

Police: Mock us in Cartoons, go to Prison - spcmnspff
http://www.dailytech.com/Police+Mock+us+in+Cartoons+go+to+Prison/article22362.htm

======
wooster

      Some believe that the police merely are 
      trying to use the guise of charges to obtain 
      the suspect's name in order to harass him 
      outside the courts.
    

A valid possibility, which speaks strongly in favor of anonymous speech still
being important.

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ratsbane
One of the few defenses society has against this kind of abuse is the
Streisand effect - their attempts to suppress this kind of speech only make it
have more effect. Because of that I'm all for giving this kind of story more
exposure.

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civilian
Yeah. This is police harassment, plain and simple. Piggies!

Also:
[http://www.kingcounty.gov/courts/SuperiorCourt/judges/cayce....](http://www.kingcounty.gov/courts/SuperiorCourt/judges/cayce.aspx)

~~~
rhizome
Actually, it's the judge and the prosecutor who are on the hook more for this
use of Cyberstalking (and likely ultimately terrorism laws) to umask a critic
using their First Amendment rights.

The prosecutor is at risk for losing their qualified immunity, since he is
using his position to commit a civil rights crime.

~~~
thirdhaf
Prosecutors have absolute immunity which is incredibly difficult to overcome.
Even falsifying evidence doesn't seem to do it unless there's a "pattern of
abuse" which is practically impossible to prove.
[http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Pottawattamie_Coun...](http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Pottawattamie_County_et_al._v._McGhee_et_al.#Argument_Preview)

~~~
mindcrime
Action is sometimes taken against prosecutors who abuse their position,
though. Mike Nifong comes to mind:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Nifong>

Granted, the behavior does have to be pretty egregious, but at least these
people aren't (always) above the law.

------
beej71
Oh, man... if the Renton police thought they were getting mocked before, they
are unprepared for what's coming.

Edit: And the department isn't even named in the videos! Hilarious!

------
adammichaelc
425-430-7500 option 8 is the number for the police department in question. I
think that people tend to act differently if they know they are being watched
so I called and talked to the person who answered to (a) confirm the story and
(b) express my concerns about the abuse of power.

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VladRussian
well, at least they didn't do that to him

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ljYNgLnpxM>

~~~
fexl
The guy's screaming "Dad! Dad! Dad!" ... that breaks my heart.

One bystander wisely asks "How do you resist when they're on top of your
back?" and then wonders why they don't just put the cuffs on him and be done
with it. That's a common theme I've noticed with these incidents: the
assailants keep saying "stop resisting! stop resisting!" But I imagine it's
kind of hard to stop struggling and moving around when you're terrified, in
excruciating pain, and being crushed with body weight like that.

Wrongful and unwarranted arrest is bad enough, but this sadistic torture and
power-play brutality has _got_ to stop.

Oh and get this:

[http://www.cityoffullerton.com/civica/press/display.asp?layo...](http://www.cityoffullerton.com/civica/press/display.asp?layout=1&Entry=2433)

Would you go forward if you were a witness?

~~~
VladRussian
>One bystander wisely asks "How do you resist when they're on top of your
back?

Convulsions from multiple tazering and hits into the head and spine. It is a
catch-22 for the victim - police tazers you, you convulse, ie. resist, thus
giving them plausible cause to tazer you more and/or in this particular case
to hit your head, neck into the curb, etc... when they hit your head (or
kidneys - they professionally trained and very experienced in how to hit you)
the brain and spine nervous tissue shock make you convulse, ie. resist, ...
loop continues.

~~~
fexl
Right, well put ... and to the bystander's credit, he was asking the question
rhetorically. But you're right: basically your own death throes become
"resistance".

And to answer my own question: I'd like to think I'd step forward as a
witness, even though it might mean a few years of harassment.

------
colanderman
From the article: "illicit relations between a female cop and a police
officer"

...are female cops not police officers? Are police officers never female? I
hope I'm missing some detail in terminology because this smacks of sexism on
the part of the author.

~~~
hullo
No, I think it's just sloppy, probably the same incident from this quote
(later in the article):

Chief Prosecutor Shawn Arthur writes, "[The videos] discussed a past incident
tha has already been investigated.. regarding a dating relationship (a female
detective) had with a suspect."

------
meow
Someone should schedule Mock-A-Cop day on facebook to celebrate satire.

------
axusgrad
This is why we defended Lori Drew's right to free speech after her cyber
bullying of Megan Meiers

~~~
chc
If you can't distinguish between a woman deviously driving a vulnerable girl
to suicide and a satirist doing cartoons about public scandals, I can't
imagine you've put much thought into the subject.

------
smokeyj
Cops are legal terrorists.

~~~
seagaia
I wouldn't be too quick to write all cops off as bad. There are definitely a
good number of "good" cops. We should make sure not to stereotype policemen
because a few of them do something idiotic.

I think a big problem with a lot of government positions or other legal
positions are that a noticeable (hence this situation) percentage of the
people are power-hungry, or have a chip on their shoulder.

Which results in unspeakable, completely illogical results like this -
torturing someone to feel like you have power, and then being able to get away
with it because of an obfuscating and broken legal system, filled with good
law people and bad law people.

~~~
kragen
> I wouldn't be too quick to write all cops off as bad. There are definitely a
> good number of "good" cops.

"Good" and "bad" are very complicated. Nobody is purely good or purely bad.
But police corruption was universal in US police departments until 1971, when
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico> became the first US policeman to
testify against his colleagues, for which he got shot in the head. Up to that
point, every US policeman was engaged in a cover-up operation to protect other
corrupt policemen. Since then, there are a few exceptions; now, it's only
_nearly_ every US policeman who engages in such cover-ups.

But it's important to understand that the people who do this _believe that
what they are doing is good_. The Blue Code of Silence is not merely enforced
by intimidation and threats of violence. It's a matter of _honor_.

------
ColinWright
Also submitted here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2849372>

------
gnosis
May a thousand parody videos bloom in response!

------
fexl
"Respect mah authori-tah!"

