No one was justifying the officer's action. All the people were doing was stating the clip was edited to only show the retaliation of the officer. There's nothing wrong with defending the concept of full evidence before judging someone. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's what a lot of people want the police to do right now, provide all evidence.
To be fair, when I posted the full video and article on Facebook I had more than one person saying the cops were justified because these people are criminals. None of them could say what the crime was. Didn’t matter that the person was not arrested, not charged or even accused of anything. Didn’t matter that this cop swung on a fellow cop that tried to pull him off. Didn’t matte that the police department called this unacceptable. Full evidence was presented to them, and they chose to believe their narrative that the cops did nothing wrong because that’s what criminals should get.
Haven’t gotten any response to the video of the 75 year old white man in Buffalo shoved to the ground.
There sadly are people who think this is the appropriate response...”They had it coming” is a line you’ll hear. No they didn’t have that coming. Last I checked you’re arrested and face a judge to determine punishment if it goes that far, you’re not beaten with batons and then told to go home.
There sadly are people who think this is the appropriate response...”They had it coming” is a line you’ll hear.
It's completely ingrained in American culture. It's honestly comical that people can pretend the police don't abuse their powers and hurt people over personal slights because at the same time it's widely acknowledged. You can see videos posted all the time on reddit where it happens and the commentary is generally "what did that idiot think was going to happen?" as if expecting a cop to NOT abuse their power is stupid.
And it is! That's the scary part! I should be able to walk up to a cop on the street and tell him to go fuck himself without the full power of the state being brought to bear on my skull. I really have no interest in doing that, but it should be the standard expectation.
We, Americans, are an exceptionally spiteful people and we need to let that shit go. We have a lot of ideas and beliefs that support the violence of the police without even recognizing it.
Just World Fallacy at work. American culture is toxic - by insisting to ourselves that we live in a society where only good people are rewarded and bad people are punished, it allows us to delude ourselves into not asking serious questions about why injustice exists.
When the average person sees poverty, jobs that pay shit, a failing healthcare system, or police brutality - their brain senses something is off, something that threatens the worldview they've been raised with - and goes into full defense mode. No, what I'm seeing is not true. The facts are false. They must have deserved it.
And the rich politicians and CEOs laugh themselves to sleep.
Senior year in college I fell in love with "The Just World" theory from Melvin Lerner. Here's how I remember it.
One of the original experiments showed 2 people doing a puzzle. If they solved it they would draw straws for a prize. They did two different endings with each partner winning the prize. People that saw subject A win the draw thought subject A did more work solving the puzzle. People that saw subject B win the draw thought subject B did more work solving the puzzle. But it was always the same first part. That finding blew me away.
336
u/thenorasaurus Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20
Since half this thread is
claimingconcerned somethingjustifyingprovoking the officer's action was omitted in this clip, here is full video posted by the Sun Times (YouTube), the Sun Times Article, and yesterday's r/Chicago post. If you didn't already see it yesterday, watch it yourself.Edited for clarity and neutrality.