The War On Bullshit

Further to last week’s list of 5 reasons not to trust the police (and the nazi-esque comments that ensued), I can’t help but provide a few more.

6. They can turn off the cameras. Apparently, if prisoners don’t cooperate, the police can turn off the security cameras before beating the living shit out of said prisoners. Take this woman in Louisiana, for instance, who’s denied her right to a phone call and a lawyer. The cop turns off the camera. Shortly thereafter the prisoner is on the floor in a pool of her own blood. She slipped, they say. Riiiiiight.

7. They can remove your clothes “for your own safety”. In this video, you can see 7 officers, male and female, pin a handcuffed woman to the floor of her cell and strip her naked. It wasn’t a strip search though, because male officers aren’t allowed to strip search a female prisoner. What the fuck is it then? If these weren’t cops in this video, they’d be on trial for attempted gang rape. I’m going to make this simple. If a gang of cops ever sexually assaulted my wife, girlfriend, sister, mother, etc, they’ll end up like this guy. Oh, and that woman in the video was left naked in her cell for six hours afterwards.

8. Your recourse to police misconduct is the totally screwed up legal system. Even in cases where the defendant gets the death penalty, cases where you would think the case is airtight, two thirds turned out to be screwed up in some serious way or other. Liebman’s study is just one indication of the increasingly screwed up legal systems in western countries. Good luck getting justice on anything, let alone police misconduct. Which brings me to:

9. Police treat tasers like water pistols. Seriously, the number of deaths by tasers is ridiculous. The taser is not a sensible weapon for police, as I’ve discussed before.

10. The Rampart Scandal. The Rampart Scandal proves two interesting things. 1) a conspiracy among a large number of police officers is possible (over 70 in this case). 2) Police are not punished for their crimes. Some of these motherfuckers SHOT people unprovoked. If I shoot someone, I go to jail. If a cop shoots someone, eh, he gets suspended.

Again, let me emphasize that there’s lots of good police officers out there. I’ve met several. But there’s also some real assholes. Therefore, it’s not wise to trust someone just because they’re in uniform.

Recently, a police officer has engaged me in a debate about whether police are justified in using Tasers on individuals who nonviolently refuse to cooperate. I think we all agree that anyone who attacks a police officer deserves the asskicking that follows (most of the time); however, the issue is murkier where the “perpetrator” gives no threat or indication of violence, but simply refuses to comply. The aforementioned police officer argued that police are totally justified in use of force were civilians are noncompliant; I disagree.

It seems a major assumption underlying this argument is whether or not John Q. Public should trust the police by default. A major tenant of the justice systems in western countries seems to be that the police are trustworthy. This is bullshit. Here are 5 good reasons civilians should not be expected to trust the police.

1. Rodney King. History speaks for itself. So do videos.

2. Legalized Entrapment. In New York, police leave purses with credit cards in them lying around and cart off to jail whoever picks them up whether or not he or she intended to return the purse intact.

3. “No-knock” warrants. Man hears someone break into his house. Man gets 18-month-old daughter down on the ground, hides behind bed. Man sees armed assailant break into bedroom, shoots and kills him in self defense. Assailant was actually officer who didn’t bother yelling “police!” upon busting in. Man is now on death row.

4. Extraordinary rendition. If the US government suspects that you might have information that could lead them to someone who might be a terrorist, they can kidnap you out of an airport, deport you to a secret location in another country and torture a false confession out of you. This is not a conspiracy theory: Washington has officially apologized to a Canadian citizen treated in this manner. Hello thought police.

5. Legal ignorance. Whether or not you support open carry laws, if the law says that you can walk around carrying a gun, the police should know that and not hassle you. In many places, you are not even required to give police identification but try telling an officer that.

Conclusion

Obviously, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any good cops. All I’m saying is, at the group level, assuming that everyone should trust the police and always cooperate doesn’t make sense in the face of historical and current events. Why should I trust a group of people known for violating individual rights, not knowing the laws they’re supposed to uphold and inciting unnecessary violence?

Related Articles: 5 MORE Reasons Not To Trust the Police

When non-Christians point out all contradictions and idiocies in the bible, Christians usually respond by claiming that they only believe in the core of the religion: things like the 10 commandments. However, the core stuff is just as asinine as the rest!

Christian mythology indicates that the 10 Commandments are the direct words of God. I call bullshit. If an all-powerful, omniscient supreme being wrote the definitive, eternal code of morality, it would have done a better job! Here is a concise list of the ten commandments (see here for more details):

1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your Father and Mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, slave, etc.

What these yahoos are telling me is that God thought to include ‘don’t work on Sunday’ but left out rape, assault, molestation and torture? If I wrote the Commandments, they would go something like this:

1. You shall not cause violence to a person, ever, except to defend yourself or another against an immediate, direct physical attack from that person.
2. You shall not torture… anyone… ever
3. You shall not rape, molest or harass
4. You shall not have slaves, serfs, or indentured workers
5. You shall protect the Earth and all its creatures, such that no species is made extinct, directly or indirectly, by humanity
6. You shall not discriminate against a person for things over which he or she has no control, with only such limitations as are inherent to specific activities (e.g., blind people can’t drive).
7. You shall not put your own interests ahead of humanity’s; you shall not accrue wealth by hurting others
8. You shall take responsibility for your actions and your lack of action
9. You shall respect freedom of thought; you shall not push your ideas upon others
10. You shall think critically about ideas and except accept nothing as dogma, including this list

Just ask yourself for a minute, which is the better list? I’m not saying that my list is perfect, but if my list is better then your God’s list, then either your God does not exist, or he did not write ‘his list’.