I will be posting a detailed documentation of how the corporate news media have distorted or attempted to minimize this story in the next day or so. But as I was looking over one of the many videos on Youtube of the incident where police tasered an unarmed, peaceful student for asking a question, I couldn’t believe what I saw for just a fraction of a second.
I have a simple question for all you right-wingers out there who want to belittle, downplay, obfuscate or otherwise mis-characterize this incident:
If the police weren’t acting out of line, then why was this police officer smiling just after he had sent 50,000 volts running through this kid’s body after the kid begged him repeatedly not to?
“Freedom is the freedom to simply say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows”
-George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
I’d defend the police in a case of resisting arrest normally. Except in this case there REALLY shouldn’t have been a constant police presence like they had, they shouldn’t have tasered him, and they certainly shouldn’t be smiling about it. And there shouldn’t have been an arrest to resist, if they’d let the organizers handle it diplomatically in the first place.
I disagree that the police should be given any of our indulgence. Keep in mind that the very word ‘fascism’ stems from Latin word ‘fasces’ which was the ancient Roman cerimonial bundle of sticks which held an axe thus symbolizing and glorifying the state’s power over life and death.
(This is also, incidentally, why Marx steadfastly opposed capital punishment, because it, by it’s very nature, stems from the same roots as the ‘fasces’)
Also of note is the African American officer who gave the order. One video, if you watch his face while saying “taze ‘em,” it seems as if he’s experiencing a sadistic pleasure at doing it just to spite the victim’s cry.
Hey my friends, i have a question: How come most americans even americans who are oppressed by capitalism are capitalists? I don’t understand why there are almost no socialists in USA
I didn’t see that until I saw the freeze of it, That just sickens me.
The smiling officer was the turning pointfor me. I wondered why it was not mentioned so I played the recording three times (slo-mo) to make sure I saw the smile. I did. The officer looked up twice smile or laughed each time. If this was such a serious incident the officers should not have taken this as a joke. It was as if the security officers were more excited to finally get a chance to use the Taser toy!
The overuse and misuse of this weapon is eroding confidence in law enforcement. Law enforcement groups have the same percentage of people lacking judgement as does society in general. The same percentage of intelligent people, the same percentage of cretins. I wonder which will behind the badge should I be stopped or addressed by law enforcement. This is not an idle fear because this county has an amazing number of officers who swagger and strut and over-talk citizens enough to make one forget one’s rights. We have more good officers than bad but they are less likely to make excessive stops hoping for the chance to use their toys. Never ask for a citizen complaint form because that will just be the beginning of the troubles.
D. Morris