Police brutality and a few "bad apples"

[xjx388]

So, for a long time now we've been fed a line that police brutality isn't a symptom of a larger problem with who has been recruited into the police ranks but just a few "bad apples".

But then today Trump told a gathering of officers to beat the **** out of people and it was greeted with a roar of cheers.

What are we to make of this?

I'd like to see a link where Trump told officers to beat the **** out of people. I'm not saying that what he actually said wasn't bad or that there isn't a problem with police brutality but it sure would be nice to get accurate quotes without all the hyperbole. When I see posts like this, I think, "I'm sure he didn't actually say that," and then I click the link and of course, he didn't actually say that.

 

[ddt]

Oh, I would place him even a bit earlier- say 1850? You know- the good old times when everyone knew his and her place in society. With Sessions and his cronies place in rocking chairs on the veranda of the plantation sipping bourbon and discussing all the traits that make white males superior to all others.

And for completeness' sake: "white" does not include Jews in that scene.

 

[Mumbles]

Much as I hate to defend Trump, if you watch the video it's pretty clear that this was an attempt at humor, along the lines of when someone says that "if you catch a child molster, just toss him in a cell with a big black dude named bubba, and then turn the lights down low for them."

Yeah, whatever. I see no reason at all to trust Toupee Fiasco on this matter. I will take him at his word.

We've heard this, again and again "Oh, Don't believe him, he won't do that stuff he said...OH MY GOD HE'S DOING THAT STUFF HE SAID!!!" I absolutely believe the worst of him.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Because jokes aren't something to take literally, and those listening understand that. I get it, you don't like Trump, the majority of people don't, but he says enough objectionable things that he does mean seriously which he can be vilified for that you don't have to take his inappropriate humor out of context and use that too. When you create spurious attacks on him, then all it really does is weaken the real attacks, something he knows full well with his whole "Fake News" spiel.

Like classic Trump jokes like mexico will pay for the wall, or he would pay for the lawyers of people assaulting protestors at his rallies. Or the classic Drain the Swamp, that got a great reaction and he never meant anything by it so it was a clear joke. Those were great jokes.

Trump doesn't joke, he does not understand humor. He lies and changes his opinion but he does not joke.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Yeah, whatever. I see no reason at all to trust Toupee Fiasco on this matter. I will take him at his word.

We've heard this, again and again "Oh, Don't believe him, he won't do that stuff he said...OH MY GOD HE'S DOING THAT STUFF HE SAID!!!" I absolutely believe the worst of him.

He does have many clear jokes. Mexico paying for the wall, draining the swamp, paying for the lawyers for people who rough up protesters like he says they should. Those are all classic trump jokes. No one took any of those seriously right? Trump clearly didn't and as such was clearly joking.

He might have been intending to be amusing, but he was serious about his support of police brutality. And so was the audience, they didn't laugh at his joke, they cheered it. That isn't the reaction of "oh my god, I can't believe he said that" laughter it is "Right on" cheering.

Do Trumps defenders not understand basic humor?

 

[quadraginta]

Lets say for some reason one of his family has to be taken into a police station, how will Trump react when they come out with a blackeye, couple of cracked ribs and a gash on their forehead?

He seems to have forgotten that being taken into custody by the police does not mean you are guilty.

If it's one of Trump's family the odds are good that they are guilty.

Which would mean that they deserve it, and he should be fine with that.

 

[Armitage72]

You may be confused. Judge Dredd is a movie. In real life giving police the power to convict and punish suspects is a mark of vicious dictatorships.

I've lost count of how many times my father has advocated for the police to perform summary executions. "Don't arrest them, don't throw them in jail. Just put them on their knees in the middle of the street and blow their brains out." But whenever a law is passed that even mildly inconveniences him, like mandatory seatbelt use, he starts ranting about how we live in a dictatorship.
In his case, it's clearly a matter of whether he expects that something will affect him or not. For example, he smokes, but doesn't drink. Whenever the tax on cigarettes increases, he starts complaining that they should increase the tax on alcohol instead.


I'm also reminded of a segment I happened to see on the 700 Club way back during the trial of the police officers in the Rodney King case. One of Pat Robertson's sidekicks was talking about how he was trained in using a baton when he was in the military, and he knew you could kill someone with a single well-placed blow. Therefore, the fact that the police hit King so many times obviously meant that they weren't really trying to hurt him. Robertson found this to be an amazing revelation and hoped the defense brought it up during the trial.

 

[Giordano]

I don't believe Trump ever intended it as a joke. He has a long history of using this as an excuse when he is forced to retract one of his more unusually despicable statements.

And it's not a joke if the audience takes it seriously.

But even more so, proposing despicable actions, even if intended and received as a joke, desensitizes people to the horror of the actions. Trump claims he was jokingly proposing cops rough up people- ha, ha, right? If being a cop and roughing up people is a basis for a joke, then it can't be such an awful thing to do, can it?

Trump hasn't found it so funny when someone jokes about nasty things happening to him. Remember how many days he went on and on when he was jokingly portrayed as a severed head on a platter by Kathy Griffin? And this was clearly intended as a joke from the start.

 

[quadraginta]

Lets say for some reason one of his family has to be taken into a police station, how will Trump react when they come out with a blackeye, couple of cracked ribs and a gash on their forehead?

He seems to have forgotten that being taken into custody by the police does not mean you are guilty.

He didn't mean rich people.

Or white ones.

 

[Civet]

I think it was a joke and, like many jokes, it reveals a lot about the person making it. Like how a racist person enjoys making racist jokes or someone who hates guns likes to make jokes about guns as penis substitutes. By themselves the jokes might seem fairly harmless, but they communicate a lot about the attitudes involved and can help set a tone within an organization that's unhealthy.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I think it was a joke and, like many jokes, it reveals a lot about the person making it. Like how a racist person enjoys making racist jokes or someone who hates guns likes to make jokes about guns as penis substitutes. By themselves the jokes might seem fairly harmless, but they communicate a lot about the attitudes involved and can help set a tone within an organization that's unhealthy.

What was the nature of the supposed joke? Why was it supposed to be funny?

This just seems to be an excuse to ignore what was said. I think it wasn't a joke. I think he honestly thinks that his bs scenario was realistic and a problem. And he falls back to being a joke when he gets called out on it.

 

[jimbob]

I don't believe Trump ever intended it as a joke. He has a long history of using this as an excuse when he is forced to retract one of his more unusually despicable statements.

And it's not a joke if the audience takes it seriously.

But even more so, proposing despicable actions, even if intended and received as a joke, desensitizes people to the horror of the actions. Trump claims he was jokingly proposing cops rough up people- ha, ha, right? If being a cop and roughing up people is a basis for a joke, then it can't be such an awful thing to do, can it?

Trump hasn't found it so funny when someone jokes about nasty things happening to him. Remember how many days he went on and on when he was jokingly portrayed as a severed head on a platter by Kathy Griffin? And this was clearly intended as a joke from the start.

What was the nature of the supposed joke? Why was it supposed to be funny?

This just seems to be an excuse to ignore what was said. I think it wasn't a joke. I think he honestly thinks that his bs scenario was realistic and a problem. And he falls back to being a joke when he gets called out on it.

Yes to both of these. It might be more excusable if there wasn't a well-recognised problem with exactly the behaviours described. Baltimore PD has been giving rough rides that have crippled or killed people, to pick one of the more well-known examples.

 

[Checkmite]

What was the nature of the supposed joke? Why was it supposed to be funny?

Basically the same reason racist white people feel it's safe to tell racist jokes when there's only white people around; they assume the other white people are racist like them, and racist jokes are an opportunity for every white person to relate.

Trump isn't a law enforcement officer; but he believes that all police equally like the idea of brutalizing suspects, and so he's awkwardly trying to "bond" with them by being sympathetic to that idea.

 

[The Don]

Trump isn't a law enforcement officer; but he believes that all police equally like the idea of brutalizing suspects, and so he's awkwardly trying to "bond" with them by being sympathetic to that idea.

The cheers that followed his "joke" IMO shows that he judged the majority of his audience correctly

Look at the officers behind him in the video, they're loving it, smiling throughout and cheering/applauding enthusiastically.

 

[Checkmite]

The cheers that followed his "joke" IMO shows that he judged the majority of his audience correctly

Look at the officers behind him in the video, they're loving it, smiling throughout and cheering/applauding enthusiastically.

Well, the people chosen to be closest to the stage at a Trump campaign rally, and most especially the people chosen to stand behind him in direct view of the cameras, are selected for their enthusiasm for Trump. He certainly would have judged that group correctly.

 

[quadraginta]

Well, the people chosen to be closest to the stage at a Trump campaign rally, and most especially the people chosen to stand behind him in direct view of the cameras, are selected for their enthusiasm for Trump. He certainly would have judged that group correctly.

Nonsense.

He has people to do that for him.