6 Policemen kill beat homeless man to death.

[VPR3]

The guy was in need of medication, but his parents were kind enough to tell him he didn't have to take it. Had his parents done their job to help their son, this probably could have been avoided altogether. Besides all the police wanted to do was to look through his bag. Had he consented to a simple search he probably would have been taken in for further questioning and released, or arrested. But instead he chose to run. Does that mean he's high on some narcotic, is he carrying drugs on his person, does he have a weapon. If he is schitzo, who will you be dealing with, someone nice and gentle or someone with a knife who will slit your throat because you yelled at him. Always better to be safe than sorry.

[Muskelmann098]

Besides all the police wanted to do was to look through his bag. Had he consented to a simple search he probably would have been taken in for further questioning and released, or arrested.

In a free society, why should you HAVE to allow the police to search through your bag? Would you consider it fair if I beat you up for not letting me search you?

As for the police dept. using excessive force, these are people who are armed with guns, tazers, batons, dogs, etc. They also have hundreds of units to back them up. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why they should have to kill an unarmed man just to take him in, even if he was guilty of a crime.

I also believe that punishments should be much stricter for police officers than what they are in most parts of the world. They are given an authority by the people and "with great power comes great responsibility." My impression of the American system is that there is a much harder line for citizens than there are for police officers. This is flawed because going easier on those with more power leads to abuse of that power.

[LoGiCaL__]

The police are outnumbered by civilians. If they decided to take over it could happen just from pure brute force. It would definitely have to be organized though. Anyways, that is why they have all those weapons you mentioned. It also acts as a deterrent since it puts fear into peoples mind.

I know this topic has been necroed, I just figured I would respond. If it doesn't pick up I will lock it.

[Muskelmann098]

@Logical:
Sorry for the necro, I didn't realize... It's still a fairly relevant topic though.

And yes, police is outnumbered by civilians, but not all civilians are involved in every situation. As for the weapons, my point was that they provide the police officers with an overwhelming amount of power and that it therefore is completely unnecessary to kill the hobo. If they outnumbered and outpowered him, it shouldn't be any problem to handcuff him and bring him in.

Provided of course that they were right in arresting him in the first place

[LoGiCaL__]

lol. They probably got that itch to use their idle weapons. You know, just so they don't get rusty and work when they really need them.