There are plenty of bad guys out there and we need plenty of good cops to protect us. But what do we do when the cops shoot, rape, taser and beat the people who they’re supposed to protect?
While we’re pondering an answer to that, here’s Raw Story’s list of the worst cops of 2014:
Raw Story’s worst cops of 2014 — and there are a lot of them.
Dance behind a cop in New York’s Grand Central Terminal and you’ll get mobbed by the cops, called a fucking asshole and then thrown to the ground.
Here’s to the brave cops defending our right to be free of dancing. Patrick Lynch and Ed Mullins must be proud.
NYPD cop throws man to the ground after spotting him doing Ellen Degeneres’ ‘dance dare’.
The state of California and the city of San Jose have evicted the residents of a tent city. The results were predictable:
Residents of the neighborhood in Central San Jose that abutted the Jungle were glad to see the encampment go. But dismantling the Jungle is already creating new problems. Just days after the Jungle was torn apart, San Jose police and other city departments began fielding calls from people in different neighborhoods complaining of former Jungle residents setting up camps near them. Some ended up in a Walmart parking lot before being booted. Others were congregating near the airport, also under threat of eviction. At least one hospital reported an upsurge of emergency room visits from former residents of the Jungle, sick from weathering the elements, having misplaced medications in the eviction.
I don’t have an good solution to the problem of homelessness, but it seems obvious that evicting people will only destabilize their lives and move the problem to someone else’s neighborhood. It sounds a lot like externalization to me.
via ‘Some sort of hell’: How one of the wealthiest cities in America treats its homeless.
In the old days, a company would save money through integration — which meant owning every part of their business from raw materials, parts manufacturing, assembly, distribution, all the way through sales and marketing. But in the New Economy, it’s cheaper to outsource.
Amazon outsources its JIT (“Just in Time”) delivery to LaserShip. Then LaserShip turns around and outsources to so-called “independent contractors.” The independent contractors are just employees without benefits. They buy their own uniforms, buy their own vehicles, pay their own gas, file their own taxes. Benefits? LaserShip doesn’t provide them and their non-employees can’t afford them on the buck or so they get for delivering a package.
I haven’t seen any data, but I’m guessing that it works for Amazon like it does at Walmart: the employees are subsidized by the food stamp and welfare that we pay for.
The economists call it “externalization.” I call it “screwing the taxpayer.”
Amazon’s Enormous Same-Day Delivery Growth Comes At A Price.
In a blistering editorial published in the Monday edition of the New York Times, the editorial page editors are calling upon the Justice Department to open an investigation into the torture practices committed during the administration of President George W. Bush with an eye towards prosecuting those who “committed torture and other serious crimes,” along with former Vice President Dick Cheney and other major administration officials.
The Bitemaster has reservations about whether such a prosecution would be a good idea, but gives the Old Gray Lady credit for having the guts to propose it.
via New York Times calls for Cheney, Bush officials to be investigated and prosecuted for torture.
Sam Harris has a Ph.D. from UCLA and somehow thinks that entitles him to tell other people how to live their lives. His latest blathering includes:
“There are people who have really been terrorized by their parents, and people who terrorize their kids with a fear of hell, for instance. I hear from people who their entire life — they’re in their 40s and they’re only now just coming out of the prison of having spent their entire lives being afraid of being tortured (for) an eternity by Satan. This is in the 21st century, in the United States.”
Harris is one of those zealots who can’t stop themselves from evangelizing. In his case it’s against religion, but the zealots on both sides all pretty much sound alike.
Yet Harris is worse. He pretends to be a scientist, then assembles a couple anecdotes and thinks that he has proven a law of nature.
Hey, Harris: Bite me!
Jason Barthel of South Bend IN is selling a pro-police shirt that reads, “Breathe Easy – Don’t Break the Law.”
I’m actually pro-police and I’m glad that my taxes go to pay their salaries. But I think that the side that wants to rein in police abuse needs more support nowadays than the law-and-order side.
Particularly interesting is what Barthel posted on his Facebook page:
For those upset, please understand when we use the slogan ‘Breathe Easy’ we are referring to knowing the police are there for you! We are one people, one nation regardless of race, religion, creed or gender. We are all in this together. The police are here to protect and serve. 99.9% of us have the greater good in our hearts each time we strap on our uniforms and duty belts. We are all one people and this is by no means is a slam on Eric Garner or his family, God rest his soul. Lets all band together as AMERICANS regardless of our feelings and know we can and will be better!
‘Breathe Easy’: Cop protests Notre Dame demonstration with pro-police shirts.
When Bank of America wouldn’t halt its incessant robocalls to Nelson and Joyce Coniglio of Florida, they sued. And won $1 million.
That’s nice.
But the Bitemaster remembers when BOA wouldn’t pay the judgment they owed another Florida couple. So Warren and Maureen Nyerges took the Sheriff and a moving van to the local branch, prepared to seize the bank’s furniture for sale at auction to satisfy the judgment. After a tense standoff, Bank of America did cut them a check.
Hey, BOA — Bite me!
Fla. couple tormented by Bank of America robocalls wins $1M – NY Daily News.
Yup, in the right circumstances, ordinary people will waterboard, threaten sexual violence, or use rectal hydration (WTF is that?) to try to extract information from prisoners.
Are those torture techniques reliable? Sure, if by “reliable” you mean do they cause the victim pain. Not at all if you mean does torture yield useful intelligence.
Which brings us to today’s joke:
In the spirit of the evolving peace process, and in an effort to establish which of Ireland’s many security forces would take a leading role in the new cross-border bodies, the two police forces and the two armies were each brought to a secluded forest area in South Armagh, and given the task of catching a rabbit, which had just been released there (courtesy of the FCA‘s Counter Terrrorism Squad)
The Gardaí (Irish Police Force) went into the forest. They placed animal informants throughout their patch. They questioned all plant and mineral witnesses. They did a video reconstruction of the rabbit’s release for Crimeline, and waited for some punter to solve the crime for them. After three months of intensive investigation, they concluded that rabbits do not exist.
Next came the Irish Army. They set up two base camps, and cleared a path through the forest for the Pajero to patrol from one to the other. They placed listening devices in the undergrowth, but were unable to hear any signs of animal life on the tapes. Their investigation is still ongoing, six months later.
The British Army moved into the forest in full combat gear, with fifteen helicopters and three small tanks. After two weeks without a capture, they burned their patch of forest to the ground, killing everything in it, including the rabbit. An investigation found that no blame could be attached to any individual, as the local animal community was clearly harbouring the rabbit.
The RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) moved into the forest. Two hours later, they came out dragging a badly beaten bear. The bear was screaming “Okay! Okay!, I’m a rabbit! I’m a rabbit!”
Senate Report Says Torture Program Was More Gruesome, Widespread Than CIA Claimed.
See Milgram experiment.
When Mayor de Blasio said that he taught his African-American children to be extra careful around the police, Ed Mullins, the President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association said Hizzoner “may want to think about moving out of New York City completely. He just doesn’t belong here.”
Mullins knows exactly what he’s talking about — he lives on Long Island.
New York, U.S. Politics, Columnists & Political Cartoons – NY Daily News.