Police Brutality

[Muthoni]

The media likes sensational news.
"Innocent unarmed black man murdered by white police officer."

They just must make it about race. When whites are killed by police, heck, that's nothing new. People die all the time. But black? That's controversial. It will draw more eyeballs to their websites. I think the media negatively contributes to all this. If you label police the bad guys then eventaully people get inured to police brutality. They accept it as the norm.

There is a fact in life that there will always be a bad seed in everything. They are a number of good cops who would put their lives on line to save a citizen. In the midst of this group will be a bad cop who will abuse power. It becomes difficult to trust the police depending on the experience one has had from the force.

 

[Peninha]

True, there are all sort of cases. The case of the Cleveland police is shameful, but there are other cases where the police is exemplar, so these cases need to be separated and justice should be applied.

 

[Mackmax]

This actually has been going on for a long time now, only mainstream media was not reporting it. They are too busy reporting Justin Bieber's new misdemeanor -_- While this issue has been there for years. But thanks for indie media, it is now getting out there.

Lol! You're absolutely right. It is very interesting what the media deems as newsworthy. I have no idea what happened to those 200+ Nigerian girls who were kidnapped, yet I know all about Kim Kardashian's nude photoshoot! Hmm, something isn't right here..

 

[Mackmax]

Of course it is leading no where. We are just dividing among ourselves making ourselves vulnerable and bringing about issues (racism) back to the surface rather then eliminate them. As a matter of fact, I found a video that speaks for itself on the issue.


And there are a lot of others who feel and think the same way.

How are we dividing ourselves? I've seen many black people come together to address these issues, and many blacks doing research on these things to better educate themselves. I also don't seen how recognizing issues is making us vulnerable. Are you saying that ignoring these issues and pretending like they don't exist or even matter is going to make us stronger?

 

[ClassyTulip]

I would love for cops to have all the interactions recorded on film. This way there will be no dispute of who was at fault. The police have too much leeway and power.

Yes, I agree, but not all " apples in the bunch" are bad. These bad officers are sometimes faced with the fact that they are harassing people who may not know the law and what is actually legal. The issue of police brutality should be addressed with wearing a body camera to show both sides of the situations. I think that would make life a little more easier for both sides.

 

[kittyworker]

Yes, I agree, but not all " apples in the bunch" are bad. These bad officers are sometimes faced with the fact that they are harassing people who may not know the law and what is actually legal. The issue of police brutality should be addressed with wearing a body camera to show both sides of the situations. I think that would make life a little more easier for both sides.

There may actually be some privacy issues involved with this. If police are wearing Cameras they are going to need permission to film people inside their homes. Unlike outside where people don't have the expectation of privacy, in their own homes it may become and issue over the police not having permission to film people.

 

[skipper]

There may actually be some privacy issues involved with this. If police are wearing Cameras they are going to need permission to film people inside their homes. Unlike outside where people don't have the expectation of privacy, in their own homes it may become and issue over the police not having permission to film people.

Bingo.
And then we're talking cost. Where is the data being kept? After all, that could be up to 12 hours, per officer, per shift of video data. So how is it being stored? Where? For how long? How are the departments going to pay for the cameras? The maintenance? The upkeep for the data?

Is it subject to the anyone in the public who makes a request to see it? What if an officer is called to a person's home and the person requests the officer turn the camera off but before the officer does so, the camera catches illegal activity going on in the home? Admissible in court?

What if a camera malfunctions? (And trust me - they will malfunction. If people knew how much stuff breaks or plain old doesn't work in a police department...good god, it drives us crazy.) Is the onus now on the officer to prove that s/he didn't tamper with it somehow?

There are cost questions. There are legal questions. This shouldn't dissuade us from exploring the possibility, but I just want to stress that it's not so easy to just jump to cameras without thinking through all implications. Personally, I'm a fan of the idea of cameras and I'll be the first to volunteer when there are practical answers to these questions.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

when you look at countries that have tougher gun control laws their violent crime rates featuring a firearm are far lower

I would like to think that's the way it works. However, my experience in Thailand tells me a different story. Guns can only be owned with the necessary permits. Permits, of course, are just a matter of paperwork. So, in actual practice, just about anyone who wants to have a gun can have a gun.

Now, how come gun violence doesn't become a daily occurrence in Thailand?

I think the answers lies in the fact that good guys in Thailand can get guns just as easily as the bad guys. Plus, in Thailand, there is such a thing as honour in family and friendship. So, say, someone shoots and kills, or even just injures, your family member or friend, you are obliged, by honour, (and you do it automatically without thinking too much about it) to go after whoever shot your family member or friend.

In Thailand, you don't have to worry about whether you can shoot anyone. What you need to think about are all his family and friends who will surely come after you after that. In short, when someone is shot in Thailand, people do not just wait for the police to do something about it. They take their guns and go after the shooter. This, I believe, is what makes many people in Thailand, think many, many times before shooting anyone.

 

[kittyworker]

@skipper I'm definitely for the use of cameras by police. You raised some key issues and in terms of data storage they could do a bit of snipping and keep incident related footage. The issue is currently personal privacy is a big thing and for the police to filming people as well might add to this problem. Could this potentially discourage people to approach police as they don't want to be filmed? Will likely be a legislative issue in the future and then its effectiveness in reducing crime and increasing prosecution is yet to be seen.

@Aree Very interesting idea of local justice. The honor for onself and family is somewhat lost in other cultures. It seems like Thailand is very much a "you get whats coming to you" country.

 

[joshua minaya]

The media likes sensational news.
"Innocent unarmed black man murdered by white police officer."

They just must make it about race. When whites are killed by police, heck, that's nothing new. People die all the time. But black? That's controversial. It will draw more eyeballs to their websites. I think the media negatively contributes to all this. If you label police the bad guys then eventaully people get inured to police brutality. They accept it as the norm.

You are certainly right the media like branding the news in such a way that would make the information they are conveying to sell more.

 

[tasha]

I am in South Africa and I tell you what, I have some much respect for the police as the job is a really horrible and dangerous one where they put there lives on the line each day. Yes there is corruption in areas all over the world and brutallity is not acceptable but for the few that do that , there are the good ones that will take a bullet for the public.

 

[TheSilentKid]

Sad thing about police brutality is that even though it's only committed by a small portion of the force throughout the states, every officer and the very image of the police force is affected. The good cops doing their job also gets thrown into the same basket as the abusive ones, even though they didn't do anything wrong. People used to feel so safe with officers around a few years back, can't say it's still the same now.

 

[fliktor7]

I'm from Europe, so I don't know too much about how is the situation in the US with the police, but I have seen lots of people disgusted with that on TV, the people claiming "I can't breath" on the streets and all of that.
I think that is good people react when police make bad things, and if they are guilty they should go intro prison just as any other criminal, but my respect to the good policeman too, there should be a lot more good than bad ones.

 

[starshine]

Oh come on people acting like it's such a racial issue when white police men shoot black men. If you think that it is not representative, just look at the amount of black men in prison and how much racial profile has been proven to happen. I mean, white criminals are often happy about it, but whatever. Black men get searched and stopped a lot more often, and they also get shot for no good reason.

You're right, we should also make a big deal out of white people getting shot by police for no good reason, too.

 

[HELLOnamesdana]

I'm hoping that the hype about this subject all over the United States is starting to come to an end soon, but I honestly doubt it at this point. People love to put in their opinion about stories and topics that they don't really know the facts about and that they don't completely understand, so I'm really hoping that it ends very soon. I'm just sick of people talking about things that they don't know anything about!