3 ms·

Officer grab a 73-year-old woman, threw her to the grass, and twisted her arms

23 points by oriettaxx 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
auslegung 6y ago
I think the police officer is in the wrong here, but imo the problems started because Walmart called the police. I have a friend who has worked in lost prevention at 2 different national chain stores, and both of them (at the time at least) had a policy that anyone stealing less than $40 of merchandise was pretty much left to go without much confrontation, or perhaps without any confrontation whatsoever. This story is an excellent example of why that policy is in place. If Walmart had let her go she would have stolen less than $14 worth of things. Even had it been malicious and intentional, so what. I can't imagine Walmart would decide, in retrospect, that this was worth less than $14.
- thisarticle 6y ago
  I think you may underestimate how petty Walmart is.
- lucian1900 6y ago
  The police exist primarily to protect private (not personal) property. Walmart used the police as designed, it’s not always strike breaking.
  - airhead969 6y ago
    Protect & Serve (the corporations and the rich from those desperate, starving, filthy plebs trying to survive by stealing)
- airhead969 6y ago
  It's not mutex: it's a failure chain where blame can be spread around to the reporting employee, the police, and some to the alleged 5-finger discounter (who is disabled and probably didn't understand) too. Perhaps the bigger issues are massive income inequality, lack of healthcare and mental healthcare (taking money from the poor again), and a lack of comprehensive social services / livable benefits to get struggling people by. It wasn't always like this. Heck, shouldn't someone have volunteered to pay for this sweet, confused lady's stuff rather than throw her in jail? What has the world come to, impersonal, expedient, automatic brutality? Judge Dredd summarily executing disabled people for making a mistake seems like the next logical conclusion.. oh wait, that already happens.
- valdiorn 6y ago
  The problem is that, once that policy becomes known, bad actors will abuse it, and go in multiple times, steal $13.99 of products, in the knowledge they won't get stopped.
darkteflon 6y ago
What’s the HN angle here?
torstenvl 6y ago
(Never mind... misunderstood something important.)
- ohgreatwtf 6y ago
  Read the article. She wasn’t driving, she walked in and walked out
  - torstenvl 6y ago
    I did read it, but didn't watch the video. Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
ohgreatwtf 6y ago
Abolish the police. It is a criminal institution of thugs and mercenaries. “do you need to be arrested?” There is no excuse for any police department to exist anywhere at any time. It only serves the rich and the powerful and their needs. Law enforcement is different than community caretaking and the people who execute the responsibilities and authority of these necessary societal functions should be different people. There should be sheriffs deputies and highway patrol officers to handle matters of purely criminal felony and civic disorder(speeding included in the last with substantial risk of the first) and all misdemeanor crimes considered matters for community caretakers(who should guilt and manipulate people into civically orderly behavior while providing them benefits that police won’t offer, like addict rehabilitation, employment opportunities, social and practical skills training, psychological therapy, interventions, and diverse other roles). Then for any serious violent situations we should have civil militia agencies with fully trained, bonded, and sworn militia members who are authorized to carry and to use lethal force and specifically equipped with comms to coordinate their activity with sheriffs departments(no authority to arrest, provides civilian muscle to assist in law enforcement protection). Of the three, only the latter should ever be authorized to use lethal force in anything but a self defense scenario, and the community caretakers should primarily be armed with non lethal methods. None of this would apply of course to places like detroit where it does make sense to shoot first and ask questions later, but i defer my racist leanings by suggesting communities with internal issues should be under a mandate to internally recruit their policing. Eliminate the excuse and you eliminate the problem. None of this would be hard for any western nation to accomplish All of the countries and locales where elements of this structure already exist are way happier places to live. There is no excuse. The only reason we have the structure we do is because of unmitigated authoritarian elitism. Defending it means defending totalitarian mindsets.

23 points by oriettaxx 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

I think the police officer is in the wrong here, but imo the problems started because Walmart called the police. I have a friend who has worked in lost prevention at 2 different national chain stores, and both of them (at the time at least) had a policy that anyone stealing less than $40 of merchandise was pretty much left to go without much confrontation, or perhaps without any confrontation whatsoever. This story is an excellent example of why that policy is in place. If Walmart had let her go she would have stolen less than $14 worth of things. Even had it been malicious and intentional, so what. I can't imagine Walmart would decide, in retrospect, that this was worth less than $14.

thisarticle 6y ago
I think you may underestimate how petty Walmart is.
lucian1900 6y ago
The police exist primarily to protect private (not personal) property. Walmart used the police as designed, it’s not always strike breaking.
- airhead969 6y ago
  Protect & Serve (the corporations and the rich from those desperate, starving, filthy plebs trying to survive by stealing)
airhead969 6y ago
It's not mutex: it's a failure chain where blame can be spread around to the reporting employee, the police, and some to the alleged 5-finger discounter (who is disabled and probably didn't understand) too. Perhaps the bigger issues are massive income inequality, lack of healthcare and mental healthcare (taking money from the poor again), and a lack of comprehensive social services / livable benefits to get struggling people by. It wasn't always like this. Heck, shouldn't someone have volunteered to pay for this sweet, confused lady's stuff rather than throw her in jail? What has the world come to, impersonal, expedient, automatic brutality? Judge Dredd summarily executing disabled people for making a mistake seems like the next logical conclusion.. oh wait, that already happens.
valdiorn 6y ago
The problem is that, once that policy becomes known, bad actors will abuse it, and go in multiple times, steal $13.99 of products, in the knowledge they won't get stopped.

darkteflon 6y ago

What’s the HN angle here?

torstenvl 6y ago

(Never mind... misunderstood something important.)

ohgreatwtf 6y ago
Read the article. She wasn’t driving, she walked in and walked out
- torstenvl 6y ago
  I did read it, but didn't watch the video. Thanks for pointing out my mistake.

ohgreatwtf 6y ago

Abolish the police. It is a criminal institution of thugs and mercenaries. “do you need to be arrested?” There is no excuse for any police department to exist anywhere at any time. It only serves the rich and the powerful and their needs. Law enforcement is different than community caretaking and the people who execute the responsibilities and authority of these necessary societal functions should be different people. There should be sheriffs deputies and highway patrol officers to handle matters of purely criminal felony and civic disorder(speeding included in the last with substantial risk of the first) and all misdemeanor crimes considered matters for community caretakers(who should guilt and manipulate people into civically orderly behavior while providing them benefits that police won’t offer, like addict rehabilitation, employment opportunities, social and practical skills training, psychological therapy, interventions, and diverse other roles). Then for any serious violent situations we should have civil militia agencies with fully trained, bonded, and sworn militia members who are authorized to carry and to use lethal force and specifically equipped with comms to coordinate their activity with sheriffs departments(no authority to arrest, provides civilian muscle to assist in law enforcement protection). Of the three, only the latter should ever be authorized to use lethal force in anything but a self defense scenario, and the community caretakers should primarily be armed with non lethal methods. None of this would apply of course to places like detroit where it does make sense to shoot first and ask questions later, but i defer my racist leanings by suggesting communities with internal issues should be under a mandate to internally recruit their policing. Eliminate the excuse and you eliminate the problem. None of this would be hard for any western nation to accomplish All of the countries and locales where elements of this structure already exist are way happier places to live. There is no excuse. The only reason we have the structure we do is because of unmitigated authoritarian elitism. Defending it means defending totalitarian mindsets.