Police abuses

[Crazed Rabbit]

Australia, the UK, the USA? Your police brutality is as nothing compared to the depths of depravity consistently reached by the French police.

The jackbooted little asses may be terrible in terms of trying to avoid work, but I'm not seeing anything that much worse in terms of brutality.

Some recent news:
In Philly, a white cop uses racial slurs and describes blacks as 'animals' to a journalism student on a ride-a-long. Imagine what he says to other cops.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Student's article leads to desk duty for officer

A Philadelphia police officer has been put on desk duty after he was quoted spouting his disgust for the black residents in the community he patrolled.
...
At one point during a three-hour, midday patrol-car ride together in January, Thrasher reportedly pointed out recent homicide scenes, three of which involved multiple gunshots.

"People in this neighborhood don't care about each other," Thrasher was quoted as saying. "They'll shoot each other for drugs, for money, for bulls-. All they care about is their reputation. They want to look tough."

After Thrasher responded to a call about an argument, he reportedly dismissed the incident to his lieutenant as "TNS. Typical n- s-."

At another scene, where a man was shot in the back of the head by his daughter's boyfriend, Thrasher said: "These people are . . . disgusting. It's like they're animals."
...
McDonald quoted Thrasher on tensions in the community between police and residents, with Thrasher saying: "People hate us here. They spit at us."

Two cops in Baltimore beat a handcuffed teenager with clubs, and their sergeant helps them cover it up. That was five years ago. Four years ago one cop was actually convicted of second degree criminal assault. He is still on the force, with pay. They've been paying a convicted criminal for four years.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

BALTIMORE — Two Baltimore police officers beat a teenager with a baton and a pool stick while he was handcuffed and shackled, then tried to cover up the attack with their sergeant's help, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Officers Gregory Mussmacher and Guy Gerstel and Sgt. Wayne Thompson face charges of civil rights violations in a six-count indictment.

Gerstel and Thompson have retired. Mussmacher, 34, has been suspended with pay since the April 2004 incident, even though he was convicted in February 2005 of second-degree criminal assault, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Mussmacher remained under suspension because city police were cooperating with the FBI, which was investigating the beating, Guglielmi said. But Guglielmi could not explain why Mussmacher was not kicked off the force immediately after his conviction. Mussmacher received a suspended sentence and probation.

The alleged beating victim, Benjamin R. Rowland, filed a federal lawsuit against Mussmacher and Gerstel in 2007, seeking $6 million in damages. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

Rowland is identified only as "B.R." in the indictment.

According to the indictment, Mussmacher hit Rowland in the face with a baton and Gerstel struck him in the back with a pool stick after he was arrested on April 27, 2004. Rowland was 17 years old at the time.

The indictment says Gerstel obstructed justice by lying under oath in a state proceeding about the presence of two other officers when Rowland was arrested. Gerstel is also accused of making false statements to the FBI about his role in the beating.

Thompson and Mussmacher submitted false police reports about Rowland's arrest and how he was injured, according to the indictment.

Before beating Rowland, Mussmacher removed the teen's handcuffs, set aside his badge and gun and offered to fight Rowland, the indictment says. The teen was never charged with a crime as a result of his arrest.

Gerstel faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all three charges against him; Mussmacher faces 15 years, and Thompson faces five years.

No attorneys had entered appearances on the officers' behalf Wednesday, and their initial court appearances had not yet been scheduled, said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore.

Joseph E. Spicer, who represented Mussmacher in the lawsuit, declined to comment. Rowland's attorney in the lawsuit, Robert L. Smith Jr., did not immediately return a message.

In Connecticut, cops get a tip from a woman that a guy was doing cocaine at his house. Naturally, they gather together 21 officers with body armor and machine guns and raid his house. They don't knock on his door, but toss in two grenades designed to disorient and confuse. They then break down his door. One cop thinks he was hit in the foot, though he isn't, and moves forward, bashing the guy with his bulletproof shield.

Let's look at this; two extremely loud grenades go off in your house, which has previously been shot at, you can't hear or see anything. And these well armed men in masks are breaking in and hitting you.

So the guy, according to the cop, grabs hold of the arm of the cop bashing him. Now, the cops have all their guns drawn as they break into this guy's house. They sent 21 officers to practically wage war on this guy.

So the cops all have their guns out and ready to get these two cocaine smokers lying in their house. When one of them grabs the arm of the guy (if he really did at all) the cop starts firing wildly with his gun, killing the guy.

In the Twin Cities, a cop shoots an unarmed teen eight times, killing him. And then he gets a medal for the murder. Especially significant since the cops planted a gun on the kid.

Santa Fe cops beat a man they stopped for walking down the middle of the street, who's father had just died. There's a video; they yell 'stop ******* resisting' as they beat him and slam him onto the ground. Two cops are laying on top of him, punching him in the head and body as he's pinned to the ground, continuing to tell him to stop resisting. Oh, and they pepper spray him while he's on the ground. The cops charge him with assault on police, then resisting arrest. He is acquitted and the city of Santa Fe settles a police abuse lawsuit with $125,000.

Now, you tell me - if two large men have you pinned to the ground and are directly on top of you, hitting you in the head, are you going to lie motionless and not even try to block the blows? Also, the police denied the existence of the video at first.

And then we have stories like this - a laid off man gearing up with body armor and guns to kill policeman. Normally I'd give at least a half hearted condemnation of this, but after all I've read, I don't feel up to it.

Gunmen Kills Three Pittsburgh Police Officers
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) ―

A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.

Of course, while I wouldn't shed many tears for some of the worse scumbags in this thread meeting such an end, those were just random cops who hadn't necessarily done anything wrong.

But then the cynic in me says they likely have done bad things, they supported bad and corrupt cops through their participation in a code of silence, and would likely have violated the rights of other citizens in the future. I suppose the shooter here is someone who's read a little too much Unintended Consequences.

Or maybe the rest of us haven't read it enough.

CR