Police brutality

[jee]

he video below reveals another troubling use of a taser. 54-year-old Maurizio Biasini went to a Mendocino Beach called Portuguese Beach with his two twin sons, Dario and Andriano Biasini, and fell into the water. The police and fire department refused to go into the choppy water as the father was swept further and further out to sea. When the sons screamed at the officers for not acting and one tried to go into the water, the police tasered one son twice. The father was lost.

The fire department insisted on waiting for the Coast Guard as the distraught sons demanded action and swore at the officers. According to one witness, it was the police that turned the confrontation into a physical matter by grabbing one son around the neck and lifting him off the ground. They then tasered one son who wanted to rescue his father not once but twice. To make matters, the police proceeded to criminally charge the son for . . . you guessed it . . . interfering with a rescue that they refused carry out.

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Do read the pet story as well.

I have been following the US's taser misuse stories for a while now, and have been wondering if police brutality is on the increase, or if its like the huge amount of suicides in the US military, due to a rising panic and stress.

What do you think?

[Tribble]

I think it is stress. Stress to perform, stress as they are being watched under proverbial microscopes. Every action is evaluated and many things that they used to get away with - they cannot anymore. People have also become more violent and less respectful (of others and the law). It could just be a general decline in humanity manifesting here.

[Anakha56]

http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/videos ... d-student/

Watch the video at the Times website of another example of police brutality this time in our own backyard. The guy is disabled crawling under a car to get away from the Police and some maniac shoots him with rubber bullets 3 times from a pump action shotgun at point blank range... Yeah he was a real threat...

[Tribble]

That made me sick. We must have one of the worst police forces in the world. Something needs to be done!

[jee]

I'm not so sure if our police force is the worst in the world.....

[GreyWolf]

No, police officers around the world are not generally held in high esteem. It is ironic.

[lancelot]

That made me sick. We must have one of the worst police forces in the world. Something needs to be done!

That is blatantly untrue, tell that to the more than 500 police widows.

[RuadRauFlessa]

That made me sick. We must have one of the worst police forces in the world. Something needs to be done!

That is blatantly untrue, tell that to the more than 500 police widows.

+1 to that

[rustypup]

I'm not so sure if our police force is the worst in the world.....

agreed... not yet rounding up street kids in order to 'rehabilitate' them...

and they do seem to be keen on beating up students - that's a big plus... while not quite as bad as hippies, students tend to surf the violence-inducing obnoxious curve a fair bit...

they're under-resourced, underpaid, of generally low morale and education and now, apparently, increasingly suicidal... i wouldn't be surprised to see more of this...

fact is, they've lost... i am of the strong opinion that they should lift the ban on vigilantism... let the general populace cleanse itself of the more excessive failures and then try again at a later date....

[lancelot]

Bow down to the master troll

[rustypup]

hmm..
"rounding up street kids in order to 'rehabilitate' them" - much publicised police death squads in honduras/puerto rico being used as a deterrent against street kids congregating in popular tourist areas...

"they do seem to be keen on beating up students" - an oblique reference to 2 distinct issues...

• :-the brutality recorded in detail during raids on night clubs in east london..
  :-personal experience of not having police respond to cases where armed/possibly armed felons are involved... (so, unarmed slacker student == fair game, possible hardened criminal == back off until things calm down)...

"under-resourced, underpaid, of generally low morale and education and now, apparently, increasingly suicidal" - as to the SAPS being under-resourced and underpaid, these two items are relatively well known... lack of education is pretty much par for the course at all levels and the suicide rate amongst active officers has been climbing dramatically over the last 5 years..

i have 3 extended family members currently serving and feel i can speak to the morale of the average officer...

"fact is, they've lost.." - you believe the police are winning?

i troll you not...

[Tribble]

That made me sick. We must have one of the worst police forces in the world. Something needs to be done!

That is blatantly untrue, tell that to the more than 500 police widows.

So.... because there are police widows = that excuses the rest of them from treating people that badly?

[hamin_aus]

As you can imagine, I have had several run-ins with the police during my short but eventful life.

All of them have been relatively painless, even tho a lot of them could have ended disastrously for me had the officers involved chosen to make it so.

While I will agree that the SAPS is guilty of of being slothful, inept and generally unable to anything of consequence in this country, I have yet to be miss treated by one of them.

[jee]

I have had jobs that worked closely with the police, and have a fair number of friends. I feel i have an understanding of what they are dealing with - the stress of seeing the unseedy side of life.

This said, i was raped by a policeman, and his buddies and commander tried to talk over it and make me the "harlot".

On a different note, should tasers be used?

[Koko_Lion]

A police officer can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

[thEnaileDonE]

That made me sick. We must have one of the worst police forces in the world. Something needs to be done!

South Africa once had a Police Force... and even though they were far from perfect for the most they gave one a sense of security and they were there when needed. Now we have a Police Service... and as with so many other goverment services they fail to deliver...

High stress work + low pay + very few career aspirations + bad day = very bad day for who ever is to blame for the afformentioned bad day (which doesn't excuse it)

[Tribble]

I know what I said earlier but I do understand what the police go through. They have the law and the criminals against them. And now we are losing that part of the police that was actually working. There are a lot of good people in the police service - I just think that with the people they have to deal with, they become hard and emotionless.

[lancelot]

My son serves, Problems there are, I am NOT stupid, however I will never tolerate plain bashing just for the sake of it. I do not have the time nor the inclination to look up countless reports and thanks to the Police for work well done.
I will tell you what makes me sick, bloody liberal outbursts and and always pointing out faults, the South African whiny Whitey. We lived in the lap of luxury, fed off the Black man, never complained about about house arrests, death in cells, the extraordinary high crime rates in the townships but now, all of a sudden we are shocked at police brutality. Nightclubs are filled with the worst scum imaginable, I am sick of my son being summoned to these vile places to go and protect some drunken lout who has got involved in a stabbing match.
I do not give a continental damn about street kids in Honduras or any other place, they should be put into work camps, educated and let out when they are able to do something constructive, they only exist because of fools who tolerate them and pass out money to them because of guilt.
I have a commune of students living behind me, I only had to beat them up once to solve all the drinking and noise problems, it works.
Low morale, low pay, whose fault is that, the Policemen's? Who are you petitioning to have their lot improved, let me answer that, no one, because you do not think it will do any good.
That Tribble has the audacity to to ignore the sacrifices that the Police make with the absurd argument that it does not matter, she would, by inference, like them all killed thereby starting anew?
Have you any idea how many drunken drivers my son has let off because they are obviously stupid students with parents who love them? They remove the driver, take his car to the station and phone the parents to come and fetch them. I can only hope that these tearful and thankfull parents are not going around insulting the cops now.

This should have been up ages ago, would not submit, then I come here to find it posted four bloody times, the lag is extremely bad. Man I am so pissed off!

[GreyWolf]

My son serves, Problems there are, I am NOT stupid, however I will never tolerate plain bashing just for the sake of it. I do not have the time nor the inclination to look up countless reports and thanks to the Police for work well done.

I will tell you what makes me sick, bloody liberal outbursts and and always pointing out faults, the South African whiny Whitey. We lived in the lap of luxury, fed off the Black man, never complained about about house arrests, death in cells, the extraordinary high crime rates in the townships but now, all of a sudden we are shocked at police brutality.

agreed. damn hippies always whining.

Nightclubs are filled with the worst scum imaginable,

My friends and I are the "worst scum imaginable"??????? Please justify this.

Low morale, low pay, whose fault is that, the Policemen's? Who are you petitioning to have their lot improved, let me answer that, no one, because you do not think it will do any good.

Yup, if you not helping out, then you have no right to complain

[hamin_aus]

Nightclubs are filled with the worst scum imaginable,

My friends and I are the "worst scum imaginable"??????? Please justify this.

Step 1: Click on your profile
Step 2: Click on the Search user’s posts in your profile
Step 3: Read through results
Step 4: Justification

[GreyWolf]

Nightclubs are filled with the worst scum imaginable,

My friends and I are the "worst scum imaginable"??????? Please justify this.

Step 1: Click on your profile
Step 2: Click on the Search user’s posts in your profile
Step 3: Read through results
Step 4: Justification

funny...

[lancelot]

My friends and I are the "worst scum imaginable"??????? Please justify this.

The amount of theft that goes on, the amount of drugs, rapes and fights, they all happen in clubs. But you are correct, I must not generalise, you and your friends are not scum, but honestly, in some clubs the majority of clubbers are,.
Apologies to you and friends, in fact anyone that does not fit the description.

[GreyWolf]

My friends and I are the "worst scum imaginable"??????? Please justify this.

The amount of theft that goes on, the amount of drugs, rapes and fights, they all happen in clubs. But you are correct, I must not generalise, you and your friends are not scum, but honestly, in some clubs the majority of clubbers are,.
Apologies to you and friends, in fact anyone that does not fit the description.

To be honest man, I do not think its as bad as all that. I don't know, maybe its the clubs I frequent, but the way you describe it, would seem that the moment you walk into a club, there is a needle in your arm, a hand in your wallet and a male organ in your rear end. It really isn't like this (despite Jammin's hopes and dreams).

[Tribble]

That Tribble has the audacity to to ignore the sacrifices that the Police make with the absurd argument that it does not matter, she would, by inference, like them all killed thereby starting anew?

I never intended for it to seem as though I was belittling the plight of the police and their families. I have many friends that are or were in the police service. I was saying that is was not a justifiable reason for the behaviour of some of the officers.

I have been to the rural police station near Polokwane (Pietersburg). We went to report the theft of my housekeeper’s cattle. The police laughed at us when the eyewitness told them who it was. The criminal was too wealthy and influential and the police would not even let us file a report.

Betty’s son went back the next day to try again and they beat him up severely when he asked why some of their cattle were behind the police station. We had to take him to hospital to have the injuries treated. We tried to lay a complaint at another police station and were told not to waste their time.

Who are you petitioning to have their lot improved, let me answer that, no one, because you do not think it will do any good.

I petitioned that police benefit payouts should be tax free – which they now are (thanks to John Robbie at 702 and many concerned citizens). We are currently working on getting the salaries raised to a level that suites the danger these men and women have to go through on a daily basis. They are poorly paid and open to bribery because of this. With higher salaries, we believe that they will be able to do their duty honestly.

Have you any idea how many drunken drivers my son has let off because they are obviously stupid students with parents who love them? They remove the driver, take his car to the station and phone the parents to come and fetch them. I can only hope that these tearful and thankfull parents are not going around insulting the cops now.

Again I apologise for how my comment came across. I was not slating all police officers – merely voicing my concern over the video I had just watched. I hate brutality of any kind. Your son sounds like a caring person – I am sure the parents of those delinquent kids are incredibly grateful.

…she would, by inference, like them all killed thereby starting anew?

And No! I was not insinuating that all police should be killed so that we could begin anew. I thought you knew me better than that.

[lancelot]

Yes, I do in fact understand what you were inferring, but I think it is time for a distinction to be made, there are bad eggs in all the race groups, however affirmative action is the biggest reason for South Africa's demise, it is the single biggest reason for joblessness, it is the single biggest reason for bureaucratic indifference, it is the biggest reason for poverty and crime. It is time that citizens in this country become pragmatic in their approach. The time is past when we can accept a criminal as the next President, that the Police Commissioner is a thief and and accepts bribes, that Home Affairs is such a disaster that I now need a visa to go to the UK, that traffic departments are so corrupt, it is easier to buy a drivers than go for innumerable tests. Our health system is a complete disaster as is our education, these are areas of concern, the police force is one of the few areas that actually function, not in rural areas, not in townships but only where there are still coloured and white members of the Force, the blacks who work with them are good because they know who is watching.
I will not carry this rant any further as it pisses me off, Tribble I forgive if you will overlook some of my comments which were made in the heat of the moment.