George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#81

Post by vkou » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 4:55 AM UTC

pixelpoet wrote: post #60

joshribakoff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post is a huge list of links of police brutality on innocent protestors, bystanders, and media well within their rights. This post has nothing to do with how the police treat "gangsters", unless you mean something different by that word.

Defunding police because of police brutality is swallowing a spider to catch the fly. You do NOT want to live in a place without police. I think it would be much more productive and realistic to have a really deep study of how policing in America is different from other countries, and what can be done to normalise it. America is pretty gun crazy, and that doesn't make a cop's life any easier. The flip side of that is…

> Defunding police because of police brutality is swallowing a spider to catch the fly. You do NOT want to live in a place without police.

False dichotomy.

You can defund the police, by not sending armed, militarized police to do the bullshit parts of their jobs, while still responding to violent incidents.

For 99% of police calls, you don't need an armed gunman to show up. Of the 1% that you currently do, more often than not, that armed officer won't even show up in time.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#82

Post by baggy_trough » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:01 AM UTC

nlh wrote: post #75

pixelpoet wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defunding police because of police brutality is swallowing a spider to catch the fly. You do NOT want to live in a place without police. I think it would be much more productive and realistic to have a really deep study of how policing in America is different from other countries, and what can be done to normalise it. America is pretty gun crazy, and that doesn't make a cop's life any easier. The flip side of that is…

> Defunding police because of police brutality is swallowing a spider to catch the fly. You do NOT want to live in a place without police. This is a classic example of bad / misleading marketing on behalf of a reform movement. The "Defund the Police" movement has been poorly named. Yes, there are absolutely some folks on the extreme who truly want to disband the police and live in a place without police, but by and l…

If that's really what it is, calling it "Defund" is like marketing Coke by calling it "Shitty Sugar Water" and then issuing a 10 page explainer that says "Shit not included".

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#83

Post by tsurkoprt » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:07 AM UTC

Can we stop with this BS about police brutality, perhaps we should be more vocal for the criminal's brutality? Which would limit the need of police in the first place?

There are more than 350M interactions of police with citizens in a year, and you found 400 videos - most of them questionable in the definition of brutality.

How about thousands of police officers killed that are protecting us? Here is the latest case : https://patch.com/california/santacruz/shooting-prompts-mass...

If you think their job is easy, please go with them for a daily or a nightly shift.

I'm against any brutality, but you haven't seen the brutality they experience daily and have to follow protocol to protect us and themselves.

I'm immigrant, I lived in different counties and I can tell for a fact that my interactions with the police in the US where the most pleasant and up to the point, compared to the other 5 countries I've lived (East/West EU, South America). Granted I've never done anything illegal/criminal - except traffic violations.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#84

Post by danShumway » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:11 AM UTC

aganame wrote: post #49

fzeroracer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being massively disingenuous in the second example. A 'bunch of thugs' means one person who was being chased by a group of officers and beaten while he's trying to run. He's trying to get into a car to escape (admittedly a bad idea), then when they catch up to him they beat him up, throw him to the ground AND arrest the driver. The fact that you chose to take the video so far out of context means you're not he…

You are probably also taking it out of context. You have no idea what has happened in that neighborhood in the last year or decade. You have no idea what those perps and officers have experienced. Right?

> in the last year or decade

> what those perps and officers have experienced

Both totally irrelevant to whether or not it's appropriate to punch a handcuffed prisoner in the face while they're not resisting.

If a cop is suffering from PTSD or stress to the point where they can't keep themselves from assaulting a handcuffed prisoner, then I am genuinely very sorry for them, but they're still in the wrong job and they still need to be let go.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#85

Post by titzer » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:12 AM UTC

tsurkoprt wrote: post #83

Can we stop with this BS about police brutality, perhaps we should be more vocal for the criminal's brutality? Which would limit the need of police in the first place? There are more than 350M interactions of police with citizens in a year, and you found 400 videos - most of them questionable in the definition of brutality. How about thousands of police officers killed that are protecting us? Here is the latest case…

Let me just be the first to say fuuuuuuck!!!!!

There is no rule of law if the police can beat the shit out of people without even so much as due process. Yeah, criminals brutalize, even kill, police. You know what happens when they do that? They go to jail. You know what happens when cops do that? Not a goddamn thing.

Congratulations on being a well-to-do immigrant. Please expand your imagination to include centuries of institutionalized racism and decades of brutal policing which black and brown people have suffered under and are fucking fed up now.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#86

Post by whynaut » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:13 AM UTC

aganame wrote: post #45

kingofpandora wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Basically a bunch of thugs attack random drivers. One of the thugs jumps into a random car, the car stops, police come, pull the thug out, he resists, they deal with him. I have zero sympathy for the thug. Even when one cop punches "the thug" in the face while he's being walked away while handcuffed?

What would you have done in that situation?

I’m not sure how you can ask this in good faith.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#87

Post by grey-area » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:14 AM UTC

fortytwo79 wrote: post #29

bufferoverflow wrote: post #26

I opened a couple of random ones. The first one was this link: https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1270402748895412224 Which isn't an example of police brutality. The second one was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsTkAOe5UTE Basically a bunch of thugs attack random drivers. One of the thugs jumps into a random car, the car stops, police come, pull the thug out, he resists, they deal with him. I have zero…

I had the same experience. It was a video of a riot line of police with shields walking down the street, and people shooting fireworks at them. I welcome any content that shows events that the media isn't providing. But if someone is going to curate a list like this, don't sell it as something it's not.

You're probably mistaking police flash bangs for fireworks. These devices are completely inappropriate for crowd control, but routinely deployed by US police in the protests.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#88

Post by pasquinelli » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:14 AM UTC

pixelpoet wrote: post #60

joshribakoff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post is a huge list of links of police brutality on innocent protestors, bystanders, and media well within their rights. This post has nothing to do with how the police treat "gangsters", unless you mean something different by that word.

Defunding police because of police brutality is swallowing a spider to catch the fly. You do NOT want to live in a place without police. I think it would be much more productive and realistic to have a really deep study of how policing in America is different from other countries, and what can be done to normalise it. America is pretty gun crazy, and that doesn't make a cop's life any easier. The flip side of that is…

The demand to defund the police the claim that policing is too much of the budget. The demand to disarm the police us the claim that not all cops need to carry a gun. Neither of these is a demand to get rid of police.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#89

Post by devmunchies » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:15 AM UTC

kipchak wrote: post #78

Miner49er wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police have never done anything for me, and I can't think of a time they've done anything for anyone I know. I don't really see how they are heros. I can't even think of things they regularly do that can be called heroic? I know they do some good stuff, but nothing that comes close to the level of "hero" in my opinion. Firefighters, EMTs, nurses, and doctors are all examples of actual heros, IMO.

Isn't being the stick that causes laws to have meaning a good thing? A law is only words unless there's someone who will inflict a penalty if you don't follow it.

There are too many laws. If there are too many laws then their monopoly on violence becomes tyrannical.

Re: George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter

#90

Post by Aloha » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 5:15 AM UTC

dtagames wrote: post #2

I know politics isn't the usual HN topic, but I think this goes beyond politics at this point. Until I saw this list, I had no idea how out of control this situation has gotten here. I'm saddened for my country and hope that this can be a turning point for all of us.

I believe strongly that George Floyds death and the reactions thereafter are to a majority of the nation, the same as the 16th Street Church Bombing was in 1963, its a turning point in making people aware of the real costs of our problems with policing.

The fact is, I'm a white dude in my mid-30's, I make a tech salary, and I'm afraid of the police, because an officer with a hair up somewhere could ruin my life for a period of time, if not for good.