We’ve also had cops getting out of hand. Turning firehoses and police dogs on civil rights marchers. Sitting down protesting being sprayed with large amounts of pepper spray when simply handcuffing them arresting them.
Where the situation dictates, yes, tough policing is necessary. At suburban pool parties, it probably isn’t.
Cops know how to handle large crowds without things going south. Look at Times Square in New York City at New Year’s. Look at college campuses full of drunk fighting college kids.
When police overstep, yes, they should be called out on it. 11 of the 12 officers in McKinney still have jobs and they weren’t screaming and throwing people to the ground. 1 guy was, and he’s thankfully off the force.
Police have definitely stepped up their militarization and armed response, and too many people are dying during arrests that don’t need to be. There are bad people that need to be dealt with. But not every situation has to turn physical, and cops yes, do sometimes have a role in that. All the time, however, cops do respond to incidents in the proper way and we never hear about it. How many high school parties do you think police responded to over the past week or month? How many blew up like this one did? Were all the kids at all the other ones perfect angels? No. But the cops in those cases didn’t over-react.
Chief of Police in McKinney says he doesn’t support this guy’s actions. 11 out of 12 cops at the scene didn’t act like this.
If there’s a guy in your office who gets mad and throws file cabinets over and tackles people when he’s upset with them, he’ll get fired. Same instance can happen with a cop.
People sitting down protesting being sprayed with large amounts of pepper spray when simply handcuffing them and arresting them would have sufficed.
ugh. preview
Are you a Lawyer?
I agree that the militarization and heavyhandedness gets out of hand. No question.
I am looking at this as follows:
These ferals are intentionally pushing the envelope because they are being manipulated into doing it. Why is obvious but forget the bigger picture. We live in a world where feral gangs of all colors are simply doing and taking as they please. ow when a cop gets rushed by such people, I think it is prudent to draw on them. When a mouthy little bitch does her best to act like a 400 pound beast standing in a place she has no business being, I WANT her put on the ground roughly and made to reconsider her place in the world. That place is not part of the Occupy Swimming pool party movement in a place she ‘feels’ she has the ‘right’ to be...and does not.
If people wish to play stupid games, the pain of their actions should be such that they learn not to play stupid games. There will always be Rambo cops. We are all human and cops are no different. But a cop that allows space to destroy or to ‘occupy’ is useless and more a danger to peace and order than Rambo Serpico.
Given a choice, I prefer dealing with the occasional overreach than the consistent failure to reach at all.