Month: July 2014

As seen on America The Not So Beautiful

July 24, 2014

By Mike Caccioppoli

I was raised on Staten Island. I won’t say I hated every minute or it because that wouldn’t be true. Every other minute. Staten Island is very Italian and very conservative. Many of those Italians hate blacks. Sorry just the way it is. Always has been. Not all but many.

So a black man was killed by cops on Staten Island. The names of the officers put on “desk duty” are Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. The man they killed was Eric Garner. Cops seem to be killing lots of people these days and race doesn’t always factor in. There is also much more in the way of common excessive police force against all races. This time though it happened on Staten Island, where there are lots of white Italians who hate blacks.

There was a time, not too long ago where this kind of incident was rare. Where someone could use the term “rotten apple” when describing a rouge police officer. Not any more. Nope. There are far too many incidents like this one now. So the blame must be put in the recruiting process. They are simply not recruiting the kind of people they used to recruit to be police officers. You know, the kind of cop we would see in a Sidney Lumet film. Hardly perfect, but often compassionate and human. A human being.

Mr. Garner was a big man, all 350 pounds of him. He seemed to have been selling loose cigarettes, which I didn’t know people still did. A human being would see this as hardly an offense. Maybe a human being would say, “Come on buddy do that somewhere else, not on my beat” or “Put those away and just go on your way pal.” Something like that. I never wrote a Lumet film but the dialogue would go something like that.

Not this time. This time it escalated to the point where Garner was put in an illegal choke hold, yelling “I can’t breathe”, “I can’t breathe.” He had bad asthma, but these non humans didn’t know that, nor did they care. He was a black guy on White Island, doing something “illegal.” One has to wonder if it were a 20 year old Italian kid doing the same thing, what would have happened? Well that’s neither here nor there is it?

Let’s take the racial element out of this for a second. I know of a woman who is an anti-war protester. Here is a video of her being assaulted and arrested by police in Philadelphia because she was standing somewhere they didn’t want her to stand. This is public property, a park, she asks them why she can’t stand there, they don’t give an answer. Basically her liberalism is bothering them. The black officer in this video should be especially ashamed, since it was his relatives who were arrested and assaulted for wanting the rights he now has. I guess he thinks those rights include assault and battery of an anti-war protester.

Notice how these cops attack her when she turns her back. The same way thugs would attack someone when they aren’t expecting it, to steal their money. This brings up a question. Why does someone become a cop? Several people in my family were cops. Usually the answer was, “I wanted to make a difference.” Heck even “I needed a good job with benefits.” The first reason is honorable, the second is also fine, if not honorable. It seems that too many cops these days, especially the younger ones, would have to answer, “I wanna bust some heads!”

Of course that reason is criminal but they have a badge. Therefore the few, the very few times these cops are prosecuted, they are acquitted. That’s because the moron public has that good ole American, obey and submit mentality. If the person has a badge or a title, then they are above reproach. I mean they must be doing the right thing or at least for the right reason…right?

There has been a militarization of the police departments. They wear dark black and carry gear that is usually seen in war time situations. No wonder they feel like they are at war and need to act accordingly. They are no longer taught to respect the public, to deal with people on a human level. They are taught to “be careful out there.” Because everyone is out to get them.

All of this makes me wonder why anyone would want to be a cop. I hear people say all the time that these cops are only doing their jobs. Protecting and serving! But there is no “cop draft.” Nobody MUST become a cop. There are plenty of other jobs. Therefore someone should really really want to do it and for only the right reasons. This must be the question police departments ask to those who want these jobs. There must be an interrogation and those in command must be CERTAIN that the person applying is there for only the right reasons before their application is pushed through. Of course this is not a part of the hiring procedure in any police department in the United States.

No the U.S. police force has become a thug force. They are hiring too many people who get off on the fact that they can beat people up and order them around legally. The law is on their side. This is why we are seeing so much police brutality and murder by cop. There are protests in NYC now, People want the police chief, Bill Bratton, fired. The problem is that the department always, yes always, at least initially, backs the officer, as do most other officers. Here is a sample of what some of those officers are saying about the Garner murder.

The “Thin Blue Line” isn’t really thin at all. It’s a big glaring bold marked line that is easy to see and not hidden. There is very much an us vs. them mentality by cops. They don’t seem to realize that they work for the people, the people pay their salaries. The people are the bosses. Get it?

No they don’t get it. They dress in the darkest of blue or black. They carry tasers, guns, mace, handcuffs, batons, and they wear bullet proof vests. They are more protected than any citizen could or should ever be. I am all for the police not the citizenry to be armed. To protect us from each other. I’ve written about this in the past.

They don’t want to lose someone like me. I might need them on that beat but they need people like me on their side. The sooner they realize this the better. It’s beginning to slip away from them. I shudder to think about the consequences.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

@CaccioppoliMike

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