Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Justified use of force

Brother Dwight emails to point out this example of how there's one set of rules for us, and a different one for those in Police uniform:

Two Buffalo police officers who shoved a 75-year-old man to the ground during a protest in 2020 have been cleared by an arbitrator, who said the use of force was “absolutely legitimate” because the man, who was hospitalized with a head injury, was “not an innocent bystander.”

Non-paywalled article here.

So it's an example of a justified use of force, at least for the police.  My reply to him was overly snarky, that if it had been at a Black Lives Matter protest the city would have burned to the ground.  I should have read the article first.  It was at a BLM protest, and the city didn't burn.

Now a few points:

1. This was a Police Department administrative hearing.  The cops got off in the same way that cops who shoot homeowner's dogs, or do no-knock raids on the wrong house, or throw flash-bang grenades into baby cribs get off.  The Blue Wall of Silence, and all that.

2. The man is going to sue the police department, and the city will almost certainly settle out of court.  The taxpayers will lose but the cops will be fine.

3. If you or I roughed up a 75 year old man, we'd be looking at multiple felony charges.  Know your place, peasant.

4. I'd be a lot more supportive of the police if they cleaned up the bad cops.  Everyone knows who those are, but the Blue Wall of Silence tars the good cops with the bad.  This is probably the biggest tragedy of the whole situation.


5. The Queen Of The World disagrees with me on this, and thinks that the cops are being railroaded by a biased media.  She thinks the guy was screaming into their faces and they pushed him back rather than cuffing him, and he tripped when he fell back.  I'm less certain here, and would be more sympathetic to them if there were not a different set of rules for us (#3 above) and covering for bad cops (#4 above).

Oh, and you do read Dwight every day, don't you?  He's your go-to guy for obituaries and which coach just got fired.  

UPDATE 12 April 2022 19:37:  Dwight is going to post Gilbert Gottfried's obit tomorrow.

10 comments:

Aesop said...

When the cops start going all medieval on their own shitbirds every time they screw up, so citizens don't have to, I'll care. Until then, they're somewhere between whale shit and used car salesmen on my give-a-f**k-meter.

There have been too many videos of them shooting guys in the back, assassinating people in hotel hallways, shooting up dogs, cats, and anything not able to stay behind bulletproof cover, to ever think they deserve anything but firing en masse, abolishing their job description for several centuries, and returning their entire job function back to society at large. In the same way the clergy became a refuge for pedophiles, law enforcement has become the go-to job occupation of the midwit IQ thuggery too stupid to get jobs packing meat or slinging concrete, and the "good ones" seem to care more about keeping their pension than they do keeping the peace, their self-respect, or actually upholding the law.

"...sideways, with a rusty chainsaw" about sums it up at this point in history.

Change my mind.

Goober said...

"The guy was screaming in their faces... they pushed him..."

OK, so now the legal precedent for me using physical force against an elderly man is him screaming at me?

No?

Huh, so... again, I don't understand.

A 75 year old man screaming in your face isn't legally justifiable reason to apply physical force to the situation. At least not for a "normie". So why is it that the police get to push over septuagenarians for the same thing? They're decked out in riot gear, helmets, shields, and armed with all sorts of lethal and less-lethal weapons, and they somehow get to use violence before I do, unarmed and wearing a cotton tee-shirt?

NO.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the kind words, Borepatch.

==Dwight

JaimeInTexas said...

Borepatch, have you seen the video of the incident?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHjTZRGTnUE

What was Gugino doing with his phone, sniffing out the cop's frequency, ? Why did Gugino move his cell phone in an apparent scanning motion over the cop? OTA (over-the-air)?

Is Martin Gugino a "longtime peaceful protester" or just another "f--k the police" instigator?

I am not the type to just let the cops abuse their authority but I do not think the cops in this incident used excessive force.


Apps available for cell phones (Anfroid) to listen to different radio frequencies.

For examnple, Listen to Radio Conversations on Android with an RTL-SDR Dongle & OTG Adapter

https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/listen-radio-conversations-android-with-rtl-sdr-dongle-otg-adapter-0189351/

Glen Filthie said...

I just dunno BP. There’s two sides to that. The Libertarian and liberal types knifed Officer Friendly in the back in the 80s. Nobody with options is going to be a cop or a politician now. Both are games for psychos now. Derek Chauvin got railroaded and who stood up for him? Now they’re doing the same thing to the squaddies.

When a peace officer gives you a lawful order, you have to comply. If you choose not to, then what happens afterward is on you, even if you’re 75, or you’re black, or even if you’re a dumb old stubfart.

I have no sympathy for idiots that pick fights and try to brawl with the cops.

Borepatch said...

Jamie, he certainly acted like a douche. But that isn't grounds for potentially lethal force.

Mind your own business said...

The old guy was a professional protester instigating the confrontation. I have no sympathy for him.

matism said...

If the "75 year old man" were White and you were not, you would NOT be charged. You would instead be applauded!

Richard said...

I remember the incident from the time and saw the video. The use of force, not deadly force but it wasn't seems justified. There was some indication it was a fake fall too as professional agitators are wont to do.

Antibubba said...

Remember when abusive cops were called "bad apples", instead of "bad actors" (like it's on Netflix or something)? That stopped when someone remembered the full line: One bad apple spoils the bunch.

It's true.
---
Who the old man stood with is irrelevant. If you support police abuses against "those guys", you can't bitch when it's your own rights being ignored.