Here in Eastern North Carolina, we have a pretty fantastic, maybe even traditional relationship with law-enforcement. The police here are respected and perhaps a big part of this is the fact that we have extremely low crime rates. I attribute the low crime rate to high gun-ownership levels and the fact that the cops play it "cool" as far as infractions are concerned and don't just fine the hell out of everyone for minor offenses such as tail-lights that aren't functioning.
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In other parts of the country, police are feared and that simply is not the case here where I live. For the most part we know the people on the force and don't even mind when we see them doing their job patrolling our streets - which is completely unnecessary since we don't have any property crime because of the combination of almost everyone being armed and the fact that we are legally entitles to protect our homes, bodies, and possessions with lethal force.
We don't have any situations in this area that I can recall where there was police brutality and for the most part, I support law enforcement. However, I realize that I am looking at this situation with rose-tinted glasses because we are very fortunate to have the sort of community spirit that we do have here.
A story out of Texas of all places appeared recently and it just makes my blood boil.
A man named John Kelley was walking slowly away from his family's vehicle on the side of a road when someone made a call about a domestic dispute. Police approached Kelley from behind and he was not fleeing. The police became enraged when John was not responding to their demands and then they tased him and kicked him on the ground.
There's one twist here though: John is deaf. he couldn't possibly have complied with the officer's demands because he couldn't hear any of it.
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I've never really understood the using of a stun-gun on someone when there are multiple cops present against one man anyway. I'm sure there's some sort of ethical use standard out there about how a taser will cause less harm than other physical take-downs but in this situation where the guy was not resisting and not fleeing, why did he need to be taken down to the ground anyway?
The police attempted to say that John had his hands were tucked under his torso and they suspected he might have a weapon. Nice try cops! The bodycam footage shows otherwise.
I don't think this should even be a conversation. The cops were definitely wrong in this situation and I would feel the same even if the guy wasn't deaf. There were 3 of them and one of him plus he was in less than stellar shape.
I am not an ACAB guy, I think that for the most part police are actually pretty decent people. However, it gets to be a bit difficult to be on their side when crap like this pops up. It happened years ago and I never heard about it until just now. This is the sort of abuse of power that should never be tolerated and once again, I am just delighted that I live where I do where as far as I know, nothing even close to this has ever happened here.
I don't know about you but there are very few situations that could arise in my life where I would even want the police to be involved. This is really the opinion of just about everyone in my area. We are self governing and the police don't really ever even have a presence in our neighborhood because it isn't necessary. I suppose they are needed in other parts of the country but when their default reaction to someone who isn't doing exactly what they say when they approach them is to beat them, I will never stand on their side.