OUT-OF-CONTROL ARMY OF POLICE?

There are some people who have a very warped view of the police. That view may have been formed by a bad experience they have had with a cop or by someone else’s bad experience they’ve heard about that has been passed on from mouth to mouth. More often than not, that warped view has been formed by media reports of alleged police misconduct, of which there are many on TV and in the press. Here is a case in point.
　
As all of you must know, Houston Press Hair Balls is my favorite source for a humorous take on the news. In Friday’s edition there was a report on a man, Marcus Dise, who was suing the Houston Police Department because, according to him, a couple of HPD officers beat him up for videotaping them. Here is Dise’s story as reported by Hair Balls:
　
__Dise is suing the City of Houston and the two officers in Houston federal court. He claims that he was right outside the Roxy nightclub on West Alabama a little before 2 a.m. in August 2008 videotaping a friend's rap video when a fight broke out in the parking garage. Dise was recording the brawl when two officers showed up and began breaking it up. Dise claims that a bystander told the police that they were using too much force to break up the fight, to which one of the officers allegedly responded by hitting the man in the face, saying "It's HPD, we do what we want."

__He claims that after the officer hit the bystander, he and the man tried to walk away from the officers, but one of the cops kept coming at them, punching the bystander again in the face. When Dise allegedly tried to step in between the two, the officer supposedly hit Dise on the head. Dise says that as he put his hands in the air to shield himself, crying, "What did I do?" the officer put him in a headlock.
　
__It was about then, Dise claims, that the other officer rushed over, and together with his partner, allegedly handcuffed Dise, threw him on the ground and repeatedly kicked him for about two minutes. Dise says the officers then picked him up and dragged him inside the club and down to the basement. There, according to the lawsuit, the officers removed the handcuffs, beat him in the face, and then put the cuffs back on. Next, Dise says the two policemen took him to a security room inside the club, covered up the security camera, and beat him some more. Eventually, Dise was taken to jail.
　
Hair Balls noted "that HPD has conducted an internal investigation into the claims against the two officers, and the allegations were not sustained." That did not satisfy J. Stringer, a reader who made the following comments about Dise’s version of the event. Note that he relies on links to fellow cop-hater Carlos Miller to authenticate his comments:
　
___This is not surprising ... this sort of thing: people being assaulted by police for catching them on video is becoming an epidemic in the U.S.
　
__Police more and more do not being held accountable for their actions, their lies & trumphed up charges (ie: public disturbance, resisting arrest; really contempt of cop) cases like this can't top instant replay.
　
__There's a lot more examples of this at: http://carlosmiller.com/
　
__Note it's not my site, person running it was assaulted in pretty much the same way as Dise was...
　
I could not resist replying to his attack on the police. Here is my response:
　
__Yes Mr. Stringer, there are bad cops, but you sound like nothing more than a cop-hater.
　
__I will never defend bad policing. However, the Dise case looks like a typical lawsuit against the police embilished by a lying lawyer. The description of Dise's mistreatment - the length of time it took and the severity of it - are unbelievable and appear to be the figment of a lawyers imagination.
　
__There are always two sides to every controversy. I know that HPD would take a complaint like this very seriously and would not witewash it.
　
Here is Stringer’s absurd reply to my comments:
　
__Cop Hater? Sorry, but I hate no one. The police more and more are becoming militarized, more tazers, more high power weapons being carried, more swat teams & a lot less tolerance for the common folk to protect themselves(we seems to do okay here in Texas, but elsewhere in the U.S. it is a VERY different story)...read a little more for yourself. The Thin Blue Line is more often concerned for its own that for the rest of us, despite the best efforts of good officers who are becoming fewer and fewer each year.
　
__We are being treated like serfs & a source of revenue generation and less like like the people that for so many years good officers were sworn to "serve & protect".
　
__In certain parts of the country people are getting harassed just for taking a picture near an airport or a transit center (something that is actively being promoted by homeland security - see link: http://carlosmiller.com/2010/09/07/tsa-publishes-new-posters-depicting-photographers-as-terrorists/
　
And here is my reply to those comments:
　
__Mr. Stringer, you and I must be living in two different worlds. You have a very warped view of the police.
　
__There are several hundred-thousand law enforcement officers in the U.S. Why so many? Because there are many more criminals. Why do we have SWAT units? Because many of those criminals are well armed and very dangerous. With so many law enforcement officers, there are bound to be some bad apples in the bunch. And those are the ones that the media concentrates on.
　
__It takes all those officers to protect you - yes you - and the rest of us law-abiding citizens. I am sure that the overwhelming majority of Americans support their local police and do not share your distorted views of an out-of-control army of police.
　
Stringer then comes back at me:
　
__No we live in the same world - it amazes me when you disagree with someone, the different world thing comes up ... I thought like you for a very very long time & really did believe what you state.
　
__My opinions changed when I started noticing more and more reporting in the press about the police assultonb people for little or no provocation ... Remember the incident with he Chinese consulate in Montrose? a consulate official was assaulted by the police because he didn't pull over right away & pulled into the consulate garage.
　
__Police have been doing this sort of thing more frequently in recent years, with the violence in police works is slowly escalating, many times starting over a traffic stop where someone didn't comply fast enough or asked a question or took a photo.
　
__Are there good police of there who conduct their duties with professionalism and discretion want to protect us? Yes! We just have less of them than we used to.
　
Because there is no way to convince Stringer that he is full of shit, I responded with some final comments:

__Mr. Stringer, it is very gracious of you to acknowledge that there are actually some good cops out there somewhere. However, when it comes to the rest of your comments - I do not know of any other way to put it - you are full of shit!
　
__If the media would concentrate on the good and heroic deeds performed by police officers every minute of every day, may be you would change your tune.
　
__Since disagreeing with you is like arguing with a rock, I will not respond to any more of your absurd comments, should you choose to make them.