4 ms·
Let's not blame everything on "police brutality". Anyone who is stopped by the police is not stopped just so a cop can beat him up. In all cases, there's a reas
by icantthinkofone 12y ago
Let's not blame everything on "police brutality". Anyone who is stopped by the police is not stopped just so a cop can beat him up. In all cases, there's a reason they were stopped and in all, the person reacted violently except in the most rare, actual "bad cop" cases (the only ones you read about).
Before this, there was research to show that recording people at a scene, such as protestors, and letting them know they are being recorded, also reduced violence initiated by such groups.
It's often ignored that clashes with police are virtually always started by people who failed to comply with the law or orders given to them.
For example, I know someone who has a business where protestors had gathered. The police allowed this large group of a hundred, or so, to do their thing until they blocked entrances to the businesses. The police ordered them to stay to one side of the businesses but few complied.
After three such warnings, the group was surrounded. Some pushed back, threw rocks and bottles at the police, spit at them, etc. Some started throwing punches at the police as they were crowded out and that's when things went really bad.
You can guess what happened next. People started yelling about "police brutality" as they grabbed the rock and punch throwers and had to drag them out of the crowd. As things got worse, they had to use tear gas and the epithets really came flying out.
In the meantime, my poor friend, whose business barely survives, lost money on what is normally his best day of the week.
- throwaway_hhdh 12y agoLast year we had huge protests in Brazil. They were sparked by police brutality against a tiny, routine protest in Sâo Paulo. That thing spread to every other major city in the country. Some state governments decided to send the police to the protests, some didn't. Guess what: where there were no policemen, the protesters went, did their thing, and no violence or damage to property was reported. Where there was police, the protest always escalated, and always in the way you decribed: the police sets some random arbitrary limit, the huge mass of uncoordinated people do not follow their orders, police attacks. Take from that what you will.
- icantthinkofone 12y agoSo you're saying that, when protestors have no police to fight, they don't fight with the police?
- chrismcb 12y agoActually sometimes a person is stopped just so the officer can beat the person up. And many times people are stopped because "they look funny." Yes most cops are good and wouldn't stop someone without a reasonable suspicion. But not all cops are that way. Glad to know the police allowed some people their constitutional right to protest.
- icantthinkofone 12y agoI knew a guy online once who claimed just that. He said he was just walking down the street, doing nothing, and a cop car pulled up in the median near him. Both cops got out of their squad car, walked over to him and just started beating the hell out of him for no reason at all! I'm sure it happens all the time! (People posting things like that I mean.)