Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

that would only be 'reasonable' if it depended on officer's-state-of-mind somehow to cover the insane disproportion in killing a citizen over a shitty arrest, and it didn't matter that any such state of mind seems hella unreasonable

this is really scary footage too. the cop racing after his prey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86SR84lRMAc

Black! *immediate u-turn*

How come no sound on that til the end?

Or does the sound only come on once they switch on their lights or something

When I said I thought she was "calm", I meant she was calm in the car, when he said she seemed agitated. Also she was smoking that cigarette while he was at his car. The way he told her to put it out was so bitchy, it wasn't an earnest request.

crazy how fast he goes to catch up to her so that she can end up dead in a jail cell.

Of course she is agitated, she is getting followed by police for no reason in Texas and then getting pulled over for (almost) no reason when she tries to pull aside hoping in vain that the cop just wants to pass.

She's seen the movie before and quite possibly starred in it, she knows what happens next.

I got pulled over recently and the cop did the "you seem agitated" thing with me too. Of course I'm agitated, you're a cop and you just pulled me over.

my friend and I once got made to get out his car and be searched by police because i "seemed nervous". no duh.

hey it's just a guy who could murder you for no reason, chill out

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/20/us/sandra-bland-arrest-death-videos-maps.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

the times story has blow-by-blow legal commentary on the initial stop now

Even amid all the other b.s. that "Are you done?" really makes me grind my teeth. That is Power Trip 101.

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/22/fundraiser_for_baltimore_cops_charged_in_freddie_grays_death_to_feature_blackface_performance/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

oh, it's been cancelled.

http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/do-you-know-why-im-pulling-you-over-being-wildly-a-50916

The "official" Sandra Bland story has become literally unbelievable: Bland was apparently deeply depressed and, though furious about her arrest and not depressive in the eyes of her friends and family, opted to share her pain with intake officers... who nonetheless neglected to take any steps to safeguard her from being injured though they believed she was potentially a danger to herself. Then, while still in custody, she either smoked or ate some marijuana then, while waiting to be released on bail so that she could start her new job and press charges against a cop that acted improperly on camera, instead hung herself with a conveniently available garbage bag.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/us/autopsy-of-sandra-bland-finds-injuries-consistent-with-suicide-prosecutor-says.html

Didn't know whether to put this in here or Racism, but Jesus Fucking Christ, what the fuck?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bobby-berger-blackface-fundraiser-canceled

Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, Maryland, the venue that was reported to host former police officer Bobby Berger's planned fundraiser, said in a statement late Wednesday that the event would not be held there.

"Bobby Berger will not host a fundraiser at Michael’s Eighth Avenue for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray," the statement read. "No contract was signed with Mr. Berger. Michael’s does not condone blackface performances of any kind."

see four posts above yours

Bah, thanks.

CNN with legal discussion:

Was Sandra Bland traffic stop legal and fair?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/23/opinions/cevallos-sandra-bland-traffic-stop/index.html

The "official" Sandra Bland story has become literally unbelievable

Man, this is OTM. It's like total black is white, up is down territory. If they're going to lie, they might as well make it plausible. If it was just a tragic series of coincidences, then they're doing a terrible job backing up their ridiculous defense, and at this point even doing that would come so late as to raise further doubts. Even reposting the allegedly edited video, "fixing" whatever problems it had, the replacement video is still missing several minutes, and lacks a time-stamp. It's like this super collision of small town cop incompetence. They're not even good at thin blue line lying, which is cop 101.

Devil's advocate here: would you admit to depression in police intake forms if it means a possibility of clemency while in their custody?

in my experience, the only time clemency is given is if someone reports active suicidal ideation --- at which point they are transferred from jail to the emergency department for evaluation

Her admission of depression, as well as admitting to losing a baby, both details supposedly totally unknown to her friends and family, does seem like a weird thing to admit in a police intake form, especially given that she had to be dragged in there against her will under disingenuous pretenses in cuffs and under threat of taser. IMO.

i am extremely skeptical of the official reporting of events in this case, but will say that it is not uncommon at all for pts with depression, miscarriage, suicidal ideation, etc, to keep that secret from their loved ones (as i'm sure some ilxors know v well)

Sure, it just seems weird that she would be cooperative at all, really. Why would she even relate the specific details of a miscarriage to the police, even if it was true? Given she knows her arrest is bullshit and even insists earlier she doesn't need to do anything more than identify herself? I don't know how arrests/booking or whatever work. But given that almost every other aspect of the official accounts scans as false or inaccurate, Occam's razor seems to be in play here.

it would be a really far-fetched imo coverup to falsify that form & specifically write abt losing a baby cuz there just have to be medical records of some type that will confirm/deny if that happened even if family & friends had no idea right

Medical records are confidential

word well anyway I guess the sister confirmed bland did have a miscarriage

Idk i am kinda starting to believe cops version tbh

regardless of confidentiality, there aren't necessarily medical records every time someone gets pregnant and then miscarries

It's also important to always keep in mind that this was 100% bullshit before she even got to the station.

i can't stop thinking about sandra bland tbh

I kinda believe the cops version as well, but it's not as if that stops the story from being horrifying. Basically, she refused to put out her cigarette, and this cop just decided to wreck her life. The whole routine way this has happened: this must happen over and over and over. The law in Texas is just legalized harassment of black people. If it isn't 'murder', she was still killed by white supremacy; the system might not have murdered her, but it sure as hell did everything it could to deny her her humanity.

p much

the marijuana thing... people understand that trace amounts of marijuana are detectable in your system for quite a long time, right? I mean anyone who's ever been drug tested (raises hand) knows this

"she refused to put out her cigarette"

How does anyone still not blindly do whatever a cop says - no matter how stupid or bizarre you might think it is - after everything that happened?

...

if I got arrested you can damn well be sure there's a bunch of weed in my system. that doesnt mean im a savage who deserves to die. or that I smoked weed in the last 24 hours.

did you guys watch her video where she talks about police brutality?

https://www.facebook.com/sandra.bland.5070/videos/10100618184266304/?pnref=story

How does anyone still not blindly do whatever a cop says - no matter how stupid or bizarre you might think it is - after everything that happened?

― StanM, Friday, July 24, 2015 4:05 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you can't be fucking serious

?

I'm not saying that the trigger happy powertripping cops aren't to blame. I'm only recommending that you don't want to find out if the one you meet is like that. Don't talk back, don't struggle, don't talk back, he's got the gun and you are a threat the millisecond you do any of those things. Complain about him afterwards.

no offense stanm, and forgive me if i'm just completely misreading everything about your post, but you do realize you sound like someone's right-wing acquaintance posting on the comments below a news story, in this case dispensing know-it-all advice to a woman who is dead, under extremely fishy circumstances, that are emphatically not her fault.

blaming the victim is generally not cool, like in basically all situations. and the whole thing with this kind of police antagonism is that it does not matter what you do, it is not like they got out of the car thinking "i'll be a nice guy if they pass the putting-out-the-cigarette test." the putting-out-the-cigarette thing is itself an act of unprovoked aggression from the cop. oh, so what, did she do something before that to make him feel "threatened" so that, in his agitated state, he went for the cigarette move? gosh, guess the whole thing was her fault then. i'm sure you don't think that but this is where this kind of logic leads. if the cop is pulling this cigarette shit on you then guess what, the cop you met is already "like that." so whose fault is it if the situation gets worse? if you answered the person being stopped and harassed for no good reason, go back and check your math.

put another way: cops are not grizzly bears in the woods where you just need to know this one trick to make them not think you're a "threat." IOW this situation has fuck all to do with a cop feeling "threatened." i find the idea of cops, who, indeed, have guns and the knowledge that their actions will be supported by a myriad of institutions, feeling "threatened" in the circumstances of a traffic stop just completely nuts.

brutality is not the fault of the brutalized, and it is not for message board posters to tell people how they should react. also btw "complain about him afterwards" sounds really condescending and belittling, like the victims in these situations just need to mature a little and save their irritations for a yelp review. i want to assume you don't mean it that way and it's more "nail his ass to the wall through the legal system afterwards" or whatever but that doesn't change the overall tone. that's without getting specifically to "don't talk back, don't struggle, don't talk back," which i really have to leave to somebody else.

Oh, no, I was wondering what the hostility was about - I'm not talking about any particular person or case, just, in general, if you look at all of the things that went wrong in all of these links, most contain a ridiculously tiny action or word or gesture by the victim that afterwards look like that was (part of) the trigger that the cop needed to go haywire. No, that doesn't mean the victims brought it upon themselves, not at all,just that I would be fully committed to becoming the most docile unquestioning complying cowardly SisYesSir SirNoSir lamb the second I'm stopped by a cop in the USA. That's not right wing or left wing or any wing, I certainly didn't mean to give that impression.

The important lesson here is that I still haven't learned that this kind of thread (complicated issues re: race, politics, religion, etc) isn't for me, I only dig my own grave every time. Ignore everything I said, I can't do this, clearly. I'm going back to the occasional stupid puns and ILM.

Actually a straight answer to yr point'd be nice, I live in New Zealand bt cops here need to be treated like a natural hazard on the order of (yup) bears, kinda doubt they're better in the US

And actually if you obey every idiotic belittling command they often do get their little power fix and let you off. They're (often) pathetic legal bullies. This isn't a theoretical matter for me tho, so I'll bow out.

i find the idea of cops, who, indeed, have guns and the knowledge that their actions will be supported by a myriad of institutions, feeling "threatened" in the circumstances of a traffic stop just completely nuts.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Saturday, July 25, 2015 11:52 PM

Personally I think we need more active citizen pushback against police in every scenario *except* the actual police-civilian encounter. That's a strategic assessment, not a moralizing one.