| Phaedrus |
| ||
It pertains to the situation in the same way that the party itself or even the race pertains to the situation. Had they not gone to the party, this would have been avoided. Had they not run the race, this would have been avoided. Had they not become runners in the first place, this would have been avoided. All these things are antecedent to the end result. That doesn't mean they are relevant to the questions we're asking. The relevant question isn't whether the men involved were doing something silly (I certainly haven't been convinced that they did anything illegal). We can all agree they did something silly. The questions are a) whether there was excessive use of force by the police; and b) whether the man who has been charged is guilty. With regard to a), excessive use of force by police has nothing to do with them going into the bathroom. There is no logical way to justify excessive force by the police based on them going into the bathroom. This can only be justified by an imminent threat to the officers' safety. Clearly, nothing about a couple dudes in the bathroom can lead one to conclude that such a threat existed. Could such a threat have existed? Of course. But that's a question that's independent of any other crime (or silliness) that was supposedly committed. With regard to b), the charges in question are likely related to assault or resisting arrest, and have nothing to do with being in the bathroom. To compare the potential "abuse of rights" committed by going into a women's bathroom during a party to the potential abuse of rights committed by officers of authority using that authority to get away with assaulting others is ludicrous. Again, I'm not saying that the officers did anything wrong. I wasn't there. But in no way does bathroom "trespassing" justify assault by police. No way. Not in America. That's why we have Rights and a Constitution. Those aren't superseded for the drunk and immature. |
| weak |
| ||
|
this thread is so 5 minutes ago. it's just going around in circles... if you're arguing about the relation of guys being in the bathroom to the guy that got tasered, go back 50 posts and i'll sure you'll find the same argument already stated. quit posting unless you can ADD some info about gerber's situation. |
| Canuckster |
| ||
It's been proven that there is a correlation between this guys friends being in the ladies room and him getting tazered. Is this true for all situations? no just as it's not true for everyone who gets pulled over and their friend gets beat up. If I got pulled over for speeding, and my friend started mouthing off to the cop and walking at him...then the cop felt threatened by him...I'd think my friend was an idiot.[/quote] My point exactly. You would think your friend is an idiot. You would not blame yourself, nor would you think that your actions had anything to do with the actions of your friend, or the cop. |
| Legal beagle |
| ||
Please cite WHAT law was broken? |
| 2nd generation redneck |
| ||
|
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFHSOE1_YlQ I'd recommend anyone who hasn't seen this video watch it before contributing more to the discussion. It is basically a rookie cop who gets himself shot to shit during a traffic stop. Why is it important? Because people training for law enforcement get shown this video (and probably similar ones that can't be found on youtube) all the time. And the lesson they learn is: this guy died because he didn't take his attacker out the second he became aggressive. That's the kind of attitude this cop probably took into a party full of out-of-towners. For the record I do think the officer at the party was probably somewhat out of line, and I sincerely hope that the felony charges are dropped accordingly. But lay off the "fascist pig" attitude, because these guys expose themselves to some f***ed up shit in the line of duty. |
| a few things |
| ||
|
I think illegal dumping.
Please cite WHAT law was broken?[/quote] |
| not valid for comparison |
| ||
|
I watched the video for the first time. No coorelation to what this topic references. |
| 2nd generation redneck |
| ||
|
Sure it's not relevant? I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the cop with the tazer watched that clip. |
| even more curious? |
| ||
|
ah, as am i curious....just what did those hot little janes do?
What 'horrible behavior from "the Janes"' are you referring to?[/quote] |
| fan of WLDR |
| ||
|
Probably refering to the flashing incident. |
| J. R. |
| ||
Welcome to the New World Order. |
| even more curious? |
| ||
|
who flashed what?
|
| SeaSlug |
| ||
|
Heck even handcuffing people and then walking them out would not have been a big deal, the crowd was pretty tame. I'll post a video from during the time of the tasing (I didn't catch the tasing because I was taping the dancing at that moment), I was taping both the room and the hallway where it happened. Voilence as an opening move is never a good idea unless your goal is to actually kill someone, and I'm pretty confident that police training includes how not to escalate a situation, this guy needs to go back and retake that part of his training. If you bust someones head open during a traffic stop while they are being polite, you can assume that their friends in the car will then challenge you. This wasn't someone being mouthy to a cop and then getting tased, this was someone asking why a friend was being assaulted while pleading and not resisting, and then they themselves getting assaulted, then asking what was going on, and then getting tased. I just finished looking at the video I took during that time and the crowd was so orderly, that thinking about the stupidity of the escalation of force used is pretty irritating Cops have a tough job and deserve our respect, but this particular cop is simply making the job harder for everyone else. Doing this type of dumb thing simply reduces peoples trust in the honorable officers and that is really a shame. I'll post the video on Youtube when I get back to Seattle at the end of the week. |
| Indra |
| ||
|
One thing that seems to have gotten lost in all of these blogs and sound offs is that Mike Gerber was never in the bathroom nor an instigator in any form or manner that set this whole episode in motion. He was a bystander and only spoke up when the person, whose name I believe is Sam and who is safely back home in Washington State, was being man-handled and foreably ejected from the bathroom. Mike had absolutely nothing to do with the bathroom episode. He spoke up in defense of a fellow athelete whom, in his opinion, and apparently also others who were present, was not being treated in an appropriate manner. He may have been celebrating - or commisserating (depending on your viewpoint as to how you did in the race)and therefore may have spoken more loudly than one might normally. But he saw an injustice (and that is Mike to a tee) and spoke up about it. That is all he did. The subsequent actions and events did not warrant the response of someone who just questioned something. And that is what happened...... So before everybody goes off into a hundred different tangents and feelings about men entering women's rest rooms - let's focus on the core issue. Someone who at one moment was a bystander watching police try to eject someone forceably - all of a sudden is swept into becoming the target of what appears to be a frustrated, over-zealous and and maybe confused policeman - who is surrounded by a group of loud and frenzied young people having a good time and, as the original "perpetrator" has fled, misguidely decide that someone needs to pay the price. |
| rikitiki |
| ||
|
I'm from Britain. These posts make interesting and disconcerting reading. If the police behaved like that here there would be a public outcry. I'm shocked that such disproportionate response should have taken place. It's such a shame for the majority of police officers that I'm sure do a good job as the public loses confidence in them because of the incompetent minority. |
| ex drunk |
| ||
|
I've been to a lot of parties where the police came in and broke them up, or took a specific person out of there, or arrested a friend of mine. I can't say the exact number but I have probably been confronted by police at least a dozen times. In every case there was some form of attempted argument or pleading with the police because drunk people usually try to get the cops to back down by stopping whatever they are doing and saying "it's cool" or whatever. I've never said anything rude to the cops but I've argued my case or tried to explain myself before. Every time the cops have just told me what it is they want me to stop doing and (being drunk) I may have tried to keep explaining myself and they've kept their cool and basically just told me to go away. Talking to the cops never elicited a beating or tasering, or even a handcuffing. I never got arrested... Not one time have I ever seen a cop need to resort to violence. The most aggressive thing I saw was people being calmly handcuffed and carefully walked out of the room. This occurred at a house party where the cops pulled a few pounds of weed out from under the bar and arrested all of the residents of that house, a much more serious thing than some guy going into the women's bathroom. Let's face it, young drunk people do stupid things sometimes. The police don't need to beat them up and then press serious charges against them to control the situation. This could have been handled by telling the guy to leave, and then giving him a few seconds to try to explain himself, and then telling him again to leave. |
| desert rodent |
| ||
|
Police use excessive force/overkill/guns drawn when arresting those perps on MSNBC "To Catch a Predator". Barely giving the perp time to get on the ground. Why is that okay, yet this guy Gerber interfering with an arrest/investigation is considered brutality. Don't you see a double standard. |
| E |
| ||
Your pathetic grasp of English, I would suspect, contributes to your very poor reading comprehension ability. Numerous people have emphatically stated that the guy who is in jail was NOT IN THE WOMEN'S BATHROOM yet you keep posting B.S. If you can't contribute anything to the conversation (like actual knowledge of what happened) then please stop posting. Not only were you not there to witness it, you continue to ignore actual accounts of the event. |
| Broken link |
| ||
No I don't. Neither victim of brutality this weekend had committed a crime and neither were under arrest when the cop committed two acts of brutality. Don't you see the difference? |
| Harry Kooter |
| ||
Can you point me to the part of this guys post that said that he thinks that the "To Catch a Predator" technique is ok? I don't really watch the show, but from the bits and pieces that I see when other people have it on, I've only seen them use force when the suspect is running away. Are you claiming that the guy at the party was trying to run away? Also, I could be wrong, but I don't think that they tase the guys on that show. |