ESSAY- Police state: Has common sense taken leave?

[pisshead]

i know someone here can justify what was done to the 90 year old blind woman and all the rest...what is wrong with us? look what's happened to the country and the mindset...it's really disturbing.

when did it go from protect and serve to beat upside the head and mace someone? oh that's right, we all could be criminals.

ESSAY- Police state: Has common sense taken leave?
[align=left]JOHN W. WHITEHEAD | July 7 2006[/align]

A culture of meanness has come to characterize many aspects of the nation's governmental and social policies. "Meanness today is a state of mind," writes Nicholas Mills in his book, The Triumph of Meanness, "the product of a culture of spite and cruelty that has had an enormous impact on us." But until it happens to us, it's easy to close our eyes and go on with our everyday lives.

You would think that a small town that was the home of Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers who zealously preached civil liberties, would be a buffer against the culture of meanness. But such is not the case here.

Last year, 70-year-old Rich Collins was distributing handbills to announce his candidacy to represent the people of Charlottesville in the Virginia House of Delegates. But Collins was apparently exercising his First Amendment right and fulfilling his fundamental responsibility as an American to be engaged in the democratic process at the wrong place. The former University of Virginia professor was forcibly handcuffed, arrested, and sent to jail by police officers after he was asked to stop campaigning at a shopping center.

More recently, a 69-year-old woman was offered no mercy by local authorities when she briefly left her sleeping grandchild in her car to run into the grocery store. Since she was going into the store only to get a couple of items and it was a moderately cool day, she decided to crack the windows and sun-roof and leave her grandchild undisturbed. Moments after leaving the parking lot, the woman was pulled over by several patrol vehicles and handcuffed. When her grandchild awoke and began screaming for his grandmother, the police refused to let her hold him and took her to jail. The 69-year-old woman was left with bruises and marks on her wrists.

Far from hardened criminals, these two Central Virginians and many others like them are treated like street thugs, despite not having committed any serious crime. At one time, the police would merely have lectured these two upstanding citizens. Certainly, no one would have been handcuffed, arrested, and jailed.

However, their stories represent a symptom of a much broader and growing problem in America. Perhaps out of fear or some other innate human element, America has grown cold and callous and often lacks common sense in its accepted brutal treatment of others who commit small wrongs or merely make mistakes. We see school children placed at the heart of our court system and treated like hardened criminals. Many find negative marks placed on their permanent records due to the harsh treatment of zero-tolerance policies.

Average Americans who make unwise but nonetheless harmless decisions are treated like drug traffickers or other dangerous criminals. It seems that everyone is now a criminal-in-waiting.

Consider the story of Margaret Kimbrell of Rock Hill, South Carolina. This 75-year-old woman who suffered from arthritis and had six broken ribs was given a 50,000-volt shock from a police taser gun and was forced to spend three hours behind bars. Describing the pain from being tasered, Kimbrell stated, "It was the worst pain. It felt like something going through my body. I thought I was dying. I said, 'Lord, let it be over.'"

What led to this horrifying experience was Margaret's refusal to leave a nursing home before she had the opportunity to visit a friend whose well-being she was concerned about. According to the police, Margaret posed a threat. They claim she was waving her arms and threatening the staff. Her response was, "As weak as I am, how could I do that?"

In Portland, Oregon, authorities seemed to have abandoned their common sense and good judgment when they pepper-sprayed and tasered Eunice Crowder, a blind 71-year-old woman. What began as an attempt by a city employee to remove unsightly shrubs and trash from the handicapped woman's yard ended in a show of what many believe to be excessive force.

After the city employees began to remove her belongings from her yard, Crowder became concerned that a 90-year-old wagon, which was a family heirloom, had been placed in the truck to be hauled away with her other belongings. She told the city employees that she was concerned about the wagon, explained why it was so important to her, and asked if she could enter their truck to search for it.

When the elderly woman entered the truck in search of her treasure, after being told not to, the city employees called police. The situation worsened. Crowder had one foot on the curb and the other on the bumper of the trailer when one of the police officers stepped on her foot.

Crowder, being blind, asked who it was. Moments later, one of the officers struck her on the head-- which dislodged her prosthetic eye-- kicked her in the back and pepper-sprayed her in the face.

Students are also facing these issues in schools across America through strict zero tolerance policies. When a high school junior in Kentucky wrote a story about zombies taking over his high school, he was sent to the principal's office. School officials then contacted the police, which led to a search of the student's home and his arrest. Despite the student's plea that the story was merely fiction, he was charged with second-degree felony terrorist threatening. What began as a creative story, the kind thousands of kids have written, ended in a permanent criminal charge that will haunt this young man for the rest of his life.

As one commentator noted, "Kids have been kicked out of school for possession of Midol, Tylenol, Alka Seltzer, cough drops, and Scope mouthwash-- contraband that violates zero-tolerance anti-drug policies. Students have been expelled for Halloween costumes that included paper swords and fake spiked knuckles, as well as for possessing rubber bands, slingshots, and toy guns-- all violations of anti-weapons policies."

While many of these shocking stories go unnoticed, experts see an alarming trend in many small pockets of America. In fact, a report issued by Human Rights Watch suggests that abuse by public officials against average citizens for minor, often innocent, acts "remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States."

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves in our local community: Are we really any safer? Does the punishment really fit the crime? Have we lost our common sense in order to secure a false sense of safety?

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm going to sleep any better tonight just because these local "criminals" were taken off the streets or suspended from school.

pisshead Reviewed by pisshead on 07-07-2006. ESSAY- Police state: Has common sense taken leave? i know someone here can justify what was done to the 90 year old blind woman and all the rest...what is wrong with us? look what's happened to the country and the mindset...it's really disturbing. when did it go from protect and serve to beat upside the head and mace someone? oh that's right, we all could be criminals. ESSAY- Police state: Has common sense taken leave? JOHN W. WHITEHEAD | July 7 2006 A culture of meanness has come to characterize many aspects of the nation's Rating: 5

[stoner spirit]

I feel sorry for that poor old blind woman, who got hit up side her head, and maced by these thugs. What could she do to these damn people, swing at them with her cane and miss? That's just fucking pitiful!

[Bong30]

Hurting a Old women is never good.......... But there is 2 side to every story.

My grandma (rip) would have put up one big fight you would have needed to tase her. It said

What led to this horrifying experience was Margaret's refusal to leave a nursing home before she had the opportunity to visit a friend whose well-being she was concerned about.

what does refusal to leave mean?

[Fengzi]

Hurting a Old women is never good.......... But there is 2 side to every story.

My grandma (rip) would have put up one big fight you would have needed to tase her. It said

what does refusal to leave mean?

Good point Bong. We read these stories with outrage but unless we were there we never really know the whole story. Certainly it does seem like excessive force was used in at least some of these cases but who knows.

The law is the law and it applies to everyone. Just because a person is a senior citzen it doesn't exempt them from obeying the law. Take the example of 70-year-old Rich Collins who was distributing handbills . It's easy to say that he was exercising his democratic right but a shopping center is private property. If that shopping center has a policy against it, they have every right to ask him to stop or to leave, and if he doesn't they have the right to have the police remove him. What if he refuses, do the police just say "ok, your an old man so it's ok, never mind" No! They forcibly remove him.

And as far as the woman who left her grandchild in the car, my guess is she got what she deserved. It fails to mention how old the child was. My guess is very young, probably an infant, if it was an older child I'm sure the article would have said something like "a ten year old who could easily take care of himself...". I don't care how old you are, how cool it is, or whether or not the kid is sleeping, YOU DON"T LEAVE AN INFANT IN THE CAR!. Maybe next time she'll think twice.

The problem with most of this crap is that that it is self defeating. If the article was just about the blind woman, which absolutely seems like a case of extreme excessive force, it would have more impact and a sense of validity. Instead, every example no matter how outlandish is dragged out. Details are left out and the story twisted to fit the use of the writer. Instead of being an alarming story about police abuse it ends up being just another one of Pissy's anti-establishment/conspiracy theory posts. It's the old "Boy who cried wolf" story. When 99% of what I see is crap that makes me laugh and roll my eyes it's hard to take the other 1% seriously.

[Bong30]

Thanks, I couldnt have said it better my self

[birdgirl73]

When 99% of what I see is crap that makes me laugh and roll my eyes it's hard to take the other 1% seriously.

As always, Fengzi, you nailed it on the head. And I think the "crap factor" is at play in a big way here lately. I notice that fewer and fewer sane folks are participating on the politics board nowadays. I've seen enough of the paranoiac conspiracist madness now that when I see posts from Pissy, GS and a couple of others, I simply go past them without reading. They're always the same, and it's always complete lunacy. I don't waste my time either reading the rantings of, or debating, lunatics. I gather the same bypass approach is now being used by many others.

[Marlboroman]

As always, Fengzi, you nailed it on the head. And I think the "crap factor" is at play in a big way here lately. I notice that fewer and fewer sane folks are participating on the politics board nowadays. I've seen enough of the paranoiac conspiracist madness now that when I see posts from Pissy, GS and a couple of others, I simply go past them without reading. They're always the same, and it's always complete lunacy. I don't waste my time either reading the rantings of, or debating, lunatics. I gather the same bypass approach is now being used by many others.

I myself have been laying off the hard core anti gov stuff.

Matter of fact i didnt even read what Piss posted, but I will say that to completely gauge a situation you need as much information as you can get your hands on, from both sides of any argument.

Trouble is its hard to tell what information to take as fact. With statistics that are no doubt bias to the producer, a governemnt that has lied, is lieing, and shows no sighns of stopping the lies, theories and biased "fear" mongering on both sides.

I can see why Piss and GS side so far um..... in the middle id say... I know Piss believes that both the left and the right have the same goal.

And I'd have to say that there is a ton of evidence that supports the 2 headed dragon proposal.

But in the end, I have to live my life, whether W and cronies are trying to take over the world or not, my immediate goal is to live my life the best I can right now.

In the past even I have argued for the same goal approach, and even now it seems to be the only one that really makes sense, trouble is I have no idea what that goal is, whether its to protect our soverinty or to take our freedoms away.

And it really makes me giggle to think that out of all the times myself or others have said that the left and the right have the same goal. NONE have ever answered "yes, your right, they do have the same goal, and thats to further our great country and to insure our democracy far outlasts the 200 year average".

The truth of it is that both the left and the right see there differences in win or lose consequences. That is to say that, if one side wins the other looses.

Seems to me that our entire game of politics in America is played as advesaries, never as a team. With them its never a win/win outcome.

Why is it set up this way?
Why are the 2 parties that have control chooseing battles that split the country?

I.E. Pro Life and anti gun laws being on the right side. (Its not ok to kill them as babies, so lets just wait till they grow up, then kill them?)

With Pro choice and gun control on the left.( You should have the right to kill a baby, but not the means to kill an adult?)

Either one makes no sense being in the same sentence together. The concepts they are based on are polar opposites.

The biggest issues the left and the right fight over are classic double think.

My favorite example of double think is a quote from my sister. " I know you dont pretend to know everything, you just act like you do."

I for one hope you and others dont completely bypass what these guys post, even tho you find most of it absurd. Simply because then I would have anyone to have a real conversation with.

[birdgirl73]

OK, Marlboroman, I won't completely give up. If I see you and Fengzi and Jamstigator, Psycho4Bud, and Gray-Matter around, I'll definitely talk back when time allows. I see interesting and worthy intellects in you guys that I don't always see in others. I don't just say that because many of us are politically sympathetic. I say that because your abilities to articulate your views are a cut above the rest.

There are a lot of curious paradoxes in politics, aren't there? Did you by any chance see that special "20/20" show on ABC last week that George Stephanoloulos did? He talked about the increasing polarization of our two main political parties--and explained why the divide is growing deeper. It was really sad, because of course anyone who knows how things work knows we DO have to come together and meet halfway. I believe we ARE indeed working for the same goals, but of course we have very different ideas about how to get to those goals.

In that "20/20" episode, George Stephanopoulos pointed out how a lot of what the experts have termed "shout TV"--the loud, ranting, opinionated, insult-filled partisan talking heads we see a lot of on Fox and MSNBC contribute greatly to the problem by not fully covering the topics they address. Yet they send very emotional and provocative editorial messages, revving up the not-very-perceptive or well-read folks who use those as their only source of news. People who don't ever read or listen to differing opinions are particularaly vulnerable, the media analysts explained. Interestingly, in tests they did of people who watched those shows--and I'm betting that some of these Web sites like prisonplanet and infowars would fall into this same "shout" category if anyone ever took them seriously enough to evaluate them (which they don't)--a huge percentage of the watchers/listeners blatantly misunderstood what points were even being made because they couldn't hear through the ranting and shouting. It was an interesting show. And also a sad one because it made me believe that the polarization will only get worse.

This has been one of the baffling things I've seen in the musings of Pissy and GS and others. I find the themes in their posts confusing and contradictory, often contradicting one point they make early in a post a few lines further down in the same text. Ultimately I get the feeling that instead of really wanting to make a salient point, they just want to hear themselves rant and fill space. They often fill space with someone else's information entirely, and so no original thought or interpretation is even displayed. (One of our most frequent posters on these boards suffers from the same problem. He posts thousands upon thousands of posts, but they're always someone else's info. I've never yet seen an iota of original thought come out of his brain, and I've come to the conclusion that he isn't capable of such thought. So I simply ignore him.) Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I believe Pissy and his ilk are probably victims of the same "shout TV" problem of actually misunderstanding the info they're hearing and reading. That's all a long way of explaining why I'm now bypassing those long, rambling, nonsensical posts when I see them.

[Miss Green]

It is an outrage I just don't get why they would do something like that to a 71year old lady - seriously that would be like doing it to your grandma or mum.I don't know how anyone is putting up with it all?Its truely shameful the way they (americans)have acted not only towards there own citzens but to the rest of the world and its shameful.

[jamstigator]

From my experience, I think something has definitely changed in regards to how the police are viewed by 'the common man', and in how the police treat citizens. It wasn't an overnight change, where one day the police were friendly and helpful and the next day they had become cold-hearted and antagonistic. It's been a gradual change over the years and decades.

When I was young, in the 60s and 70s and 80s, cops were someone that, if I were in trouble, I'd ask for help and be fairly confident that I'd get it. Nowadays, cops would not be high on my list of people to ask when seeking ANY kind of help. Instead of being respected and trusted, they seem to have turned into something to be feared and avoided, and this has nothing to do with cannabis and the fact that I smoke it occasionally. Even if cannabis were eliminated from my life, I'd still fear the cops. Those who once were our protectors and community friends have been replaced with people I'd probably be scared to meet in a dark alley. No, not every cop is like that, but enough are nowadays that it's just not worth the risk of involving them unless there's just no alternative.

It's kind of sad, really, this slow transformation of police from social allies to...whatever they have become.