All true tough guys who possess even a modicum of street experience know that when a police officer is attempting to handcuff you there’s only one thing to do: Let your body go slack, do not try to resist, and then, in your most reasonable and humble voice plead, “Hey pal, don’t put them on too tight, OK?.” Tight handcuffs, even for 15 minutes, are a real bitch. Trust me on that one.
Cops cannot (nor should not) lose any street confrontation; they have to win every time or anarchy would begin to reign. And everyone needs to understand that fact, period. No exceptions.
The problem often times is this: After gaining adulthood, giving over control of your body to someone else (yes, even a police officer) is something few people — excepting those who engage in kinky sex where fur-lined restraining devices are part of the fantasy — ever have to do. The natural tendency is to resist; and with someone who’s higher than Charles Manson on booze or some other substance, that tendency can be greatly magnified. That’s why Howard Hammon wound up dead when he encountered Middleburg Heights police officers back in June. Like so many other plastered individuals, foolishly he resisted. But that should not have lead to his death.
It’s past time that law enforcement dispelled itself of the notion that Tasers are non-lethal weapons; enough evidence exists — enough people around the country have died — to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (no matter what the manufacturers say) given the right combination of circumstances — a pre-existing medical condition, alcohol or other substances in the bloodstream, and obesity — people can and will die when Tasered.
In many of these cases — especially if two or more officers are present — there could be another way: A simple net can be used… yes, a net. Or team-tackle the unruly suspect. I know, it’s a bit messier and uniforms can get dirty rolling around on the ground, but in the end lives would be spared.
I know a bit about drunks, since I was literally raised in a bar. My father owned a tavern and we lived upstairs over it. One lesson I learned from my father as a young adult — after I roughly ejected an inebriated patron who was causing a ruckus — was this: “Son,” he said, “you don’t beat up on drunks… they’re not in their right minds.” Of course, as usual, he was right.
Police are expecting — nay, demanding — that people who are sometimes not in their right minds to promptly comply and obey; in most cases this works, but in some cases it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, police officers (in a short period) have to become the judge and jury in regards to what should happen next. Unfortunately, they all too often are also becoming the unintended legal executioner. There has to be a better way.
Politricks
As Tip O’Neill, the famous former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, once wisely noted: “All politics are local.” The fact is, you can’t escape politics, the playing of them, or their effect on your life and well-being. Of course you can refuse to participate, but you do so at your own peril. Simply because you “take your ball and go home” doesn’t mean the games are over… it just means that you’ve forfeited — you’ve lost by default.
That’s why Ohio H.B. 194 is so critically important. It could be named “The Voter Suppression Act of 2011.” It’s yet another law made by conservatives taking away or limiting the vote of folks they think might disagree with their right-wing, crackpot positions. Petitions to halt the enactment of the bill and place the issue on the ballot in 2012 for voters to decide are currently being circulated — make sure you’ve signed one.
And Ohio isn’t the only state in which Republicans (who loudly claim to love liberty and the Constitution) are attempting to limit rather than expand the franchise. They cite virtually non-existent “voter fraud” as the reason they want to take away the democratic vote of Americans… as they concurrently run around the globe attempting to enforce democracy on other countries via the barrel of a gun.
An informed electorate is the only defense in a participatory democracy, and political junkie that I am, I spend a great deal of time reading… only to always feel I’m missing so much of importance. I sometimes think that if I just knew and understood more I could somehow better awaken my fellow citizens to the impending crisis we’ll soon be facing if we do not make sound political decisions right now… today.
However, I recently received a link to an article by Mike Lofgren, a 30-year GOP Washington insider. Longtime political activist Rick Nagin emailed it to me and it’s a truly amazing piece of political writing… perhaps the most incisive analysis I’ve read since Thomas Franks’ 2004 book What’s the Matter With Kansas?
Of it Nagin wrote: “… Mike Lofgren left the GOP after 30 years as a professional staff person on Capitol Hill, denouncing Congressional Republicans as a ‘casebook of lunacy’ and exposing how the Party had degenerated into a billionaire-controlled, militarist, Christian nationalist cult.” Below is the link to his amazing denunciation:
Yes, it’s over 6,000 words, but every single one of them I think is of value… but read it and then decide for yourself. Folks, we’re headed for perilous times… I believe we’re fast approaching that proverbial fork in the political road. Only a well-informed electorate will be able to tell our political leaders which direction to take.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.
3 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Beating up on drunks & Politricks”
hank wait
I’d already read Lofgrens piece. I hoe everyone does and I hope they start paying attention. This country is doomed if they don’t wake up and start taking part in the political system.
Kiel
HB 194 brings uniformity to the voting process in our state, and makes sure there is equal opportunity for every Ohio voter to cast a ballot in elections. And part of the deal includes mailing vote-by-mail ballots to every registered voter for the 2012 elections. So what you want is the opportunity to vote down (from the comfort of your own home) a bill that mails ballots to every Ohio voter and gives everyone equal access to the voting process? Really??? You must really hate Republicans to take such an illogical stance.
Anastasia P
Kiel, you are incorrect. HB 194 actually BANS Boards of Election from mailing the ballot applications — that’s how this dust-up was set up. It was only after Cuyahoga County Ed FitzGerald said the county would do it instead that he reached an agreement with Secretary of State Jon Husted to mail them to all voters next year — something he would NOT have done otherwise and which HB 194 expressly forbids. HB 194 bring no uniformity — it increases disparities by shrinking opportunities to vote. That’s because Ohio is not a uniform state — demographically and geographically it’s extremely diverse. So what works for a farmer in southern Ohio is difficult for a fast-food worker in Toledo. If you cut already existing opportunities to vote — the main thing HB 194 does — then the segments of the population whose opportunities remain are more privileged than those whose opportunities were axed. To have such “uniformity” you have to radically INCREASE opportunities to vote, not shrink them. Also there’s a bit of hypocrisy here because SoS Husted wants to give service members exception opportunities to vote the rest of us don’t get — even though these opportunities, mostly digital, could easily be expanded to all voters.