Look, we know cops aren't very bright.
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These people are not the sharpest knives in the drawer at their best, and when you start scraping the bottom of the barrel you quickly find that expecting even mediocrity is too ambitious.
This video of the bottom of the bottom of the barrel – the campus cops at University of Alabama, a school best known for its excellence in chanting "Roll Tide" – doesn't show us anything we have not seen before. Buzz-cut idiots with seriously violent tempers that come immediately to the fore the second they sense that they are not being treated with sufficient deference reacting with disproportionate force toward something that presents no threat to anything except their insecurities…I mean, that's old news by now. What amazes me is how these people seem oblivious to the fact that they are being video recorded as though we don't know exactly how this is going to turn out. Congratulations, Buford "Hoss" McGee or whatever the hell your hillbilly name is: you have until Friday to clean out your desk! If you doubt that, just remember that all the students in the video are white. Their parents probably have money too.
The sheer stupidity necessary at this moment in time to realize that you're being videotaped, act like that, and think "I'm going to come out of this looking good!
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" is hard to conceptualize. With all but the oldest, most authoritarian, and most reactionary segment of the American public slowly waking up to the fact that police in a lot of places in this country are basically street gangs with badges, you might think that handling this situation differently might have had some appeal. Instead, they chose this. They chose this because they are not smart enough to realize why choosing this approach was a bad idea. And they thought that the video would hit the internet and they would somehow be hailed as heroes. For using six people to beat up a 5 foot tall college girl. Way to go there, Audie Murphy. Let's get you guys some medals.
Watch it again and remember that this guy knew he was on about five different smartphone videos. He thought we would be impressed at his bravery and sympathetic to the nightmare of Teen Sass that he has to confront every day. He doesn't understand that all we see is a man who is about to lose his double-wide in a civil judgment and will be lucky to have a desk job by this weekend.
Huntly says:
"…you have until Friday to clean out your desk!" Silly Ed, have you not seen the countless other videos of officers doing similar or worse and then seen a jury/chief/union boss say "well, that finger you moved in a threatening way gave the officer cause to fear for his life so FU!"
ndf says:
A small correction: this wasn't the University of Alabama police but the City of Tuscaloosa police.
wetcasements says:
Mandatory body cameras on all cops, now.
Delbort says:
The problem is not that police aren't recorded enough, the problem is that we idolize police. We stopped providing any kind of meaningful scrutiny to our "heroes in blue" and now unsurprisingly they act with impunity in any situation. That's what we see in the video, someone acting without fear of consequences because there will be none. Until we start holding police accountable for overreaching, we can record all the video of them we want, from multiple angles, in HD, with wacky blooper reel and cartoon sound effects, nothing will change.
Major Kong says:
Sometime back in the mid 1980s I got pulled over in Tuscaloosa Alabama.
It was late on a Saturday night and I was headed back to Columbus AFB, MS. I drove a fairly hot (for the day) Camaro and had just finished messing around with some guy in a 280Z when I saw the red lights in the mirror. Ruh roh!
Two county Sheriffs straight out of Hollywood central casting walked up and shined the big flashlight at me. It was probably "Buford T. Cornpone" and his deputy "Cletus".
Worse yet I have an Illinois driver's license (active duty military) and a very ethnic sounding last name.
"How do you pronounce this here name?" he drawled
(well, this is sure starting off on the right foot)
"Were you racing somebody tonight Mister _____ ?"
Oh I am so f*cked!
I'm envisioning spending the night in the county lockup with the cast of Deliverance and then having to explain to my commander how I got there.
"Um, no sir." (lying my ass off)
"Do you know how fast you was goin'?"
"No, the speedometer's broke (it was) I have to drive off the tach (I did)"
"Well how fast do you THINK you were going?"
OK, time for some gamesmanship here. He can probably arrest me for drag racing if he wants to. Maybe I can "plea bargain" this down to just speeding and he'll be happy.
"I reckon I was going about 65" (10 over the limit)
Sure enough, he wrote me out a ticket for 65 in a 55 and sent me off.
well mostly says:
Ed, why insult street gangs with comparisons to this bunch of wannabe Chuck Norris clowns? That's just over the top. Ha!
I wonder how in the world so many officers respond so quickly to a noise complaint. A slow night? Instead of what?
Is there such a thing as a negative number on the IQ scale? It goes from zero up, right? This kind of stupid calls for another way to measure things.
Can you imagine being this fellow's son? Sheez.
bb in GA says:
I think we are sliding closer to having an authoritarian 'dirty war' of cops against citizens (we will probably fight back hard) like they had in Argentina back in the late 70s. That was right wing junta stuff.
You Lefties worried that Gen'l Jack D Ripper is gonna take over ? If Madame Secretary gets to be Pres, maybe it will come from a Corporate Junta.
//bb
Major Kong says:
@bb
As long as the cops are attacking minorities and dirty-effing-hippies I think I can guess which side the Oath Keepers and other armed "citizens" groups would be on.
911 Dispatcher says:
The real issue is training. The emphasis is on dominance and control with officer safety as a paramount priority. Negotiation and talking someone down is only included as a sop to the citizens who don't know "how it really is".
I've been a dispatcher for over 20 years and watched the change in officer attitudes. "Real Crime Cops" who only want to be big heroes and have a case of the ass when they have to do minor stuff.
Now they cry that its not fair and the job is so hard and scary.
All of my calls are recorded. Every single one. When call recorders were introduced there was no wailing "Oh my! How will we dispatchers ever be able to do our jobs if we're being recorded? Anything I say could be taken out of context and I could be in trouble! I don't think I can answer as many 911 calls since I'm being recorded and could get in trouble for just trying to do my job! Or I might not answer that 911 call as quickly as I used to because I would hesitate that someone might use the recording against me."
Get another job or get better doing it.
Mr. Wonderful says:
Anyone mind me saying that this post, by Ed, is nicely and amusingly written? I didn't think so. Well done, guy.
HeidiB says:
We can't ignore the different "classes" represented in this video; there's a possibility that at least some of the cops can't stand the fact that the uppity college kids are getting more education than they'll ever have.
Henry Schump says:
Mr. Policeman is your friend–unless he's not.
Noting to see here. Move along.
Chicagojon says:
I -LOVE- token billy club cop – that guy needs to become an internet meme immediately. Even better than chase you with a taser cop (that should be a shockwave game if it isn't already, no?). He follows the cop that's aggressively pushing down someone whose hands are up to taser them and when they roll over starts clubbing him in the back. Was their training video something from the silent film era?
Fire them all, reduce the total number of cops by 30%, raise the income by 100% and create a organizational structure of policies and procedures with frequent training, support, community outreach & expected improvement. This profession is broken and the bad cops need to be weeded out by making the job suitable for better people and by requiring higher organizational standards.
Skipper says:
Years ago, a friend of mine, a doctor, was asked to be on a panel to evaluate the psychological fitness of police department candidates. At the end of the session, the person in charge asked members of the panel what they thought of the candidates. My friend said, "There isn't one of those guys I would trust with a gun in public." He was never asked to be on the panel again.
Mo says:
Reactionary conservatism has a lot to answer for. Steve M summarized the attitude nicely the other day:
Conservatives always feel personally disrespected. They're incessantly told by the right-wing media that coastal liberal sophisticates hate not just their politics but their guns, their religion, their clothes, their taste in music, their unironic patriotism.
These folks, being the authoritarian bully-wannabees that they are, always, always give the police a pass during anti-government rants because of "property protection." As in, we only really need those government services that offer fire and police protection of property. But really, they want someone to beat up on Those People Who We Don't Like Because They're Smarter & Different & Disagree With Us.
Violence surrogates for resentful wannabees who'd love to throw their weight around but haven't got what it takes.
Pete Gaughan says:
You keep using verbs of cognition like "they knew" or "they thought". I do not think those mean what you think they mean.
I mean, I don't see any evidence of thinking, only of emotion and instinctive reactions. And maybe tunnel vision.
SunilR says:
The smug smile and "I don't give a shit" tell it all.
anotherbozo says:
I'm still waiting for some police captain or other to step forward and say he was completely distraught by reports that a substantial number of law-abiding citizens feel not safer when police are nearby but LESS so. If that's not an indictment, what is?
I know, I should get real. Enough that police agree that murdering a handcuffed suspect is "regrettable."
mwing says:
Skipper Says: "Years ago, a friend of mine, a doctor, was asked to be on a panel to evaluate the psychological fitness of police department candidates…."
For many years, two internet friends of mine, police in West Virginia, were on panels to assess the suitability of police candidates up for hire by towns other than their own. They recall that candidates they had strongly recommended against were often hired anyway, especially in rural areas.
The thing was, one said, those rural police jobs just don't pay that well, especially at first. They're not the sort of job a person would move any distance (or at all) to take. The pool of candidates is just really limited, and police chiefs have to hire SOMEONE. So they do.
Skepticalist says:
Cops in my little town are scheduled for body cams soon. Good for us.
Maybe they'll stop scaring the shit out of the people they're supposed to serve. The idea of breaking up a small bar fight by escorting somebody home sounds like fantasy but it wasn't an uncommon event in the past. I can't imagine this today.
It's another example of loving America but hating Americans.
Noskilz says:
It is depressing – but perhaps the combination of bad press, documentation and lawsuits will make enough of an impression on departments' institutional memories that the Judge Dredd larpers will be seen as expensive liabilities rather than plausible hires. Hasn't happened yet – but as the saying goes, if it hasn't been documented, it didn't happen, and now it's getting documented a lot – perhaps dealing with the problem will follow.
Brian says:
@Noskilz:
"Judge Dredd larpers"
Nice! I would like to incorporate that into my vocubulary. Cool?
Major Kong says:
"Judge Dredd larpers"
I'm totally stealing that one. Consider this fair notice.
Jestbill says:
On the average, your organization will hire average people.
Cops (on the average) are not stupid or insensitive.
Civilians (on the average) are not expecially bright.
Some (of each) are pretty bad and the solution is (as said above) documentation.
Now, can't we just get along?
Lawrence says:
@JestBill
No, we are past the point of getting along. Law enforcement is plainly the enemy of the 99%. Apparently beating and murdering the poor and people of color has gotten boring and they are branching out into white middle class victims. And I am not interested in any conversations about 'only a few' or 'such brave people doing dangerous work'. There are two kinds of police now: the corrupt, and the ones who don't care about fixing it. When the fuck did the concept of integrity become a cynical joke in this country?
Skipper says:
Did you know that "taunting" a police dog is a felony? Shooting an unarmed black teenager — not so much.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Raiders-player-could-face-felony-for-taunting-6622959.php
Robert says:
I just read "It Can't Happen Here", Sinclair Lewis's terrifyingly plausible dystopian novel. The enthusiasm with which seemingly ordinary citizens put on a uniform and a badge so as to get tacit authority to bully, brutalize and kill their fellow citizens was the most disturbing part of the story.
Now why should that be so disturbing?
Ed says:
"Clean out your desk" is wishful thinking in light of the 8-1 Supreme Court case (Mullenix v. Luna) that came out this week. Cop disobeyed a direct order, went up on overpass to shoot car of suspected drunk driver and killed the guy. SCOTUS says, completely immune from prosecution.
Gil More says:
"Judge Dredd larpers"
Had to look up both Judge Dredd and larper. Did the public school system fail me or the other other way around. Tragically unhip. . .
waldo says:
The sheer stupidity necessary at this moment in time to realize that you're being videotaped, act like that, and think "I'm going to come out of this looking good!" is hard to conceptualize.
Nup, sorry, this seems to me to be typical behaviour of almost everybody in a police uniform in America.
Gil More says:
ACLU is expanding the availability of an app "Mobile Justice" that allows instant audio / visual upload to ACLU servers. Must be done state by state because of privacy laws.
It also sends alert to other app users that an act is being videotaped nearby and that if you want to stop by and take some additional video, they are at the corner of X & Y streets.
Freecookies says:
People in AL aren't exactly the most ambitious driven people. Cops in AL are even less so. Same with intelligence. All the bright people incarnate in interesting places, so they can express their potential. People with no potential, they all incarnate in AL.
Also southerners are mean. They may be friendly at first, but that hides a mean streak 2 miles deep.
I dunno. May he spend the next 10000 years incarnating in that geographical region of this planet.