Sterling Brown tased by police

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Mori Chu
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Sterling Brown tased by police

Post by Mori Chu »

Here's what I wrote on Facebook about this:

I encourage you to watch this unsettling video.

Sterling Brown lives in Milwaukee. He is African-American and is a pro basketball player for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. He was recently confronted by multiple police officers for a parking violation. It appears that he parked across a handicapped stall when going in to a Walgreens. (He should not have done this, and it warrants receiving a ticket or fine from the police.)

The officer waits by his car and confronts Brown as he exits the store. The officer rapidly escalates the encounter. Brown is firm but not aggressive with the officer, questioning the officer and his behavior. Brown seems to want to resolve the situation and move on, but the officer wants to wait for backup instead. The officer calls in multiple other policemen, who surround Brown. They then zap him with a taser and all pile on him to bring him to the ground.

Note that Brown does not make any physical advance toward these officers, does not verbally threaten or intimidate them, does nothing to warrant the use of physical force. All he does is question them, question their behavior, question the violation he is receiving. Brown does not even raise his voice; he remains calm throughout. The flimsy excuse that the officers use to tase him is that he puts one of his hands in his pockets.

Calmly questioning an officer, or having an "attitude," is no excuse for the use of physical force by the police. A man should not be required to play Simon Says with the police, forced to move his body in arbitrary ways to appease them ("step back," "get your hand out of your pocket," etc.), under threat of physical attack or death at the police hands.

This is just a tiny example of the discrimination that black people face from law enforcement every day in this country. My initial reaction was to be thankful that they didn't just kill Brown, since that frankly would not have been surprising, given the ridiculous state of police brutality in this country. Sad.

The officers involved should be disciplined. This is improper police behavior. But I am skeptical that any consequence will come of this. And if there is any consequence, it will likely be related to the fact that Brown is a famous athlete. There are a lot of Sterling Browns out there who don't have a fan base to help support them.

Sterling Brown should not be made to feel unsafe around our police. Sterling's safety matters. His life matters. #BlackLivesMatter.



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Cap
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 11:51 am
The officers involved should be disciplined.
FWIW, the PD says they have been, but last I heard they were still refusing to identify the officers involved or reveal what kind of discipline they received, so their statement seems kinda weak.

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Nodack
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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That was pretty bad. Parking across the handicapped spot isn’t smart but, late at night in a quick in and out trip in an almost empty parking lot makes it seem a little trivial. I can’t speak for the motivational of the cop, but he didn’t need to be near the dick he seemed to be. He was obviously a little intimidated by Brown and wanted backup. To play devils advocate, at the point right before the physical stuff started they asked him to take his hands out of his pockets. He said he has stuff in his hands and appearently didn’t take them out and that’s when they took him down.

The cop could have gave him a simple warning since it was late at night in an empty parking lot. The cop could have written a parking ticket too. He chose to harrass Brown instead and escalate the situation. Brown could have been a little more cooperative. A few sly remarks and refusing to take your hands out of your pockets wasn’t smart. I am a white guy and I am as cooperative with the police as I possibly can be when dealing with them because I know they can make my day a bad one if they choose to do so.

What does my imagination say what happened? A white cop saw a fancy car parked across a handicapped spot and wanted to make a point. He waits and sees an intimidating black guy come out and the cop thinks, ‘What’s this black guy doing with a fancy car and a big gold chain around his neck. He must be a drug dealer or something. I think I’ll shake him down and see what falls out.’

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In2ition
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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It's easy to make assumptions on what the cops are thinking. I saw it, and yeah the cops were being dicks, but they can be in that situation. First of all, they are making an assumption that here is a prick parked across a handicapped space because he thinks he's better or entitled than everyone else. If I did that, I would probably get the same treatment. Heck, I got a speeding ticket in North Dakota on the freeway when I was driving on cruise control only 5 mph above the speed limit on the interstate where I could see 2 miles ahead of me and behind me with no one else on the road with me in a straight away in 70 degree weather, perfect visability and no wind. He came across the median to pull me over. I was respectful, but he was still a dick and was going to give me a ticket regardless(which ended up costing me $$$ in raised insurance rates). I think he was looking to give out tickets and saw that I didn't have a license plate on the front of my van, so I must have been up to no good, even though they aren't required in AZ, they are in ND.
"When we all think alike, nobody is thinking" - Walter Lippmann
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." ~ Frederick Douglass

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Cap
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

Post by Cap »

In2ition wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 3:07 pm
It's easy to make assumptions on what the cops are thinking.
Very easy. For example, right now I assume they're thinking, "No fair! This happens all the time and it's no big deal. We wouldn't have gotten in trouble if he wasn't famous. :evil: "

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Mori Chu
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

Post by Mori Chu »

In2ition wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 3:07 pm
It's easy to make assumptions on what the cops are thinking. I saw it, and yeah the cops were being dicks, but they can be in that situation. First of all, they are making an assumption that here is a prick parked across a handicapped space because he thinks he's better or entitled than everyone else. If I did that, I would probably get the same treatment. Heck, I got a speeding ticket in North Dakota on the freeway when I was driving on cruise control only 5 mph above the speed limit on the interstate where I could see 2 miles ahead of me and behind me with no one else on the road with me in a straight away in 70 degree weather, perfect visability and no wind. He came across the median to pull me over. I was respectful, but he was still a dick and was going to give me a ticket regardless(which ended up costing me $$$ in raised insurance rates). I think he was looking to give out tickets and saw that I didn't have a license plate on the front of my van, so I must have been up to no good, even though they aren't required in AZ, they are in ND.
The question I always come back to is: What exactly did the man do to deserve being tased? If you have a good answer for that, maybe we can excuse the cop's behavior. I can't think of one.

It reminds me a little bit of when they kill a guy for some misdemeanor like selling illegal cigarettes, or getting pulled over for speeding, or whatever. Maybe the black man wasn't entirely nice or completely cooperative with every command. Fine; maybe the black guy could have done some things differently, and maybe he shouldn't have committed the violation in the first place. But what exactly did he do to deserve to be shot and killed?

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Cap
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 4:10 pm
The question I always come back to is: What exactly did the man do to deserve being tased? If you have a good answer for that, maybe we can excuse the cop's behavior. I can't think of one.
When you’re scared...

Image

And if you’re nervous enough, that hand in the pocket can look like a 1% chance.
It reminds me a little bit of when they kill a guy for some misdemeanor like selling illegal cigarettes, or getting pulled over for speeding, or whatever. Maybe the black man wasn't entirely nice or completely cooperative with every command. Fine; maybe the black guy could have done some things differently, and maybe he shouldn't have committed the violation in the first place. But what exactly did he do to deserve to be shot and killed?
Why does it always seem to be a black man? Human nature.

There’s a famous experiment, The Police Officer’s Dilemma, that has been replicated by multiple independent researchers. The test subject is shown a picture of a man holding an object: the man is either white or black, and the object is either a cell phone or a gun. The subject is holding an electronic device fashioned to look like a gun, and has one second to pull the trigger or not. The object is to shoot the men holding guns and not shoot the men holding cell phones.

The result is that black men are shot more than white men, despite holding guns at the same rate. It doesn’t matter whether the test subject is white, black, or other. It doesn’t matter what his political views are. It doesn’t matter how much he tells himself to focus on the object and ignore the man. All groups tested show a bias toward shooting the black guy.

What to do about it? I dunno.

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Nodack
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Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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What did he do to get tased? I think cops are real sensitive to guys with their hands in their pockets that refuse to show their hands. They will automatically assume you have a weapon.

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carey
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Re: RE: Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

Post by carey »

Nodack wrote:What did he do to get tased? I think cops are real sensitive to guys with their hands in their pockets that refuse to show their hands. They will automatically assume you have a weapon.
If you're non-white.
Go Suns!

Og Snus!

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Indy
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Re: RE: Re: Sterling Brown tased by police

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carey wrote:
Sun May 27, 2018 2:59 pm
Nodack wrote:What did he do to get tased? I think cops are real sensitive to guys with their hands in their pockets that refuse to show their hands. They will automatically assume you have a weapon.
If you're non-white.
Exactly. Non-white guys/gals with things that "look like" guns are shot at scores of times, where white mass-murders are taken without incident while they are holding ar-15 rifles right after they shot up their classmates.

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