Here in North Carolina, though up in Ashe County, deputies accidentally killed a motorcycle rider by triggering his airbag safety vest. They were unreasonably aggressive, pulling a gun on him and physically dragging him off the bike without bothering to disconnect the safety vest. If you don't know how these work, they are connected to the bike so that if you come off of it the ripcord causes the airbags to expand. These things exert pretty serious force (as you can see from that link), which can cause problems for breathing -- especially if you are also being choked out by a deputy sheriff. An autopsy ruled Mast’s death a homicide and found the cause of death was “compression asphyxia of the torso and neck.”
As you can see from the embedded video, the sheriff's statement doesn't line up with the body camera footage at all. There were no warrants; the suspect had not been observed in any illegal activity, and was driving the speed limit when the deputies decided to pull him over and forced him off the road (by their own admission on camera). The footage was withheld from the public until a local news station got a court order forcing its release following the autopsy report.
From the last link:
Representative Sarah Stevens (R-Surry) filed a bill that would make autopsy reports secret. Stevens told Axios Raleigh the proposal was pushed by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.
To better serve and protect you, no doubt.
We (average American middle class) are rapidly getting to the point the inner city people were at years ago- cops are not to be trusted in any way.
ReplyDeleteNow there ARE good cops.
The problem they don't understand is this- the thin blue line cuts both ways-
It's tribal- so the police may support each other, always, no questions asked- but the public also sees them as a tribe, not as individuals.
Bobby Jones , of the famous Jones clan, kills Louis Smith, of the Smith clan.
So Louis brother vows to take revenge, but Bobby is in the slammer- so he kills Bobby's brother Luke instead- clan war, Bobby, Luke, all same-same.
Extrapolate this a bit and things get really nasty.
By the way, the language of those esteemed public servants sounded more like a street gang......
I imagine I've told you this story, but in Iraq the police and army were like that. They were often also literally from different tribes. The police were more corrupt by far, having had plenty of opportunity to practice soliciting bribes. Thus, we would generally have a police checkpoint at major intersections, surrounded on all four sides within visual range by four army checkpoints. That way they would keep an eye on each other.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I met my supervisor in Venezuela he laid out the procedure for dealing with bribes, a.k.a. on-the-spot fines, paid to traffic police. Put it down on your expense report as a dinner with a PDVSA engineer or geologist, he told me. It was necessary advice, I found out. I suspect that recruit cops are instructed in police academy on what to say, as they all say the bribe was "voluntary."
ReplyDeleteThe last time I had an encounter with a cop I was caught driving 75 on I-10 east of Houston. The speed limit signs change quite often, so I hadn't been paying attention. He asked me where going. Florida. Moving? No, going to my brother-in-law's memorial service. Let me off with a warning. If you go under 75 on Interstates in Florida, you are risking being run over.
I was nearly shot myself once by police because they keyed my license plate number in wrong (mistaking an "S" for a "5"). The plate came back stolen, so they pulled me over and got out in bracketing fire positions on each flank, hands on their guns as they gave orders.
ReplyDeleteThey still were less aggressive than these guys, who actually pulled their guns and physically assaulted the rider -- on the basis of nothing indicating any crime or even moving violation.