The pepper spraying? That is the best you can do? - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 03/02/2012 05:24:45 AM
Cops get judged in the public arena all the time with little edited pieces of propaganda. Look at the cop who everyone was so pissed off because he pepper sprayed those prissy little protesters in California. They left out the parts where the police tried to physical remove them but couldn't because they were locking their arms together and they left out the part they were repeatedly warned what happen if they chose to stay they and get peppered sprayed. All we see is the video of a cop casually walking up and hitting them in the face with pepper spray.
Does it matter? It might not have been excessive force, but it was undeniably force used against passive resistance. I am not sure the officer behaved inappropriately, but I am not sure he did not. It was below the level of firehoses and German Shepherds and above the level of carrying them out bodily (but then, that was why they linked arms, not the most provocative or belligerent act in history.)
What is beyond dispute is that he used force against people who were simply sitting there presenting no threat of any kind to anyone. That video required no "editing" to make him look bad, and no "context" would make him look better. Fortunately, the court of public opinion means so much that even most of the people complaining about it at the time probably remember that video no more than I did until you mentioned it. If the officer HAD done something for which he was facing a court trial, a video record of it would be invaluable. As one of the officers in the article notes, it might well have been valuable for his DEFENCE.
Guess what cops have to deal with violent drunk dirt bags and drug abusers all the time and sometimes that requires force. The have to deal with crazy people who strike for no reason and try to attack them. They have to pull over stranger in the middle of the night not knowing if they are dealing with a soccer mom coming back from a mom’s night out or drug trafficker armed to the teeth and enough drugs in the trunk to send them to prison for life. It isn't hard to make the legal and justified use of force look bad with edited video or even with unedited video simply because the police at times have to use force to get gain compliance and watching a stronger person use force on a weaker one always looks bad for the stronger one. Well getting fair fights is not what police are trained to do.
Yeah, nice try; I am not talking about cases of cops using force against VIOLENT people or those who STRIKE for no reason. Now, if they are using force against that soccer mom without provocation, or even the drug trafficker if he they have not established him to be one, we have a problem. Getting fair fights may not be what police are trained to do, but any police LOOKING for fights need to attend more conflict resolution classes.
I know cops walk into even routine traffic stops expecting anything and everything. You have seen me say that point blank often enough YOU know I need no remeinder. The issue is not that the LAPD hit Rodney King with batons after he rushed them, but that they CONTINUED hitting him long after he was lying motionless on the ground. When the suspect stops moving, he is no longer a threat; you can stop clubbing him and put the cuffs on now.
Catching truly back behavior on tape is all fine and good but telling police officers they have to live in a free fire zone of edited videos and public opinion based on youtube will not in any way shape or form get you better cops. How would you feel if people were following you around trying to get a piece of video they could use to attack you and cost you your career? Who would sign up for that kind of crap? Bad behavior happens all the time do support having cameras watch everything everyone does or is that an indignity that should be reserved for peace officers?
If it is in public in the line of public duty as public servants I still fail to see the problem. I have worked at a number of places where there was a camera on me from the moment I punched in till the moment I punched out (and even after at my last job, where I was on camera until I left the premises.) Of course, I did not have a gun on my hip or the power to take people to jail and trial at any of them.
Frankly, I do not get. It has been firmly established—by no less than the police themselves—that people have no expectation of privacy in a public area. Cops have searched peoples cars in their driveways on that basis; if that is permissible I do not see how taping a cop making an arrest is so much more invasive.
EDIT: King was not beaten unconscious "only" while motionless; my mistake.