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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 9/9/14

Time to Get Rid of Racist Policing in the United States

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He's then heard saying that, "I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't break any laws and you tase me? That's assault."

This is a clear example of how the rules are different if you're black, and of the racist policing double-standards in the US today.

Fortunately, more and more people are realizing this, and are using video cameras to record their interactions with police, because they want to get anything that might be illegal on tape.

In a video uploaded to YouTube this past week, a man can be seen talking to police officers, who were looking for a wanted felon.

The officers repeatedly ask the man to turn off his cellphone video camera, but knowing his rights, the man does not.

They also ask to enter the man's house because they think he might be "harboring a fugitive" but since they don't have a warrant, the man tells them they cannot.

After a three minute exchange, the officers eventually leave.

But here's the thing.

We shouldn't live in a country where you need to worry about your race, or where you live, or whether or not you have a cellphone to record police actions.

This is the 21st century and the "land of the free and the home of the brave," and it's time our policing reflected that.

That can be accomplished by introducing national standards for policing, so that officers are behaving well in New York City and in Ferguson, Missouri.

We also It's time to get rid of the United States' racist policing double-standards.

Earlier this summer, Kalamazoo, Michigan police officers were called to respond to reports of man, possibly drunk, acting belligerently and waving around a rifle.

When they arrived on the scene, the Kalamazoo officers found 63-year-old Joseph Houseman, a white man, who appeared to be intoxicated, and who was indeed waving around what looked to be an AK-47 assault rifle.

According to police reports of the incident, as well as dash cam footage and body microphones that were on the officers, it took nearly 40 minutes to get Houseman to peacefully surrender his weapon.

That same video and audio footage reveals how the police officers on the scene deliberated for some time over how to protect the public from Houseman, while protecting his right to openly carry a gun at the same time, under Michigan law.

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Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program on the Air America Radio Network, live noon-3 PM ET. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People," "What Would Jefferson Do?," "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle (more...)
 

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