After video showed New Jersey police kicking the head of a man trying to escape a burning car, the police union came up with the most amazing excuses.
Cops Gone Wild
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Love them smartphones. There’s nothing new here, cops have been abusing their authority since the first badge was invented. BUT we now have them on tape … errrr … “silicon”
The first step is to admit you have a problem & multiple cop shops have been forced to do so.
Ah, those benevolent associations of cops, who, it would seem, are not only benevolent, but also creative in finding ever new ways to serve a deserving public….
Land of the free, home of the brave (I find it entirely appropriate that a man like Francis Scott Key was the author of these inspiring lines)….
Henri
This is simply the mistake of using the wrong technique learned, and subsequently brought home, in the wars of empire for dealing with an unruly population.
I’m sure if given time to reconsider he would have water-boarded the suspect instead.
«I’m sure if given time to reconsider he would have water-boarded the suspect instead.» Just to put out the fire, of course…. 😉
Henri
Oh, this is nothing!
When you have some spare time, look into the history of Judge Roy Bean of Pecos, Texas. He was known to have a man hanged in order to confiscate his revolvers (legally).
Dad gum it to tarnation! I done signed up fer the wrong career path. Ol’ Judge Roy done had it gooder’n me.
OT: I once saw an ad in an underground paper: “Escorts wanted, will train.” Wait … what? “Escort Trainer” is a thing?! Why didn’t my high school counselor tell me this?!
Back on topic: Every judge I’ve ever met has had an overly-inflated opinion of his personal position in the Celestial Scheme of Things. Some of them rule on the side of Goodness And Light, but they are still arrogant bastards. I assume there must be a few Good Judges out there even though I’ve never met any – just as there are a few Good Cops (who I do believe I have met.)
There are a LOT more cops than judges. So the tails of the distribution go much further.
As you said, there are many very good cops. There are also some very bad cops. And no decent measure of how many of which there are (since mensuration depends too much on the mensurater).
There was even a TV series (I think in the 1950’s) called “Judge Roy Bean – Law West of the Pecos” that I remember watching on occasion. When I learned what a SoB he was, I couldn’t believe he was an honored subject of that series.
And I’ve had absolutely NO respect for cops since the time I served as a small-town patrolman in Texas and listened to a particular bastard from the Texas Highway Patrol, bragging about how he shot a man in front of his wife (in their home). “He fell back in the bathtub and died.” Ha – ha – ha!
I lasted about six months as a “peace officer” before I moved to Germany.