Following Jesus Means Opposing Torture

[GunnyFreedom]

I don't recall hearing about police abuses in the mid 1800's, or even 30 or 40 years ago for that matter. It seems to me that the problem isn't the existence of the police, but the fact that they haven't been put on a short leash and reigned in. The militarization of the police needs to come to an end as well as the war on drugs. If that happened the police would act more as peace keepers than the militaristic army that they've become.

You do know Richard Pryor is on video 30 years ago making jokes about how the cops in LA just went around killing black people exactly like Eric Gardner, right? Sure, it has escalated remarkably in the last 35 years, but there was already a lot of bad stuff there before it escalated. It just wasn't all that visible to most classes of folks.

Also, the Battle of Athens was 1946. You may argue that was evidence only of a singular cancer of corruption, but cancers do not arise out of a vacuum.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Whoever has the most money will get the most justice, obviously.

This^^ It's always been that way, even in the "Golden Age" that conservatives like to wax longingly about. (That and being well-connected to the Political Class via cash and favours, of course. War racketeering/profiteering, for example, is a a whole lot older than Smedley Butler)

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Not really a new phenomena...

 

[heavenlyboy34]

GOOGLE.
Criminy, the state LOVES short memories.

This^^ Man, I'm a relative youngster around here and I remember the Rodney King "incident"...and that was before the interwebz. Those who need a refresher on modern abuse can ask around in most any poor, primarily black neighborhood.

 

[otherone]

Sure, it has escalated remarkably in the last 35 years, but there was already a lot of bad stuff there before it escalated. It just wasn't all that visible to most classes of folks.

Brutality has always been around. Recording technology hasn't.

 

[jmdrake]

I don't recall hearing about police abuses in the mid 1800's, or even 30 or 40 years ago for that matter. It seems to me that the problem isn't the existence of the police, but the fact that they haven't been put on a short leash and reigned in. The militarization of the police needs to come to an end as well as the war on drugs. If that happened the police would act more as peace keepers than the militaristic army that they've become.

This belongs here as well.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/judge-exonerates-14-year-boy-executed-1944-27696650

If a judge in 2014 exonerates a boy lynched by the state in 1944 for a crime he clearly did not commit, does that mean justice is getting better or worse? Or has the system simply never worked for a certain segment of the population?