"The California Highway Patrol is investigating video of one of its officers straddling a woman lying on the ground and punching her in the head on a Los Angeles freeway."
"CHP Assistant Chief Chris O'Quinn said at a news conference Friday that the officer was trying to restrain a woman who'd been walking on Interstate 10, endangering herself and people in traffic."
Video at the link.
70 comments:
I couldn't get that video to embed. Sorry.
What he needed was a fast acting tranquilizing dart.
I found out just last night at the dinner table (okay, during the drinking session before dessert) that my mother-in-law intends to vote for Hillary Clinton for president because (and this is an exact quote) "It's time we had a woman president."
Not news you say? This is a woman who not even once in her 75 years on this planet ever voted for a Democrat, disliked Hillary Clinton ever since she came to national prominence, and who hated Hillary Clinton with a white hot rage ever since the "I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas" remark.
What's going on? Near as I can tell she doesn't like Hillary Clinton so much as she absolutely loathes Sarah Palin. That plus gender solidarity, pure and simple.
Okay. So how is this comment on topic? Because, while my mother-in-law was on her soapbox going on and on in a 5 minute rant that included, but was not limited to, the foregoing electoral tidbit, I at some point pressed my forehead the the tablecloth, and kept rocking it back and forth, moaning softly to myself.
Not even once did I even so much as feel the urge to punch her in the face.
Bat,
Quit the drinking session.
Yah, boy. Dude must have been on drugs not to realize the potential for being taped. I like how the video shows up after the report's been filed.
Bat. Let me put it this way: black men received the vote before white women. Which I find touching, as it showed that white men acknowledged the humanity of black men.
But trust me on this. This is a Barack phenomenon. Hillary is serious as a heart attack and an extremely viable candidate so women will be willing to overlook party, marital history, etc., because they know how politics work. This will be the primal scream against thousands of years of institutionalized subservience.
But she has to be nominated first. May you live in interesting times :)
So maybe it's a crazy lady walking on the highway.
But man oh man, what the hell happened that the cop had to pummel her?
The words that seem to get cops off scot-free now are "Stop resisting" which they even say to people lying dead on the ground.
I have long sided with LEOs, but I am slowly becoming very suspicious of them.
Deb, how are women willing to overlook the economic destruction of their own children?
Can't they see how godawful this group has been?
@Deb: As I keep harping: "How does HRC distinguish herself from Obama"? It can't just be that she is a woman. There must be a ton of unspoken differences yet to come out of her mouth.
Anyways, the 2014 midterms are up next.
Comment bomb!
chick: What he needed was a fast acting tranquilizing dart.
I think you mean she needed it.
AllenS: Quit the drinking session.
Or drink faster.
deborah: Dude must have been on drugs not to realize the potential for being taped.
Does homie look like he was 'roiding? Lots of cops and military personnel look 'roided up these days. They look bigger than baseball players.
From the CHP's point of view, I suppose he could have watched her wander into traffic and kill herself. Or he could have waited her out by the side of the road while calling for back up. She might have eventually surrendered or passed out (lots of assumptions here). It all would have been filmed.
I think his mistake was to try and subdue her alone. He should have waited for help to cuff her. She was feisty in her resistance -- more than he expected it looks.
I think you mean she needed it
Yes, that's what I meant.
Pogo [insert commentary here]: I have long sided with LEOs, but I am slowly becoming very suspicious of them.
Dude, they (effectively) have the legal right to kill you and your family. And up until recently there wasn't much recourse for disproving whatever story they wanted to promulgate to justify murdering people.
The cops generally represent the most heavily armed and biggest gang in town. You must have lived in nice neighborhoods most of your life to not know to trust them no more than you would a gang-banger on meth. Never trust a cop unless you have to. Generally they can be trusted if ou point that at a crook who is trying to muscle in on their turf, but that's it.
chick: As I keep harping: "How does HRC distinguish herself from Obama"?
Let's see, both are white kids raised in upper-middle class homes that went to Ivy League colleges and believe that the government owns everyone and everything.
What, you can't see the difference in that one is half-African and the other has a Y-chromosome deficiency?
I get your sarcasm, Icepick, but she at least needs to mouth policy platitudes about how she differs. Else, how is she not just a confirmation of Obama policies and intent? How is every woman who commits to her at this point not affirming Obama's actions?
chick, you know the score. She needs to affirm Obama's policies for that third of the country that thinks Obama is the greatest thing since (non-)white sliced bread in a bag*, while also giving the impression that she likes the overall thrust of Obama's positions while showing that she thinks she can do a better job implementing them for about a sixth of the country, and needs to pretend to be something completely different to appeal to enough of the other half of the country to slip through to an electoral majority.
Not is not an easy task, not matter what the definition of "is" is. And I doubt she's up to it, myself, because she also has to overcome all her absolutely insane comments about everyone that criticized Bill, her own ethics problems, her constant lying (everything from sniper threats in Sarajevo to the Benghazi fuck-up), her tone-deafness (Oh, poor little Hillary, finding it so tough to make it on a Senator's salary and the perks of an ex-President while Bill makes a couple of hundred million or more)
-AND-
a record of mediocrity (to be extremely generous) in government service.
It's going to take her PR/marketing firm a while to figure that out.
Pogo, not enough people pay that close attention to politics. As the election nears and things heat up it becomes a war of personality smearing. They're already trotting out Monica Lewinsky. This will not be and intellectual vote...by men or women :)
And things seem to be on a fairly permanent decline, so voting for things like subsidized healthcare is not irrational. My son turned 26 and is now off of his father's health insurance. In order for him to get COBRA he will have to pay over $400/mo. He does not have a job. If he goes on COBRA, he can stay on it for three years. I haven't asked his father to pick up the COBRA yet, but I know I'll be told no fucking way.
So I must now convince my son to call and get Obamacare, which will mean Medicare for him. I think; this is Virginia and I don't know the law.
The link below is to an excellent Econtalk interview of Chris Hitchens. How I miss him. But he makes the point that Britain went to socialized medicine because they'd been through two(?) world wars, everyone was impoverished and sick of having no healthcare, and they were more afraid of continuing that way than the possible compromising of liberties.
Hitchens on Econtalk
My own political wish is that we somehow regain a Congress which has the will and fortitude of times past. Then and only then will we need to elect a President to rein in some of their reign rather than the other way around which is what we have now.
Hmmm... she was resisting though not violently. They were in a dangerous situation wherein if she breaks free and runs she would likely get hit by a car. However, what I think really provoked the eleven punches was when the cop took an inadvertent knee to the groin.
@Deb: At age 26, your son should have catastrophic healthcare only and it should be cheap. At age 26, I had subsidized healthcare insurance (I was in grad school) but I never used it and so I never noticed the cost. It's pretty rotten that Obamacare didn't allow for that sort of option.
Ice @ 10:29 Give the man cigar!
Although I'm sure there has always been a fairly large proportion of authoritarian headcases in the police, it's gotten really bad in present days.
I went to school with a young woman a few years ago who dated a cop. One time he threatened her with his gun. While I never would have done this, for fear of revenge, she reported him and he was kicked of the force.
I was discussing this incident with a paramedic friend who had an incredible amount of contact with the police at accident scenes, and he said cops tend to be pricks...can't remember his exact words.
Was that Anthony Cumia?
This exchange also occurred last night, regarding the background dinner music my brother-in-law likes to play:
MOTHER-IN-LAW: This is good! I like Johnny Cash!
BROTHER-IN-LAW: This is Chris Isaak.
MOTHER-IN-LAW: No, it's not. This is Johnny Cash.
BROTHER-IN-LAW: No, it isn't. This is Chris Isaak doing his version of a Johnny Cash song.
MOTHER-IN-LAW: Well, he sounds just like Johnny Cash.
Hillary is serious as a heart attack and an extremely viable candidate so women will be willing to overlook party, marital history, etc., because they are [mostly] stupid, think with their emotions, lack the capacity to have a logical train of thought and believe that their vaginas give them some sort of special powers. FIFY
There was a reason that women weren't given the vote. There should be a TEST for every voter to make sure that have at least some modest amount of knowledge about civics and who the candidates are beyond having a vagina as a qualification for being the head of one of most powerful countries in the world. Or at least we used to be before electing Obama based on the color of his skin and nothing more. How did that work out. Pretty good huh?
Go ahead. Vote for Hillary and explain to your grandchildren why they are slaves to the state and how you made it possible.
BTW: Heart attacks generally kill you.
Thanks for the tip, chick...I'll look at the exchanges...hadn't even thought of that.
"There should be a TEST for every voter to make sure that have at least some modest amount of knowledge about civics..."
Meh. Things even out and there would tend to be the same proportion of beliefs/rationale on each side. 'Sides, it would be shouted down as an intellectual poll tax.
At least she wasn't named Rodney.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...
I found out just last night at the dinner table (okay, during the drinking session before dessert) that my mother-in-law intends to vote for Hillary Clinton for president because (and this is an exact quote) "It's time we had a woman president."
Remind her, if she's so desperate for a woman POTUS and hates Miss Sarah so, she could end up with Sheila Jackson Lee.
deborah said...
But trust me on this. This is a Barack phenomenon. Hillary is serious as a heart attack and an extremely viable candidate so women will be willing to overlook party, marital history, etc., because they know how politics work. This will be the primal scream against thousands of years of institutionalized subservience.
Right.
Women have been wrapping men around their little finger since Eve always let Adam get on top (she saw what happened to Lilith).
A lot of the subservience was the invention of Commies like Betty Friedan.
But she has to be nominated first. May you live in interesting times :)
True. She's a lousy candidate.
Supposedly, Joe is looking better and better in some quarters.
And there's always Fauxcahontas.
"Women have been wrapping men around their little finger since Eve always let Adam get on top (she saw what happened to Lilith).
A lot of the subservience was the invention of Commies like Betty Friedan."
Sweet fancy Moses, you ass.
Chief Liz would wipe the floor with her.
I don't think that Hillary running will work out the same as Obama with the ladies.
I mean most of the ones who voted for Obama as their imaginary "clean cut black boyfriend" will not imagine Hillary as their girlfriend.
She doesn't stand a chance. Too brittle as she proved last time out.
It is definitely going to be Squatting Heifer as the next Democratic nominee.
deborah said...
Sweet fancy Moses, you ass.
That's a new one.
Something from Aunt Clarice in Biloxi?
This [women voting for Hillary] will be the primal scream against thousands of years of institutionalized subservience.
Since there's no sarcasm tag at the end I assume you meant what you wrote, deb. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. But it is patently obvious that women have been seen as and treated as equals in this country since colonial days. It was remarked on by European visitors from the very start of our history that in the things that count far more than voting, women were equal partners with their husbands, not at all the case in the genuine patriarchies of the old world. This was especially true of the western states where "the wild west" died the minute women came in numbers and civilized it. But I suppose millions of women will vote their resentment of the "institutionalized subservience" fantasy.
Britain went to socialized medicine because they'd been through two(?) world wars, everyone was impoverished and sick of having no healthcare, and they were more afraid of continuing that way than the possible compromising of liberties.
OK, that's the Brits' excuse. What's ours?
Ed, I first heard it on the excellent sitcom Dharma and Greg. Her father in law says it at some point. He was hilarious.
Dharma and Greg opening sequence
If you youtube it with Seinfeld, I just learned that George said it, too.
From his garb, he sure looked like a motorcycle cop. That can explain a lot. They don't give warning tickets, and they don't put up with guff.
Despite my attitude about those guys, I don't see anything wrong with what he did - he saved that woman's life at the cost of some bruises to her face.
Ever seen the result of a body being hit and dragged 2 hundred yards down the freeway? Not much left other than a long stripe of guts.
When does the fact that
Hillary is a lesbian get any play?
When private polling shows that women find it empowering.
Deborah, would it have been better if I said she had an over-abundance of x-chromosomes?
Deb, a few points.
1. Childless adults (26+) are not eligible for Medicaid in Virginia.
2. He is eligible, between the ages of 26 and 30, for an Obamacare "catastrophic" plan.
3. These plans are about 20% cheaper than Obamacare "Bronze" plans. They have deductibles around $6 to $7,000 with higher total out of pocket costs. They do provide for three free primary care visits and free preventive services (thus they are not true "catastrophic" plans but simply Bronze plans with higher allowable customer costs and lower premiums).
4. Such a plan should have a monthly premium of $200 or less.
5. Now for a totally uncalled for piece of personal advice - if he's 26, not working and (I presume) living at home, write him a check for 3 months expenses and introduce him to the door. It will be better for him in the long run. If there are reasons specific to your situation which make that advice unworkable, please excuse my bossiness. Otherwise it's time to say goodbye.
Here's a couple health care opportunities and this one too. ;-)
ricpicila:
"...But it is patently obvious that women have been seen as and treated as equals in this country since colonial days. It was remarked on by European visitors from the very start of our history that in the things that count far more than voting, women were equal partners with their husbands, not at all the case in the genuine patriarchies of the old world. This was especially true of the western states where "the wild west" died the minute women came in numbers and civilized it..."
Yes, women were so valuable and such wonderful help-meets that they received the vote after black men (which as I said I find heartening on a different level).
This does not compute.
And leaving aside the American female settlers' experience, it's goes way back. After all, the settlers came from the old country.
I really don't know, were women considered property of their husbands in early America? In Victorian times in Britain a woman could have her clitoris removed if her husband reported her as too randy.
Here is a marvelous essay, from Glass, Irony, and God by Anne Carson (h/t rh).
Chip S.
"OK, that's the Brits' excuse. What's ours?"
Sitting on our asses chatting on message boards all day long.
I think this is the arc of the democratic republic: Representatives do favors (make law, grant zoning regulations, pick winners and losers) in exchange for bribes
(contributions).
Not really, Icepick. You have to sugar coat it.
Rabel, I said Medicare. In Ohio, for example the eligibility for Medicare has been lowered, but I don't know by how much or for what conditions. Now I think about it, I think they meant people with psych issues or handicapped. I think VA is hanging tough with with no medicare expansion. You'd think I'd know by now.
Anyway, yes, we have a problem. He is depressed/on meds/looking through dark-colored glasses, due to years of being exposed to a bad marriage, and now he is negative. He won't take a guaranteed job at Walmart that would only bring in 1k a month, but it would be something. And his father will not make him. And he could, but he would rather get his jollies off that our son turned out like me.
Rabel, yes, I go through scenarios in my head of putting his things in a storage locker paid up for six months.
And here's the thing. He's very charming, intelligent and caring. He's the life of the party when we go home to my party. He is the best.
He won't take a guaranteed job at Walmart that would only bring in 1k a month, but it would be something.
IMO, you need to encourage him to work -- anything--and so does his father, before it's too late.
I know, chick. His father could make him, but won't. Believe me, I've tried to convince my son.
I wouldn't even be typing this if I hadn't just had a Big Talk with my son and ended up upset. He's just so much like me and my dad. A dreamer, and introvert. an intellectual.
My son is 16 and couldn't find a summer job. He's volunteering at two different places. When I was out of work, I volunteered at the HS, tutoring chemistry.
I got a long overdue ultimatum from my wife today to either start a small business with my plastics, or admit that it's just a hobby and create a budget. So I'm going to start the business.
I am sorry to hear about your situation Deborah. The only advice I can give is to try to find something that really interests him. It can be something really out there like gaming or snow boarding or decorating pots. I am sure you have tried that but the thing is you have to keep on plugging.
The same thing happened with my cousin. He hated everything in life and was depresses as shit but suddenly developed an intense interest in board games of all things. He had always loved them as a kid and he got a job at this joint where they have games set up for people to come to play all day long. They pay by the hour. He is working there and actually enjoying his life. But it was a long, long road to get there.
Depression is a terrible illness. I hope someday we can find a way to treat it effectively and that you can find some way to get him engaged with life to reach his full potential.
Chick your plastics are a very viable business. If you need help or advice on how to set up a small business and the pitfalls therein just email me. I will help you in any way I can.
I think you could market you beer plastics to every bar in the USA and make some serious scratch.
Thanks Troop.
My problem is over interest in the creative side. I have a couple products down which I could actually produce like rabbits, but I'm too interested in new product development: wines, beers, spirits and cocktails. There is a lot of trial and error, failure, etc., ultimately success, I hope.
You should put your wife in charge of the business part. Trust me that can work.
Oh, she'd be good at that, but she's overextended already time-wise in her own career. She's a level-headed advisor though.
Deborah...I apologize for the ill considered humorous "recruiting" links. I wasn't paying attention.
Depression is an ugly debilitating problem. I know only one thing, for sure, about it...you must not enable, you must encourage subtly and sometimes not so much, the depressed individual to get up off their ass and move out, get going, do something. It may break your heart to do this, but do not wait for the father or anyone else. I say this from experience. Anything else can end in tragedy and I've been through it with some friends.
A let the hair down thread...great stuff, but for the personal tragedies. Of which I would prefer no one here have to endure. But life is life.
Used to be nasty, short and brutal. At least we've grown beyond that.
Actually I'm at a loss for words, those that have worth anyway.
Hillary Clinton: Evil but not Stupid.
Sort of like Bill.
Obama, apparently, was an ideologue who still thinks that everything ought to have worked just the way he thought it would.
Hillary Clinton: The Evil You Know.
Vs. The Evil You Can Only Imagine.
Thank you everyone, I really appreciate your responses and it helped unburdening myself. You all are a dear bunch.
"Hillary Clinton: The Evil You Know.
Vs. The Evil You Can Only Imagine."
:)
Ugh, depression. I've had a few bouts. Terrible stuff. Literally can't see colors.
I wish your son the best. CBT/DBT are helpful. At a minimum, as an intellectual, he needs to be open to the possibility that he is very wrong about his view of the world right now. That his concept of himself might also be wrong.
That we can be forgiven for being terrible and worthless, and start over, and be something for someone else. That to do one thing for someone else, every day, is a good way to start.
But what the hell do I know.
You know a lot, you're a doctor, dammit.
Yes, I have been telling him he is seeing everything too negatively, duh.
I know that once he gets out of the house he'll buck up.
btw, above I should have said introspective, not introverted. He's rather outgoing in social situations. Life of the party, very funny. Thank God he doesn't drink, but occasionally.
Thank you.
What I ask people is "What if you're wrong? What if your conclusions that everything is shit turn out to be the mere miscalculations of serotonin deficiency and being, in effect, homesick?
But you cannot force them to see. It must come from within, which is so so hard for a parent to watch. They see the wonderfulness in the young man that he cannot. Such an ache it causes.
I know Pogo, I deal with depression myself. He's on meds, but it's more a case of gumption along with the negativity. I just know if he took that Walmart job he'd be popular there and enjoy the human contact.
And best of luck, chick :)
What products would sell like rabbits?
Exactly, but how to make him see that?
Duty?
Honor?
love?
Religion?
Or in CBT they ask, what's the worst that could happen if you took that job?
God damn that initial hump of inanition.
I didn't say they would sell like rabbits, I said that I could make them like rabbits: The Margs and Bloody Marys
Sorry, chick, I see.
Pogo, thank you for your ideas. The biggest block IMO is his father who would balk at the cost of therapy, esp, now that he's not insured. Let alone that he won't lay down the law. And here I am airing my dirty laundry, it's all so stupid, but I know you all understand. I don't want pity or for you to think differently about me. Let us not speak of this again, please.
It's 1:30 here, good-night all.
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