dejadeadnz:

 

networkn:

 

I am not denying there is a problem, nor was I suggesting that there was a single simple fix, of course it's possible to twist anything to suit an agenda. I do however believe that there are a relatively small number of bad cops compared to what is being portrayed. I do believe a lot of these "overreactions" by police officers (Using too much force, using the wrong type of force), are bourne largely out of fear, (whether it be real or perceived by the individual officer(s) in question). I think it's really easy to sit in NZ having no real experience of overseas situations and be critical.

 

 

 

Yawn -- more of that reductionist argument. You seem to think it's a really interesting fact that most police officers are not bad people. It's not. This is about as interesting as saying that most people aren't murderers, most blacks don't want to shoot cops and so forth. What your repeated hectoring of people over this point does reveal, however, is your failure to understand and grasp some of the really severe systemic issues at work. Every debate around police misconduct these days cannot be had without someone somewhere yelling out loud the same point that you are making. Yet, for example, if doctors make a mistake and a patient die, the first thing a DHB (for example) will say is that they apologise for the harm and that one death is too many etc whilst also pointing to how things go right the vast majority of the time afterwards and not the other way around. Why do you think that is?

 

Justice is indivisible. Walter Scott was indisputably captured on video as being shot running away from Michael Slager, who fired at him 8 times and hitting him 5 times; Laquan Macdonald was shot by the Chicago police and then blackballed as having been the aggressor in spite of there being a video that clearly contradicted everything that the cops on scene had said. Said video was also known to the mayor and the now (former) police chief until media pressure and lawsuits led to its release and the Chicago PD collectively backing down. For 13 months the Chicago authorities ignored and fought every request to release the video. The people of Cleveland continues to labour under a police force whose respect for others' civil rights is so pathetic that they remain under Department of Justice supervision.

 

I detail these not to prove a point that somehow cops in the US are bad or at least worse than you think. The point is that when there are obvious injustices, the most morally significant and decent thing to do is focus on the injustices and not comfortable backslapping about how things mostly go right and how a class of people who are obligated to respect the law and are meant to be the protector of the consenting citizens are generally okay people.

 

 

 

 

I want to respond to this, but I feel it would be fruitless, you have your view, without the slightest possibility of considering you could be wrong and therefore no point. I have repeatedly said there is a larger problem at play, but of course taking that into account stops you being able to make sensationalist replies.

I think it's pretty offensive to accuse someone of hectoring whilst in same reply using very emotive language to respond, and using words like "yawn". 

I think you need to take a good look in the mirror and consider the tone of YOUR replies before criticising those of others.