- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
An Alabama police officer is on leave while authorities investigate a weekend arrest captured on video in Reform showing a handcuffed man being hit with a stun gun.
The video begins with a white female officer from the Reform Police Department in Pickens County ordering the Black man to “stand up” after he was handcuffed in the roadway in Pickens County.
She then tells him to lay down on the front of a vehicle, which he does face down.
The officer then holds a stun gun to the man’s back while she goes through his pockets. She tells him to “stay still” at which point he says, “I ain’t doing shit, bro. I got a gun right there.”
The officer laughs as she retrieves the gun and says, “Oh yea.”
She then deploys the stun gun directly into the man’s back, telling him to “shut the (expletive) up” as he screams.
The man then begins to cry, repeatedly saying, “Oh my God.”
The officer then says, “Do you want it again?” as the man continues to cry. “Shut your removed ass up,’’ the officer says
I don’t think you’re wrong. It doesn’t make their actions excusable, but it does make me wonder if there’s something we can do at the societal level to make their jobs less… dehumanizing. I’m also gonna be that guy and point out the irony that the people who are so bent on fixing systemic oppression at the societal level are the same ones who treat cops as if they’re all evil individuals operating in a vacuum and wanna “defund the police.” Like ok… then what. Victimization is a drug for these people.
Obviously police work is going to attract narcissists and sociopaths, and obviously there will always be an abuse of power at play. We need practical laws and regulations to keep them in check. And we definitely need to stop letting them investigate themselves lol.
It would probably be a big help if they actually bothered to train Police officers properly in the US. An average of 21 weeks of training – especially with more focus on firearm training than deescalation – is not enough for a job that often involves lethal force.