nonplussedbyreligion:

Warning this video will move you to anger!

Cop Punches Special Needs Girl In The Face, Threatens Iraq Veteran For Recording It (VIDEO)

January 11, 2012

I’ll be the first to admit, when it comes to the police, I am the beneficiary of White Privilege. I’ve never been stopped, harassed and certainly never arrested. Obviously, I’ve never been assaulted by a police officer either. So the reality of how badly the police behave has never really been part of my reality. The few times it did intrude, by way of my noticeably Hispanic father being bothered for not being white, I was too young to understand it.

However, since the spread of cell phone cameras, I, and more importantly, White America, have gotten quite a good look at just how the police behave when they think no one is paying attention. Worse, we’re starting to see that they don’tcare that anyone is watching because they think they can illegally confiscate the cameras or they just won’t get in any real trouble. There’s a tipping point coming where the public becomes fed up with an increasingly militarized and violent police force and the ubiquitous nature of smart phones is bringing it on faster than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago.

In this most recent case of unnecessary force, the police boarded a Los Angeles bus and confronted a mentally challenged woman by name. After she shouted obscenities and refused to leave the bus, one of the officers punched the belligerent, but non-violent, woman across the face.

Afterwards, the man recording the scene, Jermaine Green, claims he was approached by the officer who then threatened to arrest him if he didn’t hand over the phone. Green, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran with a clean record, refused and the officer was unable to confiscate the evidence. This time.

Last time I checked, the police aren’t allowed to punch in you in the face for being verbally abusive. Even in LA.

Even as the police step up their surveillance of the public, they are becoming increasingly combative when the tables are turned. Several states have creatively interpreted eavesdropping laws to arrest bystanders that record their activities. In other states, the police simply look for any excuse to arrest the “offender” or intimidate them into keeping quiet. This is why, if Mr. Green is correct (and he probably is), the officer that threw the unwarranted punch wanted to know if Green had any warrants against him. If Green had had one, he would have been arrested, the phone taken and “accidents happen.” There goes the evidence.

We’ll see, in the next few days as the officer is identified, whether or not he’ll be disciplined in any meaningful way. My feeling is that they’ll make a public show but nothing will come of it.

Welcome to America the Police State. You have no rights except the ones the police feel like giving you.

(via occupyourstreets)