A Memphis police tape shows an officer beating a transgendered person. It's a unique situation because it was caught on tape as the President of the Memphis Police Association said.
The transgendered person claims to have been beaten because she didn't respond to derogatory name calling by the officer, but the tape wasn't released because of the claim filed by the victim but because internal affairs got involved as the officer involved complained that the detective in booking didn't assist him... in beating the transgendered person?
For the sake of full disclosure the transgendered person was arrested on prostitution charges, I'm not sure of the status of the allegations.
But still, despite it all - it's outrageous.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
It's unique because it's on tape
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1 comment:
It is absolutely outrageous.
I just want to add that we should be really thankful that such incidents are as rare as they are in the US.
I'm not saying this in any way to diminish the absolute outrageousness of a police officer beating a civilian who is non-violent. (One is automatically reminded of that awful case from New York a few years back when a young groom-to-be had 50 bullets pumped into him at his bachelor party. He was innocent of any wrongdoing, it seems. And his killers were just released scott-free. Or ... can one say Abu Ghraib?)
But, in other countries in the world, police brutality is normal. In India, most people avoid having to do anything with the police. Being arrested and put in a local jail almost invariably means being beaten or even tortured. It's routine.
There's something about the culture as well as the institutions in large parts of the West that mitigates and confines this inhuman streak.
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