When did some of you just "get used" to the concept that you going to have to stop and give your "papers" or be shot for every minor offense or rowdiness that happens?

Sad really "he ran at the cops" So? They chase you with Guns and Tazers and pull you over and harass people for victim less crimes all the time...

You know we did build this country without check points and stops and searches and wars on contraband and we did a fine job of it, crime has gone up nor down all century as a result of all this.

High time police were given their jobs back... a Cop is supposed to catch Murderers and Rapists and Molesters and Terrorists and other completely Heinous threats to society...

Back in the day speeders would be let go lol, now they spend a Million Bucks and disrupt the whole city...

It's completely out of control, I don't blame the cops I blame all of us for scaring so easy over nothing that we have cops out on the street charged with needing to Physically confront every social situation imaginable

If Cops were returned to being cops not Hall Monitors we wouldn't have these issues

I'd love to know exactly what these kids were doing that actually required a Gun Armed Response on a crowded platform to stop them?

Perhaps... preventing some grafitti or stopping them from firing up a joint? Maybe it was as as simple as yelling "hey no Running"

I'll just say it in simplicity

I don't know what they were doing, horsing around, being rowdy, spraying a wall getting high, riding a skateboard....

Doesn't much matter

In any event it comes down to a simple thing...

Cost to remove spray paint... as an example... 300.00

Cost to incarcerate a kid for 6 months 35,000.00

Cost of Dead kid... a few Million Plus a loss of tax payments over 40 years... and all but the biggest dirt bags are employed at least part of their lives...

Perhaps if they don't care for our lives...

It's time to go over the books and see what the economic consequences of Millions of unemployable people over random bs offenses actually adds up to...

Maybe if they addressed the financial realities they'd see what policing of minutia actually costs society in the long run...

I remember seeing a story a few years back about a man who stole an out of use mail vehicle...

I guesstimated the value of the vehicle at about 25 G Max

Yet the so cal police spent over 3.5 million on the police chase, helicopters and all the rest... cars were wrecked people got hurt,

and ...maybe they can get "IT" when it's numbers not lives...

People do stupid things... spending a few Million revenge or no tolerance money hasn't even budged them from being stupid sometimes...

A guy that takes a truck, isn't evil... he's a dope lol, take his picture from a freeway light and give him a month in jail lol

Don't chase him down kill a few people and spend a few Million Dollars, just buy a new Truck lol...

Damn things are insured anyway...

Domestic violence where there is no injury 90% of the time in arrest, minor drug use, petty theft, theft for survival hunger and... Stupid kid nonsense, stealing something stupid, fights with no hospitalization required...

all these things need to be adjusted downward in terms of importance...


Bigger than all of it is

That the Govt wants us to accept being monitored for Reasons of Terrorism, I have ZERO issue with that...

So long as i'm left alone from normal PRIMATE BEHAVIOR MISTAKES, like J walking or getting high...

Very hard to trust them when they cut you zero slack on stupid bs isn't it?

All boils down too... what need was there to run them down on a closed platform with innocent bystanders... (I don't know) but 90% of the time it's nothing worth it...

Reminds me of the thread on skaters being abused...

Yeah they are grinding the rails on a banister owned by Exxon or someone else lol... they also make a few Billion a year, they can paint the banister lol, no need to run guys with guns out there after this all...

Actually when was the last time any of you aside from a few have ever held a position of public trust that required you to wear a firearm to defend yourself or another? You seem to think that a large unarmed mob couldn't possibly stand up to an armed officer, so they are right in ganging up. Nice to observe from your safe computer chair. If this is what happened, did this guy deserve to get shot?...no. But put your cophatred back in the box because it is almost as unsightly as the ignorant Israeli-Palestinian bigotry that seems to be infiltrating this site. Once again look at the guy in the opening seconds of the video walking toward the cop and tell me that if you were not in the officer's shoes you wouldn't jack your alert status up.

The original vid is confusing, but the youtube vid is very clear. I would like to give the cop the benefit of the doubt, but I really can't see any doubt. The cop murdered that kid.

[edit on 5-1-2009 by rizla]

I think both Raist and Jay have misunderstood my post. Please read it again. I have been in the same shoes as you and have been in a similar situation although not in the military , Jay. It was WRONG ( IF THE FOOTAGE, which was horrible, IS ACCURATE.) The repeated bashing of officers that have to use force to defend themselves is getting old and that is what these threads normally turn into. That the police and people armed to protect sites and others are some f'in Rambos that only doing it because they want to fire their weapon at someone is getting old and tiresome. Instead of nitpicking my post try looking at where I am coming from, being that you guys are of the same job description. And BTW if the fact that you are taking ,my post as a sweeping generalization especially after me stating that this doesn't include everyone that posted means that there is either an unresolved problem within you or you skimmed the post.

[edit on 5-1-2009 by djvexd]

[edit on 5-1-2009 by djvexd]

It's a big problem isn't it? That so many of us bash the cops...

But what else can happen when the cops enforce rules that lead to altercations over nothing?

There really needs to be a more vocal outcry from within the departments from Cops that they don't wish to enforce some of the more moronic and social offenses out there.

And I know as a fact that there are a wide body of cops here and in Canada that aren't happy being made into Nannies but obviously there is another body at work within the police that enjoys the extra power and feels basic human behavior needs to be controlled.

More than on cop has told me, they don't like being called out to deal with nonsense, nor do they like to send people to Jail over minor infractions and they know the hostility they face is the Fear of a person who just doesn't want to end up in a cage for something frivolous

Basically today the way it is, we all have reason to FEAR the cops, so the reaction they get i negative, 30 years ago a routine traffic stop didn't require 3 squad cars...

That's because that stop might not land you, out of a job, in jail and away from your family for something as simple as an open container... they used to take your keys away and make you get them when you were sober... not so scary...

But this is a vicious circle of us against us and it's moronic already

I mean holy rebellion in a hand basket Batman... there are places that criminalize baggy jeans... Great reason to provoke a confrontation that leads to a dead kid once in awhile...

The backlash would say, people and "kids today" would go "crazy" without enforcement

But it's untrue, because in a world where kids don't go to jail for carrying on, neither to Parents for spanking their arses when they act out in the first place...