Just watching that video is kind of depressing. Nice to know that even if you throw yourself at the mercy of people who will easily overpower you…you’ll still get a fat kick to the skull and kidney punched (funny to note that it’s illegal in boxing).

Is the officer gang-related in any way?

More on the officer filmed kicking a prone suspect in the head, and high fiving another cop. He owns a “gang/prison glorifying clothing line”.

I think you’re confusing “the right” with Republicans.

Even if we grant that conservatism was ever a “philosophy” in the first place — Kirk and others certainly argued that it’s not — it doesn’t stop being one just because some people employ the name in some new way.

Anyone whose focal point is an identity group — “angry rural whites” or otherwise — is concerned with democracy, not principle. That’s machinery. It’s noise. And it plays to the left’s hand.

At any rate, these sorts of exchanges always underscore for me how desperately we need a new working political spectrum, something to replace the “left-right” axis. It just doesn’t serve us very well anymore, and creates way too many obstacles to coherent discussion.

Meanwhile, I agree with some of what he said, but the reality is that you can’t complain that taxes are too high in California (and they are) and then also complain when the state finally starts talking about getting spending under control by pulling the reigns in on the state’s biggest budget items. The problem in California (or at least one of them) isn’t that teachers unions and prison guard unions might be trimmed or not get the raises they’ve lobbied for. It’s that so many of those programs basically have spending increases built into the state constitution. In other words, the state is obligated to spend more on program X next year than this year, even if the legislature (in a rare moment of enlightenment), decides that the program should be cut or that there is a less expensive way to do the same job. Really, the state constitution needs a reboot.

I was glad to see the we-will-be-fiscally-responsible-tomorrow-if-you-let-us-spend-more-money-today ballot initiatives go down in flames this month. But, last year, still in the middle of a 40+ billions dollar budget “crisis”, those same voters decided to waste tens of billions of dollars on a high-speed rail boondoggle, so it’s hard to know if they really understand the concept of “we can’t afford this” yet, or if they are just angry that politicians are finally running up against the limitations of trying to give everything to everyone all the time and having no plan to pay for it.

In modern America, politics has to be conducted on the left’s premises, premises that are antithetical to American founding principles.

The right is just as guilty, playing the identiy politics game with thing like urban vs. rural voters, secular vs. religious voters, etc.

Conservativism used to be a coherent political philosophy. Now it’s just an identity group for angry rural whites.

I couldn’t care less about the GOP, its health, or its relevance, but I find the cynicism implicit in this scenario to be depressing.

Yes, I know you’re just describing the realpolitik of the situation: “Pro-Hispanic” and “pro-female” constituencies really do exist, and really are a factor in the voting game. But it’s nonetheless distressing that they’re a factor — that they even exist as “constituencies” — and that there’s no politically practical way to ignore, let alone combat, such a reality.

See, now I have to go out of my way to be explicitly clear: This is distressing not because Hispanics or females are bad, etc. It’s distressing because identity politics sucks and is a fundamental obstacle to the default of individual liberty. It’s the triumph of democracy over freedom. It’s the triumph of collectivism over individualism. Hell, identity politics is the triumph of politics, period.

The fact that I have to go out of my way to make that explicit disclaimer gets to the heart of the very problem I’m lamenting here: identity politics makes it logistically difficult to advocate individual liberty.

In modern America, politics has to be conducted on the left’s premises, premises that are antithetical to American founding principles. Nodding in admiration at the brilliance of Obama’s ploy — his leveraging of group identity politics to put opponents in a tricky spot — is indeed deeply cynical. And ultimately it’s a disservice to the advancement of liberty.

Totally awesome.

I would never have the balls to get that close to some of these dangerous animals.

Some of those pictures look like the animal was cooperating and posing just for the picture.

Two officers can subdue a small kid by hand.

While there are times when I would suggest taser use, this particular incident wasn’t one of them. They had no reason to subdue the kid other than that he had run from them. Likewise, the tragic story of the Polish gentlemen who was killed by the RCMP with a taser was similar – there was no reason for the taser to be involved (or the police for that matter).

I hope the grand jury in Maine breaks it off in the state trooper’s ass.

OHP says before the home video was recording, the paramedic assaulted the state trooper.

Of course they claim this, the cameras weren’t rolling so they can make up whatever they want. And paramedics are known to fly into a rage and attack (armed) cops for no good reason, while cops are never known to do this to anyone. Riiiiiight…..

The audacity of these sunzabitchez!

airforce, the human body is pretty tough. one kid is not going to be able to overpower 2 or more police officers, knife or no knife. A blow with a bat to the head might knock out somebody, but its the repeated kicks to the head or those extra 10 stab wounds once you are on the ground that make you dead. People have been killing people since we crawled out of the ocean, and the skull and circulatory system have developed well in adapting to survive human on human violence. But at the same time, having the nervous system overloaded with high voltage is not something that people have been constantly subjected to over the course of millions of years…

I agree, the kid is unlikely to overpower two officers, though it’s not 100% certain; this is not a confrontation in a ring with rules and referees. A lot of things can and have gone wrong in a brawl. ANY blow to the head, particularly with a baton, is especially dangerous. And baton blows to the joints–where we are taught to deliver blows–can cause permanent injury.

I personally know a former security officer who was charged by an intoxicated, violent ex-con in a parking lot. The officer attempted to defend himself by striking the man in the head with his flashlight. He was acquitted of second degree murder, but you can imagine what this incident did to him, both psychologically and financially.

I would probably have opted for pepper mace in this situation. I consider it safer than a Taser, but it is certainly not without risk either. This could easily exacerbate any health problems the suspect may have. Also, it does nothing to reduce the strength of the suspect. He may well run or fight despite the pepper spray and injure or even kill himself in the process. These things happen.

There is no safe way to take someone into custody who is resisting. Violent encounters are, by definition, dangerous, and there is no such thing as a NON-lethal weapon. The Taser is a LESS-lethal weapon that has probably saved more people from death or injury than it has killed.

I don’t know why the Taser kills some people, temporarily incapacitates most, and has no apparent effect on still others. Strict guidelines have to be adhered to for its deployment, and I would like to see more research conducted on just why the Taser proves fatal in so many instances.

My guess would be that, in at least some of the cases, the victim injured himself falling to the ground or striking an object with his head as a result of the jolt. But we really need to find out.

Riki “Garfunkel” Lindhome and Kate “Oates” Micucci sing a pro-gay marriage song in response to a Pat Robertson quote that legalizing gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks.

In certain circumstances (such as heart attacks), many EMT organizations have rules stating that sirens should NOT be used, since the noise (and the emotional reaction to that specific noise) can be harmful (or fatal) to the patient.

You want him hit with batons? Sprayed with OC? Shot in the leg? I’m genuinely curious what the next appropriate reaction is.