On 12/1/2014 10:37 AM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 12/1/14 10:11 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 12/1/2014 9:54 AM, F*O*A*D wrote:
Reacting to five members of the St. Louis Rams coming onto the field for
Sunday’s game displaying the ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ gesture, a St.
Louis police officers fraternal organization is demanding the team
discipline the players, and that the team and league issue a formal
apology, reports KSDK.

In a statement released Sunday evening, the St. Louis Police Officers
Association condemned the display, calling it “tasteless, offensive and
inflammatory.”

Prior to player introductions before Sunday’s game, five players —
Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, and Kenny Britt
— came out onto the field first with their hands in the air prior to
being joined by their teammates.

Responding to the display, the statement reads, “The St. Louis Police
Officers Association is profoundly disappointed with the members of the
St. Louis Rams football team who chose to ignore the mountains of
evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury this week and
engage in a display that police officers around the nation found
tasteless, offensive and inflammatory.”


* * * *

What is tasteless, offensive and inflammatory is the number of incidents
in which police beat up, shoot, and kill unarmed civilians.


You are exaggerating. How many police stops are made per year? How
many result in unarmed civilians being beat up, shot or killed?



There seems to be at least one a week that makes the news.



One or two (or even 10) media reports of police encounters that result
in physical violence doesn't sound unusual at all to me considering the
many millions of encounters that must occur in that time frame. The
cops are dealing with drunks, drug addicts, domestic violence and other
mentally disturbed people everyday. That's in addition to hard core
criminals caught in the act.

A cop has to size up a situation very quickly to protect himself and
others around him. At the first sign of belligerence or resist they get
physical very quickly to prevent the situation from getting out of
control. It's the ones that try to reason with the punks that end up
getting hurt or killed.