Warning: Graphic police brutality, etc.

I've seen several of these on the news or on YouTube in the past, but it's much nicer having them all in one place. I've personally had some pretty ****ed up encounters with police in the past but nothing like some of the stuff in these videos.

Feel free to discuss.

Sometimes, when people are given authority they act like complete ****stains and abuse it. Most of the time though the police are good people who only want to help.
That said, these *******s need to be thrown in jail.

The drug war coupled with police being used for official racism in US history are the main reasons there is an "us vs them" mentality when it comes to police. Besides that, I have a significant problem with the way stun devices have been used for compliance only to antagonize a situation or cause severe bodily harm. Otherwise, I know several police officers personally and trust them in general, despite doing somewhat illegal things in my spare time.

I especially liked the part where people were going to the police precincts to ask about filing a report against a police officer.

Damn, I watched that whole thing. Kind of wish I hadn't.

I hate the police. I've never caught a beating by them but I'm usually a law abiding citizen and they always find some way to yell at me or act like douche bags if they aren't speeding past me.

I was really surprised how nice the cops are in other countries when I started travelling outside the US. I understand that the police need to have a professional demeanor to assess situations, but even on a personal level most cops I've met have been close-minded authoritarians. The cops who abuse power like the ones in the video are a tiny minority, but even the ones that don't are not people I want to spend any time with. Stay out of their attention and you won't have any problems.

American police are why America needs the 5th amendment.

It's like I live in another country, considering the innumerable amount of bad experiences you guys have with cops.

I used to live in orange county, so yeah, whatever. But I live in a metropolitan area, and still I have not been harassed.

After 9/11 I was searched constantly because I look middle eastern, but they were just doing their jobs, and I found that cooperation went a long way. That's been my only "negative" experience.

Either you guys are doing things that warrant attention, or me, my friends, my family, and anyone I know are just lucky. I'm leaning toward the former.

Isn't the guy at 5:44-6:50 the same nut job that we've seen yab on and on at townhall meeting before? It doesn't make it right, I'm just curious.

I'll comment further after I finish watching it through.

I've seen cops being dicks to people. But mainly my experience has been good. I've been pulled over 3 times and it was always a professional and mature conversation and never resulted in a ticket.

I once broke down on a busy downtown city street where I was blocking a lane of traffic (no shoulder). A cop came and gave my car a little "bump" just enough so I could roll it off to the nearest side street then he even gave me a ride the rest of the way to school because I was going to be late for a final exam.

Each of these different experiences have been with different agencies (City cops from 3 different cities plus 1 county sheriff) so it's not like I'm isolated in some small town where the cops have nothing to do.

I have a tremendous respect for cops and I also enjoy ride-alongs whenever I can, although I prefer to do that with cops I know so they are comfortable with me.

It's the people who become cops for reasons other than keeping the peace that turn out to be dicks...

My only frustration with cops is when the pull you over for speeding, they ask why you were going so fast. Does it really matter? If it was an emergency I wouldn't have stopped, so obviously you're going to give me a ticket.. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

If it's an emergency you should pull over because the cops will escort you to the hospital or wherever.

Yes it does. If you have a legitimate verifiable emergency, I probably won't write you and you'll get an abbreviated warning slip instead of the full one (two minute stop instead of six or seven).

If you don't stop, you're getting spiked and then you're definitely not getting anywhere.

Ok, further comments after reviewing the movie all the way through.

A someone who has two relatives in the police force, I can tell you that part of the problem is that there's poor psychiatric testing (particularly for ex-military). Neither one of my relatives who are in the Police force should be.

Obviously, there's more issues then that, but there are huge ties between the Police and Military personnel/Ex-Military citizens. One of the managers in the company I work for displays a NAVY sticker in the rear window (driver side) and always hands his Military ID along with his State ID when pulled over. He's told me that, "...as long as you can get them bull****ting about the military, you're in the clear."

I'd have to research the subject matter further to see what other factors may be involved. Some of the incidents in the video show some degree of Police misconduct, but it's difficult to evaluate the entire situation to see that no force was necessary (there's a difference between an Officer using force when no force is necessary and using more force than what is necessary).

I'm waiting for the revolution.. anyone who'll stand behind beside me?

You're in NYC right? I've only been stopped once by Subway cops, but that was to check my bag. No real hassle. The military presence in Grand Central can be a bit unnerving though, especially considering they're carrying rifles.

The MTA police carry MP5's, which is a submachine gun but not technically a rifle.

edit: actually, I remember they use to carry M4's. They seem to have switched to MP5's for some reason.

Really the transit authority carries MP5s? The Edmonton Police don't carry anything bigger then a glock unless their SWAT or something.

No, the only real times you will see guards carrying MP5's or M4's is in specific places such as Grand Central and, in few cases, certain entrances of important subway lines (i.e. Union Square station).

Grand Central also has regular cops with typical weapons.

Oh I see.
I'm waiting for JLee to share some nice "Cops with strange guns" stories.

I despise what happened at around 12 minutes.

It's going to bother me for at least a month.


Also: I didn't watch the entire thing, but for the first 15 minutes all the offender cops all seem to be bald. Any specific reason (dress code) or is it just a personality trait?

The ones in Grand Central still have M4s. They had them on friday at least

The only other major police presence I notice in the city are the cops at Bryant Park & Times sq

The police around here aren't too bad, most of the new guys are a little power struck, but most of the older ones are easy to deal with.

I've been pulled over by police a few times and I swear they were just bored. One was because the cop thought I'd been drinking when i was driving home after a football game in high school that I played in pep band at. He followed me from the stadium to about a mile down the bypass before he started flashing his lights. Said I was weaving in and out of the oncoming traffic lane even though if I had been doing so I would have been in a head on crash because the lane was packed with cars. This last time was for failure to stop at a stop sign, even though I know I came to a full stop because I had to get inside my glove compartment between the front seats to grab my pack of cigarettes.
Both times I ended up getting a warning.

More of an annoyance than anything that needs to be complained about. I've been helped out by police more than I can tell, so I can take a few traffic warnings.

That video is slightly disturbing, but it's also a propaganda video. Of course they're gonna show the bad cops abusing their power, but that's mainly a small minority. There are plenty of good cops that do their job right and go unspoken for.

I've had 4 run ins with police. All were deserved but none resulted in an arrest.

Yes, I live in the Bronx, Morris Park area.

I've never seen that in grand central, but I only go there bimonthly or so.

Watched about 40 minutes, that is seriously third-world.

The problem lies not with one or two bad individuals, but something inherently wrong with the entire institution. Certainly, there are many good policemen and good individuals, but operating under an increasingly political and economic institution.

5% of the world are American, yet 25% of the world's prison population are American. By population, the US incarcerates more than twice as many people as South Africa, more than three times as many as Iran, more than six times as many as China. No society in history has imprisoned more of its citizens than the US. 1 in every 99 adults in America is in prison.

One of the problems is this absurd 'three strikes and you're out' rule, whereby if you're convicted of two crimes then for the third one - no matter how trivial - will get a life sentence. Leandro Andrade was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for stealing 9 video tapes. Kevin Weber was sentenced to 26 years for stealing chocolate chip cookies.

And the racial distribution is disturbing too. There are more 17 year old black males in prison than in college.

And this isn't in the name of justice, it's a huge business. Prisons have reinvented the slave trade. Prisoners produce all military equipment, including helmets, bags, bullet proof vests, ID tags, and other pieces of uniform. 93% of domestically produced paints, 36% of home appliances, 21% of office furniture, are produced by prison labour. This allows the US to compete with factories in Mexico, as a prisoner will get solitary confinement if he refuses to work.

And yet, it is illegal to import into the US anything produced by prison labour.

This kind of thing just makes me really want to be a police officer. Preferably even a county sheriff.

Breaking into a restaurant is hardly the same as 'stealing cookies' - you imply he shoplifted $5 worth of stuff. The three strikes law applies to felonies. Felonies are supposed to be significant crimes, and if you get three you have a problem.

That said, I'm not sure I agree with the three strikes law, but where do you draw the line? How many burglaries does someone have to commit before they're done? How many assaults or rapes are 'justifiable'? I also thought the three strikes deal was only in California - apparently I was wrong.

I drive 5-10 miles above the speed limit and rarely get pulled over. I drive a gold Buick Century and wear a brown Fedora.... I think they think I'm an old person and don't bother me.

I watched the whole video through....don't know why but hey...

Few comments, as a good friend of a few police officers in the UK and a brother to an ex-prison officer maybe I might be a little bias here.

There are clearly some questions that need to be asked about stuff in that video and yet at the same time the people who made it had a clear agenda in mind when doing so as only ever 1 side of the story was shown. The whole complaint form section makes me very worried for people in the US...although to be fair I'd probably expect a similar situation in the UK.

There is no doubt that there are police officers in the job who shouldn't be, yet there are also people in the job who do the right thing.

One friend in particular of mine was put on paid leave while under investigation for the actions he and another officer took to control a person that was also captured on film. The problem with the film however is that it includes no sound, is recoreded from a distance and doesn't in the slightest tell the whole story reguarding the arrest and what took place.

The local media however jumped on the story, but failed to mention in any of the news stories the fact that the person had been kicked out of a pub (who made the original 999 call) after assaulting staff, that the person was hugely intoxicated, was bloodied before the police arrived (from fights within the pub) and was shouting encouragement throughout the arrest for his friends to join in and attack the two police officers.

The point here? the media are at times no friends to the police force, I can't seem to think why they shouldn't be (or should for that matter) but at the very least they should show any story from both points of view. Going with half arsed news stories painting the police in a bad and untrustworthy light only makes matters worse. So in the end all I say is that yes there are police officers that need to be locked up themselves, but at times the media should be held accountable for the damage they cause by their totally inaccurate news.

What's going to get more ratings, raise more controversy, and get more people to watch your show -- 'police department arrests aggressive drunk football player', or 'corrupt cop beats up college freshman'?

They are never justifiable, each case of the previous two 'strikes' is tried, convicted and sentenced on the merits of that case. One may think that sentencing for these individual cases needs to be tougher, and on a moral level many might agree with that sentiment - but on a pragmatic level, longer sentences do not actually lower crime rates.

I also have no problem, in principle, with the consideration of previous convictions in the sentencing of a convicted case. The purpose of the courts is to assess the danger an individual poses to the public, so this only makes sense. However, I do have a problem with the stupefying simplicity of the 'three strikes' rule. Law is a complex and nuanced process, and it is one institution where more bureaucracy is better - to allow for sensible verdicts on individual cases, with all their nuances and complexities. Blanket generalisations based on knee-jerk moral absolutes force the judge to hand out obviously ridiculous sentences and undermine the legitimacy of the entire process.

Baseball does not make for good legal precedent. Leg before wicket? Mandatory death penalty!

I pretty much agree with you except with the idea of more bureaucracy is better. For certain cases, yes - it is. However on a general scale, I think the court system takes way too long and attorneys have much more leeway than they should (but then again, by letting them continue things forever and make nonsense motions, they get to keep charging the client).

Before I get on a tirade about how a defense attorney will charge what I make in eight weeks just to defend one DUI, I'll shut up.

I definitely agree on the 'zero tolerance' policy. That has never worked out well, whether it's with schools, sentencing, or whatever.

In other news, the nation's largest independent street gang is considered to be the Bulldogs.

Highly- and expensively-educated knowledge worker who works 112 hours a week, has high liability costs and funds business operations out of personal income asks for more money than someone who got free training in walking around and pointing a free gun at people.

No offense, but lawyers don't deserve half of the crap they get. Just like police.

Yeah whatever, jonc.

You're either ignorant or a troll. Likely both.

You don't have it half as hard as you think you do.

Suck it up, snowflake.

I don't have it hard at all - on the contrary, I wouldn't be surprised if I have the easiest LE job in the country.

However, it does get old when it seems like every DUI we get is nothing but filling the pockets of defense attorneys when they file bull**** motion after bull**** motion - like 'motion to suppress the fruits of an illegal stop' for a vehicle that was stopped for driving at night without headlights on. But who cares, right? Flood the system with enough paperwork, clog things up as best as you possibly can, and keep charging for everything you do. That's the way to make money, right?

Now post your extensive first-hand experience with the court system and prove me wrong.

Lawyers are legally bound to make the best defense they possibly can. That liability cost thing I mentioned? Yeah. Lawyers get disbarred if they don't file all of those "bull****" motions.

Hey, ELITE WARRIOR will love this one: Appeal to authority.

Lawyers work their asses off during their undergraduate so they'll qualify for a prestigious school, they work their asses off to pass the LSAT, they work their asses off in law school, if they're lucky they become a glorified secretary for a big firm and eventually maybe they'll even make associate. They're overworked, they have no time to spend the amazing pay, and to say competitive in the market they only end up billing for half of the hours they spend on any case.

Try talking to a lawyer. Doesn't count if it's just the DA giving you instructions, either.