Social media really can help society.....

[gimmethesimplelife]

Here's some rare good news regarding an American police department, and even one in the Deep South.....and how social media can help provide justice. Apparently last year a police officer in Cobb County, GA, pulled over a Caucasian woman (the officer involved was Caucasian also) and the woman said she was afraid to get her license as she had seen too many videos of cops killing for no reason. (like duh!!!!) So what does the officer say? We only kill blacks....this is what he said and it was recorded on his cam and apparently he was fired today. The cam video was released and created quite a stir on social media....and the officer was fired today.

I have to say for my part I had a very hard time getting through to the Cobb County Police Department when I called as per my rotation on the neighborhood police brutality phone tree....to voice my fear and terror of a police department that would accumulate a pension and carry health insurance but would so hold the lives of an entire race of people so cheap and believe that such was acceptable.....I had a very hard time getting through...took me over half an hour and the lady that answered was terse and apparently sick of and amazed of the volume of phone calls that the lack of respect of human life by her employer would generate. Good lesson for her and good lesson for the Cobb County, Georgia PD. May they respect all races going forward and if such is not possible, earn Academy Awards for keeping their lips zipped and not generating huge lawsuits for their abusive behavior.

Proof positive that social media and aggressive phone targeting CAN yield human rights, even in America (though I know many people who would not believe this due to their life experience).......Rob

Keep the smartphones charged as police brutality is creeping upwards on the social ladder!!!!!

[Alan]

If the benefit Social Media provides to society is to capture snippets of peoples lives and then apply someone else's context in an effort to destroy their lives, I want nothing to do with it.
Rob, I wonder if you could live up to the standard you demand of your favorite villains?

[ToomuchStuff]

Lessons:

Don't be stupid, and don't be surprised there are people who don't understand cynicism as well as delusional people.
Be interesting to record this posters interaction with an off duty transgender LEO this metro has, before, during and after he finds out that the person is an officer.

[dmc]

I guess he should have just dragged the lady out of the car instead of trying to calm her down. To lose his job over a sarcastic remark is way over the top.

[flowerseverywhere]

Unfortunately a lot of potentially excellent police officers will not seek the uniform is hordes of people are recording everything they say or do to try to get them fired, sue them etc. It must be terribly demoralizing to hesitate before doing anything for fear of being recorded and vilified. They are human beings and by design have faults. Beating or shooting innocent people are not faults of course, but I dare you to do a tiny fraction of what they do Day after day.

there is a time and place for everything. I cannot imagine the stress on the job for these brave young men and women. Are there abuses? Yes. But like in every other profession they are few. I know that in my 35 year career as a nurse there are things people could have recorded to put me in a bad light if taken out of context, but when you are on your feet for 8-16 hours barely having time to go to the bathroom or eat sometimes you might say things that aren't the best you could do. I know 99.99% of the time I did and said the right thing. And I worked in Mental health for most of my career, with many people who were thrown away and scorned by society. I know I am not perfect. And neither are the police.

I challenge you you to become a police officer. Get your entire zip code to try to be a police officer.

[sweetana3]

All our lives and property would be worthless without a system of laws and the police to back them up. It is a dangerous and very hard job to do. Every day you see the bad and rarely the good.

Go ahead and blame them for everything they say and do but I bet they will be the first ones called if your car is being stolen, your kid being assaulted or missing, your partner killed or injured during a robbery, etc. Become involved with the Citizen Review process and learn about the profession.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I have to say that in the light of case after case after case of police brutality - killings for the flimsiest of reasons or no reasons whatsoever - that it stuns me that there are people who will actually take the side of the police. Certainly this is your right those who have posted pro police and I won't take that away from you - it's just that I have witnessed police brutality with my own eyes before taking place right in front of me. There is no possible way to unsee this for me and there is no way I will budge or yield on my stance of being terrified of American police - I've seen what they are with my own eyes as I have said. Furthermore, I do believe there are some officers in law enforcement for the right reasons that are not psychos - the reason I don't sing their praises is due to cop culture - a culture in which they subscribe to that covers the rear end of the psychos.

To me the entire US police systems needs an overhaul but for the moment they are good for survivors/heirs of survivors of encounters with psychotic cops getting huge settlements and/or political asylum elsewhere. I don't see them as good for much else, and I have ridden with them a few times when there were kids coming in from the suburbs attacking elderly Hispanic women out and about in the neighborhood, and I have posted of this before. I am still terrified of them - that will never change until the US police change and even if such were to happen, I'd still be very wary as I've seen the type of person this job tends to attract.

My point is that there is an entirely different way of viewing the police, and if you'all had witnessed police brutality before, you might just see this whole issue differently. Not only am I afraid of the police, but I am also afraid of this citizenship in the sense that there are so many citizens who unthinkingly support the police, thereby allowing this behavior to continue, until something happens to them and they learn better. So unnecessary but I do what I can to make others aware of this evil. And as to calling them - as I've said many times before, I would never call the police as you don't know if you will be dealing with a psycho or not - it's just too much risk to take and it's really taking your life in your hands to call the police for anything these days. Calling the police is a luxury for those with better citizenship who live in countries where the police are not militarized - these days are gone in the United States. Not pleasant but true and I'm not one to duck and run from unpleasant reality.

I just hope you'all don't need to actually call the police for anything anytime soon, and I mean this sincerely. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

I came back to add something - I will be calling the Cobb County Police Department later today to Thank Them sincerely for firing this trash and keeping this trash from further accumulating a pension after this human rights abuse. Several of the people on my police brutality phone tree think I'm insane for calling to thank the police for behaving in the way that they should - but I see this differently.

I realized at a very young age how cheaply human life is held in America due to America being the only country in which human life is not worth socialized medicine - something I will NEVER be able to forgive or forget - and since the police did the right thing, which does not come naturally to US police may I add - in firing this (fill in the blank with a noun that would be nicer than the one I would use) - thereby showing some basic respect for human life - they deserve a Thank You from me as an activist. This is also something I will not budge on - the need to express appreciation to the police the rare times they actually do something right such as this instance firing the abusive officer in Cobb County, Georgia. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

There's been another instance of police brutality - a nurse roughed up, assualted, and arrested by Salt Lake City, UT police for refusing to draw blood from an unconcious patient as the patient could not give consent. The nurse's supervisor via speakerphone told the police they were making a huge, litigation-begging mistake (much more honesty that the officer involved was worth, in my book) but common sense and the law did not deter this officer. Here's hoping their pensions cease accumulation and that they are off the public payroll as soon as possible with as much media attention - domestic and international - as is possible. I hope in some small way to be a part of this insistence upon human rights against the over the top militarized police of yet another American city. At least for those of you who continue to support the police, there are activists fighting for your rights against the police anyway - something to be grateful for in my book. Rob

[SteveinMN]

My point is that there is an entirely different way of viewing the police, and if you'all had witnessed police brutality before, you might just see this whole issue differently. Not only am I afraid of the police, but I am also afraid of this citizenship in the sense that there are so many citizens who unthinkingly support the police, thereby allowing this behavior to continue, until something happens to them and they learn better. So unnecessary but I do what I can to make others aware of this evil.

I think anyone who has been watching the news over the past few years has witnessed police brutality, even if it was not live and right in front of them. That "virtuality" does not make it less real or have less of an impact on the victims.

As someone with family and friends who are "people of color", I am concerned about the training many LEOs get (or don't get; it's a big deal in St. Paul that they're looking to hire four officers next year with "special" training in dealing with mental illness). All officers should get basic and continuing training in how to deal with people displaying symptoms of mental illness. All officers should get basic and continuing training in how to de-escalate crises safely.

I am concerned that police departments bought materiel, like armored personnel carriers, that is entirely outside of what I see as dealing with the public -- and very disappointed that the current inhabitant of the Oval Office is rescinding the prohibition on selling that gear (probably just because it's another thing his predecessor did). There certainly is room for LEOs to improve their relationships with a changing demographic of people in most areas as they (like all of us) are products of our histories.

That said, LEOs have an incredibly difficult job. They're the first to show up and deal with bloody mangled dying bodies in car wrecks and shootings. They're the first to show up when others are threatened by someone who perceives they have a score to settle. They have to decide in the space of seconds what has happened and what might happen in tense situations and bad environments (low light, explosions, etc.) -- and then act, knowing that they are marked because of their uniform and because they often are the aggressors. They do not always get it right. Sometimes that's a bad decision. Sometimes that's bad training. Sometimes that's a decision by someone who shouldn't be a LEO. I wouldn't want that job. I'm glad people do.

Being afraid to call the police when something happens to you or people you care about is like choosing to never fly because sometimes airplanes crash. The deviations from thousands of takeoffs and landings each day get far more press than the ones that go smoothly. LEOs have millions of interactions with people every day. Yes, some of them end regrettably, for lots of reasons. What we can do is learn from each incident. It also would be nice if we held trials of LEOs rather than dismiss the charges soon afterward; I think that creates a bad taste in some mouths. But better environments may preclude trials and such.

If the goal is long-term change of how LEOs operate in America (not just scaremongering), I think the answer is in working to make sure budget cuts don't result in cops working too many hours to think straight; to ensure that LEOs are trained from the very beginning and continually in how to deal with people in safe, effective ways that do not rely on disabling the alleged perpetrator; in getting LEOs out of assault vehicles and back onto streets where they meet with the people they've been hired to serve.

Or ... moving.