Man dies after being put in a choke hold by cop for trying to end a fight

[Dan!]

This staten island man died from a choke hold by a cop. All he was doing was trying to break a fight and this is what he gets? Death?! This is insane and shows how little they care for people these days. The man had asthma and clearly was yelling in the video on the source that he could not breathe. Is this how we want our police officers to act? It's really saddening to see something like this happen, on tape too.

Source

 

[Cmp™]

While I agree it is a terrible tragedy, this act does not represent the actions of all police officers. Yes, there are officers that probably shouldn't be officers, but there are a lot more that do their job correctly. The sad part of the whole thing is that you only hear about the good things in the wake of a tragedy.

I have a cousin who is a police officer and he prevents these things from happening.

 

[14bux]

I get on the web and see things like this everyday. Stuff about officers raping and killing family pets is apparent because that's the only thing the media will show about them.

 

[Gatherix]

As Cmp said, you tend to only about the extremes, in either direction. Police abuse, accidental or intentional, has always been an issue, but police absence would arguably be a bigger issue. Claiming a fact is true of the whole on the premise that it's true of a component of said whole is a compositional fallacy.

It's worth noting that the claim the victim was breaking up a fight was made by a family member, and alternative sources seem provide differing, less biased details. Seeing as we can't know which claim is true (the police's or the family member's), it's difficult to conclude either is correct.

 

[Tick Tock Man]

I get on the web and see things like this everyday. Stuff about officers raping and killing family pets is apparent because that's the only thing the media will show about them.

Well not all - there was the story a few months ago about the cop in NYC who bought a homeless guy some shoes and helped him put them on during a particularly wicked cold spell - the cop didn't know he was being filmed there either...

Boils down to this - cops are humans too, some good some bad - and while yes there are a alarming number of terrible incidents reported, if you stop to think how many of these stories you hear vs. the number of uniformed officers (in most Western countries anyway), the percentage is pretty damn low.
Combine that with the reality that stories about cops doing bad things makes for good press, while stories of cops doing good things are unnoticed or oft forgotten - and you are left with the twisted perception about how most cops behave...

 

[Sir Gentlemann]

Personally I believe a good background check is required to see if they are prone to anger issues or show even small signs of mental insanity, its not the cops themselves, but the people who recruit them.

 

[swan]

i think a big part of the issue of how officers treat people is how officers are treated themselves. people with no appropriate outlet for their issues will take out their pent up feelings at any place/thing they can.
part of that is how they are trained, the other is how they are treated on the job. Here's a news story i think is kind of relevant on that on how cops are treated when they have PTSD. there was a longer/better one i've seen but can't find it right now. plus this one is pretty recent.

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/07/16/e...s-force-is-failing-officers-on-mental-health/