H/t Michael De Adder
Those who say the police are just doing their job are just not paying attention.
Be warned. Both of these videos are hard to watch:
This is Fucking nuts! How is this even a reasonable thing to do by police. This was murder. https://t.co/HxKHVOhnaB
— Rick Barnes (@queerthoughts) June 15, 2020
And lest we feel smug in thinking that violent, corrupt and racially-biased policing is just an American blight, Clyde McDonald of Bracebridge, Ont. sets us straight:
Heartbroken and conflicted: Canada’s Black police officers open up about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism protests, June 7
Sorry, I am not buying the “Ninety-nine per cent … are good men and women police officers” and the “few bad apples” excuses.
The ninety-nine per cent continually protect the bad apples, so they are accomplices, and just as guilty as the bad apples.
Officer Cartright says he is being pulled in both directions.
Why?
There is only right and wrong.
There is nothing to wrestle with.
The Toronto Police are a disgrace. Phone video showed Consts. Piara Dhaliwal and Akin Gul lied about Abdi Sheik-Qasim’s arrest. Toronto Const. Robert Warrener had “deliberately fabricated” the drug transaction — “inexcusable deceptive conduct” in a case against Pankaj Bedi. The Star has had many, many other articles on corrupt police officers, most of whom are still employed by the force.
Despite all of the scandals and shootings, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack has never met a bad officer.
McCormack defends them …, even when there is irrefutable video evidence.
He does not recognize that keeping bad officers on the force tarnishes the reputation of all of the other officers.
If the ninety-nine per cent truly wanted to protect their reputations, they would vote McCormack out of office.
It is their own reputations that are at stake, and they should be proactive in wanting the bad apples removed.
The fact that they actually protect and defend the bad apples speaks volumes about these supposed “good men and women police officers.”
You can criticize the Americans all you want, but when they have bad cops caught on video, they fire them.
Racism doesn't stop at the 49th Parallel, Lorne.
ReplyDeleteThat is becoming increasingly apparent to more and more Canadians, Owen.
DeleteEconomist Nouriel Roubini foresees social unrest, an uprising of the Precariat, this summer. Roubini told Spiegel that we still can't grasp that we're in a depression that will be far worse than the'29 Great Depression. He lives in the Bowery district where he says there are a great many young people, a lot of them with university educations, working in the gig economy with no safety net who will wind up unable to pay their rent, their power and water services cut off, even unable to buy food. At the same time the wealthiest of the wealthy will have their positions strengthened. Roubini concluded the interview saying he's expecting a very long, hot summer in America.
ReplyDeleteThanks to this pandemic, Mound, never have the disparities and the vulnerabilities in society been more pronounced or apparent. Will it be the stuff of revolution? We can only hope.
DeleteI chased down that first video, Lorne. It was a 57-year old homeless white guy. One or more people called the police mentioning that he was in the bus shelter waving a pistol. The swat team, with real, honest to gawd, fully automatic assault rifles turned out ready to take this guy down. His hand lowered to his waist and they wasted him. Two months later the police would not comment on whether they had recovered the supposed gun. In other words, there was no gun. There was a time that we understood the difference between a suspect brandishing a gun and a homeless guy lowering his hand.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting information, Mound. In the eyes of the police, it would seem certain segments of the community are guilty unless proven innocent, clearly a deadly presumption.
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