To Serve And Protect

Absolutly true, and I'm personally really liberal about racial jokes. Shoot I make them all the time, but those are not just some guys joking around. Have you ever joked calling Obama a chimpanze? I haven't

 

I haven't called Obama a chimpanze, but I've called him some bad words (nothing racist). I've said some crude things in the name of humor in my life. At CL, in my personal life, and even on my government computer when I was in the Air Force, that if scanned, would have looked very similar to what these police officers wrote (not racist, but definitely over the top). And if they got a hold of my peers emails, they would've thought it was a systematic ________ (fill in the blank with whatever they were looking for). I admit it was unprofessional and shouldn't have taken place in the work place or on gov computers. Point being, everyone does it. I guarantee if you look at the emails of Sony (they have), the IRS (they have), Ferguson police (they have), and anywhere else, they will find inappropriateness. And some are racist. Some are gross. Some are unprofessional. And you'll find idiots in every facet of life too.

Who sent the jokes and who were they sent to? Last week a very liberal Sean Penn asked "who gave him a green card?" when awarding the director of Birdman the award for best picture. They knew each other. Friends. According to some, Penn was instrumental in his career. Out of line? To them, I seriously doubt it. A joke between 2 friends who have that relationship. To many, it was completely out of line. Imagine if Sarah Palin asked that same question. Fire storm!!! By the same token, the joke could have been between 2 friends who joked a lot. Again, inappropriate from work computer and unprofessional, but I'm not ready to say systematic racism within the whole police department.

I'd even venture to say that the DOJ has done it. Notice Holder won't release emails he sent his wife from a government computer. Some hide behind executive privilege.

Are their racist in the Ferguson PD? Probably. Did it have a hand in the Mike Brown shooting? Not from any evidence I've seen. DOJ, while releasing this report, also said they are not charging the officer.

 

I bet I can match you on the inappropriate crude/racist jokes at work or with friends John. For all we know right now, those jokes could have been sent between buddies, one or both of which could have been black. But the problem with this is when you take the position that this is probably just jokes between friends, even if inappropriate/racist, you effectively move that bar for judgement of racist comments and actions to a point where nothing short of putting on a white hood and burning crosses is racist (a bit hyperbole, but I think you get the drift). If something looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, most people call it a duck, but when racism is involved, there's this hesitance that I don't understand. I don't feel any other subject we talk about requires so much proof to come to a "probably yes" position. If we find out later that these emails were between black friends or something that makes it very unlikely to be racist, that's great, but until then, what looks like a duck is probably a duck.

 

^^^ I hear you. People probably give so much pause to the racist term, because once labeled, it sticks forever. And no one wants to carry that around forever.

Look at Paula Dean. She had a thriving career, and someone brought up the fact that she used the N word 20 years prior. Never mind how many black people she employed. Never mind that the person she was referring to had just robbed her minutes prior. Career over.

The R word has power. So I know I give pause before handing it out. And when I do, I'll freely admit it'll take a mountain of proof for me to forgive.

 

Glad he was charged with murder. I didn't see a weapon in his hand, so I find it interesting that they say one was found next to his body.

A busted tail light. SMH

 

In the video, you can see him "drop" something next to the body. Speculations are that he planted the taser next to the body.

Imagine how this case would have gone if there were no video evidence.

 

Exactly

This is a really clear view of the footage. You can see at the beginning that Scott had been shot with the taser. You can see in the video that it looks like the taser gun flies behind the two of them and on to the ground, and the cables attached to something kind of flapping up and down as Scott started to run away. Slager says that Scott took his taser on the radio when he said shots fired, but In the full video, you can see this scum pretending to be an Officer, Slager walks back to where the taser dropped, picks it up, and dropping it next to Scott's body as the other officer arrives.

 

The rare and elusive non black guy getting the s*** beaten out of him by the police



There needs to be some kind of national summit where law enforcement officials from around the country discuss how to change policy to at least try to fix this

 

^^ Cops did show a lot of restraint. Too much IMO, which may have led to the shooting. I watched the video, but couldn't see who got shot. Too much mayhem.

 

It's not about restraint. It's about being stupid. Why on earth would you walk into a crowd of people like that?

 

You don't get to escalate a situation, call is "serving," and then say that they should have killed people. You just don't. If you can't do the job that way, GTFO.

 

The cop who showed up and said "separate them" -- that seems to me the right thing to do. But all hell broke loose when he did. Was that right or wrong?