Where are the bills to end the militarization of police and murder of black men? WARNING GRAPHIC PIC

[Savannahmann]

29. This subject qualifies as an issue of extreme importance to me.

All lives matter. Life is precious, and we as a people should take it only as the last resort after all other avenues have been ruled out.

Gandhi told us something about violence that I've never forgotten. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

The problem is with the marketing in society. Cops in movies, and TV are almost without exception good family people who are under a lot of pressure and when they use violence it's in a flashy choreographed manner that affects only those bad guys who really have it coming. The cop dispensing the beating, shooting, or whatever is a great guy/girl who is determined to stand up against inexpressible evil.

Look at the TV shows. A handful of cops against nearly unlimited numbers of bad guys. Fighting for their lives, to avenge the murder of a pretty young woman, or a child, or whatever. Or they are strict professionals who are torn up emotionally when they must resort to violence. Adam 12 followed this meme. A little square, but good people who called everyone Sir or Ma'am no matter what color they were. The dedicated public servant. Starsky and Hutch, flashy but trying to catch murderers, violent robbery suspects, drug dealers. Lethal Weapon took down a grand conspiracy that used drugs and mercenaries to terrorize the public in Los Angeles.

Even when the cops are flawed, it was a one time thing, a moment of weakness in an otherwise long and distinguished and honorable career ala Black Rain. Those handfuls of movies where there are bad cops, the bad cops either get killed by the good cops, ala Lethal Weapon 3, or go to prison for the rest of their lives and who feel incredible remorse for their misdeeds.

Yet real life doesn't have the advantages of the moves. There is no script writer to make sure that the cops are only dispensing beatings to the bad guys. In the movies, the cops plant the evidence to pressure a bad guy into giving up information. Not sending him to prison for years.

So people judge the police based upon their own experiences. With one cop for every couple hundred people in this nation, it is likely that any interaction was passing by the guy at a high school football game. Or watching the cop wave them through an intersection with a damaged traffic light. They might have had a cop show up in school and tell them about how dangerous drugs are, or guns or whatever. So this reinforces the image that the cops are good.

The worst cop defenders and faithful followers are those on the fringes of the us. It's family and friends of police. Even if they see a cop doing something wrong on the video, they refuse to believe most cops are involved since Dad, Mom, Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary, Brother or Sister would never do anything like that.

People often laugh at a woman who stands up in court and tells the Jury that her child is a good boy or girl. Despite the video evidence showing the young hoodlum committing any number of heinous crimes. That is normal human nature. That is the intense desire to believe the best about your loved ones. Yet, nobody laughs when the families of cops stand up and say that they know this guy and the video was taken out of context, and he/she is a good person.

In reality, when the police do get caught and charged with wrongdoing, they face much more lenient penalties than the mere civilians do. An example, in Ohio a Police Officer who left a dog in his cruiser for four hot long hours and the dog died from Heat Stroke got a fine of $500. In Ohio causing the death of a police dog is a 4th Degree Felony.

Ohio Revised Code 2921.32.1.

No person shall knowingly cause or attempt to cause physical harm to a police dog or horse in either of the following,if the dog or horse is assisting a police officer in doing his official duties or the dog or horse is not assisting the officer but the offender has actual knowledge that the dog/horse is a police dog or police horse. This statute also covers handicapped assistance dogs. A violation of this statute where death results it is a Felony of the 4th degree( 6 months to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine ). Serious physical harm to the dog/horse it's a Felony of the 5th degree (6 months to 12 months and $2,500 fine ). Physical harm is a Misdemeanor of the 1st degree ( no time to 6 months & $1,000 fine). If no harm is involved it is a Misd of the 2nd degree ( no time to 90 days & $750 fine )

So the Officer didn't even get the maximum penalty for no harm involved annoying the dog, but we are supposed to believe that Justice is blind.

Time after time, criminal act after criminal act, the police are exonerated, or at worst, given a few days off with pay. That will teach them, take a free paid Vacation Mike, and don't do it again (wink wink).

Your question is not how we got here, I know that. It's when will it change. Honestly, it won't until a majority of the people recognize that the cops are not the heroes of fiction and modern entertainment media. Until the people realize how abusive and brutal the police really are. Until the people realize that the cops are usually the biggest liars in the court room, there is no hope.