Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who polices the police?
Trump’s attitude about the media has caught on with the police at demonstrations. Given that it is the media who reports on police misconduct, the police take every opportunity to strike back. It is bad enough that there is now a Press Freedom Tracker reporting on attacks on the media at demonstrations.
The BBC reported on ‘Unacceptable’ attacks on reporters at protests, that shows that local reporters, national reporters, and foreign teams were all targeted by the police while openly wearing press credentials.
ABC reported on an Australian crew: Seven news crew attacked by charging police in Washington D.C.. They were backed against a wall and slammed with shields.
Then there’s there’s a Louisville, Kentucky attack “I’m Getting Shot!”: Louisville Police open fire On local TV reporter and crew. An officer with a pepper shot gun was obviously aiming at the crew who continued to tape while being assaulted.
I suspect current police officers spent too much time watching Cartman in South Park.
2 comments
So, protesters protesting police brutality are met with…. police brutality?
Way to prove the protesters’ point, cops!
Now, if they only used the same zeal against actual criminals. While the entire Oakland PD was pepper balling and tear gassing peaceful protesters in downtown Oakland, eight blocks away vanloads of neo-Nazis were breaking down the doors of shops in Japantown and looting everything in sight.
Joke going around:
Q: Why don’t cops break up Klan rallies and neo-Nazi rallies the way they break up protests against police brutality?
A: The cops are already there at the Klan rallies and neo-Nazi rallies, as the participants.
Disgusting.
The way these cops act is almost the opposite of the way policing was taught when I attended the academy in the early 1970’s. Firearms training emphasized keeping your weapon holstered until the justification for use of deadly force was met, and then don’t shoot unless you can do so without risk to bystanders. These days they spray bullets all over hell. I carried a S&W Model 19 which was a six-round revolver, you made your first round count. You had six loaded and twelve in the loops of your gunbelt. Today they have around 15 in the weapon and two extra clips. These people are looking for trouble, not keeping the peace.
If things looked bad you pulled out the Remington 870 and racked a deer slug into the chamber. Suddenly everyone on the street was peacefully going about their business.
If you have a large crowd that must be cleared you give them an obvious exit and walk toward them. If you rush them or trap them you are going to have a melee. A couple of large fans among the people in Lafayette Park and “Bully” Barr would have discovered that they were using “chemical irritants” on peaceful protestors. If I was organizing a protest I would recruit a few lacrosse players to deal with the tear gas, lobbing it back at the people throwing it – returning lost property.