What the Hell Were They Thinking?

  You know the last couple articles I've written have been about the uneducated public always screaming police brutality so I decided to write this commentary next out of fairness. The fact is police brutality does exist. It happens all the time. Anyone remember the Gena 6? The problem isn't people screaming police brutality when there actually is police brutality. The problem is kinda like cursing. When you do it too much it loses it's meaning. Nowadays anyone resisting arrest screams police brutality and uneducated people are quick to believe them and make things harder on everyone. Police brutality is of course hard on it's victims. It's hard on good police who have to deal with the fallout. It's even hard on the taxpayers when the victim(rightfully so) turns around and sues the hell out of the departments. Who do they think actually pays it? For those that don't know what police brutality looks like I'll give you a couple of examples:

Now I couldn't find the actual file video that I wanted so I had to use news footage. Basically from viewing the file video I watched this woman pull up in her car. She got out and walked up to the suspect who was already in cuffs and just punched him. It didn't look like she even said anything. My question is....WHAT THE HELL LADY?!!! Was she pissed because she had to walk so far? Did they interrupt her lunch at McDonald's? Was she sick the day at the training academy where they covered the part where during an arrest after the guy was in cuffs you weren't supposed to punch him? What part of this procedure did she not understand? Did she think is was free shot friday? This was a pointless and stupid act that is only going to get the department sued and build more animosity towards police. It was just plain dumb.

Jesus! Now that was some bona fide police brutality right there. The kid had surrendered and had his arms on his head and everything. Now the woman taking the cheap shot in the first video was bad but she ain't got nothing on these guys. This video is almost too bad for words. You know I was in Houston back in February teaching at a school there. I had a business lunch with a good guy by the name of Jim Hodges I even have one of his articles on my website on on this blog called Play the Game. He had worked for the Houston police at one time but was now retired doing consulting work.  I remember he told me that many years ago when he worked for the department in his office he had a sign he kept over his desk. I can't remember the exact wording but I'll paraphrase it as best I can. It was something like:

Be careful in you pursuit of the monster

Lest you become one yourself

   I think these guys need to read that statement and remember it and practice it diligently. You know some cops get mad at the media for filming this stuff. They should really be mad at the cops in this video for doing what they did. Videos like this are not only an assault on the victim but also an assault and embarrassment on good police everywhere. These guys aren't typical police most are much better and take more pride in their jobs than these guys. These guys should be ashamed off themselves.

   You know I just got back from Houston this week. This time I was there training officers(not these officers but other ones). I enjoyed talking to the good cops there and looking at this video one conversation sticks out in my mind. I was speaking with an older officer about the old SAP gloves. For those that don't know SAP gloves were lead lined gloves that cops wore in the old days to punch people and knock them out quickly. Police aren't allowed to carry them now and I asked him if he wishes they could still carry them. He said no so just out of curiosity I asked why? He said the police brutality was getting out of hand. He used the example of a guy who may have been a geek in high school becoming a police officer then deciding to beat the crap out of people when he got the uniform on. They were good back then but it's better that we don't have them anymore. There was a good reason they were taken away. This is a good cop here. Real police who respect the badge won't do dumb things like you see in these two videos. These videos are not indicative of most police. The public becomes outraged when they see things like this and they have every right to do so. They should be outraged and I'm outraged too. But at the same time so are most police officers. I would just ask  that the people reading this blog to not lump these cops in with the good cops that go out and do the job right everyday. Thank you for your time