acceptable in a democracy and it is a threat to freedom.

A police state is a government that exercises power through the power of the police force. Originally, a police state was a state regulated by a civil administration, but since the beginning of the 20th century it has "taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning" by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of the civil authorities.[1] The inhabitants of a police state may experience restrictions on their mobility, or on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.[2] Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the anti-aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state&quot .[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state

[Mr.Bill]

4. I feared for my life

because he reached for his violin case and, you know, sometimes there are machine guns in those cases. I saw it in the movies.

[tulipsandroses]

6. I know the term defund the police scares people, but we ought to be looking at the role

the police play in our public safety. This is completely outrageous.
A part of the argument for defunding the police is that they spend their time doing a lot of things that do not protect public safety.
Sure they put a lot of people in jail but - But a lot of that is not for unsolved murders or unsolved rapes or robberies or assaults. A lot of those serious crimes go unsolved.

Instead we have a lot of arrests for non violent offenses. We are the country that locks up the most people. It is time we re-think what policing is supposed to be. Especially given the fact, as you see here, many think of themselves as enforcers, not there are servants of the public.

[PandoraAwakened]

7. +1. n/t

[ffr]

8. I think of some of my police encounters and how lucky I am to be alive today

We see dramatizations of dirty cops in films, but that's not real, it's a made up story for effect. But now seeing how police can take things to the extremes against people not doing half the stuff I was guilty of? I feel very lucky.

[kag]

9. My kids live about three miles from where that happened.

They are both college students, and lately have been staying indoors because of Covid. But this shit scares the crap out of me. My kids are both non-confrontational, introverted students, and both have health issues. I can't even imagine what it must be like for mothers of kids of color in this position. My heart aches.

[RussBLib]

10. uh, why did the police do that?

after they marched in, in riot gear, they say someone threw a water bottle at them, and something about a piece of plywood. And that's enough reason to pepper spray these folks? If they had not descended upon the crowd like a malevolent mob, there would have been no attacks on them. That's the Aurora (Colorado) Police, right? They have some BIG problems in that city. Someone should lose their job, and I'd say the whole force needs to practice restraint.