Ragitsu

(In game)

"Well, i'm in. From what he said, we basically just have to get this McMuffin..."
"MacGuffin."
"I'm hungry. Shut up."

Yes that was a joke.

So ... Supporting the criminals, eh?

Pretty much this.. if, for example, maybe only 1% of the police nation wide are corrupt, abuse their authority, or are trigger happy idiots... the problem is the 67% who rally appear to rally around the bad cops and the others just don't speak up  even when they know wrong has been done.
 
Police have fallen into the ultimate 'us vs them' mentality... and the problem is, their 'them' has gone from criminals to being the American public and this battle overides all else... equality under the law, our liberties, and increasingly, our lives.
 
Or so it appears to me.

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but MY personal opinion is that only a minority of police officers are criminals and murderous monsters. The majority of police officers are the type who feel that having civilians murdered by police is a lesser evil than holding police accountable for their actions.
 
There aren't any good cops. GOOD cops would arrest the murderous cops and see to it that they got convicted.

Armed with Skittles, no less!  And toy swords!  Can you imagine if a cop took a Skittle to the face?  He might actually have to taste the thing!

Critical Failure on a Seduction check: "Mmmm baby, you taste like dried sweat and too much makeup."
 
---
 
Another campaign ->
 
 
"He's trying to bury the hatchet."
"I know. That's why my back is away from him."

I think that police have good reason to be armed at most all times. If for no other reason than we can't really be sure when a gun will or will not be needed so it is best to err on the side of safety. 

That said, cops seem to be far too trigger happy. 
 
La Rose. 

Critical Failure on a Seduction check: "Mmmm baby, you taste like dried sweat and too much makeup."
 
---
 
Another campaign ->
 
 
"He's trying to bury the hatchet."
"I know. That's why my back is away from him."

Leonard Pitts Jr commented on much the same thing in this article. Particularly in the bottom half
 
He sums it up with "An argument can be made that rights which aren’t respected in the moment they are asserted are not really rights at all."
 
We are dangerously close to a state of slack martial law, one that can instantly be tightened and brought to full force at any time by any police officer in a 20 foot or more radius around him even when there is no crime.

Critical Failure on a Seduction check: "Mmmm baby, you taste like dried sweat and too much makeup."
 
---
 
Another campaign ->
 
 
"He's trying to bury the hatchet."
"I know. That's why my back is away from him."

Bigbywolfe, who made that claim you just quoted? It sure as heck wasn't me. So please enlighten me. 
 
But since I know it is me that you are poorly quoting, allow me to actually quote me:
 
"They should have pulled up at a distance. Slowly walked up to the situation and confirmed if it was a real gun or not long before drawing their own. Had they, there would be one more young child in this world."
 
 
That isn't an edict in all situations as yours is. Mine was a reference to this case in particular. Please keep that in mind. These cops showed that they absolutely do not care about murdering children. We can see that in their reckless approach on a child (They know it is a child from 911 call). They show it in their Shoot First because 'black boys are scary' attitude when they didn't even give the boy a chance to surrender. We can see it in their absolute eagerness to flat out lie about a the situation in their reports. These cops did everything they could in order to set up a situation where they could kill that boy and had it not been for a lucky camera filming them, they would have gotten away scot free. Heck, they still might because people seem to think that they are somehow justified in murdering this boy. 
 
Once again, they should have approached the situation with due caution (for their sake, for the surrounding people's sake, and for the murder victim's sake). They didn't. They should have used distance as their friend to ascertain if the boy actually had a gun for everyone's sake. They should have NOT tried to scare the child by doing a drive-by on him with guns blazing - for everyone's sake. Had these cops showed even the slightest amount of common F'ing sense, we would have one more child in this world and two less murderers (assuming they haven't murdered before). 
 
They are filthy and horrible human beings. They are moderately extreme examples of the filth that seems to be in our police force and we need to fix that. 
 
La Rose. 

Speaking as a demon, I consider it an insult to be compared to the cops in most of those localities.

My two €-cents:
1) There seems to be a lack of training on the part of US police officers. If you compare the number of people killed by police in the USA and Germany in the year 2013 you will find that US police killed about 320 people (Wikipedia), German police 19. Another number I found is 1,450.
Even if you break it down in relation to the different population size (350 Mio to 80 Mio) that is 3.7 times as many (or even 17 times!) killed by police.
I am not saying that all and every killing was unjustified, but the difference is astounding. Either Americans are much more violent than Germans and can only be stopped by deadly force, or US police is more trigger-happy.
2) The influx of military equipment and weapons seems to foster a more militaristic mind-set with cops.
3) That, coupled with ongoing military campaigns for the last 14 years plus the ongoing siege mentality in the US ("Terrorists are out to get us!") plus an ongoing class-warfare that keeps a lot of middle and working class Americans in a state of debt while lowering their incomes seem to make society more on edge. "More on edge" means that people (ordinary citizens, the underclass, the cops, politicians) may get the message: "They are out to get YOU! Don't give them a chance.
 
So, if you get ill-trained, gung-ho, financially insecure police officers in a society ripe with frustration in the street and they meet financially insecure, frustrated and potentially or seemingly violent people it is only a question of time and place when desasters will happen.
 
And I didn't even speak about the American obsession and proliferation of guns which makes it more likely for police to be shot at.
 
And I stayed clear of accusations of racism - mainly because I think it is more classism than racism: To my knowledge the people killed where more on the poorer side than on the well-to-do side of society (one a student, one a kid, one a family father trying to make a living by selling single cigarettes ina park). There is a strong correlation of being black and being poor in America (like in Germany with having Turkish roots and being a school-drop-out and poor).
 
That being said, I am assessing this from 8,000 miles afar - as a German.

Apparently folks on other continents are outraged about what happened to Eric Garner as well, good for them.  Now if only we could do something about the idiots who still think Eric Garner had it coming.  Or the idiots who wonder how Eric Garner might have been brought in safely, as if it would be difficult for five police officers to apprehend an asthmatic who, by the reports of his friends, was in poor shape.

When a cop engages in an activity that he is barred from doing because it causes suffocation and death then the victim complains of suffocation, he ought to do everything possible to confirm the guy's safety. But no, he ignored the reasonable pleas of a dying man. Why? Because the jerk and his jerk friends don't care out the safety of the citizenry, only with making sure people respect their authoritah! The police officer should have never done that, and now we have a dead man who may of committed the awful crime of selling some cigs.
 
The office got away with murder.
 
 
La Rose.

A few quick points:
1) The grand jury + prosecutor indictment system is a poor fit for police brutality cases. Prosecutors have an obvious conflict of interest because they are dependent on police investigative work and testimony. The grand jury is compromised by some inherent pro-police, anti-minority bias operating at a conscious and/or unconscious level. Everything they process is filtered through that lens. A special investigative unit and special prosecutor for police misconduct cases is a good start.
2) The War on Drugs is a major factor in the intensification of conflict between police and some of the communities they are supposed to serve and protect. Phasing it out over time would be a very prudent move, imo.
3) It's not just police training in use of force that needs to be changed. It's the state laws on the books which often give cops far too much leeway with regard to the use of force, esp. lethal force.
4) We need a return to community policing, a shift from "broken windows" patrol policies which have the net effect of criminalizing minorities for petty misdemeanors and imposes a kind of regressive tax on citizens through overzealous citation work, and we need a major shift in cop culture. Start kicking the unfit for duty ones out instead of circling the wagons every time one of them kills an unarmed citizen,e.g.
5) From what I have been reading, the Cleveland PD/Tamir Rice shooting is by far the worst case of systemic misconduct. The shooter in the Rice case was actually declared "unfit for duty" by the previous department he worked for, and the Cleveland PD hired him without even doing a thorough background check! The officers lied about half a dozen things in their initial interview/report, and rendered no aid to Rice until 4 minutes later when a nearby FBI agent immediately began doing so upon arrival at the scene.

I'm not normally a vindictive person, I've played a few in RPGS but I'd like to think I'm better then that myself, right now I'd like to see each and every one of those higher ups, their detestable minions and the human detrious that support their behavior locked up someplace unpleasent.  It's gonna take awhile for this irritation to pass.

Somebody on Facebook posted, without a hint of irony: "Nobody killed Garner but Garner."
 

 
Claiming the guy that choked him out is not at fault is bad enough, but blaming the victim?! That might just be the most vile thing all month (and by month I mean last month, since December is only just started.)

Unfortunately, suing the department only means the taxpayers get stuck with the bill, always assuming you can even make a case that will stick. The "higher ups" you speak of go to great lengths to insulate themselves from the consequences of their own misdeeds and those of their detestable little minions.They will only consider amending their ways if they lose their protection; if things start getting more and more...dangerous for them.

Vondy: 
 
"My read of your remarks on Ferguson remains that they are largely speculation and guess-work. Why? Because, there is no way to prove your assertions"

No, the Ferguson issue is not speculation. The way the prosecutor handled the situation is public knowledge. Please feel free to look into this a bit more. Among the most dissettling things is the 'info dump' he did on the Grand Jury. He bombarded them with documents without end expecting them to be able to make sense of it all. Why would a prosecutor who's sole job is to present the State's best case do that? Because he doesn't want it to get past the grand jury. He was reportedly soft handed with the officer and harsh on anyone who, you know, would prove his case. Rather than be quick and concise with his proceeding, he dragged it on longer than normal so as to tire out the jurors. He mixed in all competing forensic reports so as to cast doubt on the situation. Basically the man did everything he could to ruin the state's case at the Grand Jury - he purposely failed at his own job! And he has a history of this. 
 
So, Vondy, you will excuse me if I think your out of hand dismissal of me and this position scream of a level of arrogance and close mindedness unbecoming of you. 
 
 
Vondy:

"When its my local / regional news I'll huff and I'll puff and invest in strongly held opinions and take action. In these two cases, its simply not my place. Based on your location information..."

Vondy, I get it, you and I have never met face to face so I can't expect you to remember where I am from. But before you do the laziest of checks to just realize I live in Japan, try and think back a bit more or do the due diligence of asking me. Ferguson is a lazy drive away from my home. Missouri is where I was born and it is the place I love. When there are troubles in Missouri, there are troubles in my back yard. 

Also, might I add that the level of cognitive dissidence you seem to be enjoying while making such statements is a bit disconcerting. An expat who commonly made comments about the US and its internal and external affairs should not be telling others to stick to their own homes. 
 
Moveover, injustice knows no home. It is not something to be left unspoken just because it happens at your neighbor's and not your own home. That is the kind of willful blindness and abhorrent tolerance that leads us to not get involved when people are being slaughtered in other nations. And despite the three monkeys best attempts, choosing to ignore injustice does not make it go away. 
 
 
As to your last point about being a regionalist, it has no connection to what I have said. I believe in regional governership more than most on these boards most likely, but that isn't the point here. I am not staying that the solution to this problem is somehow external intervention. I am saying that there is a problem - a pan-America problem. One that must be talked about. One that must be addressed. And one that must be solved. 

Everyday a cop kills at least one citizen in the US. Cops have taken up this horrid "us vs them" mentality that we even try to train our soldier to not do. Why do we let the people who are sworn to protect the public treat us like the enemy and behave as if they live in a war zone? There are places in the US where death by Cop outnumbers death by gangs for heaven's sake. We have cops who steal our money, molest and rape people, brutalize people, and kill us without repercussion. This is not an acceptable thing. And our only recourse seem to be to rely on a corrupt justice system that favors our occupiers over the citizenry. 

This is an unacceptable situation and it must end. 

La Rose.

It's no consolation at all for me, as someone who doesn't believe in any kind of afterlife. We need to create justice here and now, in the world that we actually live in, not shrug our shoulders and assume that the score will be settled later.

Feds Find Shocking, Systemic Brutality, Incompetence In Cleveland Police Department