Sandra Bland

[I AM MOBIUS]

I thought I'd take Loinburger's suggestion to post this thread about Sandra Bland - the black woman killed by the Texas police:

Sandra Bland: Twitter erupts over theory that hanged woman was already dead in her mugshot

Seriously, I think the cops in the US are getting a bit slack in their cover ups lately...

The Counted

By the numbers: US police kill more in days than other countries do in years

It's a truly shocking website.

Fact: In the first 24 days of 2015, police in the US fatally shot more people than police did in England and Wales, combined, over the past 24 years.


Behind the numbers: According to The Counted, the Guardian’s special project to track every police killing this year, there were 59 fatal police shootings in the US for the days between 1 January and 24 January.


According to data collected by the UK advocacy group Inquest, there have been 55 fatal police shootings – total – in England and Wales from 1990 to 2014.


The US population is roughly six times that of England and Wales. According to the World Bank, the US has a per capita intentional homicide rate five times that of the UK.

648 people killed by the police so far this year.

I guess US posters are simply desensitised by it all these days...

Apparently I am a troll because I find this sad...

[giblets]

RIP

[rah]

Not that I'm defending all the shooting but over 100 cops were killed last year in the line of duty and that number has been as high 300.
So if it's true self defense, some of those shootings are justified. I know some of those self defense ones are created ones but it still stands that it's more dangerous to be a cop in the US.
Just saying.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Maybe, you know, if there weren't so many guns - it would be like the Wild West...!?

[Uncle Sparky]

Not that I'm defending all the shooting but over 100 cops were killed last year in the line of duty and that number has been as high 300.
So if it's true self defense, some of those shootings are justified. I know some of those self defense ones are created ones but it still stands that it's more dangerous to be a cop in the US.
Just saying.

95 police were killed in the US in 2014. 51 were murdered, the rest as the results of work related accidents.

5 were killed in Canada in 2014. 3 were murdered, one work related accident, one heart attack on duty.

The US has about 10x the population of Canada.

[I AM MOBIUS]

rah telling porkies...

So, the other 44 accidentally shot themselves with the guns they wouldn't need if the country wasn't so awash with guns?

[Uncle Sparky]

I'm not too sure how the US site defines 'work related accidents', but in the Canadian case, it was an car crash while on duty.

[C0ckney]

one of the things about living in a violent society is just how quickly one becomes desensitised to it. one can open a paper and read something like "there was a gun battle* between police and bandits in x favela, 4 people were killed", occasionally with a few other details, but usually that's it. and it's the same every day; only a really outrageous case, or one that happens in a nicer area, or to an especially photogenic victim, is big news. if i were being charitable, i might say that people start to feel hopeless and pessimistic about a solution ever being found, but speaking frankly, people just stop caring.

and this is even more true when one is, to a large extent at least, protected due to one's race, class, economic status, etc.. i can sit here in perfect comfort and safety, even though a couple of kilometres away there's a low intensity war going on and today in rio de janeiro around 10 people will die from gun violence.

that's not to say that it doesn't have some effect on people; it seems to brutalise them. for example when there's a story about street kids doing robberies in the city centre many will call, either euphemistically or directly, for them to be killed**. sometimes these thoughts will extend to the poor as a whole, even though it is they who suffer most from the violence. it's unlikely that any of those calling for such measures will actually get organised and carry out their murderous desires, but one can find plenty of examples of justiça popular being meted out, especially in working class or poor neighbourhoods.

* sometimes a real gun battle, sometimes an extra-judicial execution.
** this often happens - the police or occasionally some other force will quietly kill off one or two pour encourager les autres, who then leave, only to return some weeks/months later.

[I AM MOBIUS]

I do really think that's what's happened in the US, the sense of 'so what' is palpable...

Wasn't there a bunch of extra judicial killings in Manaus recently, C0ckney?

[C0ckney]

yes, i suspect that's the case. i can understand why it is that way though.

and extra-judicial executions happen all the time here. there are lots of guys "killed in a shoot-out with police" where only one side is shooting; but then of course there are lots of real gun battles between police and criminals, and unless one actually witnesses the event, it's hard to know which is which; and those who do witness such events tend to keep quiet for obvious reasons.

[DinoDoc]

Evidence seems to be piling up that Ms. Bland took her own life. Still doesn't excuse the initial arrest though.

[-Jrabbit]

The Sandra Bland case is especially sad. See the video of the traffic stop, and how the cop clearly and deliberately escalated the situation from traffic citation to an arrest. The audio transcript goes even further, providing a glimpse into the cover-my-ass call to the cop's superior. The entire trip -- from the traffic stop, to the citation, to the 'you seem upset' troll, to 'put out your cigarette' (not a lawful order), to 'get out of your car' (lawful but unnecessary), to PULLING A TASER ON HER, to the arrest -- is a textbook lesson in abuse of power.

While Bland was also incendiary (calling him "big man" and such), the cop was a total d1ck in this case. Literally not one bit of this should have happened - arguably not even the traffic stop, as Bland's comments indicate the cop may have instigated her lane change by tailgating Bland's car.

Also, three days in jail for a clearly bogus resisting arrest charge is inexcusably retarded. How does that happen?

[rah]

rah telling porkies...

So, the other 44 accidentally shot themselves with the guns they wouldn't need if the country wasn't so awash with guns?

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/30/373985338/report-number-of-police-officers-killed-spikes-in-2014

I never said how they were killed since definitions are sometimes ambiguous.
So not a porkie. The stats may be debatable but they're close enough.

I even emphasized that I didn't support the shooting, I'm just showing that it's more dangerous to be a cop in the US DUE TO ALL THE GUNS.
It can lead to a different mindset. Cops DO have the right to defend themselves. Granted every death should be investigated to determine legitimacy. Whitewashing is something that must be avoided.

And Again, I believe more gun controls should be enacted, but we can't change the past.

And yes, the cop here was definitely a dick. Cams are supposed to minimize these types of encounters but far from perfect yet,

[MrFun]

I do not believe that Sandra Bland killed herself.

She had sounded happy, and positive with the direction she was going, in life, relocating for a new, promising job.

[Sava]

Not that I'm defending all the shooting but over 100 cops were killed last year in the line of duty and that number has been as high 300.
So if it's true self defense, some of those shootings are justified. I know some of those self defense ones are created ones but it still stands that it's more dangerous to be a cop in the US.
Just saying.

Garbage collectors are more likely to die on the job than police patrol officers.

also more dangerous than being a cop:

loggers
fishers
pilots and flight engineers
non-mining extraction workers
roofers
garbage collectors
mining machine operators
farmers/ranchers
electrical workers
construction workers
agricultural workers
taxi drivers
BARTENDERS
LANDSCAPERS
MAINTENANCE WORKERS
GROUNDSKEEPERS
MECHANICS AND REPAIR MANAGERS



so forgive me if I proceed to not give a flying **** about how those poor police officers work such a dangerous job

they chose that career

and it isn't even that dangerous

stop acting as an apologist for the misconduct of the offender(s) in question