[EMAIL PROTECTED] (William J. Foristal) writes:
HI Sue,
I agree with you and Kathy on this one, to a certain extent. I doubt if
the LAPD training taught cops to continue to beat a perp once he was
subdued and posed no threat to them or anyone else. And certainly Rodney
King was to blame for much of what happened. He failed to stop when
ordered to do so and failed to follow instructions initially when he
finally got out of the car. He was under the influence of alcohol.
However, in no way can we as a society choose to ignore the blame of the
police officers in this incident. I'm the first to admit that these cops
have an extremely difficult job to do. That is why they get such
intensive and ongoing training in how to handle the situations they are
likely to encounter. It is essential that they maintain control of their
behavior 100% of the time. This is a tough task for situations where
they may have seen a scumbag gun down one of their friends and then drop
his weapon and raise his hands. The tempation to blow him away must be a
tremendous one to resist. However, resist it they must. Just as they
must resist the urge to beat the hell out of a guy who is subdued and
helpless. Cops who choose not to resist this temptation make it so much
more difficult for the majority of cops who do resist it.
IMO, it doesn't matter what King was doing prior to the time he was
subdued and helpless lying on the ground. (And let's not try to kid
ourselves. The tape we saw showed clearly and undeniably that he WAS
subdued and helpless). The choice those cops made to continue to beat
the hell out of King, and to give in to their frustrations and anger, was
a choice that was wrong and that demanded a response of punishment under
the same law these guys were sworn to uphold. Anything less than this
would create a society that admits that some people are above the law and
that crime is defined not by what is done but also by who does it.
It is ironic, IMO, that law and order people who talk long and loud about
people being responsible for their actions and paying the price for their
actions when they are against the law would be so quick to try to defend
the cops in this situation and say that they were merely doing their
jobs. These cops lost their careers and had their lives ruined because
of THEIR actions and THEIR choices. Just like a drug user loses a career
and ruins his life because of HIS choices. To condemn the druggie and
support the cops is the height of hypocrisy, IMO.
Bill
On Sun, 26 Apr 1998 20:19:06 -0700 Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
>Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>
>Hi Kathy:
>
>There were enoough cops there that they could have gotten him without
>beating him up, IMO.
>
>However, I do wish that they had shown the public the first portion of
>the tape a long time ago. It does show him continuing to get up even
>after being "kicked" down more than once.
>
>Sue
>> Hi Joan :)
>>
>> I disagree with you :) If you remember a couple of years ago I
>stated
>> that the problem was in the training of the LAPD according to their
>> training they were following the procedures used at the time. OTOH
>that
>> does not lift the responsibility off of the officers and what they
>did,
>> nor does it lift the responsibility off of RK and what he did.
>
>--
>Two rules in life:
>
>1. Don't tell people everything you know.
>2.
>
>
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