The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[Josquius]

Some white people got truly inspired by BLM.

https://twitter.com/ashlea_robyn/status/1269014378289995777

mall[/img]

This is madeline mccain or...?
I'm truly confused what they're even talking about.

[grumbler]

The only thing confusing is the car tow. The rest of it seems like yeah that's what happens when you assault a police officer?

Agree.  The car tow seems like an example of a place where qualified immunity should not apply.  The cop who ordered it should pay the fees necessary to restore it to where it was, and lose his job.  No standard of "reasonability" would find that stealing her car to preemptively punish her was reasonable.

[Sheilbh]

The Mayor of Buffalo has said he won't fire the two cops because they deserve due process and the 75 year old they shoved was an "agitator" and a "major instigator" in violence. I am not sure how those two things can go together.

[11B4V]

The only thing confusing is the car tow. The rest of it seems like yeah that's what happens when you assault a police officer?

Agree.  The car tow seems like an example of a place where qualified immunity should not apply.  The cop who ordered it should pay the fees necessary to restore it to where it was, and lose his job.  No standard of "reasonability" would find that stealing her car to preemptively punish her was reasonable.

What the whole story or are we just speculating?

[viper37]

In liberal Austin, protests unleash violence - then an indentity crisis

AUSTIN — Steve Arawn remembers the moment he no longer recognized Austin, the city he has called home for more than a decade.
The 43-year-old volunteer medic was on a grassy embankment rushing to the aid of an injured protester in downtown Austin. Perched atop an elevated highway to his left, police officers were unleashing a volley of bean bag rounds into the crowd of demonstrators surrounding him.
Despite wearing a brightly colored vest adorned with red medical crosses, Arawn was shot in the wrist and thigh, making him one of hundreds of people injured by police weaponry during two days of protests across downtown Austin last weekend.

"The level of brutality was shocking," an astonished Arawn said a day later, his wrist bandaged and his leg marked by a dark red and purple bruise. "I just couldn't believe something like this was happening in Austin."

The people's republic of Austin is reeling. As protests against police brutality have swept the nation in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, the laid-back liberal oasis in Central Texas has witnessed some of the most acute violence in the country — a development that shocked many residents, as well as the city's liberal leadership. At a six-hour-long emergency city council meeting to review police protocols Thursday night, hundreds of Austinites berated city leaders and called for the police chief's ouster. An editorial in the Austin American-Statesman said the police response "compounded the outrage and pain that brought protesters to the streets to begin with." Reached by phone, Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D) said videos of the violence made him "incredibly uncomfortable." "It didn't seem right," he added.
But the shock did not extend to the east side of Interstate 35, a concrete rampart that has for decades sliced this community in half, both physically and culturally. In traditionally black and Hispanic neighborhoods on the city's east side, residents said the only thing surprising about police turning their weapons on the public is that anyone is still surprised when it occurs.

"The idea that this is a progressive city is just a liberal fantasy," said Nelson Linder, president of the Austin NAACP.

Austin police pledged this week to stop firing bean bag projectiles into large crowds after several black and Hispanic protesters were badly injured. A 16-year-old Hispanic teenager struck in the head and a 20-year-old black man, Justin Howell, was nearly killed by "less-lethal" ammunition. Relatives of Howell, a Texas State University student, say doctors have told them he has a fractured skull and brain damage.

In another instance, police shot a pregnant black woman with an "impact munition" that left her screaming for her baby, a harrowing scene that circulated widely on social media, unleashing fury across town.

At nightly protests outside police headquarters, demonstrators have begun holding signs calling for city leaders to "Defund the Police."

During a public address Monday, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley looked pained and held back tears as he said that the incidents had left him "crushed." But for many Austinites, the chief's comments were little more than performative penance, a disingenuous exercise in deflecting blame.

"I'm sad and heartbroken," said Eugene Sepulveda, a prominent Austin philanthropist and entrepreneur and a senior adviser to Adler, the mayor. "I have been in touch with our hired officials and elected officials expressing very loudly that this is not the Austin we know and love."

The appall reflects the sense of exceptionalism built into the fabric of Austin's psyche. Like a blue life raft in a sea of Texas red, the taco-obsessed, music-festival-embracing city long ago fashioned itself as a bohemian refuge for musicians, poets, intellectuals and slackers. Even now, nearly a half century past its hippie heyday, many Austinites consider their city more livable, beautiful and liberal than most places in America. Each afternoon, the city's blue-green waterways and parks fill with carefree crowds of young white people, basking in the sun, throwing flying discs and floating on paddle boards.

"Austin is a really cool place for people that are not aware of the injustices occurring in the world," said Chas Moore, founder of the Austin Justice Coalition. "I tell people all the time, Austin is white people's Atlanta. It's where a white person can come and fit right in and go anywhere and see themselves."

In the traditionally black and Hispanic neighborhoods on the city's east side, residents describe a different reality. Only a month ago, local activists noted, Austin police shot and killed unarmed 42-year-old Mike Ramos. At protests across the city, some black Austinites say they're regularly the victims of police brutality.

"I've lived here my whole life, and the first time I saw a cop kill someone innocent I was in elementary school," said Anthony Evans, 25, referring to the death of 18-year-old Daniel Rocha in 2005. "It was traumatizing, and we can't take these things anymore."[...]

Valmy, care to comment on the liberal fantasy part?

[frunk]

Living Colour

[Zoupa]

I love that for Yi and B4 that citizen was just asking for it since the cop got a 5 cm scratch on his shin. The cops response is meant to enforce submission, it's not in any way to protect the community.

[Admiral Yi]

When I kick police officers I take great care to leave a wound no longer than 4 centimeters.  Track record is very good so far.

[11B4V]

I love that for Yi and B4 that citizen was just asking for it since the cop got a 5 cm scratch on his shin. The cops response is meant to enforce submission, it's not in any way to protect the community.

[Zoupa]

When I kick police officers I take great care to leave a wound no longer than 4 centimeters.  Track record is very good so far.

Har har. But do you think that the US population has been conditioned to view the disproportionate use of force by the police to any little offense as OK? I'm genuinely curious. I don't think other western citizens would respond as you and B4 have.

[Sheilbh]

When I kick police officers I take great care to leave a wound no longer than 4 centimeters.  Track record is very good so far.

Har har. But do you think that the US population has been conditioned to view the disproportionate use of force by the police to any little offense as OK? I'm genuinely curious. I don't think other western citizens would respond as you and B4 have.

Agreed - I remember this argument with the whole "don't tase me bro" incident in the 2000s at that Kerry event. I think basically everyone thought it was crazy and disproprtionate, except a big number of American posters.

[Admiral Yi]

Har har. But do you think that the US population has been conditioned to view the disproportionate use of force by the police to any little offense as OK? I'm genuinely curious. I don't think other western citizens would respond as you and B4 have.

First, I don't agree with calling kicking an officer in the shins "any little offense."  I would object very strongly to someone kicking me in the shins.
Second, I don't know what you're talking about when you say the disproportionate use of force.  The cops showed up, put her in cuffs, and towed her car.  I don't see any force being used and none was mentioned in the comments.
Third, I am pretty sure the vast majority of western citizens would agree that striking a police officer is and should be a crime.

[Zoupa]

Why did 7 cars and 20 officers show up and why tow her car?

[Zoupa]

And yeah striking a police officer should be a crime, sure. Striking anyone is already a crime.

I think when you sign up and know you'll be doing anti-riot duty, you should sort of expect scratches and bruises. Honestly I just think he's a pussy if he thinks that's "assault". Hence why I believe the motivation is compliance and submission, not serve and protect.

[Valmy]

Valmy, care to comment on the liberal fantasy part?

It's complicated.