Scaramouche Scoops Olbermann
Yesterday, just as I was getting ready to leave work, I saw an email with a link from my blogging compatriot Scaramouche to a post he had just put up about a very disturbing incident at UCLA. I clicked on the link and watched a video of a student in a campus library being repeatedly tasered by campus cops. It was violent and brutal and extremely upsetting. At the time, I thought, I want to write something about this and link to Scaramouche's post with the video clip, but I don't really have time right now. I figured I would do it first thing in the morning.
So I took off, met a friend for a couple of after-work drinks (hello RT!), and went home. Then, while watching Keith Olbermann's Countdown, what was one of the main stories but this same video of the UCLA student getting tasered? I thought, well, damn! Scaramouche had the story before Olbermann did! This is life in the age of the internets.
But aside from being impressed by my colleague's alacrity at getting this story out, I am appalled at the incident itself. If you haven't seen the video, I urge you to click on one of the links above and watch it. This is flagrant abuse, just plain brutality, and there's no other word for it. Repeatedly applying an electric stun gun to a non-violent victim, screaming at him over and over to "stand up!" and then tasering him again, merely because he did not show ID when asked, should be no less than a criminal offense by these sadists operating under the color of authority. When other students tried to intervene, and asked for the badge numbers of the officers perpetrating this violence, they were threatened with being tasered as well.
Apparently this is what we've come to in George Bush's America: We are a nation that condones and practices torture. Torture. Physical violence against our own citizens is deemed acceptable by millions of otherwise rational and allegedly sane people in the mainstream of our society. How sad, how tragic, that this will be a large part of the legacy of this worst president ever. Keep your head down and your papers handy, people, or face the possibility of a shocking rebuke. Personally, I'm stunned by the whole thing.
So I took off, met a friend for a couple of after-work drinks (hello RT!), and went home. Then, while watching Keith Olbermann's Countdown, what was one of the main stories but this same video of the UCLA student getting tasered? I thought, well, damn! Scaramouche had the story before Olbermann did! This is life in the age of the internets.
But aside from being impressed by my colleague's alacrity at getting this story out, I am appalled at the incident itself. If you haven't seen the video, I urge you to click on one of the links above and watch it. This is flagrant abuse, just plain brutality, and there's no other word for it. Repeatedly applying an electric stun gun to a non-violent victim, screaming at him over and over to "stand up!" and then tasering him again, merely because he did not show ID when asked, should be no less than a criminal offense by these sadists operating under the color of authority. When other students tried to intervene, and asked for the badge numbers of the officers perpetrating this violence, they were threatened with being tasered as well.
Apparently this is what we've come to in George Bush's America: We are a nation that condones and practices torture. Torture. Physical violence against our own citizens is deemed acceptable by millions of otherwise rational and allegedly sane people in the mainstream of our society. How sad, how tragic, that this will be a large part of the legacy of this worst president ever. Keep your head down and your papers handy, people, or face the possibility of a shocking rebuke. Personally, I'm stunned by the whole thing.
posted by Generik at 6:41 AM
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