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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (873859)	7/19/2015 9:30:20 PM
From: Mongo2116	Respond to of 1577893

Georgia Police Who Killed 35 Year Old Mother Gloat That They ‘Made Her Head Explode’ The other day I was playing a shoot ‘em up video game, Expendable, in which the goal is basically to blast everything on screen before the things on screen have a chance to kill you first. At least, so I thought until I realized that some of the on screen characters are hostages which you are supposed to rescue, not kill. I commented to my friends that had I not made the realization that you are supposed to refrain from killing everything in sight and just kept blasting away indiscriminately, that might quality me for a career on the police force. Such jokes are still not fair to all police officers, but incidents keep receiving national attention that allow the stereotype of the uncaring trigger happy cop to persist. One such occurrence was in Georgia in 2010, and it is only now receiving national attention for the shooting itself and for the aftermath in which police showed zero concern or compassion for the mother whose life they ended. In June 2010, Caroline Small was sitting in her car in a shopping mall parking lot in Brunswick, Georgia. She was a troubled person who suffered from PTSD and drug and alcohol addiction. Someone called the police saying they had seen Caroline “doing drugs,” and when the police arrived Ms. Small took off. In the ensuing police chase which never featured speeds above 35 mph, Caroline Small’s car was eventually pinned down and rendered immobile. She did not give up and still pushed the accelerator. One officer threatened to shoot her if she moved the car again, and he did. By the time EMTs arrived on the scene to help the wounded Caroline Small, the same officer who put a bullet in her bragged that his ‘stellar marksmanship’ had taken its toll and that she would not live. Officer Michael Simpson who had done the shooting waved the EMTs off, a crucial decision that may have made Caroline Small’s death inevitable. Except for the fact that Caroline Small is a Caucasian woman, many of the details of this case remind one of the deaths of Sean Bell, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Small evaded police questioning and arrest twice, refusing to stay put for police questioning at the mall and then refusing to stop and exit her car once the police had her pinned down. So, just like in those previous cases in which police ended a human life, those who think the police can do no wrong will argue that Ms. Small brought this on herself by not complying with police demands to stop and exit her vehicle. And just like all those previous cases, civil rights advocates will argue that the police used excessive force and could have resolved the situation without resorting to deadly tactics especially since Ms. Small’s car was pinned down between two police cars and a pole when officer Simpson shot her. Whatever one thinks about the particulars of this case, it is undeniable that police forces across the United States are more likely to shoot to kill than their counterparts in any other industrialized nation. What makes this particular police killing stand out is that the police that did the shooting gloated about it afterwards. They put eight bullets through the glass of Ms. Small’s car, failed to get her medical attention after the shots hit her and boasted about their expert marksmanship, saying that they saw Caroline Small’s “head explode.” None of the officers who killed Caroline Small have faced legal consequences, and there is evidence that local police tampered with evidence and got help from a police-friendly prosecutor who ensured that the killer cops would go free by presenting a highly selective case to the grand jury. The case happened five years ago, but it is never too late to do the right thing and ensure that police who kill the people they are sworn to protect are brought to justice. This is not the America I want to live in or my children to grow up in and change to police training and practice is absolutely imperative.

To: combjelly who wrote (873859)	7/19/2015 10:10:06 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1577893

The Klan is alive and well in the Ole South It is alive. But it has been, uh "healthier" in the past. Peak Klan was probably in the 1980s, when there were attempts to go mainstream. That wasn't popular with much of the base. Mainstream meant less violence and violence was what many found attractive about the Klan. So there was a lot of infighting and groups splintering off. It amazes me that it still has the juice to show itself. I worry that its 'dead' like a weed that has gone underground.