Yes exactly. But instead of addressing the law which is the issue, we have people who would rather demonize an inevitable result of it.
But it isn't.
The Oakland PD is violating the law.
There are cases where police abuses are the result of following unjust laws. This is not one of them. But neither is it a case of a problem endemic to all police. It is, instead, a case of a specific police department that has a systemic problem.
Here is how you can tell that you're barking up the wrong tree: Imagine every single police officer in the country quitting en masse. Are you, at this point, more satisfied with the state of the country?
And this is a false choice I keep seeing in the argument.
Constantine and Norondor are arguing that all police are, by their nature, oppressive.
I'm arguing that no, only some of them are, and it's destructive to make general statements about all police.
Ryg, because he is an idiot, is pulling a reductio ad absurdum and claiming that that implies you can't make general statements about the Oakland PD, because look at all the Oakland Police who AREN'T gassing, beating, and shooting innocent people.
Thing is, police departments are organizations. Each individual PD has individual leadership, politics, and pressures. That's not to say that 100% of officers in a department are alike, because that would be silly, but there are some general assumptions you can make based on the specific PD you're dealing with.
Not to put too fine a point on it, in my neighborhood, when you see a squad car you check and see whether it's Tempe PD or Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The sight of a Tempe police car doing the rounds gives me the feeling that I live in a safe neighborhood. The sight of an MCSO car does not.
Is it unfair to get nervous when I see an MCSO patrol car? Well, I'm sure there are guys in the department who are perfectly all right guys. But the primary goal of the MCSO is to crack down on illegal immigrants, and everybody -- both for and against -- knows that. And, furthermore, anybody who's applied for a job in the MCSO in the past 15 years knew that.
I'm sure there are guys working there who are just there to make ends meet and because that's the place that was hiring. And I feel bad for those guys that I'm going to mistrust them on sight. But that mistrust has a strong basis in the behavior of the office they work for.
As far as Oakland goes, well, if management were discouraging the use of unnecessary force it would have stopped after the first skull-crackin'. Or, you know, BEFORE the first skull-crackin'.
But as I said, Atlanta appears to be a different story. A policeman asked Occupy for help, and Occupy gave it. I don't see a reason for antagonism there -- and I expect that officer's coworkers don't either.