Police brutality

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“”You can truly grieve for every officer who's been lost in the line of duty in this country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive. You can have great regard for law enforcement and still want them to be held to high standards.

—Jon Stewart

Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or suppressive force by (otherwise legitimate) police — as distinct from force used by secret police or by a foreign (illegitimate) occupying force or police inaction that allows a third party to initiate force (such as Orval Faubus standing down the police force in 1957 so that mobs could harass black students trying to integrate into a segregated school), though the lines can get blurry.

While police brutality gets the most attention when it's done against an emergent or temporary movement, police brutality is often a continuing problem. Note too that police brutality rarely happens as an initiating force for change; indeed, police brutality tends to intensify when direct action aims directly at the status quo. Contrast the hostility of police towards American civil-rights activists versus their ambiguity towards the first and second incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan.

Interestingly, when police brutality gets bad enough, the military often comes to the side of the populace. Of course, if the military is also functioning as the police, all bets are off.

However, the perception of the military as "on the side of the people" (at least more often than the police) may, in fact, be a contributing factor in the enduring popularity and power of military dictatorships. Apart of course from Mao's quote that "political power originates from the barrel of a gun". On the other hand, a dictator who relies on the military for power is more likely to be overthrown by the military than one who relies on a hand-picked police is to be overthrown by said police. As Yeltsin said, "You can build a throne out of bayonets, but you can't sleep on it."

Police brutality and authoritarianism

While it should be obvious that police brutality is the first line of defense for an authoritarian regime's hold on power, distressingly often citizens in a republic encourage police brutality as an impetus to keep down citizens of a "bad" subgroup. You can blame citizens' and their politicians' fetishism for "tough on crime", which leads to a spiraling increase of force.

Instruments of brutality

Guns

See the main article on this topic: Gun

The weapon of gun is a favorite, and this rings especially true in the United States of America, where it is assumed that everyone owns a gun or two, hence why the police freak out if the odd Australian steps out of their cars to confront officers. The gun has seen use in many notable cases, such as the death of Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead by George Zimmerman, the death of Botham Jean, who was shot in his own apartment by an off-duty cop, the shooting of Charles Kinsey where a toy truck was mistaken for a firearm, and, unfortunately, many more that would be too comprehensive for this page to list. Some countries don't routinely arm their police with guns, most notably Britain. According to the Police Shootings Database, almost 1000 people get shot to death every year, though most shootings are justified, as many suspects were either carrying a weapon themselves or were acting aggressively towards the officers (such as trying ton seize their weapons). A disproportionate number of victims have mental health problems (keep in mind the stigmatization of these mental health problems and their association with violence), and the police receive a paltry amount of training and resources dealing with this, typically only between 5 and 10 hours of training. Out of the 1099 shootings in 2019, 24% of the victims have been African American, despite being only 13% of the population.

Electric Guns

Also known as Tasers or stun guns, these electric-powered weapons that fire two prongs are a (usually) less-than-lethal measure used to incapacitate suspects, such as dangerous 10-year olds who refuse to take a shower, menacing old ladies, and the equally threatening unconscious diabetic, 11 times just to be safe. When used properly, however, they are more likely to keep a suspect alive than guns are, though it may be lethal to people who have heart disease, seizures, or are using a pacemaker; children, elderly people, pregnant women, and thin people are at higher risk of serious damage. Other potentially serious side effects that may occur from Taser deployment can contribute from falling on hard surfaces, operating hard machinery, or places where explosive or flammable material are present. Another way that Tasers could be used is to "Drive Stun" people; in other words, deliver a painful shock as a pain compliance technique (or torture in other other words).

Another problem with tasers is that although they are a (usually) less-than-lethal option, their reduced chance to cause long-lasting damage has occasionally led to the increase use of them. For example, the Baltimore Sun in Maryland found that the officers that used them fail to meet safety guidelines and used them against people who posed no immediate threat. In fact, most states don't have Taser standards, with only Connecticut and Vermont adopting statewide policies.^{[citation needed]}

Beanbag guns

Beanbag guns are a (usually) less-than-lethal measure that loads a shotgun with a pillow filled with fluffy feathers lead. The weapon short-term incapacitates people if aimed at large muscle groups, though head shots can cause death, and hitting the ribs can cause fractures or pierce the heart and lungs. Unintended discharge additionally has killed two suspects. A young woman during the 2019 Hong Kong protests may lose sight in the right eye after being hit with a bean bag on the face.

Batons

Batons are blunt sticks that are also known as nightsticks, and can be used to brutally beat people up. While they have their uses, such as breaking windows to free trapped people, breaking windows to free (and then cuff) trapped sovcit idiots in their cars, and self-defense, abuse of the heavy, blunt sticks onto people can have deadly consequences. A famous example of an incident is Rodney King, where he was beaten up by LAPD officers for 15 minutes after he was chased. After the acquittal, a giant riot started, which ignited the conversation surrounding racial and economic disparity and police brutality.

Pepper spray

Pepper spray contains capsaicin in canisters. The spray can be used to keep rabid animals at bay, which include sitting protestors at a university and Hong Kong protestors. Aimed at the eyes, and they strongly irritate them to the point of incapacitating a violent person. Though like a lot of less-than-lethal methods, some people just don't get fazed by it. Like Tasers, pepper spray also requires the police to be close to the suspect and it must be aimed directly at the eyes to stop them. It's also been misused by a lot of crazy people as well, so unlike most weapons listed here, you don't need a badge to abuse it.

Incidents

Rodney King

A widely covered incident that involves Rodney King and the LAPD. In March 3, 1992, after a high speed chase, King was dragged out of the vehicle and beaten by LAPD officers, where King was hit over 50 times and suffered 11 fractures and multiple other injuries due to the beating. Although the officers were tried for charges on assault with a deadly weapon and excessive force, the officers were acquitted by a predominantly white jury, which sparked the 1992 violent riots in Los Angeles. The riots left more than 50 people dead, more than 2,000 people injured, caused over $1 billion worth of damage, 12,000 people arrested, and more than 9,800 California National Guard troops deployed alongside other branches of the military. Mayor Tom Bradley was against the verdict, saying "Today that jury asked us to accept the senseless and brutal beating of a helpless man." On the third day of the riots, Rodney King was quoted saying, "People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Can't we all get along?"

In June of 1993, police chief Daryl Gates was forced to resign and was replaced by a black chief, Willie Williams, whereas, Bradley chose not to run for a sixth term as mayor. The United States Department of Justice then filed two civil suits against four of the officers, where two of them, Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell were found guilty, served 30 months in prison, and did not return to the police force while King was awarded $3.8 million for the injuries he sustained. The other two officers, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno were fired from the LAPD.

George Floyd

George Perry Floyd Jr. (1973–2020) was an unarmed black man murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25th, 2020, during a rather unwarranted arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit 20 dollar bill (which was later found to be genuine), by suffocation. Chauvin was initially charged with a third-degree homicide, however the charge was later changed to second-degree homicide.

The killing of Floyd was the impetus for weeks of worldwide protests against police brutality (and in extreme cases full-scale riots against the police, his death being one of countless similar events throughout US history (especially in the South and similarly right-leaning states) of white police officers responding to false positives involving black people and responding with disproportionate, unwarranted violence.

On the other hand, his death also triggered a media circus of conservative pundits and racists either justifying his death or attempting to shift the responsibility of his death onto anything but the adult man kneeling on his neck and blocking his airways, who was even caught on a security camera. Meanwhile on the another hand, the subsequent public crackdown on racial discrimination resulted in multiple brands, corporations, and politicians showing massive displays of out-of-touch-ness, such as changing the name of master bedrooms due to its "association with slavery", changing "whitelist" to "allowed list" and "blacklist" to "banned list", replacing voice actors playing characters of color who weren't people of color with people of color, excessive and unnecessary self-criticism from white people who had no part in any racism to begin with, and other such examples of empty, performative "wokeness".

Matthew Rushin

“”Rushin maintains he ended up on the wrong side of the road because he lost control of the car. Rushin does not recall what was going through his mind when he was “losing control” of the car. He recalls “the lights”. Rushin says he doesn’t recall “the truck spinning or the airbags going off”. He states that he remembers seeing that Ford and “coming to”.

—Court transcript

Matthew Rushin (c. 1998–) is a black and autistic young man imprisoned for a traffic accident. While forensic evidence suggests that Rushin tried to prevent the accident and transcripts suggest that he may have experienced a seizure while driving, he was charged with second-degree murder and ordered to spend 10 years in prison out of a 50-year sentence.

Matthew drove to Panera Bread on a rainy night. He experienced an accident in the parking lot and began to drive away while crying and panicking. He reportedly realized that he should return to the scene and attempted a U-turn, saw another car coming, tried to brake, and then collided with the car.

Forensic engineer and crash reconstruction specialist Kurt Weiss believes that the accident was caused by pedal misapplication, which he notes is "a common cause of crash collisions among those age 16-20 and those with poor executive functioning, as is common in autism and ADHD." Matthew was likely startled when he saw a "NO U TURN" sign while making his U-turn and hit the accelerator when he thought he was hitting the brake. Weiss notes that Matthew's behavior was not consistent with that of suicidal people (who typically drive straight ahead into solid objects).

The severe collision resulted in serious injuries to a man named George Cusick, who ended up in a coma for nearly 2 months.

Basically, when Matthew climbed out the back of his vehicle a man approached him, yelling "Are you trying to f!cking kill yourself?", also yelling a few more obscenities. Matthew shrank back against his vehicle and began repeating "trying to kill myself." Repeating words and phrases is known as echolalia, and it's one way autistic people may try to calm themselves under stress. Many autistic people struggle to think and speak clearly when experiencing severe stress. Witness testimony suggests that Matthew was "distraught" and disoriented to the point that he wasn't fully processing what other people were saying to him.

When police arrived, Matthew was able to say that he was autistic. He told them repeatedly that he had lost control of his truck. Though people are supposed to be taken to the hospital after car crashes, he was not taken there nor given any medical care.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the autism rights movement, as well as concerned citizens, have protested Rushin's sentencing using petitions, letters, and the hashtag #FreeMatthewRushin. Also, a Change.org petition to free Matthew Rushin has gathered over 150,000 signatures. Furthermore, the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network issued a joint letter asking Governor Ralph Northam and Secretary Kelly Thomasson to review the case and rethink Matthew's punishment, as well as asking for better safeguards for people with disabilities in the criminal justice system. The Autism Society's Tidewater Virginia chapter released an open letter asking for an appeal of the sentence, stating concerns that Matthew did not receive medical help or adequate support to understand his situation. A journalist named Mariah Person pointed out a similar case in which a white autistic young man from the same neighborhood drove recklessly through people's yards. He hit 14 cars and nearly killed 3 people (a pregnant mom and her small children). This young man spent no time in jail and was given one year of unsupervised probation; the case was not publicized and was heard in a juvenile court. It's also worth noting that today, this person attends^[When?] the same college that Matthew did before his arrest.

Interrogation room footage shows Matthew pacing in agitation and making repetitive movements (aka stimming, a self-calming mechanism in neurodivergent people). At one point, he stopped abruptly and did not move, which is a sign of a potential seizure. During the interrogation, his story remained consistent: he was extremely stressed, he made a U-turn, and he tried to brake before the crash.

Although Matthew signed a plea deal, his mother has reason to believe that he may not have fully understood it. She says that Matthew repeatedly told her, "I signed that plea agreement to come home."

His mother reports that in prison, Matthew has not received medical attention, even though he experiences severe headaches, dizziness so severe that he sleeps on the floor instead of in a bed, and episodes of complete blindness.

Matthew was transferred to Nottoway Correctional Center, a facility with no air conditioning. People have raised concerns that the level of heat in the summer could be life-threatening, especially to someone who is medically fragile.

Autistic activist Terra Vance reported that an inmate attacked Matthew, calling him a f*ggot and then punching and kicking him. Apparently Matthew was only given Tylenol afterwards.

Response

The Virginia Beach police department said that it reviewed what happened and found nothing wrong with how they handled Matthew's case.

In social media

One has to be careful when relying on viral incidents in social media such as Twitter or Facebook to properly document accusations of police brutality. While there are some legitimate cases of police brutality that spun from viral incidents on social media, there are plenty of examples to be in the lookout for, but the general trend of the videos recorded on social media is that the interaction occurs at the climatic peak, sometimes deliberately cherry-picked to solicit an emotional response from the viewers, which make for a sensational story, but not the one necessarily driven by fact. Some viral incidents perpetrated also originate from a lack of understanding of police tactics (such as mistaking a beanbag shotgun for a real one or misunderstanding how a Taser works) or any sort of prior history on why the police react towards a suspect; on-lookers are not going to be aware that the person the police are chasing after may be a dangerous, armed criminal who has recently robbed a store, for example. One example is an incident in Hyattsville, Maryland where 10 officers shoot what appears to be an unarmed, wandering suspect down, where the tweet sourced went viral. In actuality, the suspect was carrying two knives, aggressively charged at them and resisted the officer's nonlethal measures (Tasers, pepper spray, beanbags, and a flashbang grenade) to put the guy down. Certainly, this incident is not the only viral incident to be on the look out for, but one should understandably be skeptical of such incidents and look up sources to get a fuller picture of the entire incident, as well as wait until investigations are played out before throwing any accusations of mistreatment.

Black Lives Matter

See the main article on this topic: Black Lives Matter

Recently in the US, police brutality (specifically against unarmed black people) has come back into focus. This is most likely not due to it becoming more widespread, but rather due to cell phones with video capability catching more and more of those acts, and thus shattering the stories of policemen who were acting in self-defense. Whether guns or the lack of training of police officers plays a role has not yet been discussed all that much. However, surprisingly often police departments that have problems with police brutality against minorities have also had accusations of racism against them or even a department head who takes part in KKK rallies in his spare time. This, of course, is entirely coincidental.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Black Lives Matter
• Black Panther Party
• Civil rights
• Cops (TV show)
• Felony disenfranchisement
• Ferguson effect
• J. Edgar Hoover

External links

• Plain View Project, a database containing horrific posts made by police officers, both current and former.