Friday, December 05, 2003

Police brutality, regular procedure or misguided press?

Okay, so we all know about the altercation in Cleveland over the weekend that lead to a regrettable loss of life. We also all know that the cause of death has been ruled a homicide and that the victim's family is very upset. We also know that the video of the police subduing the victim is disturbing to say the least.

It's interesting to note, though, that most news hold the following points until the end of their reports or leave them out entirely.

- The homicide victim was under the influence of cocaine and PCP, among other things.
- The homicide victim suffered no blow to the head and only showed bruising on his thighs and buttocks.
- Defining someone as a homicide victim is not the same as defining someone as a murder victim. Homicide is a legal term meant as a descriptive and not a judgement.

I don't know what qualifies as justifiable force, but I do know that people whacked out on PCP are often uncontrollable due to the fact that they feel no pain and are basically completely out of their minds. While the loss of life is regrettable I really can't think the officers were doing anything that out of line.

What I find most interesting though is the way the media is unfairly covering this to blow up the whole racial aspect of this incident instead of covering it evenly as the drug fueled tragedy it really is.

God I fucking hate the mainstream media...

News got you down? Lighten up!

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