Originally posted by muzzleflash
well why do the "people " keep letting this happen?
why do they just take it without fighting back?
First, I'm as appalled as anyone here by the arrest and abuse of this reporter. Those cops need to face charges and pay a huge price in a civil
suit.
People don't "let this happen". These incidents are in fact very rare. I have never seen a Cop do the things I see on some of these video's. I
have drunks on the street in front of my office and have seen them dealt with and arrested many dozens of times. Not once did I see any abuse by an
Officer in fact they go out of their way to not even touch them and try and calm them down.
The problem here at ATS is we only see the worst of the worst and it can give the impression that is how it is in the US. It is not. As horrible as
these events are and as sick as these cops in these videos are, we who live here and are sensible know that these things are so rare most of us are
unlikely to see it in our lives.
I was arrested a couple of times in my youth and I did see others manhandled by the Cops, but every time it was the persons fault for fighting them.
My only thought was, what kind of idiot fights back with a Cop while being arrested?
I've also been a passenger in a car a couple of times when the driver was arrested. Both times the driver was visibly drunk or high and screamed
obscenities at the officers and tried to fight them. Afterward the Cops were very polite to me as they explained I would have to find my own ride
home. The driver deserved what happened.
I know these cases are different from what is on this thread, but like I said these things are rare.
We don't do anything about it because there is nothing to do anything about. Most Cops just do their jobs and the only people they even interact with
are criminals.
There are many here on ATS who blow this completely out of proportion. I often wonder if it could be they have had such bad experiences due to their
own behavior and are just having a tantrum because guilty people can't fight back. When you see someone posting about all their arrests, you can be
sure they deserved at least some of them.
For a normal law abiding person like I have been since I quit drugs 25 years ago, we never interact with Police. They never bother us, pull us over or
even give a second glance. To know the truth, you have to know the truth about the story teller.
Many of these videos are little bits of what happened and there is no way to know what happened leading up to what is on tape. For all we know the
person being worked over may have just kicked a cop in the balls, spit in their face or tried to get them with a weapon. I say this because I have
seen that happen.
I think some of our foreign Friends have it in for the US is why they criticize so much even though their countries may be far more repressive than
the US. They use these rare little snippets to try and paint a picture that it is the norm; when in fact, you could go through your entire life and
never have a bad experience with a Cop.
Bottom line is, there are good cops and bad cops, just as there are good citizens and bad citizens. The bad ones need taken off the street and the
good ones don't deserve the crap they get. Also, people who are paranoid of cops are often paranoid for good reason. They know they do things that if
they are caught they will be arrested, so they demonize all cops. And of course they are always innocent and they did not mean to do anything

In
their eyes it is of course their Constitutional right to buy crack from that guy with the gang tattoos who brags about how many he has killed, drive
down the road the road weaving between lanes running people of the road or did not mean to hit that little guy in the face busting his mouth open
because well, he just deserved it.
I think that denying ignorance includes not exaggerating, blowing out of proportion or flat out lying about what is going on. The only people who see
violence on a regular basis are criminals, thugs, drug dealers, pimps, sociopaths and people who watch too much TV. What happened on this tape is
terrible and wrong but it does not mean all cops are bad or that all people arrested are innocent. To think so is to embrace ignorance.
I'm done. Sorry for the rant.