i lived in NYC when Amadou Diallo was shot at 42 times by police (19 bullets hit him) for opening his wallet, and when Abner Louima was raped by police on the 10th floor of the police precinct. i was about 10 years old and i remember how outraged everyone was about it, even the white people, because seriously, what the fuck? amazingly the cops in the Louima case were convicted of various crimes, even though everyone thought he was lying at first -- then came a security camera tape. whoops. the cops that shot Diallo were exonerated. how can you even claim that 19 (well, 42) bullets is reasonable force?
what i find most amazing, though, is that women who kill their abusive husbands in self-defense have a HELL of a time justifying in court that it was in self-defense, and usually get convicted anyway. i guess you have to be one of our boys in blue to shoot people whenver you'd like.
On your last point, I was reading an interesting piece on how little the American justice system is doing to stop abusers, and here's an interesting and disgusting statistic:
"Law enforcement approaches to violence against women MAY deter some acts of violence in the short term. However, as an overall strategy for ending violence, criminalization has not worked. In fact, the overall impact of mandatory arrest laws for domestic violence have led to decreases in the number of battered women who kill their partners in self-defense, but they have not led to a decrease in the number of batterers who kill their partners. Thus, the law protects batterers more than it protects survivors."
That quotation is very interesting. Where did you get that? I am very interested in reading that. I unfortunately have and still am experiencing first hand how the court system (and even schools!) have failed to do their best to protect women.
And the verdict upsets me, too! How could firing 50 shots at drunk men not even be RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT. And they werent even being tried for MURDER...just MANSLAUGHTER. and STILL???
I mean, I was expecting non-guilty from the start, but hearing the results doesn't make me any less enraged.
also i'm so sick of everyone giving police the benefit of the doubt that they would never give private citizens. especially in NYC, because of September 11th. maybe something needs to be different about police training, i don't know, but this overly paranoid mentality of the PD is why people are getting tasered to death and shot. there are steps to how to apply force, and it seems the police are loathe to follow them or something. you don't taser someone just because they 'look' high and schizophrenic, you don't taser someone when they're upset when you could easily tackle them or, uh, speak politely to them, and you don't shoot someone because you have this sneaking suspicion they have a gun or something.
also, interesting choice of words from the judge: 'the judge cited the witnesses' demeanor.' hmmmm. wonder what that's supposed to mean.
:( That is really, really fucked up. The article says they were in a car when he was shot, so I guess they couldn't have shot him in the leg? But, if you have time to shoot FIFTY bullets. You sure as hell have time to step out of the way of the car. I don't even know how that would be an excuse.
...And. Completely off topic, which seems inconsiderate to the subject... But I saw I never commented on your post about getting into the College of Letters and I just want to say Congratulations! That's really awesome, Gin.
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i lived in NYC when Amadou Diallo was shot at 42 times by police (19 bullets hit him) for opening his wallet, and when Abner Louima was raped by police on the 10th floor of the police precinct. i was about 10 years old and i remember how outraged everyone was about it, even the white people, because seriously, what the fuck? amazingly the cops in the Louima case were convicted of various crimes, even though everyone thought he was lying at first -- then came a security camera tape. whoops. the cops that shot Diallo were exonerated. how can you even claim that 19 (well, 42) bullets is reasonable force?
what i find most amazing, though, is that women who kill their abusive husbands in self-defense have a HELL of a time justifying in court that it was in self-defense, and usually get convicted anyway. i guess you have to be one of our boys in blue to shoot people whenver you'd like.
*SIGH*
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Ugh. It's disgusting.
On your last point, I was reading an interesting piece on how little the American justice system is doing to stop abusers, and here's an interesting and disgusting statistic:
"Law enforcement approaches to violence against women MAY deter some acts of violence in the short term. However, as an overall strategy for ending violence, criminalization has not worked. In fact, the overall impact of mandatory arrest laws for domestic violence have led to decreases in the number of battered women who kill their partners in self-defense, but they have not led to a decrease in the number of batterers who kill their partners. Thus, the law protects batterers more than it protects survivors."
Sigh.
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And the verdict upsets me, too! How could firing 50 shots at drunk men not even be RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT. And they werent even being tried for MURDER...just MANSLAUGHTER. and STILL???
I mean, I was expecting non-guilty from the start, but hearing the results doesn't make me any less enraged.
Reply
also, interesting choice of words from the judge: 'the judge cited the witnesses' demeanor.' hmmmm. wonder what that's supposed to mean.
Reply
...And. Completely off topic, which seems inconsiderate to the subject... But I saw I never commented on your post about getting into the College of Letters and I just want to say Congratulations! That's really awesome, Gin.
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