Strange Fruit

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.

When In The Wrong, Go On The Attack

Here is a how-to lesson:

“Everybody’s trying to shame us.” pic.twitter.com/T1ISTiZpEe

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 9, 2020

UPDATE: Lest We Forget

Brutality against women can come from those whose duty it is to protect and serve:

A Winnipeg woman said this week that she had filed a complaint after an officer beat her in her own home as her 8-year-old son watched.

Lana Sinclair told CBC that Winnipeg police officers showed up on Halloween night to investigate reports of “yelling.” One officer spoke to her son, while another officer talked to her.

“He came up to me and poked me,” Sinclair recalled. “I was sitting on a chair in the kitchen and I jumped up and said you don’t need to touch me.”

The officer pulled out a baton, and beat her with it, she explained to CTV. She said he then smashed her face into a work table, and into the floor.

UPDATED: Many thanks to Inse for providing this link to a very disturbing video showing physical brutality by a London Metropolitan police officer. In this case, unlike the vast majority in Canada, the offending officer was charged and terminated.

Wouldn't A Taser Have Been More Appropriate?

I have often thought that had the video evidence not been so strong and graphic in the shooting of Sammy Yatim, the 'official' police story would have been that the disturbed 18-year-old had lunged at officers and thus had to be killed. What the video apparently showed, however, was what many would describe as the execution of a kid who posed no threat to anyone.

Similar video has arisen in the recent shooting of St Louis resident Kajieme Powell, an obviously disturbed man carrying a knife by his side. According to St. Louis Metro Police Chief Sam Dotson, the officers used deadly force due to the suspect with a knife coming within three of four feet of the officers, which would be considered within lethal range.

While perhaps not as definitive as the Yatim video, the following does cast doubt on the official story. Have a look and make up your own mind:

An Aerobic Workout While On The Job

The NYPD shows us how its done with only one simple piece of equipment, a baton: