But Chauvin's actions in this instance should be criminal battery even had Floyd walked away under his own power with nothing more than bruises on his neck. We hear about actions like this when tragedy results (and, rightfully, when there are racial implications) but rarely otherwise. What multiple of instances is there with similar actions by the police but (thankfully) without tragic results? All such actions are contemptible and should result in consequences for the offending officer(s).
It was a civil rights case, we found in favor of the plaintiff who was suing the Sheriff's Department. It was our perception that the cop lied about what happened and his superiors, who were there, didn't back him up. He said the guy swung at him, the superiors "didn't see it". Obviously, deadly force wasn't used, but he never should have been arrested in the first place. I'm sure they never thought the guy would sue them. But, the plaintiff said even though the charges were dropped, being arrested had terrible ramifications. We ruled for the maximum amount as per federal rules.
That cop seemed to be enjoying the control over the guy. Maybe he’ll get life and the others as well but whatever it is it won’t be enough for some. The guy was obviously a POS bad cop. My guess is people knew it as well.
Back to the whole “Rule of Thumb” thing.
I was at a birthday party back in early’76 being held by an LAPD guy for one of his friends, another LAPD guy. I was invited by a young lady who was the sister of the LAPD birthday boy. Needless to say, it was an LAPD party.
One of the guys, an LAPD motor officer, got on the topic of how he - and the other officers there - assess people they pull over for one reason or another. Although they act very professionally and tend to hide behind their Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses, Police size up people very quickly and place them into one of two categories: “assholes“ or “good people.”
“Assholes” are anyone who gives them lip or tries to argue themselves out of a ticket or moves around in their seat and/or does not keep their hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel as the officer approaches the driver.
“Good people” are those who smile and are respectful and who are quiet, working class people who are just trying to get through the day and are trying to mind their own business.
pocket (look ma no hands) as he ground his knee into his neck.
And my proviso is I do not know all the facts.
But there is a (significant) subset of cops who are just garden variety meatheads who are drawn to police work because they are wired a certain way and get off on asserting their authority. Little people, little power, big problem.
So I don't have any way at this point to conclude that Chauvin was a racist, or a garden variety meathead like those who populate the SBPD and who sicked a police dog on a Dillonite with a mullet (Jeff Austin?) circa 1985 and inspired a great t shirt. Is This Russia?
I was at an off campus St Patrick's day party in 1994 which was surrounded by SBPD with dogs. I was 20 years old and blew a positive breathalyzer. I had to do community service before my record was expunged. Luckily, Student Affairs didn't feel like giving me any extra grief and nothing more came of the incident.
I also saw the videos of the young student a few years ago getting yanked around by the officer on the horse.
It feels really crappy to be muscled around by a malevolent force.
For ND students such as myself, the overall consequences were minimal. For other groups, the malevolence feels a lot more pervasive and the consequences can be much more grave.
Only two types of people become cops: people who got thrown into a dumpster every day when they were kids and those who did the throwing.
I've moderated my stance a bit, largely because I have a couple of good friends who are cops and appear to be normal, well-adjusted people (though I've never seen them "on the job"). Not to mention folks here like mkovac (one of my very few highlighted posters) and the NYC cop whose handle I forget. But I agree with you that it is still a quite significant subset of cops who are either natural or created "hard guys". That it has come out that Chauvin was also a bouncer, the archetype of the "little people, little power, big problem" (I like that phrase and I'm stealing it) mentality, is another damning indicator. I think I'd be more surprised if it were shown that Chauvin didn't routinely act like this with virtually every perp, regardless of race. Note I'm not saying he's not racist or that racism didn't color his actions here - like you, I have no way to know.
My point is that we do society a disservice if we treat this as solely a racial issue. Blacks are unquestionably discriminated against from the word go in the criminal justice system and that issue has to be fixed first. But even if we succeed in eliminating all differences in how people of different races are treated by cops, we'd still have plenty of issues because so many cops are meatheads.
My layman's view is that the problem is one of leadership. My experience is that the "hard guy" mentality appears to cluster within individual police departments (e.g. SBPD). In my current hometown, every cop I have ever interacted with has been respectful, non-aggressive, and seemingly well-adjusted. I've lived in other places where seemingly every cop was an absolute dick. I'm sure there are socio-economic dynamics that explain some of those differences but I've lived in comparatively affluent areas where the cops were all assholes, too. I think this leadership issue starts at the top, because the national police organizations (e.g. the unions) perpetually equivocate (at best) or defend (at worst) their fellow cops in instances of alleged police brutality. The quickest path to improvement, in my opinion, is for these national organizations and nationally prominent police leaders to resist the instinct to circle the wagons every time there is an issue like this one. Accountability starts at the top.
By law to fight just as hard for the dead dick asshole as they do for the stellar employee. Otherwise they could face NLRB action. So you can’t expect the unions to solve the problem. It has to come from management. We need more leaders. Desperately.
...in the world. Absolutely awesome guy in every respect. He’s keeping me from being hopeless about the dickheads in PDs around the country (and you too, IrishApache!).