Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/08/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]B. D. Colen wrote: Right...allow me to leap to conclusion - white guy who all the cops know isn't shot; black guy who they didn't, under precisely same circumstances, would have been so filled with lead the EPA would have declared him a Super Fund site. Am I right, or have I leapt to a Harvardian Knee Jerk Liberal Yankee Conclusion? ------------------------- I'm a little late to the party, but B.D., you got that one right. I've seen this exact dynamic up close and personal (and Harvard has nothing to do with it), and I'll never fully trust the police again. (Why in the hell would *anyone* trust a bunch of working class yahoos with guns?) I was walking home with a black cook I worked with on a summer job. Nicest guy in the world. Cops stopped their car, "hands on head" that kind of stuff. But when they reached us, pushed me aside (don't want to fuck with preppy kids, do they?). Took my buddies bag, unzipped it, flung it so everything was scattered on the street. Nothing there, so they demanded that is we "run far away from this neighborhood." Hm, what authority do they have to demand that? My co-worker's complete humiliation was palpable. Not a dry eye in the house, and anyone who could have seen this would have cried too. If I was armed, I would have shot the assholes (testosterone filled 19 year old) and spent the rest of my life happily in jail. My father and I made lots of calls, but we didn't have badge numbers and no one was willing to help us identify the officers by their location and the make/color of their unmarked car. Hmmm. This isn't a partisan issue. I wouldn't want cops to needlessly rough up the right-est of right wing redneck kooks either. Cops have helped me on several occasions (but I'm white and live in a hoity toity neighborhood), they do have stressful jobs and they perform a vital service in our society. But the THUGS who misuse their govt. sanctioned lethal force to intimidate minorities (or any other innocents) should be punished with life in prison or the death penalty in appropriate states. There ain't no reasoning with a criminal mind backed up by a gun and the force of the state - they'll understand only force in return. And we wonder why there's so many violent rap songs that advocate simply killing the police. Like Palestinians cheering on 9/11 (disgusting), I can imagine our own underclasses taking to the streets and dancing and cheering every time an officer is killed. And whose fault would that sad, sad, sad situation be? An excellent project for serious college students and community activists would be to "stage" events and then film the police in action if they take the bait. Publish their names, names of thier children, phone numbers and addresses on the web - after all, it would be an "academic study." Fuck 'em - if they take the bait, they deserve humiliation and jail and any other independent citizen wrath that might befall them. Sorry for the rant. It's an issue near and dear to my heart. Still, I'm glad the poor mentally ill fellow wasn't shot. Scott > > > > -- Pics @ http://www.adrenaline.com/snaps Leica M6TTL, Bessa R, Nikon FM3a, Nikon D70, Rollei AFM35 (Jihad Sigint NSA FBI Patriot Act)