Teen Beaten By Police; Family Filing Police Complaint

"Muerte a la inteligencia!" -Falangist slogan during the Spanish Civil War

 

While few facts are known if the police did indeed beat this kid, you can see one of the officers legitimately choking the kid while he is seemingly unconscious.

Something isn't right with the story.

 

Zeke, I posted in haste as this general issue gets my blood up. I didn't mean I support police brutality, rather that I understand the frustration in the law enforcement system that stems from kid glove treatment of criminals in the court system and how that can lead to isolated incidences of excessive force.

In British Columbia the judicial system is a joke. Citizens are rightly pissed-off that dangerous habitual criminals are back on the street committing crimes within hours of their arrest. I am assuming that many other jurisdictions have the same problems. Law abiding folks are afraid of their streets and want to take them back. It's an undeclared war, practically. The bad guys can do whatever they want but if the good guys have even the slightest lapse, they get shit on.

It seems that the existing system, largely proferred by academics, isn't working. Maybe there is room for a more common sense driven approach that may be more effective. In Canada our judges aren't elected and that could be a starting point for us.

I've read hundreds of your posts and you are a bright guy. In some circles my opinions are as well respected as yours. We just have 2 different views on this issue, probably due our age difference, I'm 57.

 

Mr BC --

S'cool. I figured you probably didn't really mean any means necessary. And it certainly isn't the first time I've rankled someone with my views on police brutality. (Hi, Rosie! )

I know nothing of the crime rate in BC. I can tell you that locking more people up and locking people up for longer hasn't been much of a help, down here.

And the good cops do a thankless job for nowhere near enough pay, and deserve all of our respect and gratitude. But that's more of a reason to punish the ones who don't. They do very real harm to all policemen and women when they violate the law.

 

Misterbc, I can understand about posting in haste when you're upset about something. The dumbest things I've ever posted on here generally were posted in such fashion.

I wasn't trying to bust your balls too hard with the Falangist reference, but anti-intellectualism is kind of sore spot with me. I live in a part of the country where that type of thinking is powerful and has consistently disastrous results.

So if you're sick of the namby-pamby liberals in BC, come to Texas where we throw as many people in jail as possible. Funny thing is, comparing BC and Texas, I bet our crime problems are a lot more comparable than our corrections systems.

 

mbc, I'll join Zeke and wi in the sentiment that we all occasionally get extra vehement when we post in haste. But there are neighborhoods in every American city where the local law-abiding folks try to steer clear of the bad guys and the police.

If it makes a difference, I'm 54.

 

As usual, there's a pervasive feeling among some that America is getting more violent and that crime is rising.

Virtually every available statistic says they are wrong, and that America has been getting steadily safer for decades.

 

p

Well, I live in Toronto and the idea that there's some sort of undeclared war and that law-abiding citizens are afraid of the streets is nonsense. The fact is all crime, including violent crime has gone down across the country.

In both cities the single biggest problem is gang activity, fuelled by drugs and easy access to handguns from the US.

And if you want to talk about excessive police force you don't have to look much further than the RCMP tasering and killing Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver airport. And given the Horsemen's record of occasionally looking the other way when it comes to trampling on individual rights, I'm not quite prepared to give them carte blanche in dealing with suspected criminals.

And I'm older than you so it's got nothing to do with age.

And every time I hear "common sense approach" all I can think of is that twit Mike Harris's "Common Sense Revolution" which almost singlehandedly destroyed Ontario's education and health care system.

And I'm sorry but emulating US justice by electing judges and throwing every two-bit crook into jail is exactly what we don't need.

 

I have no problem with cops following the law.

I have a problem with people second-guessing every move cops make based on some obscure video which may or may not be evidence.

And like I always say to these bleeding hearts who are always whining about police brutality -- walk or drive a beat in the middle of the night in some neighborhoods and see how many times you worry about reading someone his rights and being a nice guy when dealing with some of these animals who have no regard for human life and no respect for authority.

I've seen some arrests in which I thought the cops SHOULD have pulled out their night clubs and beat the fuck out of the guy they were arresting.

 

Stop that, no fair!

 

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

Yes, violent crime isn't what it was in the mid-1990's or even the 1980's. But it is far worse than it was prior to 1975 and almost three times what it was in 1960.

The 90's - which was the height of the gang and drugs wars -- were brutal, so yes, it is safer now than it was during the bloodbath, but that isn't something to brag about and the crime rate is not nearly low enough for people to start celebrating how safe it is.......

 

Yeah. Sure you did.