This video was aired a few months ago here in MA and it is disturbing. This sort of police brutality doesn't just happen in Southern or "red" states, as you well know it's happening everywhere.
Chicopee, MA woman choked by police
Larry Wilmore of The Nightly Show recently aired a clip of a suspected murderer rushing at an armed policeman, eventually knocking the officer down. Why wasn't this man shot in an instant? Watch. (Related clip begins @ :19)
Unfortunately, the same police patience was not shown for Natasha McKenna or Rekia Boyd or any of the other victims of police brutality. In fact, more and more the police apparently feel they are invincible and invisible from public scrutiny or the law itself.
But this is not just about the police's blatant disregard of "some" our citizens, it signifies a much deeper problem in this country. More below...
"To Protect And Serve [the community]" is becoming increasingly invalid in this country. Small towns trying to purchase tanks, the use of tactical teams to unlawfully raid gay bars, the erosion of protest rights, the rise of the likes of Blackwater/Academi. And let's not forget about state militias.
We're dealing with an evermore invasive PATRIOT ACT and NSA; numerous US judges have been put behind bars after being paid to jail kids; big businesses have managed to make our prisoners modern day slaves, and over two-thirds of the world's countries have abolished the death penalty. America is not one of those countries. In fact, Utah has decided to bring back the trusty firing squad.
Hands down the US spends the most money on our military than any other country in the world, yet we can't manage to hold a budget to keep our public schools open or help put food on the table for the millions of American kids who are starving. This lack of human interest at home is directly related to our jail system, believe it. Additionally, nearly 6 million Americans are denied the right to vote after being incarcerated, resulting in "1 in every 13 African Americans unable to vote" in this country.
Habeas corpus? Pbbbbbbt. Forget it.
Our citizens are being put away for life for non violent crimes; for profit jails have to fill beds in order to make money (Ever wonder why laws on citizens tighten while profits for privatized jails expand?); the US holds 25% of the world's prisoners - most holding men of color (even though we make up only 5% of the world's population); we throw the book at abused women and low paid teachers; and we are also quite fond of punishing our much needed whistleblowers. Meanwhile real criminals here, here, here and here roam free...
It would seem to me that we need to look further into our justice system as a whole. All of our attention lately has been on police brutality. While absolutely not insignificant, it is but a small part of the bigger picture. What happened to Maylene Maldonado in Chicopee, MA and the many others for whom these mothers marched should be a wake up call that our system needs fixing from the bottom up, and we're just The People to do it.
We say "it can't happen here," but what further proof do we need that it is happening right now?