[lbo-talk] Police brutality

Bill Bartlett billbartlett at aapt.net.au
Tue Apr 17 01:12:17 PDT 2007


At 1:23 PM -0400 16/4/07, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting_49
>The cops shoot the poor guy without first reading him his Miranda rights.
>Outrage! I hope that there will be a protest against this hideous act of
>police brutality.

Its reported that he shot himself. You will no doubt be disappointed by this, given your repeated support for a 'shoot first ask questions later' policy to be adopted by the cops against your perceived class enemies.

I recall you were similarly outraged that anyone dared to protest against the public execution of that unlucky De Menezes fellow in London, whose only offense was to be in the wrong place (London) at the wrong time. At the time, you asserted that "blowing his brains out" was the "right strategy" in the circumstances. (The circumstances being that he was *suspected* of being associated in some vague way with some people they were investigating for being associated with some terrorists.)

Now obviously it is horrific to learn of people being gunned down in cold blood yet again. But two wrongs don't make a right. It won't make any of us any safer to encourage the cops to respond by gunning down suspects in cold blood. On the contrary, this sort of reactionary storm trooper response can only make society more dangerous.

Its bad enough that one needs to run the risk of being murdered by psycho criminals. If you encourage psycho cops to start shooting people as well, that adds to the dangers of going out in public, rather than diminishing it. Which might afford some kind of twisted satisfaction, but is it worth the risk?

The answer is no. Your craving for the blood of evildoers, for vengeance, is a problem you have. Don't try to make out that those of us why advocate for cops to act within the law are the problem. People who cry out for bloody vengeance are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas



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