SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011 U.S. torture policy comes home—UC Davis cops "pepper-sprayed down the throats" of students By Gaius Publius on 11/19/2011 02:30:00 PM John covered this in his original post (see last update), but I want to highlight this one part. This is from an open letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi (a name to remember) from Prof Nathan Brown, UC Davis (my emphasis):When students covered their eyes with their clothing,police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.Torture. There's no other word for this behavior. You can talk about one cop, or provocation (if they can find it), or cop behavior, but that's small-bore analysis. This is the Bush–Obama torture regime come home. When a nation tortures, forgives torture, justifies torture, glories in torture — it corrupts itself from the core. This nation, my nation, is rotting from the core. No defender of torture will be able to take a clean position on this incident. Watch them. They'll twist themselves into knots with their too-bad's and their yes-but's and their "Sorry Mrs White, I know that cruelty was meant for other people; we'll do better next time." Only the torture-free will make sense when they speak. Did I say Torture? Add Sadism. The purpose of torture is to give pleasure to the torturer. The rest is just the cover story. Who's the torturer? The man with his hand on the pepper-spray gun. The one who put a sadist on the front line. The one who, from his couch, wants cops to deliver "Second Amendment justice" to all those he leads himself to hate. And the one who cheers on as "Justice" Jack Bauer separates the testicles of another of America's many enemies. Yes, the delight they took in torture watching the "fictional" 24 is the true black heart of America. The inestimable Dahlia Lithwick, writing in 2008 (my emphasis):The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning "The Dark Side," and Philippe Sands's "Torture Team," it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's "24," Jack Bauer.Torture and sadism. This is America's black heart, America's Bush–Obama torture policy come home. You could say that it's always been that way. True, but it's getting worse. I wish I could say this is a one-off. It's clearly not. GP http://www.americablog.com/2011/11/us-torture-policy-comes-homeuc-davis.html
this guy is getting a ticket for riding his bike on the sidewalk and another guy walks buy and jokes with him and ends up getting arrested http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qxjNVSCs_Lg
I got detained about a year and a 1/2 ago, for get this.......looking suspicious while looking for the library!!! I turned a corner into a little strip mall looking for the Burlington county library as I had just moved to the area and needed to know where the library was....to you know....read things! As I'm going slow and looking up to find the entrance a cop on foot asks me to pull over. I stop still and get ready to get out...then he tells me to pull to the side of the street. I did that and got out. I ask why I'm being stopped. He says "why were you going so slow and looking suspiciously into windows". I said...I just moved here and I don't know where the library is. I was trying to find it....Is that ok? He looks at me with the mean mug and says....well you can't move a vehicle without a seatbelt. Now...I had taken the seatbelt off to get out before he asked me to move to pull to the side of the street. I moved about 30-35 feet and to the side and he saw me take off my seatbelt when I stopped the first time. I said, but you saw me take off my seatbelt...he said and you didn't put it back on when you moved the vehicle....this is a violation in the state of NJ. I said I know...I moved from somewhere else in the state...he said then you knew the law. I just laughed out loud and got back in my car.....he said i hope the ticket is just as funny. I cracked up harder. I told him you are following the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law...as I said this and he came back toward the car....another officer comes up and yells at me....do you wish to be arrested.....I said...I was talking to the other officer. Yelling still I was told the officer didn't wish to talk to me....I said...well why did he come back to my car once he had given me the ticket and walked away. He engaged me after I said something to him....if he didn't wish to engage he could have continued to walk away from me. The officer looks at me with the mean mug and yells....get out of the car sir...I said for what....get out of the car sir.....then comes the cuffs and smashing my head into the squad car. I sat in the station for about an hour while they ran my license again and then another officer had to drive me back to my car.....LOL! I went to court and explained what happened...and the judge dismissed it...but it cost me $48 in court fees! Some cops just do crap cause they can!
I can dig that, but in my experience....most cops are good dudes that get caught up in the code and pulled toward corruption, because of how the system works. If it changed from the top down...most of them would tow the line and be solid civil servants. As it stands.....the average human being does as much as they believe they can get away with....and cops can get away with murder.....sometimes literally!
