Police Officers murder homeless man with a mental illness, found 'not guilty'.

[Kyriakos]

Going by the article linked/posted in the OP:

While it appears that Thomas was potentially a danger to others, it is even more obvious that the police pretty much executed him. While a common citizen can indeed feel frightened for his life even after he would have theoretically immobilised a potential attacker (and so can even harm him more critically than 'it would have been needed') the same does not apply for 5 (or 8?) police officers restraining a single person who has no weapon on him.

So this is a very bad result for the trial. The police are not some feudal henchmen of lords who can pretty much kill any peasant if he acts potentially in a threatening manner. Maybe they should stop acting like they were, but i have to suppose that they have the blessings of their lords anyway...

 

[JollyRoger]

This is not a police problem, it is a mental illness problem.

A mentally deranged homeless drug abuser with a violent past - this is the problem. Why was this man loose? He should have been committed and locked up for his own protection as well as the public's. His family all testified about his being crazy and violent and yet they did nothing to stop him. At least he did not kill anyone.

Actually, it's both types of problems.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

This is not a police problem, it is a mental illness problem.

A mentally deranged homeless drug abuser with a violent past - this is the problem. Why was this man loose? He should have been committed and locked up for his own protection as well as the public's. His family all testified about his being crazy and violent and yet they did nothing to stop him. At least he did not kill anyone.

And they have arrived. We almost survived the first page without shuttering in horror.

As for the police violence issue: police violence is documented on a daily basis. Websites like Filming Cops do a great job of covering the stories that don't make it into the news, and if they do, are heavily sanitized to reflect just the sort of opinion expressed above: it's always the victim's fault, the cops are never at fault, they had it coming, they shouldn't have resisted arrest, or looked so suspicious, or been there at that time, or looked like they were reaching for a weapon, or been Black.

The simple fact is that the police have figured out just how untouchable by the law they are. They can literally murder at will as long as they can cook up some kind of half-assed excuse for it, even if direct evidence to the contrary exists. The police protect their own, and won't punish another officer unless they absolutely have no other choice. But even then they never face the same stiff sentences that a normal citizen would face if they had committed that crime.

The conclusion: Cops are a street gang no different from any other, except that they enjoy state sanctioning as the only legitimate executors of force. African Americans figured out the solution 50 years ago, when it was only them and other minorities who were receiving this treatment: The People have no choice but to form their own neighborhood security organizations, displace traditional police forces which function as agents of the state, and police the police, documenting every infraction and every crime they commit, so that all can know how hopelessly corrupt they are.

EDIT: Relevant photo:

 

[KmDubya]

And they have arrived. We almost survived the first page without shuttering in horror.

As for the police violence issue: police violence is documented on a daily basis. Websites like Filming Cops do a great job of covering the stories that don't make it into the news, and if they do, are heavily sanitized to reflect just the sort of opinion expressed above: it's always the victim's fault, the cops are never at fault, they had it coming, they shouldn't have resisted arrest, or looked so suspicious, or been there at that time, or looked like they were reaching for a weapon, or been Black.

The simple fact is that the police have figured out just how untouchable by the law they are. They can literally murder at will as long as they can cook up some kind of half-assed excuse for it, even if direct evidence to the contrary exists. The police protect their own, and won't punish another officer unless they absolutely have no other choice. But even then they never face the same stiff sentences that a normal citizen would face if they had committed that crime.

The conclusion: Cops are a street gang no different from any other, except that they enjoy state sanctioning as the only legitimate executors of force. African Americans figured out the solution 50 years ago, when it was only them and other minorities who were receiving this treatment: The People have no choice but to form their own neighborhood security organizations, displace traditional police forces which function as agents of the state, and police the police, documenting every infraction and every crime they commit, so that all can know how hopelessly corrupt they are.

EDIT: Relevant photo:

The police were charged and faced trial. At trial they were found not guilty. Just like Zimmerman was, take it up with the jury if you think they got it wrong.

The deceased was a mentally ill drug addict with a history of violence. Does no one else think that perhaps he should have been in an institute where he would have been forced to get treatment instead of wandering the streets?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The police were charged and faced trial. At trial they were found not guilty. Just like Zimmerman was, take it up with the jury if you think they got it wrong.

The law system protects its own. Further, people like you who rush to justify police beating to death an unarmed homeless man make it part of cultural "common sense." There's nothing sensical about this event. Nothing.

The deceased was a mentally ill drug addict with a history of violence. Does no one else think that perhaps he should have been in an institute where he would have been forced to get treatment instead of wandering the streets?

That is irrelevant as to whether or not two police officers beat to death a man in the street. Even if he were being violent at the time, something that has not been proven, they are obliged, as are we all, to cease actions against a belligerent party once they are disarmed or no longer pose an immediate threat to our safety.

I'm still not understanding how you don't get that two officers beat a man to death in the street. What law were they enforcing? Whose safety were they protecting? Was this homeless man really a threat to anyone or anything right up to his moment of death?

If you and I did this to a "belligerent homeless man" would we be in prison for the rest of our lives? You bet.

 

[El_Machinae]

His mother, Cathy Thomas, fought back tears as she testified she had taken out a restraining order against her son three years ago after he choked her for several minutes during an argument. She added that she wished she had known more about schizophrenia and how to get him more help.

THIS is where the horror is. People have little idea regarding how awful the lives of patients and loved ones is.

he would have been forced to get treatment instead of wandering the streets?

The problem here (specifically) in 2014 is the 'forced to get treatment'. The medicine for Schizophrenia is entirely subpar. There are strong odds that there is NO treatment available for some patients, just different types of abusive situation. Hardly anyone funds this research. Charities get nearly no funding. Big Pharma has quit.

It's only by going balls out on mental illness do we have a chance of diminishing this horror.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Which is also what i have heard from professionals in the field of Psychiatry. Unlike other disorders, i am led to believe by their words that schizophrenia is characterized far more by the lack of insight the sufferer has on the problematic thoughts and other mental phenomena in his mind being actually an issue, and 'unrealistic' or 'unreal'.

And if one thinks that stuff are real, he might as well keep talking to a flying fish passing by his window, or something :/ (obviously just a random scenario, involving delusions).

 

[Farm Boy]

Hardly anyone funds this research. Charities get nearly no funding. Big Pharma has quit.

The odd trial here and there of police is less expensive in the balance books than would be the public research investment. There's probably more money in the news coverage of stories like this than there is in trying to sell medication to a demographic subset whose conditions render then more unlikely to be able to pay.

 

[El_Machinae]

True. Advocacy is also wicked hard. Good luck having a cute or charismatic schizophrenic 'victim' to put onto posters.

 

[Farm Boy]

Does it manifest early enough ever to have a prepubescent poster child? That gets a hell of a lot more empathy mileage than does a teen, particularly with males. Those are frequently considered threats to control rather than people to cure, so long as you aren't related to them. Just trying to think from the push on autism being relatively successful over the past 10 years or so. Relatively successful not exactly being difficult in this case.

 

[El_Machinae]

Not really. The best we can do is have someone who was charismatic and beautiful before everyone finally realized what was going on. The problem is that there's commonly a lengthy period where all the loved ones slowly realized how their friend is actually sick and not just a weirdo.

 

[Kyriakos]

Some people have strokes (another matter) as early as 19. There was a show with one of them in British tv some short while ago.

 

[Farm Boy]

Not really. The best we can do is have someone who was charismatic and beautiful before everyone finally realized what was going on. The problem is that there's commonly a lengthy period where all the loved ones slowly realized how their friend is actually sick and not just a weirdo.

That sucks balls. Ever manifest late enough to get afflicted vets?

 

[Dralix]

Not really. The best we can do is have someone who was charismatic and beautiful before everyone finally realized what was going on. The problem is that there's commonly a lengthy period where all the loved ones slowly realized how their friend is actually sick and not just a weirdo.

Busey?

 

[Kyriakos]

He was cool in some roles (for example in Lost Highway).

I think he would not be held down by those 5 cops though anyway

 

[El_Machinae]

That sucks balls. Ever manifest late enough to get afflicted vets?

Absolutely, just not late enough for distinguished ones. No one cares about non-distinguished vets.

 

[Farm Boy]

Might only need a couple. Might not necessarily even need to be the right disease, just one "close enough." Dreaming, I am, I suppose.

 

[Formaldehyde]

True. Advocacy is also wicked hard. Good luck having a cute or charismatic schizophrenic 'victim' to put onto posters.

I wouldn't describe John Nash as either cute or charismatic. But an actor who apparently is the epitome of a poster boy already played the part of the Nobel Prize winning victim of schizophrenia to rave reviews.

It didn't seem to matter one bit...

 

[Kyriakos]

^Crowe was excellent in that role. One of my favorite movies ever.

Spoiler :

I didn't think much of Crowe from his first major role, in LA Confidential. For the same reason i did not watch Gladiator until years after. But in A Beautiful mind he was- in my view- the best actor in a very long while, by a huge margin).

I read that the real story is not very near the movie, though (likewise for Shine- 1996 film, about another real person, and mental issues).

 

[JollyRoger]

The deceased was a mentally ill drug addict with a history of violence. Does no one else think that perhaps he should have been in an institute where he would have been forced to get treatment instead of wandering the streets?

I think that is what should be done with the killers in this case - given their history of violence and all.