posted on Feb, 3 2008 @ 07:07 PM
Hey all,
First, I dare say that this video is only shocking to those who have never been arrested and/or watch too much COPS on tv.
(please note I'm going to be a Devil's Advocate to a degree in the following)
Yes the male officers should not have been present. They and the female officers should be punished. I'd even like to see them lose their jobs...but
this will never happen. Read on...
Now: Should she have been arrested? I don't know. You can be arrested for looking at a cop crosseyed or holding a picket sign on the wrong side of
the street. (This USED to be a mostly figurative statement. Now it is all too often frighteningly literal.) At that point, god help you.
Whether or not the woman should have been arrested or not is the real question, in my mind. Because:
A. Once the police have you, and I know firsthand, you really don't "have" many "rights". Legally, yes we may. But unfortunately a jail house is
pretty much a dungeon. You will not get a phone call, you will not be fed, you may or may not get water (some cells don't have it and they may or may
not decide to give you some), and even if the cell window is broken and it's winter...well you may not get a mat to sleep on...or a cover...or even
the jail slippers to cover your bare feet. The toilet might be backed up and there might be cockroaches both dead and alive. This all depends on how
popular you are at the moment. They will ask you where you work...if you refuse as any patriot would...they will withhold all of the items above.
B. If they are going to hold you, you very well might be told to wear the local jail outfit. They will ask you to strip naked at this point. If you
are male, it should take place in front of males; female in front of females. If you refuse then you WILL be stripped forceably. (Again, first hand
knowledge). They won't stand around waiting for you to change your mind. They don't put you in a corner for "time-out". You basically have no
rights until you get to court and the Judge might be curt and irritable. You are in a dungeon. They will not listen to any reasoning no matter how
eloquently it is spoken. They are operating on auto-pilot. They have done this before and they don't remember his/her name. They will do it again and
if not themselves, someone else will.
C. The more noise you make while this takes place, the less the Judge is going to sympathize with you EVEN if you were wrongfully arrested. These
draconian days, all the cops seem to need is suspicion along with some out-of-character behavior. Arrest first, let the Judge sort it out. The charges
may be overturned or dropped, but the police won't be punished because they run the dungeon. So, she may be redeemed in court, but that won't change
or carry over to how she was treated while in custody.
This goes on all over. The next day, they kick you out onto the street with a court date. They WILL NOT give you a copy of the police report at that
time. And if none of the officers show up in court, then that's it. That is your vindication for any indignities you have suffered. They will go home
and laugh about it. You may see them before and after court laughing it up in the hallowed halls of justice.You will be left feeling angry and
helpless and the gears will continue to chew up and spit out others. "Real World" rules don't apply to dungeons.
D. The sad truth is that if you take away the woman's screams and get rid of the male officers, there isn't much here that doesn't go on hundreds
of times every day right here in the good old USA. Sad...but true. This is what can happen after you are either arrested CORRECTLY (for an actual
crime) or INCORRECTLY. Once you are arrested and in the dungeon, YOU ARE SCUM in their eyes. Luckily, you might be treated fairly. If you're lucky
that is. Don't expect it. That will almost always lead to disappointment.
The only thing we have going for us is when, as in this instance, the footage is shared and not "lost due to technical problems".
This is why the television show COPS is extreme propaganda. You'll never see how things REALLY happen without those third party cameras. COPS is
fantasyland. Frankly (and sadly), I remember thinking that many of the complaints regarding Abu Graib were equal to what goes on here in many cases.
Not the worst of the stuff mind you, but some. However, people die in custudy from dehydration, starvation and exposure to other detainies/prisoners.
Sometimes they don't get legal council for months. This is the system in ANYTOWN, USA.
So the next time you hear a flag-waving good-guy like Johnny Boy McCain talk about keeping Americans safe by curbing or disintegrating the civil
rights of those very same Americans, ask yourself if you feel safer by turning your shampoo over to airport security while seeing kids getting
"wanded" by metal detectors and old ladies frisked or seeing a video like this. Because the Patriot Act and all the other "tools to catch evildoer
terrorists" will only increase police brutality and actually create an environment that ENCOURAGES it to thrive and multiply.
The message is that when we give up rights to make things "easier" for the gestapo, in essence that tells the gestapo that you DON'T deserve those
rights. This diminishes our humanity while raising the "righteousness" of the gestapo. They will be put on the pedastal while we sit in the street
gutter. They become more-than-human while we become less-than. The gestapo don't feel compelled for any other reason than their own "benevolence"
if any, to show you any "kindness". This is their job. In their grasp, you are their bread-and-butter; their Reason For Being.
As far as the video, again...unfortunately, this looks pretty "standard" to me. I don't think that makes it right. She may have been uncooperative
because of innocence, but if the female officers couldn't control her, that is, unless she did whatever they asked, then the officers can say they
feared for their safety in which case they could (I'm pretty sure) invoke the action of the male officers. They have every "right" to restrain and
contain you. They, the officers, will get every benefit of the doubt.
This IS the system. "Take a number and have a nice day." These are the people that can now look at you library record, your medical record, or any
other record as easily as they can break wind or belch. So...if we have nothing to hide...should we be worried?
[edit on 3-2-2008 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]