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Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

This was our topic, and we could write for as long as we wanted to. Johnathan, Melissa, Celia, Lucy, Maggie, and Mia attended the meeting. Celia and Lucy chose to abstain from publishing their posts.

Mia:

it scares me. it scares me that a group of people can have in our society, under our laws, can have that cheesy spy movie staple, “a license to kill”, without even the necessity of a college education. If any civilian, not a policeman, just your average joe with a licensed gun, somehow accidentally shot a man, there’d be consequences. Holy shit, there’d be consequences. Shooting a handcuffed man who’s on the floor, straddled beneath you? That’s not fucking self-defense. Looks more like an execution.

The rules are different. I’m supposed to accept that. but I can’t.

No matter what the government or society says, my mind and my conscience don’t give a moral edge to a killer just because he’s in uniform. In fact, I’d hold them to a higher standard. Police officers should be trained to keep their cool. they should be able to deal with high pressure situations without failing their duty to protect humans. Just because someone causes issues, or even commits a crime, that person is not subhuman.

In my opinion, our police force’s highest priority should be to protect the life and well-being of every citizen. Sure, innocent people deserve extra protection, but less innocent people still deserve the respect and consideration of government officials, even i they don’t show it back to the police. Cops are supposed to be, in an ideal world, the good guys, the ones who are trained about things like the difference between a taser and a gun, trained not to kill on instinct, but to follow the law.

I don’t know about the solution to this case. i don’t know how to fix this.

But someone should. The more instances like this that pop up, the more police brutality the youth of my generation see again and again, the less respect we have for police.

I don’t trust the police.

When I see them, I’m scared, and I’m a fairly law-abiding kid with all the privileges of my race and little-girl appearence.

I’m terrified. I see that they have power, and that they abuse the fuck out of it. I see their blue uniforms, and I shiver, and hope they like the look of my group of friends, because I don’t honestly trust them to wait for a crime.

I see their guns and I can’t trust them not to pull the trigger.

I know that this isn’t fair to the majority of police, who are trying to help the community. I know this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. But it is.

Fix it.

Melissa:

Losing Color

Johnathan:

I never watched any of the Oscar Grant videos on youtube. From the videos displayed in the news, it looked like he was handcuffed to the floor, which made the reason for bringing out a taser more strange, let alone a handgun. If he was restrained on the floor, he couldn’t have moved to threaten him in any way?

How? If the BART Police have batons, tasers, and a handgun, how would words alone, angry, frustrated, or even death threats, face against those things?

If we take Officer Meserle’s words as truth, that he meant to tase Grant, there still wouldn’t have been a reason to tase him: I do not know exactly how Grant could’ve scared Meserle into tasing him. I know people will start to talk about what it means to maintain decorum under a loud crowd, and that I don’t know shit. So, as part of the mostly uninformed masses, I will say that the situation is very, very suspicious, and I question Officer Meserle’s motive behind tazing him. This is my conclusion under almost no information about the situation.

Maggie:

Vulture Dude Bro

We also discussed a Seventeen Article, pitched on the cover as “THE PARTY DRUG THAT CAN MAKE YOU FAT & UGLY.”

oh seventeen, whyfore art thou silly (sometimes)?