Monday, November 20, 2006

Police

In honor of our very own Heraldo, I'll post this link for all of your consideration.

Let the flaming begin. Keep in mind the L.A. Daily News Online accepts comments. Scroll to the bottom of the article for the Comment link.

45 Comments:

At 8:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee Fred, do you really think one more viewing of Rodney King resisting arrest and getting his ass whipped will help us understand why Heraldo has such hatred in his heart for ALL police? I don't see it helping, unless of course you're hoping to fan the flames and get some heated debate going on your blog. You are usually such a moderate voice in a medium so well suited to extremists.

Pathetic.

 
At 8:16 AM, Blogger Nick Bravo said...

warrior mentality is fine as long as they know when to turn it off. five cops surrounding a homeless man who's minding his own business is warrior overdrive and at that point the cops become nothing more than rabid animals closing in on a "kill".

Most cops would rather write tickets and stay away from citizens who fight back with guns and knives. Problem is that the people who need to be dealt with via warrior mentality have no qualms about shooting a cop.

Warriors are supposed to be courageous. There's nothing courageous about a cop who's no more than a bully.

 
At 8:55 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

8:14 wrote, "do you really think one more viewing of Rodney King resisting arrest".

Was that what that video was? I hadn't actually seem it. I was referring people to the text of the article, not the video, although I figured the video might be interesting to some.

I figured the video was the latest one out with the two LA cops trying to arrest that guy and one cop puching him.

 
At 9:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dirty cop, dirty cop.
Whattya gonna do,
whattya gonna do,
when police review
comes for you!

*sung to the tune of cops*

 
At 9:59 AM, Blogger Heraldo Riviera said...

Awww, Fred, for me? Thanks!

The video is not Rodney King, but of an arrest about six months ago. It surfaced on YouTube recently which started an investigation. Then, in quick succession, two more videos shot by witnesses of forceful arrests went up on YouTube, which put the heat on the LAPD.

I read an article recently about how the large number of people running around with video cameras in their cell phones are making the police feel an unprecedented scrutiny.

 
At 10:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heraldo, you really helping Moore and Burgess prepare lawsuits against the EPD?

 
At 10:18 AM, Blogger Heraldo Riviera said...

Is that what you gathered from the video, Steve?

 
At 10:44 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Oh, I might add; I have seen the WHOLE Rodney King video, which included the first part of King getting up and lunging at Officer Briseno. That part was never shown on T.V. to my knowledge.

And keep in mind, regarding the King incident, there were two other people in the vehicle with him when he was finally apprehended, or so I'm told. They weren't touched by police, except to be handcuffed and placed on the other side of the car, if memory serves me correct.

 
At 1:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heraldo hates all police.

 
At 1:36 PM, Blogger Rose said...

Very interesting, Fred. Thanks.

 
At 1:58 PM, Blogger Halitosis said...

Ouch. Does it look like the guy is grabbing at the officer before the officer hits him?

 
At 3:05 PM, Blogger Heraldo Riviera said...

No, it looks like he is trying to stop the cop from punching him. In fact, it looks like the second cop is also trying to stop the first cop from punching the guy who is already on the ground and being sat on.

 
At 3:19 PM, Blogger Halitosis said...

look at the officers right leg/thigh, before he punches the guy.

 
At 4:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs

 
At 4:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All these videotapes are BOUND to show only a PART of the story.

Why?

Because until the fracas starts, no one will probably think to turn on their camera. The beginning of the conflict, for that reason, will not be shown on tape.

In other words, we will not be able to see on the video what began the conflict.

Investigations need to take place to find out what the video does not show.

That is also why sensible people will not jump to conclusions based only on the video -- no matter how many times it is shown and re-shown on television or the Internet.

We all hate police brutality. But we should not assume that every conflict involving the police is the fault of the police.

And not every time the police succeed in subduing a person who is resisting arrest is it a bad thing. In some cases, certainly, the public is safer because the person resisting arrest fails to break free of the police.

In any case, let's not permit some images on a screen bypass our ability to think, and move us to make premature judgments before we know the facts.

The power of images on a screen was proven by the Rodney King Tape. IT WAS shown in its entirety ONLY A FEW TIMES. But the part that was shown hundreds of times was only the short segment that made the police look evil. The media, showing that segment over and over, laid the groundwork for the riots that so severely damaged Los Angeles in 1992.

Who stands to gain from making the people hate their police? Criminals? Radicals? Good-hearted Free-thinkers? I don't know the answer, but it is a question worthy of our time and effort to try and answer.

 
At 7:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1) looks to me like the criminal is trying to squeeze the officers balls with his right hand

2) try saying "I can't breathe" 5 times without breath.

3) Heraldo, why do you hate ALL cops?

 
At 7:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What, no one here been to one of these parties? Never tried to wrestle cuffs on a whacked out crankster? Tsk Tsk One of the "parties" I was called to on Catalina Island where the arrestee was yelling "police brutality" resulted in a "citizen's complaint". The citizen stated that the dude was "covered with blood and screaming in pain". The problem was that it was MY blood. The county paid for my stitches but I had to pay for the uniform cleaning. The mess could have been avoided If I had used enough force to begin with. What's the cliche? No good deed goes unpunished.

 
At 7:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Journalists are not paid to distinguish whose blood has been spilled. They are trained to assume it belongs to the poor suspect, not to the brutish big police ossifer who is trying to effect an arrest.

 
At 8:10 PM, Blogger Halitosis said...

Why is it that Rodney King is always referred to as "black motorist" instead of fleeing felon?

 
At 10:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

.
Halitosis said...
Why is it that Rodney King is always referred to as "black motorist" instead of fleeing felon?

Why? Because the TV News in LA and across the nation framed the entire story with the small fraction of videotape that made the police look like unprovoked aggressors. They distorted the story by relying exclusively on the video (because it suits TV, the visual medium). Then they distorted it further by only showing part of the conflict between Rodney King and the police. Their distortions made King look as much an innocent victim of police brutality as the black people in Selma, Alabama in 1965 who were sprayed with fire hoses and bitten by police dogs. Then they showed the Rodney King tape thousands of times. Thousands.

Of course, all good Americans accepted the story the TV news shows told us. We believed that the cops were bad men. We believed that Mr. King was a good man, an innocent man. How DARE those police use such force against a man who had done nothing to deserve such treatment. An innocent man. A man who had not offered the police any resistance at all.

Well, of course, enough people in LA believed that version of events so that when the jury found the officers were not guilty of crimes against Mr. King, riots broke out in LA that killed I-don't-Know how many people, and laid waste to much of the "City of Angels."

The truth about the King beating can be found in the complete videotape and in books written by the officers involved, and, I suppose, in transcripts of the trial. It turns out that Rodney King was not a very nice man, after all. I know that is hard for many people to believe, but it is so.

But let us not pretend that the media in Los Angeles is unique in this regard. Our own "dueling dailies" distorted the hell out of the Chris Burgess story, running distorted news articles and refusing to print retractions or clarifications. They also carried glowing testimonials to the excellent character of young Burgess, with no questions asked about any of the things he might have done to earn the attention of the Probation Department or Police Department. No balance. None of the "fairness" that newspapers claim to offer their readers. Their performance was shameless.

It is almost as if they have decided "Domestic Tranquility" be damned, just as long as we can sell a few more newspapers.

 
At 2:58 AM, Blogger Nick Bravo said...

There are good cops.
There are bad cops.
There are good people who aren't cops.
There are bad people who aren't cops.

Which of these sentences are false or true if any?

 
At 6:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Heraldo, you really helping Moore and Burgess prepare lawsuits against the EPD?"

"Is that what you gathered from the video, Steve?"

Heraldo, I know it's hard for you, perhaps impossible, but try being honest, direct, transparent, up-front, sometime. Tell the truth in other words and stop trying to manipulate people behind the scenes. If you are working with these families to sue the cops, tell us directly right here, now.

 
At 8:17 AM, Blogger Heraldo Riviera said...

If you are working with these families to sue the cops, tell us directly right here, now.

I confess, Steve, that I am not. But thank you for insinuating that Mr. Dennis Cunningham - an expert in the field of suing cops - could benefit from my help. That's a compliment of the highest order.

 
At 9:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

10:29 same with the pepper spray thing here

 
At 9:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve the so called progressive is in reality a pro-cop, pro-authority facist who creams himself everytime the cops are exonerated for their bad behavior.

 
At 11:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cream? Is that some kind of Euphemism? Say what you mean!

 
At 11:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cut and pasted from comments
Posted on Daily News Online:

warrior mentality is fine as long as they know when to turn it off. five cops surrounding a homeless man who's minding his own business is warrior overdrive and at that point the cops become nothing more than rabid animals closing in on a "kill".

Most cops would rather write tickets and stay away from citizens who fight back with guns and knives. Problem is that the people who need to be dealt with via warrior mentality have no qualms about shooting a cop.

Warriors are supposed to be courageous. There's nothing courageous about a cop who's no more than a bully.
nick bravo | Homepage | 11.20.06 - 8:48 am | #

 
At 12:02 PM, Blogger Nick Bravo said...

yeah, I said it. Got a problem with that?

 
At 12:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Dennis needs an expert behind the scenes manipulator, indeed, Heraldo, you are one to turn to.

 
At 3:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve - what a crack up....

but he isn't a very bright manipulator is he Steve?

 
At 4:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ken's a political fanatic and fanatics can be skilled or unskilled manipulators. I do confess to wondering where the bright bulb is when Heraldo posts anything..or personality for that matter..

 
At 5:08 PM, Blogger Heraldo Riviera said...

Steve, the bright bulb clearly shines from your fantasies about Ken. There's so much substance to your daydreams. No wonder you call yourself a prophet. Go to the bright light. Go.

 
At 7:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. Somewhat surprised at fred for his post! Surprised that Rose complimented him for it?!

 
At 8:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heraldo, your posts do reflect a puzzling mind that doesn't seemed properly "engaged" in the real world for lack of a better term. I know pretty much where my fantasies end and real life begins although I often push my ideas for solving real life conflicts with solutions that non-visionary people like yourself and most pols find fanciful or "utopian". If it weren't for visionary people human societies would be still stuck in the Stone Age.

 
At 8:50 PM, Blogger Rose said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 8:53 PM, Blogger Rose said...

Did you read the story 7:36?

"Outside the squad room, officers opened up a bit about their feelings as they struggle to fight crime for a public they consider increasingly ready at a hair trigger to record and fault their every move...

..."It's the same old story: the lawyer with dollar signs in his eyes, the suspect made out to be an altar boy without his criminal history," he said.


Despite the negative premise, it does manage to present the other side. That's what we need more of.

 
At 9:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting ? Not really. Just Mr. H. pushing his cop hate agenda with a little help from Fred.

As to the talk about the Rodney King case ......

The video seen on TV was 12 seconds of an 81 second video. The TV media just looped the juciest part and it went on and on and on. During the trial of the Four LAPD officers the entire 81 seconds of the video was shown; to the jurors and televised on Court TV. Court TV was not available to all at that time (it was pretty new). Anyway when the entire video was shown, 81 seconds, frame by frame is showed that the officers never struck King when he was doing as directed. When he started to push off the ground he was struck. Too bad. That's why the jury found the four not guilty. They followed LAPD policy. There were two other subjects in the car with King and neither of them were struck, hit, or kicked. One of the two was deceased by the time of the trial of the officers, and he died a violent death not at the hands of the police. King was a big man, fresh out of prison, all buffed up from exercise and no drugs, and a violent man. The article mentioned showed that the one LAPD divison made over 11 thousand arrests in a year. LAPD has what a dozen divisions, 8 thousand officers ?? Compared to the several hundreds of thousands of citizen contacts the LAPD has every year there are very few problems with "police brutality". Some people scream police brutality when a cop asks for a drivers license or they get hand cuffs put on them.

Some people are violent, meth, cocaine, alcohol, and such don't make them act any better. Police use force to overcome resistance. That's the way it has to be. Brutality no, dealing with a violent world yes.

And there are cases of police misconduct. It's investigated and cops get cleared or punished.

 
At 7:51 AM, Blogger Greg said...

In Memory: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963

 
At 10:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Greg - go away. I was in Dallas that day - where were you? Also, the crap you have been pulling (along with others) with the local dem committee would make JFK roll over in his grave.

 
At 10:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Greg - go away. I was in Dallas November 22, 1963 - where were you. The crap that you (oh yeah and others) have been pulling with the county dem committee would make JFK roll over in his grave. Shame on you.

 
At 10:33 AM, Blogger Greg said...

10:14, I was eleven years old and am not afraid to post using my name. Happy Thanksgiving, whoever you are.

 
At 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're the one who shot him Greg! Fess up to it!

 
At 11:15 AM, Blogger Greg said...

"He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights . . . . It's — it had to be some silly little Communist." — Jackie Kennedy, on hearing that a leftist had been arrested for her husband's murder.

We may never know who really killed JFK.

Theories abound:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm

 
At 11:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Boo Greg.

I thought it was thanksgiving and not halloween.

looks like a few members of your local committee are fielding complaints by other party members to the state. Gee, I am stunned!

 
At 11:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Get off your high horse Greg! You really need a reality check.

 

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