The Philly cop beating makes the Rodney King beating look like a pillow fight.

[trumad]

I've never seen anything like this.... There must have been 20 cops beating these guys to a pulp.

http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=43829.1&nav=messages&webtag=kr-miamitm

[NJmaverick]

1. Didn't this guy kill a cop?

[Snarkturian Clone]

2. They thought they did but were incorrect. NT

[Fumesucker]

14. Everybody's done *something* wrong

These guys are guilty of something..

So the beating is justified..

I have cops in my family and that's how they look at these things.

[Snarkturian Clone]

18. To a point, you're right.

According to my local news (I live in philly), the guys who were beaten up were involved in a triple-shooting. They had the one dude's mom on tv saying "He a good boy!!!"

I don't think that justifies beating the living shit out of them.

I don't mind so much when cops rough up a perp once in awhile but an out and out beat down like this is never warranted.

Philly is going to be doing a "stop and frisk" thing in the near future, so this kind of beating might become more common.

[Fumesucker]

19. I don't mind so much when cops rough up a perp once in awhile

Somehow I think that if the "perp" was you, your attitude might change..

[Snarkturian Clone]

20. I was roughed up by a cop when I was 16.

I thought cops were the nice people you see on TV and then I was caught walking at night in a place where rich people live and a cop threw me to the ground and asked me questions while I was subdued.

That's what I mean by roughed up. No, I didn't enjoy it and hated cops for awhile after that but as I got older I realized that sometimes it's necessary.

[High Plains]

23. Police abuse is "sometimes necessary"?

Please elaborate.

[tom_paine]

24. I'll never forget when my eyes were first opened to Philly Cops (and cops in general)

I remember working in a restaurant in Philly in which the two local patrol cops would stop in most days for coffee and/or lunch. They seemed like OK guys, regular guys, anyway. They often used to eat at the back table where the waitresses and busboys used to eat and shoot the breeze, rather than with the customers, so we often used to chat with them.

One day, it's just me and the two cops sitting at the back table one afternoon. I was eating lunch with my head down on this day, so we weren't chatting sports or whatever, as we often did. They were chatting between themselves and I sat to one side, keeping to myself and eating quietly.

I am not purposefully listening in on them, but I am sitting less than ten feet from them, so bits of their conversation are breaking through my thoughts.

Then I heard it, and my blood chilled.

Cop #1: Hey, last night there was a rape victim on Xxxxxxxx St.

Cop #2: Yeah?

Cop #1: Yeah. You wanna go up and take a look at her?

I don't know what was said after that because my mind was blown away and I was processing what I just heard. Did they really just say that? Protect and serve, my ass!

I was only 16 at the time, so I just sat there and kept eating lunch, saying nothing. But inside I was sick. Maybe today, almost 30 years later, I would have registered my disgust, although in the age of Bushler, pointing out cops' bad behavior is likely to get one tasered, no mater how grotseque said cops are behaving.

I know, I know, it was only two individual cops, but since then I have seen cops perjure (well, it would be perjury if us Imperial Amerikan Peasants did it) themselves under oath on the stand, among other things, that make me think these individual cops were not so unique.

Let me say unequivocally, I think at least half the cops are mostly decent people trying to do the right thing, but half is far too few.

[Snarkturian Clone]

21. dupe

dupe

[KSinTX]

29. Is 'He's a good boy' anything like 'He was such a quiet man'

The line from the neighbor after they've found the bodies under the house next door?

Cops are human and I know they get scared. It is an incredibly dangerous world in which they live. But time after time after time we give them a free pass for thugish behavior. It points to a failure of leadership to train these guys properly and instill within them a sense of discipline and propriety.

A 50-bullet barrage against an unarmed man crystalizes what happens when poorly-trained cops are put out on the streets. It shows a lack of control and inept "fire discipline." To put it another way, perhaps a bit crassly but more on point to law enforcement mentality, they wasted bullets when they shouldn't.

[ccharles000]

3. Two wrongs don't make a right.

[NJmaverick]

13. True, but if this is the killer I am having a hard time working up any sympathy

[mikeytherat]

15. Nope. The SUSPECTED killer was brought in without incident. No muss,

no fuss.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/Floyd_in_custody.html

mikey_the_rat

[tblue37]

37. That's a pretty pic of Hillary. She isn't my candidate, but I like when

people put up such pictures. It really offends me when they put up ones that show her exhausted and unattractive. She is over 60 years old, and she is running a very tiring, stressful campaign. I don't think looks should matter anyway, but when people deliberately put up such photos, as if they represent reason not to vote for her, that makes me incredibly angry, even though I am supporting Obama (Edwards, originally). No one is doing that to male candidates, so why should the fact that a woman over 60 looks tired and a bit wrinkled matter at all?

I am 57, and I have a few wrinkles of my own. That doesn't make me less competent at my job or less deserving of respect.

Hillary is older than I am, but I think she looks great, and I would love to look as good as she does.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. He still gets a trial...I think...n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. Did the cop deserve to get killed?

If you're offended by that question, then you should understand how stupid your question is.

[Eurobabe]

4. The city is all abuzz about this

as they should be. Disgraceful conduct by the Philadelphia police dept., I think their grieving for fallen Officer Liczbinski got the better of them when this occurred. Nutter and Ramsey have been all over the TV doing damage control.

Suspect in the killing is finally in custody: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/Floyd_in_custody.html

[sazemisery]

5. If the accused did kill a cop, it gives no license to the cops to..

take the law into their own hands. Man's inhumanity to man will be our undoing.

[Echo In Light]

7. You're correct, but there are staunch cop supporters here who ALWAYS defend em...

...even if in an indirect way, they'll always trivialize and downplay such abuses of authority figures - soldiers too, when some of those guys/gals are exposed doing something heinous.

It's usually people who either were/are cops/soldiers themselves, or especially the fervent ones who have friends or family members who are. Hence the powerful emotional reaction to defend/support at any cost.

[KSinTX]

6. Oh for God's sakes ... they're just black guys

:wtf:

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Does anyone know if the trial for these cops will be before or after the election? n/t

[flashl]

10. More "pillow fights" ...

DU Post Apr 1: New videos show SC troopers kicking, hitting suspects

Senate panel to probe how black motorists are treated

Then someone behind that blue wall talks: Senator urges protection for troopers

[Echo In Light]

11. The 2nd link, the video one, is absent

[flashl]

12. Changed link from newspaper article to YouTube. Thanks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. U tube has video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2myV0b9LE7I

[Blue_Tires]

31. thanks...

[tblue37]

38. Wow! That was hideous. They were so angry and out of control!

One cop actually ran up and kicked the back of the car! It looked like ants swarming over an enemy.

[Fumesucker]

17. Sure you have, just a couple of weeks ago..

Remember the girl that got lured to a home and then beaten to a pulp?

Does anyone *still* wonder where the kids that did that got the idea?

[magellan]

22. There's no difference between this and how the US handles detainees

Suspicion of a crime based on profiling and proximity is enough to get you a thrashing or worse.

This is my country and I'm ashamed of it.

[EFerrari]

25. Bingo. How many of those cops are former military?

I'd like to know.

[magellan]

26. That would be interesting to know, but isn't as relevant

...as the overarching mindset of fear and hate that fuels this lawlessness, ex-military or not. The Repubs have simply tapped into that American sickness in their dealings with detainees.

[EFerrari]

27. I agree to a point but the military is one stream that brings

the lawlessness we accept in Iraq and in Afghanistan directly back here to American streets.

We're bombing civilians in Sadr City TODAY. What are our troops learning from that exercise?

[magellan]

33. Without a doubt, what this regime condones doing to "terrorist suspects"

...and those who get in the way ("collateral damage") leaves a very damaging impression on the troops and the American public at large. But I doubt this police beating was instigated by Iraq vets on the force. To me it's more likely a predictable consequence of the open acceptance and encouragement of vicious lawlessness against all enemies that comes from the WH on down, which remains largely unopposed and certainly unchecked.

For seven years Bush**'s morally bankrupt message has been, "Hunt the enemy down and kill them. And by the way, it's okay if you harm or kill the wrong person as long as your intentions are good and in the country's interest." That's bound to have an effect on people in law enforcement. In this example, these cops felt perfectly justified in beating people they only suspected of killing a fellow cop. And someone on this thread has already chimed in with 'lack of sympathy' for the victims based on the same (incorrect) suspicion.

This deviant mentality is pervasive among those who believe in an eye for an eye and don't stop to concern themselves with what the law is, or more important, WHY the law is there.

The longer this country turns its back on the rule of law, the less we can depend on our OWN safety in situations where we think the law protects us...as these unfortunate individuals discovered. And it will definitely get worse as more troops return home.

[EFerrari]

36. I think we largely agree, magellan.

It's frightening and sad to see how quickly we've become a country where the rule of law is so quickly discounted, ignored, I am at a loss for words.

:(

[rabies1]

28. Too many cases of mistaken identity have been made.

The innocent people released from death row; In the mad rush to "get the guy who did it"
Many times it's NOT the person who did it. Sean Bell? Over reaction? What was that all about? I think things are so out of control. The anger in terrifying. I understand the need to "get him" but taking the law in your own hands and - what if the person is completely innocent. This has to stop.

[Freedom Train]

30. It doesn't matter what those suspects did or did not do

- (and as has been pointed out, they DIDN'T do what the cops thought) - every last cop in that video is SCUM. Pure filth. Fuck all of them and fuck anyone who tries to defend them. They should be fired, locked up, have all benefits and pensions removed, and then get kicked out on the street to fend for themselves once their sentence is up. But that will never happen of course. :puke:

[Quantess]

34. Who filmed this?

It looks like someone happened to have a video camera in a building a few stories up.

[NoGOPZone]

35. Airborne TV news crew

http://cbs5.com/national/philadelphia.police.beating.2.717711.html