Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

[Slap Shot]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

What about mace?

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

What about mace?

I thought about that, but it wouldn't likely be treated any better in the media than the actions he took. It's really come down to a PR question for many things police do now. We've taken it beyond safety concerns and made it political.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Actually, she is. There are three videos of this thing, all from different angles. The third video is the shortest in duration, but it gives the clearest view of the officer taking the girl out of her desk.

In all honesty, reading everything that lead up to the cop's actions, I don't know what all he was supposed to do in that situation to bring it to a close.



How does this get resolved without the officer physically taking the girl out of her desk? Given the string of events, there had to have been a good 20-minute build up to this video. The officer didn't beat her. He upended her desk, she can be seen taking a swing at the cop, and he slides her on her back to the front of the room in order to cuff her. I expect he'll be exonerated.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. I mean, what is he supposed to do? Granted, what he did do was pretty appalling. I think there would have been an easier and better way to physically remove her.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

I'm typically in the middle of these cop issues. I know that sometimes there is unfair bias against minorities. Yet police have the toughest jobs in America (and often thankless). They often deserve praise worthy of our soldiers.

Having said that, this guy used way too much force for a school girl. It was not the action of removing her...but the overt strength and action of throwing her down. One has to scale depending on the threat involved.

This decision: against the police. And departmental heads ruled against him which makes sense.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

When I was in high school, there was one officer who went around to the various high schools within the district. We knew him as "Officer Mike." He was there, I think, more as a public relations job, but would also be called in if there was something truly serious what would require police - like weapons on campus, drug dealings, those sorts of things.

Things were also different back then. We had a classroom that was run by one of the football coaches, a big and strong man, who was given more latitude on how to deal with students in his class. These were kids who were pretty much on the way out the door to the ALS environment or being expelled from the district entirely. Something like what happened with this girl was absolutely unheard of back then, and I graduated high school in 1995.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

Not really. I know we had one on-site at all times and there may have been two. It's just for those situations that demanded immediate police presence. Mainly fights, drugs, etc. Never had an issue with it.

 

[unofan]

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

I went to a magnet school that averaged about 3 fights/week in addition to drugs/gangs/other stuff more serious than your normal hijinx. I didn't see anything wrong with having one officer present at the school most days.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Not really. I know we had one on-site at all times and there may have been two. It's just for those situations that demanded immediate police presence. Mainly fights, drugs, etc. Never had an issue with it.

We never did. We had a safety office manned by the type of guys who taught metal shop and driver's ed. I would say 90% of the school was completely unaware of their presence. When a couple morons got into a fight the nearest male teachers would separate them. Their parents / state appointed guardians / parole officers would get a call and they'd disappear for a while (presumably suspended -- I never met anybody who was actually suspended).

This was at a school that was evenly divided between whites, blacks and Latinos and where racial issues were, shall we say, overt. Everybody knew who the kids were who could get you drugs (it was 1979 so everybody down to the principle probably had pot, but speed and coke made the rounds sometimes). Everybody knew to stay away from the half dozen bullies who were on the fast track to the police department (on one side of the counter or the other). I'd say in 3 years I saw five fights. There were kids who were rumored to carry knives but, again, they were kids from the other side of the SES tracks so who knew, they might as well have been Martians.

There was one incident when the cops were called to investigate supposed drugs in a locker. I never found out what happened (it was probably aspirin), but the police made a big point of only sending in one officer, a woman of slight build, and there was no cordon, no fuss, and in general no BS.

IMHO having cops actually on call at a school is ridiculous overreach and says it all about the creeping fear that has overtaken the country.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Bye, Felicia.

A US police officer has been fired after video showing him throwing a female student across a classroom was shared widely on the internet.

 

[MaizeRage]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

Part of it is public paranoia about teachers putting their hands on students. There are a lot of things an SRO can do that a teacher can't, because apparently we trust the C- high school graduate more than a trained professional with a master's degree.

 

[geezer]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

IMHO having cops actually on call at a school is ridiculous overreach and says it all about the creeping fear that has overtaken the country.

I vaguely remember reading that campus police were hired in many (most?) places they exist today in direct response to Columbine. Things like Sandy Hook have no doubt added to the police presence.
Violent crime has plummeted over the last generation (controversially, "in direct opposition to rates of gun ownership"), but these incidents of grotesque violence are so widely covered by the media that they have no doubt driven the "creeping fear" you refer to.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

We never did. We had a safety office manned by the type of guys who taught metal shop and driver's ed. I would say 90% of the school was completely unaware of their presence. When a couple morons got into a fight the nearest male teachers would separate them. Their parents / state appointed guardians / parole officers would get a call and they'd disappear for a while (presumably suspended -- I never met anybody who was actually suspended).

This was at a school that was evenly divided between whites, blacks and Latinos and where racial issues were, shall we say, overt. Everybody knew who the kids were who could get you drugs (it was 1979 so everybody down to the principle probably had pot, but speed and coke made the rounds sometimes). Everybody knew to stay away from the half dozen bullies who were on the fast track to the police department (on one side of the counter or the other). I'd say in 3 years I saw five fights. There were kids who were rumored to carry knives but, again, they were kids from the other side of the SES tracks so who knew, they might as well have been Martians.

There was one incident when the cops were called to investigate supposed drugs in a locker. I never found out what happened (it was probably aspirin), but the police made a big point of only sending in one officer, a woman of slight build, and there was no cordon, no fuss, and in general no BS.

IMHO having cops actually on call at a school is ridiculous overreach and says it all about the creeping fear that has overtaken the country.

I get that, but I never really saw it as an overreach. Most of the time the guy sat in the main office. During lunch he was in the lunchroom off to the side usually talking with the teachers and paras. During class change he was usually outside the main office just watching the congregations.

He was always friendly but stayed away from students if his presence wasn't required. Though students would often interact with him. It was also very handy to have him on-site for when someone tried to enter the school who wasn't authorized. I believe that happened a few times and he was there to prevent it.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Part of it is public paranoia about teachers putting their hands on students. There are a lot of things an SRO can do that a teacher can't, because apparently we trust the C- high school graduate more than a trained professional with a master's degree.

Nice way for the schools to shed liability, too. Put it on the County Sheriff or City cops to handle the miscreants.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Nice way for the schools to shed liability, too. Put it on the County Sheriff or City cops to handle the miscreants.

Good point. That actually explains everything.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

Not after Sandy Hook, Newtown, CT, December 14, 2012....

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

From a speech by FBI Director James Comey:

Part of being clear-eyed about reality requires all of us to stare—and stare hard—at what is happening in this country this year....Because something deeply disturbing is happening all across America....Far more people are being killed in America’s cities this year than in many years. And let’s be clear: far more people of color are being killed in America’s cities this year. And it’s not the cops doing the killing.

We are right to focus on violent encounters between law enforcement and civilians. Those incidents can teach all of us to be better. But something much bigger is happening. Most of America’s 50 largest cities have seen an increase in homicides and shootings this year, and many of them have seen a huge increase.

who’s dying? Police chiefs say the increase is almost entirely among young men of color, at crime scenes in bad neighborhoods where multiple guns are being recovered.

What could be driving an increase in murder in some cities across all regions of the country, all at the same time? What explains this map and this calendar? Why is it happening in all of different places, all over and all of a sudden? . . .

Nobody says it on the record, nobody says it in public, but police and elected officials are quietly saying it to themselves. And they’re saying it to me, and I’m going to say it to you. And it is the one explanation that does explain the calendar and the map and that makes the most sense to me.

Maybe something in policing has changed.

I don’t know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year. And that wind is surely changing behavior.

Part of that behavior change is to be welcomed, as we continue to have important discussions about police conduct and de-escalation and the use of deadly force. Those are essential discussions and law enforcement will get better as a result.

But we can’t lose sight of the fact that there really are bad people standing on the street with guns. The young men dying on street corners all across this country are not committing suicide or being shot by the cops. They are being killed, police chiefs tell me, by other young men with guns.

If what we are seeing in America this year continues, we will be back to talking about how law enforcement needs to help rescue black neighborhoods from the grip of violence. All lives matter too much for us to let that happen.

PS to Board Admin: I don't think copyright infringement laws for "overly long" excerpts apply to content from government websites...

 

[omahasioux1]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

School system here has its own police force.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Serious question: why are there cops in schools? Does that seem insane to anybody else?

Media appeasement answer: They don't want to give up the "gun free zone" status, but don't want to be completely defenceless.
Real answer: They want to expand the police state.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Cops 2: Pay No Attention to the Rioters Behind the Curtain

Here's an interesting interaction between a black woman who's a journalism professor at the University of North Texas and Corinth police, a wealthy Dallas suburb. Miss Bland was stopped while walking down along the right side of the street after the police followed her for some 20 seconds without her noticing them until they flashed their lights. The street has sidewalks on both sides, plainly visible within the video provided within the link.

When growing up (around 10 years old or so), I remember being stopped for the same exact thing, except I wasn't wearing a hoodie to disrupt my peripheral vision, and I wasn't wearing headphones to keep me from hearing traffic and they weren't behind me for 20 seconds as I turned my head and saw them approach me immediately. The officers who stopped me told me to either walk on the left side of the street so that I could see oncoming traffic or to do the truly safe thing and use the sidewalks. Then they gave me some Vikings trading cards.

Racism? By whom? This video of Texas cops stopping a black professor is a racial ‘Rorschach test’ (link chalk full of more details and insights)

Bland was clearly angered by the encounter. She compared the stop to other instances in which African Americans have died at police officers’ hands.

“Although I am not related to Sandra Bland,” who died in a Texas jail after a traffic stop, “I thought about her, Freddie Gray and the dozens of others who have died while in police custody,” the professor wrote. “For safety’s sake, I posted the photo of the officers on Facebook, and within hours, more than 100 Facebook friends spread the news from New York to California.”

She concluded her op-ed by saying that she refused “to let this incident ruin my life” and recounting how a white woman gave her roses shortly after the police stop.

But Bland’s account is also largely accurate.

When compared to the video, the only detail she appears to get wrong is her claim that cops “interrupted” her walk with “flashing lights and sirens.” (Walthall, the police chief, said her officers “activated their emergency lights [but] no siren was ever sounded.”)

Her other recollections line up with what’s recorded in the video, from her own comments about being “a taxpayer who pays a lot of taxes” to the cop’s quote about how his dog doesn’t like to walk in the rain, either.

What is clearly up for debate, however, is her interpretation of the events.

In a rebuttal to Bland’s op-ed, chief Walthall said her officers had done nothing wrong.

“The interaction between Ms. Bland and the officers was very cordial and brief,” she wrote. Rather than racial profiling, the officers had seen Bland earlier but not stopped her because “she was not in the street and impeding traffic.” It was only later, when a truck driver had gestured to cops after swerving around her, that the cops questioned her, Walthall said.

“I am surprised by her comments as this was not a confrontational encounter but a display of professionalism and genuine concern for her safety,” the chief wrote.