Has there been any discussion of this...?

[bliss_eternal]

(cut and paste from my attempt to start a thread about this in GD):

Anyone as disturbed by this as me?

FBI Investigates Violent LAPD Arrest
(CBS) LOS ANGELES Two Los Angeles police officers were under investigation day for allegedly beating a man during a "disturbing"
videotaped arrest in Hollywood in August, police Chief William Bratton said.

The video, posted on the popular YouTube Web site, shows Officer Alexander Schlegel holding down William Cardenas, 23, as Officer Patrick Farrell places his knee on the man's neck and punches his face with a fist six
times during the Aug. 11 scuffle near the intersection of Gordon Street and Fountain Avenue.

Cardenas is seen struggling with the officers while lying on his back, trying to yell, "I can't breathe."

"There's no denying that the video is disturbing," Bratton said during a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Department's downtown dispatch center.

"But as to whether the actions of the officers were appropriate in light of what they were experiencing and the totality of the circumstances is what the investigation will determine," he said

-------------------------------------------snip---------------------------------------------------------------------------

taken from:
http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_313135950.html

I hope it's alright that I post this here. I was so upset by this video...:cry::scared: I haven't been able to find any threads or discussions of this. If there is/was one, I apologize for starting another discussion.

This smacks of the Rodney King incident, with the exception of the fact that they weren't holding Rodney King down they way they are holding Cardenas down in the video. The level of violence just seems so primal and raw. I don't care what crime Cardenas is allegedly guilty of committing, he is a human being and did not deserve such treatment...at all.

Any thoughts? :hi:

[EFerrari]

1. Hi there, Bliss. I saw a thead in LBN but was too upset to post.

I knew this was going to happen as soon as I heard THE WAY the Cons were talking about "immigration".

They've been stoking this fire for ten years now. While there have always been tensions, we're about to see more and more of these horrible events, imho. It's going to take a LOT of work to undo the damage, the hatred that these so called people have stirred up.

:(

[bliss_eternal]

2. Hi YOU!

:hi:...always good to see you!

I understand being too upset to respond, that tape is horrible....very difficult to watch. :cry:

I recall a discussion I had with dh after the initial immigration protests here in southern California. Villiagroso was begging the kids to stop their protests and return to school (some were ditching to continue protesting). I told my dh I hoped they would listen because the LAPD doesn't hesitate when it comes to beating up people of color--particularly when that color is brown. I wondered if some of the kids (that weren't born here) were aware of that, and I was very concerned for their safety.

I was absolutely shocked that the immigration protests went as smoothly as they did. I always get nervous seeing LAPD donning their "riot gear." To me, it seems an over zealous "initimidation" tactic, one they are all too ready to put to use. :cry:

You are so right--they HAVE stoked this fire for too long. I'm at a loss of what to do about it... I don't want to see more men and women of color hurt this way. It breaks my heart that they are pointing to the fact (as they did with Rodney King) that the man is a criminal and tried to flee. :mad: So what?! That entites them to beat him that way...?

[EFerrari]

3. We have to make those protests rainbows. That's the only way.

People are going to get hurt and people are going to die. I hate to sound like doomsayer but I don't see any way around it. I was just a little girl during the height of the Civil Rights movement and it really wasn't until very recently that I understood that people laid down their lives for it.

It's strange, isn't it, to think this way in 2006. But, that's where this country is, today. :(

[bliss_eternal]

4. You don't sound that way...

I think you are right. It's just not right. None of this. It's not right the way they pit us all against each other--blacks, latinos, straights, gays, christians, non-christians... :cry::mad::cry:

It is strange that we even have to have such a discussion in 2006. Unfortunately, there are still too many in this country that would like to see us all returned to the status of 1960--no right to vote, considered less than a human being, only able to live in tenements/slums of their choosing. Too many on DU don't want to open their eyes and see the truth and the reality of the way they try to pit us against each other. Too many are willing to see illegal immigrants as the enemy, as such they are allowing their rights to slip away.

As Coretta Scott King said before her death(regarding gay marriage)--denying ANYONE rights, denies all of us rights. (paraphrased of course).

[msedano]

5. nothing "unlawful" in any of this

LA's carpetbagger top cop, an ex-NY dick named somethingorother admits the video looks "disturbing" but points to investigations reporting it's all SOP in LAPD. The puerco in the Santa Monica video "left the force". From the LATimes' story:

"The chief said the videotaped incident "may look awful," but he added that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office found no crime committed by the three officers involved in the Venice Beach arrest in their treatment of the suspect.

Still, Bratton said his own administrative decision on whether they complied with department policy is still days away.

The chief said he was uneasy that the officer shut the door of the patrol car, leaving the handcuffed suspect alone inside, after administering the pepper spray.

The closing of the door "was one of the reasons I had concern," Bratton said.

"My interest there is: Was that pepper spray used to control the behavior of that individual or was it used punitively?" he said."

I remember fondly my basic training experiences with CS gas. Wuf! that stuff burns. Pepper spray wouldn't be all that bad. Besides, the one guy was a homeless guy who doesn't deserve rights, the other guy was a gang member who obviously has it coming regardless of how innocent he was this time.

It's LA, gente, calm down.

[EFerrari]

6. Motherfuckers.

[bliss_eternal]

9. ....!

:puke:

[Brewman_Jax]

7. I saw the video

of course, they're treating it like another day at the office. Beating up those dark-skinned people is just what the L.A. cops live for! :eyes:

[bliss_eternal]

8. Hi Argyle...!

Isn't it disgusting? ...and transparent. :eyes: I saw him on the news last night--I guess he's been released. That poor man. I hope they don't "bother" or try to intimidate he or his family. :(

[Cleita]

10. I used to live in L. A. and unfortunately, these incidents aren't

unusual in poor, ethnic neighborhoods. Things really need to change. I'm not taking the side of the cops here but there is a reason for this type of overeaction. They are running scared. The department is undermanned and underfunded for the size and diversity of the city.

I think it's time for the city to start turning the very, very rich people, who live on the westside upside down and shake the money out of their pockets to fund a proper police department and county sheriff's department. Property taxes on the rich would go a long way to keeping the city safe and lessening these instances with community policing and other programs.

[bliss_eternal]

11. Been in and around LA most of my life...

I know young men personally that got their asses kicked by the LAPD,...long before the Rodney King beating was taped and spread across the airwaves.

A friend's bf drove a nice car and the assumption was (of course) that he was black, driving a nice car--had to be dealing drugs. :eyes: He was not. His parents owned one of the most popular bakeries in the community and made a pretty nice living. But because he was young and black--he was pulled over regularly and harassed no matter where he was in LA. My gf always had antiseptic and bandages waiting when he was going to drive to see her...just in case.

I was out with gf's one night and we were pulled over. :eyes: The girl I was out with was from the wealthy black community and drove a Mercedes. So driving near Westwood I guess was a no-no.

It's like a rite of passage, growing up in or around LA for a young person of color--getting pulled over and harassed by the LAPD. Driving a luxury vehicle or piece of shit, doesn't matter. Off-white, yellow, beige or brown--you WILL be pulled over. :eyes:

[Cleita]

12. Years ago before the first Watt's riots, I was visiting a friend of

mine in Compton, whose husband was a successful contractor. I ran out of cigarettes and went to buy some at a nearby liquor store. My friend not wanting me to go alone sent her sixteen year old honor student son at Loyola High School to accompany me. Sure enough, white woman with black dude and they descended on us. All white cops too. I lied and told them that the kid was a student of mine that I was giving a ride to the hospital to visit his grandmother and I was stopping to buy cigarettes first.

I asked him if this was a regular thing. He said it was. I never knew it until then. But that police department and sheriff's department need a super cleaning from the top down, but they need the funds to do it right.

[bliss_eternal]

13. Kind of eye-opening, isn't it?

Experiencing it first hand.

I agree, they should be cleaned up--big time! Sadly, no one seems to make this a priority, which saddens me. :( Heck, if we just started fining people for talking on cell phones while driving (like they have in New York)...imagine what that revenue could accomplish.

Too many people saw LA Confidential and thought it was just an interesting and compelling Hollywood story. Nope. Lots of true representations of police corruption, excessive force, and bigotry against minorities on the part of the police in LA, imo.

[EFerrari]

14. My husband and I read every word of that book and all his

other books, too. Elroy, right? It was eye opening for us.

We live in cop central,here. Families all over the neighborhood who have been cops and firefighters for generations. It's hard to reconcile these atrocity stories with the guys we know, good guys who truly care about their neighborhood and their city.

But the thing is, as soon as you give people power over others, they will abuse it. That's just human nature. In addition to manning the departments, we have to network with them. Support them so that when someone goes "wrong" it doesn't become part of the culture and SOP.