Abuse of Power

Fuck tha police!

  A little while back (well, three years ago), a video was uploaded to youtube, in which a University of Florida student was tasered and arrested at a forum for simply asking a question. Original video here. This is far from the only video of its kind, and sure it may now be old news, but I still cannot watch this video without getting really frustrated! My frustration is not only with the policemen and women abusing their power in doing this, but also with the hundreds of people there, some shouting asking why nobody is doing anythign, and yet not intervening themselves.

   Now, I get that in large groups of people there is a dispersion of responsibility (or whatever the fancy psychology terminology is), but it just saddens me that had one person intervened and put themselves out there where being punished is possible, then it could have all gone differently. We are raised given mixed messages regarding whether or not we should intervene in such situations; as a child I could not tell you how many times I had the poem "First they came" read to me as a child (here), yet was also frequently told to stay out of things that didn't involve me! Told to look out for myself...

   Thankfully I've turned out to be somebody who I like to think would intervene should something be going against my beliefs, and I try to whenever possible. But anyway, below is the video that brought this topic to my mind... The cop in this is being a bit of a douche, but I think it's made better by the fact that he is on his own (pretty much), and that the kids are actually in the wrong... Still, he goes to unnecessary lengths, and as a result makes a bit of a fool of himself...