For me, the greatest value of the blogosphere is the exposure it offers to stories and ideas that would otherwise often escape my attention. In writing my own blog, I am under no illusion that I am going to change society or people's thinking with whatever opinions I may have, but I do like, as so many others do, to provide links to published pieces that provoke thought and discussion.
Having just read a piece on punditman's blog, I was taken to another site called alternet.org, where I came across the following video depicting yet another instance of police brutality, this time in Houston Texas. One can only hope that with the wide access to information provided by the Internet and social media, real change, as is occurring in the Middle East, is in the offing for the West as citizens, inspired by both knowledge and sterling examples, realize their collective power.
That's disgusting. Why is it that cops only get charged when bystander video surfaces? Without the bystander video, the Dziekanski killing would have been swept under the carpet of falsehood the RCMP initially tried to disseminate.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I've noticed about these situations is that there always seems to be other cops present who observe their colleagues committing crimes and do nothing. They don't even report it. Yet when video such as this comes out they usually get ignored.
If police officers present were held equally accountable as those officers committing these offences, the problem would stop. They would have no choice but to intervene or face prosecution themselves.
It will be interesting to watch this Friday's Fifth Estate, which will be showing previously unseen video of police abuse of our Charter Rights during the G20 Summit in Toronto.
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