reply to post by BioSafe
I try hard to place myself in other people's perspectives to better understand what they do and why they do it.
Understanding doe not always mean excusing, though.
The mantra of "we don't know what happened before the video..." must be applied both ways. Police seem always to interpret that in their favor,
i.e., that the police were innocently minding their own business, just being professional, doing their jobs when an unrecorded behavior provoked the
response seen that puts them in a bad light. Could it be that the unrecorded bit might also show that they instigated and escalated an innocent
behavior into something that justified brutality and illegality upon their part? If you are honest,the answer must be yes.
There are too many videos showing too much unthinking "enforcement" against people who are justly angry with being screwed by the corporate world
while their government aids and abets the the criminals who perpetrate fraud, degrade the environment, and corrupt the justice and legal systems of
our nation. In the end that excuse simply won't wash in the face of the hundreds and thousands of candid images caught by people who are simply
trying to make their voices heard and get their needs met.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you and your fellow officers swore an oath to protect the people you serve.
It seems appropriate to ask at this juncture for you guys to be a little more explicit about the definition of the "people you serve". Is it us, the
common folk who try to earn an honest living, or is it they who gamble our savings, loot our treasury, and send our jobs overseas so they can enjoy
bigger bonuses and more wealth than they can possibly use?
I don't care which side you fall on, but it
is time to choose and declare openly which you uphold and defend. I can tolerate an honest
opponent. I despise those who play both sides against the middle and pretend to a neutrality they don't honestly have.
The system is patently screwed and failing. The OWS protesters are trying, peacefully, for the most part, to rectify it. Given the way the ruling
parties behave and think, they will ignore just protests and attempt to ride it out behind the protective wall of you and your fellow LEOs. Sooner or
later they will order you to use violence to control the protests. This time, that strategy will fail because things have already gone far too far. As
you said, violence begets violence, and the kind that looms in the wings is too horrific to be allowed. Without your full cooperation, the "ignore it
and ride it out" strategy can't work, and reforms must be made.
You must decide:
Exactly whose side are you on?