Having just moved into town I'm still learning about the community here in Crescent City. I've been mildly surprised to find that the local paper here, the Triplicate, has quite and extensive online edition that covers most, if not all of the their paper-published stories. I have yet to compare the two thoroughly but from a very brief examination this is the impression I get.
So the other day I'm just surfing through some of the stories that have been reported on recently and I ran across one that made me flashback to Portland for a moment until I recovered my bearings.
There was a story written on 28 July entitled "Locals protest Police brutality." This obviously caught my eye coming from Portland where more often than not it seems that some group or other is protesting or complaining about the work that the PPD does there. Having come within a hair's breadth of attempting to become one of the fine (this word taken with a grain of salt) officers of the PPD, I definitely have a pro-Law Enforcement (LE) stance. So long story short this story jumped out at me as I wasn't expecting to find the same sentiment shared in this small community in Northern CA that is demonstrated in the exceedingly liberal city of Portland.
Beginning to read through the article it seemed that it was the same ole hand-wringing and tear-streaming protest that puts a victimizing facade on the perpetrator until I got a couple of paragraphs into the article. Here I found a most interesting factoid. First of all the perp's mother organized the protest which isn't entirely unexpected. It seems that most families today think that their kin can do no wrong and it is everyone else's fault that they (insert various and sundry crime here).
So again, not entirely surprising until I got to the next paragraph: "I hope to educate people about this situation," said Beck, who heads the Del Norte Community Watchdogs, a group dedicated to monitoring law enforcement practices to prevent the use of excessive force. "The cops were wrong. They used brutal force."
That blew me away! The perp's mom is the head of the local watchdog group! Can anyone spell I-R-O-N-Y for me? Imagine this if you will; a mother who has a low opinion of LE, heads the local chapter of a group of people who make excuses for and generally try to justify the sins of the scum of the earth, and try to cause overall consternation to those who have sworn to protect and serve. Can you imagine a mother such as this raising a son who would run from police, endanger children, and assault arresting officers over a loud muffler? Hmm.....
Needless to say I was slightly disheartened to hear that such Loons have managed to migrate from Portland to here. Oh no! I hope they didn't follow me!
TheMK
The original story covering this incident can be found here.
Both stories are written by Nichola Grube and published by the Daily Triplicate.
Reflections From a Hospital Bed
1 month ago
1 comment:
Hey bro,
my purpose here is not to defend the "perp" as you call him or to say the police did use excessive force. it certainly sounds like he was not a man who was going to have a calm conversation. what does disturb me is your use of the phrase "scum of the earth" and your stance that police are always right and do not let their prejudices or bad days or fears interfere with them doing their job correctly. who are these "scum of the earth" people that you refer to and what gives you the right to label any person as such?! your judgement refers to certain actions that a person has taken and does not take into account anything else about this person or the situation in which these actions were taken. you see a bad choice and, knowing nothing else about it, you immediately label that person as scum. that's a pretty scummy thing to do. where does compassion, understanding and grace fit into your mentality?
and since when have the authorities of this country been always good, always just, always right??!! look at our history of genocide of native americans, slavery of africans, segregation of black americans, dsicrimination against minorities and the poor. authorities have certainly not earned the right to go unquestioned, and even if they had, when authorites go unquestioned you end up with dictators like Mugabe.
again, i am not defending this man. i believe he needs to be held accountable for his actions. however, i believe police also need to be held accountable for their actions. it sounds like these police were justified in their use of force but that doesn't mean that that is always the case.
i find your views of this to be very black and white and narrow minded.
love,
your sister
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