[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

So punching someone who works as a policeman is a crime punishable by death without trial?

for the record though, and i'm not in any way taking poor sway's side here, these have been incidents of (supposedly) resisting arrest. i think american police lacks people skills, uses excessive force, and is too trigger-happy--but this was the context of those deaths.

many years ago i was on the metro drinking and being a loud drunk (breaking the law) when suddenly i feel something yanking at my neck. i stiffen up and i see a little cop stumbling as he falls back because he lost his grip on me. (my friends were drunk and loud too but i was the only one standing so i guess that made me the target).

i looked at him said "if you need me to get out you can just ask, you don't have to pull me". so he mumbles, please come out, the train stops and i get out, he asks for id, etc. he points an empty can of beer i had in a pocket and asks "what's that!?" and i say "...trash..." and i throw the can in a wastebasket.

he let me go and i caught the next train.

i think if instead of being reasonable when he yanked my neck i had retaliated, things would have gone differently. but if it had been a huge guy who had yanked me successfully, i really dont know what could have happened.

i was cuffed once at a traffic stop for having no lights on. i was driving an expensive car but i looked like shit (i had been helping a friend move, so i probably looked like i had stolen the thing.)

being cuffed for no good reason while they checked my papers felt like a violation but i had no choice. the guy said i looked suspicious because i was "wearing a tshirt in cold weather" and i said "i'm a big guy and i've been hauling furniture all day, of course i'm still hot from it." anyway they kept me cuffed and eventually established my non-criminality via radio.

anyway, they had their reasons/excuses/whatever -- they always do.

the problem with the american police, generally speaking, is that it's too militarized, and trained to end conflict by tactical victory alone. it's extremely rare to see them reason with anyone--they just demand submission.

it's really bizarre here compared to other countries where at some level you're able to talk to police like a person.

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anyway, here's what the president of the fraternal order of police (police labor union) has to say about recent events. not that i necessarily believe what he says but i always like to hear all sides of a story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...ue-of-poverty/