Video shows a Baltimore police officer punching and tackling a man to the ground; the man did not appear to be fighting back. He does appear to be holding something in his left hand at the end of the video (not visible whether he was at the beginning of the video).
Because all of the people shown in the video (the police officers, the man being punched and tackled, and some bystanders) are black men, it may not be as racially inflammatory as some incidents. However, the video is likely to worsen general mistrust of the Baltimore police department, especially among those who are already distrustful of it due to previous incidents.
I can’t imagine being a friend of that man, and not being able to anything to stop the cop. Not that I would have hit him, but you know that if you even touch a cop in a situation like that you will be arrested and charged with assaulting an officer.
Shame on the cop that didn’t stop his bully partner.
I’m not shocked. Some of the officers charged in Freddy Grays murder were also POC. Once you are a cop the only color that matters is blue. They always cover for each other.
@partyof5 It’s sad you are generalizing an entire group of men and women who put their lives on the line every day. There are absolutely “rogue” and bad cops in all large police forces. I don’t think it is fair to generalize any more than generalizing race, socio-economic status, whatever. I would bet 95+% try their hardest everyday to do the right thing and hopefully that number will continue to rise. People who scream and complain the loudest are typically the first ones to ask for help when they need it for themselves - that usually goes for anything. Perhaps your local police force should allow you to protect your own health and safety since they all stick together.
Please pass on your thoughts to the family of Officer Daryl Pierson, killed in the line of duty, protecting others. He left behind a wife and two children, one was age 4 and the other was 3 months old at the time. And before you start, I know there are many POC who were killed and left behind children. It’s important for people to understand it’s a two-way street.
I have learned a lot from people here and appreciate the advice. I will forever be in their debt. However, I can not stand-by and allow you to slander an entire group of people doing their best to keep us safe. From several of your posts it is apparent you have an agenda here in your interactions with people. I have no doubt that you will call me racist and horrible for my comments here - I would bet my boss (a women of color) and several of my colleagues would disagree. Their opinions of me matter, yours do not.
I really do appreciate all of the advice you have given me on CC. I really hope we can all gain some empathy and understanding of all races, creeds, socio-economic status, etc. I have traveled around the world and found we all pretty much have the same goals and needs in life. As long as each of us retreats to our corners rather than reaching out to the middle, things will never improve. I hope our children will find a better way.
There are bad actors on every large police force, but the problem is the rest of the police force routinely covering for and defending the bad actors. If, when a bad actor was exposed, the rest of the police rejected the bad actor, then we might trust them. But they almost never do. When the police police their own, then we can trust them.
@choguy1 I’m not slandering all cops, we are talking about Baltimore cops and yes that particular force has a history of problems and covering for each other. Just last year a cop on that force was caught planting drugs, or should I mention that several on the force kept extra guns that they planted on suspects.
So if you think that is an agenda so be it. I’ve said plenty of times that most cops are good but when they don’t stop the bad ones , like in this recent episode it taints the good cops. There is a blue wall when it comes cops, and it doesn’t matter the race.
No one said there shouldn’t be empathy for cops killed in the line of duty, that’s an inherent risk with the job. Please do not put words in my mouth because as far as I know I haven’t interacted with you so I don’t know if you are a racist or not.
What you fail to realize is, we(POC) aren’t anti cop, however we are tired them not being punished. No one is marching in the street when a cop is killed because they find the perpetrator and he is justly punished. We would like the same thing to happen. Unfortunately most times there aren’t even charges when there is wrong doing by an officer, and when one is charged which is rare, he is usually found not guilty even when there is irrefutable video evidence.
So again, if me wanting cops to be held accountable for their bad behavior equates to an “agenda” so be it.
If you want a diverse police force, standards need to be lowered. In very wealthy cities like NYC in recent decades, massive training and supervisory resources can be deployed to miminize the risk posed by unqualified officers, but unfortunately that is not possible in Baltimore.
I would add, based on some actual experience, that even in a great police force where the cops work hard to re-educate or to eliminate bad actors, the likelihood of an officer intervening to stop his partner in public in the middle of an arrest is very low.
Apparently there was a history of bad blood between this officer and his victim. That doesn’t make it OK, of course – more like the opposite – but it probably helps explain why the situation escalated so quickly without much, or any, provocation.
@choguy1. Numerous incidents have shown that police officers routinely lie for each other. While there are only a few bad apples who act in derogation of their duties there are hordes of officers willing to cover up for those bad apples and also “testi-lie” to preserve a bad arrest.
I personally hope that the ubiquity of video will cause officers to understand that they may be caught in their cover up lies so that this widespread problem in police culture will abate.
This officer had been on the job for less than 6 months, having graduated the academy just last April. Therefore, he was hired in the aftermath of the Freddie Gray media circus. If only there were some some reliable cognitive and personality tests that could be used as a hiring screen in order to minimize the likelihood of hiring bad officers… The Army uses them, and with hard cutoffs, but for some reason police forces really can’t…
I don’t think the problems in a place like Baltimore, whose murder rate at ~60 per 100,000 is approaching the levels of the Bronx in the 1980s and early 1990s, are going to be solved, given the political climate and the level of human capital available who is willing to do police work in the age of ubiquitous cell phones. Baltimore is not NYC; it simply does not have the resources to undertake a Giuliani-style campaign to lower crime.
Most police officers I know well are obsessed with one thing from day one on the job: “protect my pension at all costs because in 20 years I’m out.” They are generally risk averse, and (as has been plausibly alleged in Baltimore) are likely to respond to increased scrutiny by “slow walking” their response to crime.