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Last edited by theticalanti; 02-29-2016 at 12:58 AM.
I think one of the things it also shows that beyond police brutality. This individual is also a consequence of the war on drugs.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/freddiegray.asp
There are individuals who've brought up this individual's rap sheet as some sort of excuse that he should encounter targeting and police brutality but his 2nd degree assault charges began only after a long period of arrests without any violence.
The war on drugs predominantly targets poor black communities, and the fact that Wall Street executives can snort a mountain of cocaine up their nose without drug testing while many minimum wage employees are subject to mandatory drug testing and various intrusions into their private lives is atrocious. The situation should really be reversed and the people in power, and with control over the nations finances should be subject to mandatory drug testing(if drugs remained illegal). I'm sure the results would be quite revealing.
This tragic consequence is really the progression of many years of injustice towards not just Freddie Gray but millions of African Americans and other poor people across the United States.
African Americans account for 50% of the incarcerations for prison inmates yet only 13% of the population. It is easy for police to target the poor, already oppressed and defenseless vs the money, rich and lawyer-ed.
Criminalizing the poor, the oppressed and defenseless only exacerbates the problem as millions of individuals grow up in broken homes, without support, are taught to be more harden criminals in prison. It creates a cycle of oppression that can only be reacted to in the form of violent outburst.
I think there is a lot of movement on these issues in recent times but more needs to be done to decriminalize drug offenses, create opportunity in poor communities and eliminate many of the invasions of privacy upon private citizens corporations use to monitor their employee's personal lives.
This is not just about Baltimore but every poor african american neighborhood, every poor hispanic neighborhood and any neighborhood that encounters this tragic scenario. The problem is epidemic and only results in wasted lives and wasted money incarcerating individuals who present minimal harm before being turned into hardened criminals in these prisons.
Not to mention incredibly biased and racist media coverage. I would like to see rioting white sports fans referred to as "thugs," please.
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
― Anais Nin
trololol, Amerikkka is falling apart. humpty dumpy sat on a wall...
(psst...)
Nah, that's always been Baltimore. All their shit is just coming out now.
This site says Baltimore has a crime rate 280% above the national average when it comes to violent crimes... http://www.areavibes.com/baltimore-md/crime/
My brother has a house he rents in Baltimore. But when he lived there, some of the houses on his street were converted to section 8 housing and apparently sometimes drug dealers will live in them, at least until they get arrested. I don't think I'd ever want to live there, let alone visit.
My guess would be as follows: The cops probably fucked up to be honest, whether in the van or before doesn't really matter. Most likely inside the van however seems like the most logical assumption. These cops see things like this poor kid all the time, they're jaded and need a break more often. The way they would have reacted the first time 'confronting' this man would have been much different I assume, than how this situation turned out here. After they've dealt with drug addicts ect things like that on a constant basis I understand 'why' they may react harshly and inappropriately, their safety matters as well. But the manner in which you assure your own safety against someone like this young man in the video is obviously not the way they should have. I've been strung out before like that kid, could barely talk let alone think about doing anything other than making my body go limp as a defense. I see a number of potential reasons shit like this is happening --- Cops need shorter shifts/ longer time off or shifts in completely different areas of a town/city so they do not see the EXACT same things day in day out. Reserve Officers probably shouldn't even exist either, just become a full-time cop or get over their authority complexes and let it go. There are also some majorly negative influences kids in under-privileged communities that they face constantly 'up close and personal' from birth. The sub-culture in those types of settings tends to have some really horrible issues people like to forget about addressing. But until they are, throwing money and police officers at those areas isn't going to help. It's like taking pain medicine for a compound fracture but ignore the you need to re-set the bone ect and instead just mask it with pain killers till you bleed out.
Last edited by Mactheknife; 05-03-2015 at 03:05 AM.
Take all these strings
They call my veins
Wrap them around
Every fucking thing
This "poor kid" is not a "thing" that police officers see often. He saw police and ran (not illegal). He was arrested for carrying an illegal knife (turns out knife was not illegal). He was seen and heard screaming in pain when he was arrested (arrested for NOTHING). His spine was 80% severed at his neck. It is not that easy for a spine to break - that takes force. He was already in custody and not a threat.
To be honest, I find it sickening how much people try to make excuses for police brutality and blame the victims or potential victims ("Eric Garner would not have died if he had not been overweight"; "why did he run from the police"; "why did he steal the cigars"). Blame the killers. They did not fuck up, they KILLED someone and ONCE AGAIN the system tried to cover it up.
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
― Anais Nin