Police officer pushes citizen, then arrests him (video)

You see more and more of these videos every day and unfortunately there like UFO sightings, none of the footage is every clear enough to say 100% who was in the wrong. The kid could have been mouthy the Cop looked like he was dealing with a crowd of drunk college kids all night who knows. Perhaps there should be a megathread for all these cop videos.
 
When that cop shoved the guy, that is battery. There was no proximate event that would justify the cop resorting to hitting that person. If he had been mouthing off 5 minutes ago, that still does not justify the escalation of force.

The wrong person was put in handcuffs.
 
Let me clarify. It does not give him the right to push who ever he wants, but its hard to judge someone over a very short you tube clip. It make you ignorant.

Very few cops take it to far. MOST don't. Everyone has bad apples. The bad apples need to be fired and disciplined.

The old bad apples argument. Unfortunately I believe you are wrong. Hear me out Sreapis, I'm interested in your thought.

Problems are two fold in modern policing:

1) Cops are trained from their first day in the accademy to believe that Officer safety is number one. That is a terrifying state of affairs. Public safety is number one. If you as a cop can't handle that, don't take the job. When the safety of the public at large and the officers are in conflict, cops are trained to come in with insurmountable force. This is the first step towards a police state.

2) The thin blue line. There is a subtle culture of corruption among almost ALL cops. Even the ones we're friends with, even the ones we consider to be good cops. They give each other professional courtesys when it comes to driving infractions. Sometimes up to and including DUI. This extends to turning a blind eye when one of the "bad apples" does something they shouldn't have. Most "good cops" won't turn another cop in. They work to present an officers questionable action in the best light. Most often its merely done by doing nothing. Its hard to prove that someone did nothing.

The net result of this training and endemic, subtle corruption is a police force that has ceased to represent the best interests of the populace they have sworn to protect. They now exist for their own protection and betterment.

It is a sad state of affairs when someone as normally passive as me has grown to consider most LEOs to be a net negative to my safety and liberty.

Don
 
The old bad apples argument. Unfortunately I believe you are wrong. Hear me out Sreapis, I'm interested in your thought.

Problems are two fold in modern policing:

1) Cops are trained from their first day in the accademy to believe that Officer safety is number one. That is a terrifying state of affairs. Public safety is number one. If you as a cop can't handle that, don't take the job. When the safety of the public at large and the officers are in conflict, cops are trained to come in with insurmountable force. This is the first step towards a police state.

2) The thin blue line. There is a subtle culture of corruption among almost ALL cops. Even the ones we're friends with, even the ones we consider to be good cops. They give each other professional courtesys when it comes to driving infractions. Sometimes up to and including DUI. This extends to turning a blind eye when one of the "bad apples" does something they shouldn't have. Most "good cops" won't turn another cop in. They work to present an officers questionable action in the best light. Most often its merely done by doing nothing. Its hard to prove that someone did nothing.

The net result of this training and endemic, subtle corruption is a police force that has ceased to represent the best interests of the populace they have sworn to protect. They now exist for their own protection and betterment.

It is a sad state of affairs when someone as normally passive as me has grown to consider most LEOs to be a net negative to my safety and liberty.

Don

I have to agree. I hate pinning labels on groups but, lately, they haven't done much in the way of bolstering their image either.
 
Why is there no "civilian oversight"? Cops judging/investigating cops, is a no win for the public.

What ever happened to protect and serve? I keep thinking of the tag line on officer Barbrady's cruiser on South Park...

Seriously, we pay your salary, treat us with respect until we absolutely deserve none.
 
I call utter BS on that. The cop shoved him then went back to writing in his notebook. If there was a threat, you don't shove someone then go back to penning your novel. The cop provoked an incident, plain and simple.

F'in neighborhood watch wannabees.... who do those cops think they are?
 
Why is there no "civilian oversight"? Cops judging/investigating cops, is a no win for the public.

What ever happened to protect and serve? I keep thinking of the tag line on officer Barbrady's cruiser on South Park...

Seriously, we pay your salary, treat us with respect until we absolutely deserve none.

Well, you can always call the FBI when your local police are so corrupt that they are the biggest criminals in town. That happened in the 80's in Medford when a laughably large sized portion of the Medford Police Department was actively robbing banks inside the city.
 
I really think that citizens filming is going to force a sea change. It may just take a few years.

I doubt it. Whenever a video comes out of a bad cop kicking the shit out of a guy for no reason, all we (America) does is bitch in the comments section of the news website. Then the investigation clears the obviously guilty cop and again we bitch in the comments section. The only time anyone marches is when its a black. Until all of us (black, white, purple) march and burn down police stations, nothing is going to change.

A healthy government is one that is afraid of public outrage. Typing online is not very scary. Even from some of the tuff guys on this site. We have been trained to believe that the only justice available to us comes from the .gov, but when that fails, the people need to act. They can't arrest a million protesters. Our system is broken.
 
You are correct, anything reported in the media, youtube, etc; we don't really know what happened. It does appear to me that the officer was acting unprofessionally. Part of the job of cops is to deal with the scum of the Earth and to do so in a professional manner. I don't care if the kid was describing how he had the cop's mom, sister, and daughter all over a barrel, there is no reason to assault someone then go back to filling out a ticket. If it was a real threat, he would have continued to eliminate the threat, not go back to writing. I cannot think of a scenario where a cop should be allowed to assault you then just continue with mundane actions.

At best what you are asking us to do is give the cop the benefit of the doubt and accept this as yet another isolated incident where 'what really happened was off camera'. I for one would like to live in a world where I do not have to give the cops the benefit of the doubt all the time. It would be nice to say 'yup, that kid deserved a beat down' instead of having to give the benefit of doubt to someone who looks like a skinhead in uniform on a powertrip assaulting some and intimidating others with unlawful requests.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Mattyweb again.
 
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