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Robbie Tolan on Real Sports
Monday, March 2nd, 2009I haven’t yet seen the segment, but a couple of weeks ago, HBO’s Real Sports did a segment on the Robbie Tolan case.
I put up a post on that case back in January.
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I think we can all rest assured that, if the cop shot the kid, the kid must have been doing something to deserve it. I think we should all be patient and let the cops do what they do best: cook up a story.
The day after the special aired, the case was being discussed on WFAN. Surprisingly, given sports talk radio’s tendencies, most of the calller and the host were in favor of the Tolans. There were a few police who called in, ripping the family and trying to use examples of NYC cops being killed or injured in the of duty to justify the Cops behavior in this case. To his credit, Mike Francesa asked “What does a guy being killed in the Bronx have to do with cops shooting at kid in suburban Texas on a mistaken stolen car claim?”.
I used to work at a gun range part time. While employed there, we had several regulars that were police officers. Over time, I guess they thought they could candid with us since we were all white good ole’ boys who had boners for guns. It was after several conversations with these professional law enforcement officers that I began to realize that all those NWA songs were right. These cops (I won’t say all of them), but these cops in particular really are racist and they have no respect for non cops. We even had one of these regular police patrons attempt to do a straw buy for a girlfriend of his.
His response when we refused was to threaten us with police harassment. We filed a complaint and luckily none of us were ever mistreated. But nothing ever happened to this officer of the law. No accountability whatsoever. Without an effective means to police the police, we are all just victims waiting to victimized by them.
I did see the segment. An excellent piece, showing law enforcement “professionalism” in all its hideous glory, along with footage of a city council meeting that will make your blood boil.
Since Bryant Gumbel is the correspondent on the story, I’m sure right-wingers will reflexively dismiss it as more liberal bias.
#3 Mattocracy- I think you nailed it.
I also loved this paragraph-
‘Real Sports has since learned that Sgt. Cotton and Officer Edwards both have significant blemishes on their records. Officer Edwards has been reprimanded six times and was suspended without pay for violating the department’s sexual harassment policy in 2005. Sgt. Cotton has been reprimanded three times and was suspended without pay after misleading investigators about a 2002 traffic accident, one of three crashes he’s caused.’
I don’t think these guys are unusual.
Looks like those officers and the Bellaire PD are going to shell out compensation for the loss of a major league baseball career. That should come to about $25 million on the taxpayers. It appears to me just from the numbers that there is a racial profiling issue in that department that needs to be resolved.
Anyone else here want to smack blondie for being so stupid when she refused to admit reality? She was in full cover up mode rather than do her freaking job.
I’m going to break this down for all the people who don’t know what to think about all of this because their view of the world wasn’t designed to endure this kind of theoretical social genocide.
Let’s take race out of the situation.
Two public servants whose paychecks come from the tax dollars taken out of the people’s paychecks the servants were approaching, pulled over a car that was not breaking any laws. The car happened to be pulling into a driveway. (ok so you have the “cop sixth sense” and know what cars are questionable) The first thing that a person who followed the training required to fill their position would have asked for the liscence of the driver. (Even if there was more “cop sixth sense” action and they were thrown to the ground and handcuffed first, the i.d. would then have to be reviewed)
While inspecting the id you would soon notice if you have the capacity to read that the driveway the car had been pulling into happened to be the waiting/handcuffed and bleeding person’s address. These standard actions that any person who walks the streets at night knows even the most brutal cops adhere to, were not followed. In fact the actions taken were on the other end of the spectrum of a public servant whose job is to protect the public who employs them,a nd keep the peace.
An intelligent person who just caught a glimpse of any of the coverage might infer that the cops’ actions fit more in the concept of a violent gang member. But you see even a violent gang member checks your wallet to get your cash.
But a hitman, that is someone who rolls up on a target, and without any explanation or warning at all, does the thing that it was paid to do, and given the nature of it’s title, performs a hit.(either murder, intimidation, or theft for all those churchies lucky enough to read this.)
Evrything written in this article so far has been absolute unbiased fact, if you challenge that you will look like an ass and you have no business posting your thoughts on a website where other people have a chance of being influenced by them.
Here is the fun part.(in an exremely cynical sort of way) After any open-minded human being with deductive reasoning capabilities could see after taking a close examination of all the material related to the incident that the actions taken by the cops do not fit any rational or logical description of behavior except for maybe one. I’m going to leave my inference at that. For all the possible readers who still refuse to read everything out there(and this is when race comes back into the picture), the family of the kid happened to be one of the few if not only black families in a densely rich, white neighborhood in TEXAS.
I will reiterate one more important piece of the puzzle. Two of the three shots fired were way array of the target that was less than five feet away in the prone(kneeling for all the naysayers) position. So if the “cop sixth senses” kicked in so hard that every preceding piece of training was thrown out because these kids were definetley going to attempt to seriously harm these cops and therefore in the preservation of self they must fire on these kids, they suddenly forget how to use their most valuable tool in the fight against drug dealers, thiefs, and rapists? (I n T i M i D a T i O n)
Well in a court of law in the United States of America I just presented a logical enough argument to at least warrant an investigation of the prominent figures in that neighborhood who had ties to the local police, just you know, for shits and giggles. Because the idea that the one group of people(police) who keep us from running around raping and pillaging each other could possibly also be mercenaries is just absurd. And we don’t want radical terrorists running around possibly spreading their demon thoughts possibly causing some doubt in the proles regarding our bullet-proof justice system!!!!! So at least we will investigate it and put these schizophrenics in their place.
Now that I’ve done their job for them let’s just discuss a couple more things, the taxpayers will be the ones who fork out the money in the settlement following th suit against the police and the city. Im sure no one has a problem with that, but that doesn’t change the fact that the police and the city don’t have to face any consequences except having to risk getting jumped by the people who decide that justice is in the hands of every man or woman while they are walking down the street.(some would say that was hopefully a very high risk in lieu of this tragedy)
Who will watch the watchmen?
Our government, and every agency webbing from it has NO accountability. There once was Russians, but they had to give up once they were shown that what they were trying to achieve philosophically, the United States was brutally doing for them in Central and Southern America as well as Indochina.(Who is Noam Chomsky?) There once was the United Nations but we actually created it and they now have to ask permission from us to do anything that might affect the “common interest.”(I find irony in the fact that that was avaiable to anyone who was reading the bottom line of the government/big corporation invested news station known as CNN during the most recent conflict in Gaza.)
The way they got away with it… well, no offense, but us Americans aren’t the most evolved organisms in the biological chain. But we are the biggest guns in the fight, and oh yeah we sold you your guns, so if you aim ‘em at us, we will cancel your contract. GOOD LUCK!
But there is one thing they cannot avoid. Now things like cancer, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS help them, dont get me wrong, but the battle of numbers will never swing there way, it is actually a ray(geometry) that never ends barring the apocalypse.
WE OUTNUMBER THEM. The only thing holding us back is our own ignorance.(Who is George Orwell?) Sorry that it appears I went off subject. But you would be good to realize that in the studies of science, history, anthropology, and mathematics(take any subject and the case caould be made for it too) all theories, happenings, issues, and implications all lead back to one to two core ideas/subjects/happenings.
To all the people reading this who get paid to have their thoughts used as a pass of time on the internet or elsewhere you will most certainly get away with stealing this content, but I’m going to fret too much becuase that means a much larger audience will have been introduced to idead they may have never thought about previously or ever. But, know that the second time you try to write something you will be exposed because you are not me, and on that note, I’m totally looking for a job, so wealthy individuals who have seen the light, hit me up, or I might just get crushed by the palm of society and never use the weapons I was born with.
I am not an egomaniac, I am just a vampire in a cemetery.
[...] Cotton has been indicted in the shooting of Robbie Tolan. I previously posted about that case here and [...]
If tolan would have done what he was instructed he wouldn’t have had any problems and even if the license number was wrong the officers were dealing with the information they had at the time.
It’s dark and tolan is cussing the officer out and then he decides that he will stand up while cussing while telling the officer out while putting his hands in his waistband.
I live in a high crime area and had a similar situation due to my car looking like a vehicle that was used in a bank robbery and I did exactly what I was told to the letter until they figured out I was not the guy or the vehicle they were looking for and they apologized and went on their way.
The bottom line and something bryant gumball from real sports didn’t mention or suggest to anyone else that finds themselves in that situation is to do exactly what you are ordered to do and you won’t have any problems this is common sense when officers are nervous already with what they thought the situation was and tolan talking threatening and then deciding to get up which is just ignorant.
Once again if you do what the officers tell you to do and don’t make any fast or threatening motions and keep your nasty comments to yourself there will not be a problem and bryant gumball does nobody a favor by not saying that is the proper thing to do in that situation.
If you were the officers and have a good enough imagination to put yourself in their shoes it would become much more clear as to how they felt that their lives were in danger when a cursing angry young man jumps up late at night and puts his hands anywhere near his pockets or waistband.
It’s a shame the young man was shot but all he had to do is keep his anger in check and follow instructions but he was a hot head that obviously didn’t care for authority. It doesn’t matter if you are innocent or not in this particular situation just like when I was ordered to lay flat on the ground at my own home when the officers thought I might be a bank robbery suspect due to my vehicle matching the description of the robber but I knew not to start cussing them out and disobeying orders and I knew it would all be fine when they figured out I wasn’t the guy they were looking for and would get my apology but they are just doing their job and a very tough one at that.
How many of you have a job where your life is on the line every time you have contact with someone??? in law enforcement the badguy always has the advantage because they know who the good guy is and a split second decides life or death so a word to the wise just follow orders and don’t make any fast movements while cussing the LEO out.
Someone mentioned that the officers had blemishes on their records but bryant gumball didn’t mention this on real sports and I would think he’d have brought that out if it were so and if anyone has a link to information that shows the officers had poor records please post it.
Someone mentioned that the officers were at the range making racist comments and this proves nothing for all we know it is a friend of the family posting this information or someone that dislikes cops and if they are racist cops then shame on them but we have no proof of this and the race card is used any time a minority gets in a jam or has no defense for their actions.
If racism was a problem with the police in that area well that’s all the more reason that tolan should have followed the officers orders but tolan didn’t act afraid of the officers so I call BS on the race card.
Why in the world would anyone cuss the police out while jumping up from the prone position that they ordered you into and at night?? that’s asking to get shot. The parents should have done as they were told too like when the officer said get against the wall of the garage she should have done it without question and not because she is guilty but because that’s what the officer needed to control the situation because they don’t know who they are dealing with and many officers are dead from similar situations that they didn’t take precautions.
Just because you know that you’re innocent and mean no harm doesn’t mean that the officers know that so keep that in mind if you are ever in that situation and always move very slowly with your hands in plain view.