Why Is It Always Bad Cop?

[senor boogie woogie]

Cops are something that society has to have. It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Yes, many cops do heroic things everyday, just patrolling some streets is heroic enough.


I think the police in the post 9-11 World has gotten too militeristic, with some departments actually having TANKS at their disposal. Now remember, the tank has been around as a weapon of war for over a 100 years, but has only been recently used by the police.

The taser, which is used by the cops is basically a torture weapon, and the cops use it too much because it is much quicker than using their training. Besides when 4 jarhead cops are pummelling someone, it is difficult for that person to follow orders, which the cops take as not following directions which warrants an electrocution. Cops did not have this 30 years ago, or even 20. This is a new thing, which of course is an erosion of rights.

[crazylegs]

The taser, which is used by the cops is basically a torture weapon, and the cops use it too much because it is much quicker than using their training. Besides when 4 jarhead cops are pummelling someone, it is difficult for that person to follow orders, which the cops take as not following directions which warrants an electrocution. Cops did not have this 30 years ago, or even 20. This is a new thing, which of course is an erosion of rights.

Have you ever tried to detain someone with a high drive to escape? I used to work for the police (non warranted officer, but certain powers).

I've had had firearms, knives & syringes pulled on me and can assure you it's as scary as hell because the people who do that don't care what happens as long as they escape. To detain those people safely you have to use a high level of force; you can't for example gently guide them to the van for transportation as you have to disarm them first.

I'm aware of offenders who have simply run through a cloud of CS gas to attack a police officer with a spear/garden fork/crowbar etc etc and in the UK (where I am) we don't have Taser as another option.

Unfortunately what police officers have to do can sometimes look awful - for example to get someone in handcuffs you may have to strike multiple times at someones upper arm (essentially giving them a dead arm). If this is done to a detainee who is already on the floor then it can look like brutality when it is anything but.

I would be interested to know your relevent experience and evidence you have to back up your claims.

[Kheldarson]

The taser, which is used by the cops is basically a torture weapon, and the cops use it too much because it is much quicker than using their training. Besides when 4 jarhead cops are pummelling someone, it is difficult for that person to follow orders, which the cops take as not following directions which warrants an electrocution. Cops did not have this 30 years ago, or even 20. This is a new thing, which of course is an erosion of rights.

Erosion of rights? So the right of the police to be able to safely guide a person who is hellbent on escape is a bad thing? You'd rather them take it easy and let the guy or gal get away into the general public? And force whatever they deemed to be their "rights" onto the rest of us?

Forget that. The cops are there to serve and protect. Serve the public by upholding the law, protect the public by making sure those who break it are out of the way. I'd rather them make sure that a danger is completely neutralized than have them risk injuring themselves or risk the danger getting away and making it an even worse situation. You know, like taking hostages.

[Hyena Dandy]

Torture device? Seriously?

Do you know what torture actually is? Its painful. Yes, that's quite true. No-one's gonna tell you that tasers don't hurt like FUCK-ALL-ELSE. But a taser has a specific purpose, and pain is used to accomplish the goal. If they used a taser when they were dealing with someone who had already given in, that would be torture. But a taser isn't a torture device, its a device which causes pain as part of its goal (immobilize an escaping/attacking person)

[lordlundar]

Agreed. Now if you want to talk torture device, consider the first generation stun guns. Unlike a taser where the pain is relatively minor and a byproduct of the incapacitating effects (the bulk of the pain comes from trying to resist it), the 1st gen stun guns were designed to incapacitate by inflicting an unbearable level of pain at the outset.

You want to go back 15-20 years when THOSE were considered the optimal non-lethal option? Didn't think so.

[DGoddess]

I'm not a huge fan of the police myself, but in this case, I'd say the shooting was justified.

Something similar happened in my area a few years back. Some former mental patient went off his meds and lost it. He was wandering around an apartment building naked, and threatening people with a knife. When the cops came to handle the situation, he charged at one of the cops with the knife. The cop shot and killed the guy.

Some people were outraged that the cop shot the guy, saying things like, "It wasn't his fault. He was sick. He didn't know what he was doing." Sick or not, when your life is in danger, you do what you have to do.

Had a similar incident way back in the early 1990's not far from my house (actually on the far side of the road from WD across from News2.)

Pretty much the same scene: guy off his meds had a gun and was brandishing it out in the open in the neighborhood. Cops at the scene tried to get him to put it down but guy refused. Guy aimed gun at cops and cop shot him dead.

Nevermind that he had been warned several times - certain folks around here were outraged and crying "police brutality."

In the end the investigations conducted by both the Greensboro Police Department and the SBI both cleared the officer involved.

[blas87]

Don't forget, "Mah baby never hurt no one!" "He was such a good kid!" "He was turnin his life around!"

Cry me a river. Get a grip.

Those who are the first to cry police brutality would be the first threatening to sue if that person escaped and harmed someone they know or care about.

[Rapscallion]

Don't forget, "Mah baby never hurt no one!" "He was such a good kid!" "He was turnin his life around!"

The UK version of that is usually, "He were no angel, but..." usually said by a tearful mother at a press conference, oblivious to the fact that said child was out of his skull on chemicals, stealing stuff, threatening people, or whatever.

Rapscallion

[DGoddess]

Don't forget, "Mah baby never hurt no one!" "He was such a good kid!" "He was turnin his life around!"

Cry me a river. Get a grip.

Those who are the first to cry police brutality would be the first threatening to sue if that person escaped and harmed someone they know or care about.

That gets said (in various forms) quite a bit . . . actually almost every time there's either an officer involved shooting or an incident where a LEO is killed in the line of duty.

And every time I'd like to take these relatives and ask them "Well, if they were such a good kid/turning their life around/whathaveyou then WHAT THE FUCK were they doing shooting at a cop for?"

Dumbasses.

[jackfaire]

There was time when here a homeless guy had a clear plastic pellet gun and the cops shot him.

I heard a lot of, "But he was mentally disabled"

I think I was the only person that was like, "But it was a clear plastic gun"

I understand very well how a Dally can happen.

[Seifer]

I'm sorry for the parents, but I can completely understand why the police officers used deadly force. They had a child bring what appeared to be a real gun to school, and was threatening others with it. The child had already physically assaulted another student, and was refusing to be talked down.

I'm wondering if the child had some sort of disorder where they didn't understand just how serious the situation was. You'd think having police point REAL guns at you would get that point across...