In an earlier post here I mentioned that in medieval times it was at least a matter of policy but also written down in Law else we wouldn't know about it, that the upper classes, including simple clergy, were permitted to murder a number of peasants per year with not even an inquiry. It was just a given that like women and horses requiring frequent beatings, peasants could piss a fella off by talking back, a disrespectful look, or not getting off a dry path into the mud so yourself, your horse or cart wouldn't have to slog through mud, required killing to teach a lesson to The Great Unwashed or just to assuage a bad mood.

It really wasn't that long ago that even States in the US right on the Mason-Dixon, Maryland for example, had similar views. In fact in in 1963 one only came to public attention because Bob Dylan wrote a song about it entitled "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol", a factual telling of the event in which a drunken son of a wealthy tobacco farmer murdered a maid in a hotel by beating her to death with his cane for no reason other than his drunken, bad mood. This was after he had beaten several other of "the help" throughout the same night. Hattie Carrol took 8 hours to finally die from brain hemmorhage caused by the 50 cent toy cane that was William Zantzinger's weapon that night. He was sentenced to 6 months for 1st Degree Murder.

If you'd like the full story you can read that here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lo...Hattie_Carroll

or listen to the song with lyrics here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmbwU3J-2kk

It's about Class. Race is largely involved because in most societies, even today, race, religion and creed are associated with Class.

Urban Dictionary "Golden Rule" - He who has the gold, makes the rules

Maybe if we paid cops what sports stars get then we'd have a better force?

In Texas they claim the DPS (state police) have a very good record in terms of how they treat suspects. They also must have a BS degree and are paid more.


In the movie Cage of Evil an actor bartender tells and actor policeman that someone would have to be nuts to be a cop.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053689/

Sports stars practice a lot, daily from a young age to achieve success. Not all of them do (despite trying hard enough).

OTOH, most cops join with a mind set to be strict and enforce order. The others (not "most") probably have a delinquent and violent background. Their modus operandi is to treat people below them is status harshly and unequally.

Cops have the protection of the "law" behind them, strong unions and paid spokespersons (officials at press conferences uttering glib untruths and normalizing the actions) to see that repercussions don't match their "crimes" ..

I always think that if in public, police are bold enough to put a knee on the neck of a cuffed person, what they would do inside the van or in the police station.

Mind you, this is not just in USA but everywhere.

OK

I'll have to disagree with you there.
Maybe you can say "this is not just in USA but in India too" - then fellow Indians might or might not disagree with you.

At least partially I'll agree with most statements you made there, but it is very much a matter of degrees.
Things are better in other countries, and have been habitually for decades if not centuries.
Police do not strive for absolute power in everyday situations (*) and checks and balances are in place & active, meaning a complaint against police behaviour has a chance of success.
I speak from personal experience living in 2 European countries.

(*) Please see this film to understand that I'm not exaggerating:

You bet, seen it with my own eyes. You get inside one of their jails where no one can see, you are theirs! They bring you in front of the judge on Monday morning with black eyes and cuts, they tell the judge, he was drunk and fell down.

Back in the 90's the company that I worked for got a contract to work on equipment in the jail. And so I had to be buzzed back into the jail part to do repair work every now and then. Some of those drunks that came in were belligerent and smart mouthed. When I saw those cops response I thought, My gosh, is this leavenworth? They would punch them, beat the snot out of them, leave them on the ground for a half hour. And then of course lie about it. And if you are unfortunate enough to be a woman and get arrested, well...you have no basic rights.

That may not be all police, but it sure is some of them, and they enjoy it from what I saw.

And then Americans wonder why no one abroad likes them!

Mmmmm, I don't know if police brutality is really a ground to dislike Americans as a whole, and if someone did dislike Americans as a whole then police brutality wouldn't be something negative because they beat up disliked Americans :P.

I like Americans. If I didn't like Germany more then I'd move there. Would have to be as flyover and backwards as possible, tho.
Give me the simplicity, which is funny since it's got city in the name.

I don't commonly wonder why... I just marvel at it. The US in the global community is like a late born, much younger sibling that excels at so many things it makes all the older siblings feel like they look bad in parent's eyes and really they'd be better off if their johnny-come-lately family member had been stillborn. Instead it's big and viewed as rich. I find that "dislike" completely silly and absurd, but utterly human, if a tad childish.

First off it should be obvious that now more than ever the US really IS a melting pot and with no parallel at the very least in degree. It's far too easy to just stop at BiPolar. The weakness and the strength of the US lies in it's diversity. To assume US society is homogenious and can be "placed in one bag" is absolutely ridiculous. There are major differences between East and West, City to City, Suburbia, and Rural not to mention the more typical religions, belief systems, classes and, yes, races, or more accurately, recent ancestry.

How can anyone with a working brain dislike an entire nation of people? It really makes no sense other than misunderstanding and some jealousy.

We are a mess. I told you this wont stop. This is what they are trained to do. I don't know what all happened here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3jpMAlWIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMNHIQgqbQ

Another one, he was handcuffed when shot by police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5rc6_soTw

Diversity is good on a scientific, information and knowledge level. I don't see any increase in 'goodness' by diversifying people directly.
Especially in the context of 'everyone is equal', and melting pot is the polar opposite of diversity anyway.
Liquifying a box of crayons in a blender doesn't give you the color of the rainbow, it gives you one single hue.

And if you slack on this full liquefaction then you'll get clumps, and clumps are rarely good.
Anyway, I don't consider the US a melting pot at all, it's a pot of clumpy confusion at most (it just opens more opportunities to divide and conquer.

Furthermore, I would totally live in the USA, but I'd seek something homogenous. If diversity is strength, then teach me your diversity until I know how to apply it, and then we part ways.

I don't know a single Arab or Roman near me, but look at me using the Latin letters and Arabic numerals. Achmed and Augustus can stay where they are.

Geist we have different definitions of "Melting Pot" as it applies to populations of a civilization. In most of what I've seen referred to of America as The Melting Pot, and how I see it, is the only common hue is that all are Americans under the same rule of Law. The "goodness" of diversity is manifold embracing basic genetics (massive gene pool) but also ideas, experiences, and points of view.

It has always cracked me up since way back in the 50's-60s that so many natives of so many other countries pointed fingers at the US regarding race relations, and 1) as bad as it still is, it is still better by far than it was, and 2) the finger pointing died down a lot after European and other countries finally got enough immigrants to actually have a substantial population that didn't look or behave much like everyone else... actual diversity whatever name you call it. Even Eric Clapton who apparently loved Blacks from a distance or working in a touring band, once "in vino verite" and watching England's "face" change, when it got close to home resorted to a public tirade about "filthy wogs" and "can't recognize the place".

I for one wouldn't dislike an entire country's people "as a whole".

If they weren't regulated by strong public reaction and follow up legislation, I think that police would always strive for power over other people.

OK

Clearly shows:
1. Guy who handled him by the collar, had a taser in his left hand. Probably the victim was tased by then.
2. Next they pull a gun from his waistband.
3. Then they turn him around and start pulling out his yellow shirt. WHY?

Take the case of Trayvon Martin. The guy who killed him was not even a policeman but a civil volunteer. Apparently they argued for some time and then zimmermann shot him. Zimmerman was not een charged because of some obscure law that allows a guy to kill on suspicion. It's clearly normalized (otherwise a volunteer wouldn't think to gun down a black).

Or the recent case where a guy was shot while handcuffed and inside the police car.

I recognize the narrative.
It has lost its sheen long ago, just like those large American cars of days gone by (non-americans have names for them, e.g. "street cruisers", or sometimes just "american ships").
It just isn't true anymore. Patriots that grew up with the idea that the USA is the No.1 nation in the world cannot let go of it.

Again, I recognize the narrative. It sounds good. It's one way of looking at the history of the USA.
I can look at it another way, playing on the same topic, but including less cheery terms like genocide and slavery.
Not to mention theft of land, general lawlessness...
Still a melting pot though. Where elbow grease makes you float on top and disgusting losers sink to the bottom.
And you have a whole entertainment industry designed to make you feel good about it, or at least content.
Because let's face it, that's what Americans really are good at, and famous for across the globe, and unfortunately also emulated.

So how does the current state of systemic racism, extreme social & economic inequality, and institutional violence fit into all this?
That's the question US inhabitants need to ask instead of regurgitating old slogans.

You're right, that's just prejudice based on nationality. Can't have anything like that!
But hazel phrased it a little differently, she didn't say that she dislikes Americans. Just saying.