I thought that Canada and the United States were democracies, but now I'm beginning to wonder. Our police forces are totally out of control. Cases of police misconduct are investigated by the police and the judicial system treats crooked cops with kid gloves.
I don't think it's as much a matter of discrimination as it is a belief that they can do anything and get away with it. In the case of the young black fellow in Cleveland who was brutally gunned down by police in a park, video footage of the incident showed clearly that only 2 seconds elapsed between the time the police arrived on scene and the time the officer open fire on the 12 year old boy with the TOY gun. How can any reasonable person conclude that the police were able to ascertain in 2 seconds that the 12 year old boy was such an imminent danger that he had to be shot dead particularly considering the fact that the 911 caller said he believed the gun was a fake? Yet a grand jury concluded that the police officer involved did nothing wrong. What a travesty.
Then there is the case in New York city where a man was choked to death by a cop for illegally selling cigarettes. Again a grand jury determined that the police officers involved did nothing wrong. And what about the young man in Utah shot to death by a black cop for merely walking down the street in a neighbourhood where a burglary had been reported. He was wearing headphones and didn't hear the officers command to stop and drop. That certainly justifies using lethal force.
There are also plenty of examples of police brutality in Canada that are swept under the rug.
Police in North America are arrogant, poorly trained and virtually immune from prosecution no matter how egregious their incompetence or outright criminality. It's no wonder that more and more people are beginning to carry firearms.
We really are in no position in North America to cast aspersions on other countries for their lack of democracy. Increasingly, here, the law is an ASS. We don't have a system of justice, we have a legal system and the two are radically different.
