Out of Control Police

Over the holidays we got a chance to see how police all over the US are simply out of control. Not that this comes as any surprise to the author given my commentary (1,2,3,4,5,6,7 among others) on the abomination that was the trial of the officers who killed Sean Bell. I won't get into my discussion of the white boy shot by police for making the mistake of answering a knock on his home's door while holding a PlayStation controller in his hand because he was playing a game.

I won't get into the illegal detainment of reporters at the RNC over the summer either. Nor will I discuss in detail the tasering death of a naked mentally disturbed man who was standing on a ledge being a threat to no one but himself.No these patterns of direct abuse and murders of citizens apparently has not bothered the political leadership of this country including the president elect to even comment on. No what I'm discussing are two events that occurred right about New Years.

Here in NY, about 10 police showed up at a man's apartment over a noise complaint. The police did not realize that they were on camera and acted "normally." After asking for the man's ID (totally unnecessary) the police stormed the mans home, beat his son and wife and harassed, detained and arrested some of his party guests. All of which was caught on tape. The day before this news broke the NY Times published an article about the NYPD policing policies in NY which discussed the 500,000 people, mostly black men, stopped and frisked by the NYPD most of whom, as in 90+ percent have not only done nothing to warrant being stopped (unless you count a hand shake) let alone had anything on their person when searched.

We are talking about the police in Oakland California. We are talking about the stone cold execution of an unarmed man who was "subdued" and laying face down with his hands on his head by a police officer. We're talking about a police officer who shot this man in the back at point blank range, in front of people. The lame excuse that he thought he had drawn his taser (which is located on the opposite hip than the gun, is shaped different and weighs different) is still not an excuse since there is no grounds for tasering a "suspect" who is already subdued.

Across the country there have been reports of police tasering people basically for kicks. It shows the level of disrespect and contempt that some police officers have for the public at large. This is an epidemic that must be addressed.

It would appear that the Democrats are more concerned with petty politics than with the safety of the citizens from the abuse of those who are supposed to protect and serve. It would do well for the president elect to make a public statement in regards to these outrages and to make sure that the justice department investigates and prosecutes police officers who have abused citizens civil rights or who have outright murdered citizens.