Don't Tase Me, Bro!

Oh boy, oh boy, here we go again. Hello peeps, thanks for taking time out of your day to read this. If you've been keeping up with my blog this past week, you'll know that I was absent for quite a long time because of other engagements--work, school, my work buddy's birthday, etc. If you haven't, well now you know. So again, forgive my inconsistency. This week is gonna be a hell of a crazy one, what with the pre-break tests, last-minute assignments, and so on, so I might not post as much as I normally do, at least not until the break starts. But anyway, here's the here-and-now topic for today, something which I'm sure isn't much news to most of you, considering it's all but normal now. Without further ado, here's today's discussion. Note: I will do my best to remain civil, no matter how upset I get, so as not to come off as a whiny little girl.

Take a look at this article/video by The Slatest. It's a dash-cam video of a police officer (heere we go...) slamming a 76-year-old man, named Pete Vasquez, against the hood of the patrol car. Okay, so that's routine, right? Slam some people, pretend like nothing happened. Oh but it doesn't end there. The copper, Nathaniel Robinson, decided it wasn't fun enough to simply smash the defenseless old man against his car, he brazenly chooses to thrust Vasquez onto the ground and taze him not once, but twice. Even as Vasquez weakly attempted to pick himself up, Mr. Robinson decides Oh well, this old bag can't get up fast enough, better give him a little push and tazes him again simply because he wouldn't get up quickly enough. Thankfully, Vasquez was okay. He was driven--handcuffed--to a medical center, where, even after his traumatic ordeal, he was placed under police custody and later released with no citation. Robinson, meanwhile, is on administrative leave while his posse conduct an investigation and figure out a way to make him look like the hero (not that there's much to be figured out, I mean, the court will probably pardon him anyway).

Okay...let me take a deep breath before I run my mouth--technically my keyboard--on this situation. So, a copper decides to take matters into his own hands again and blow up on a helpless individual. That's pretty much the new business maneuver these days, right? We see it everywhere, so this shouldn't be news to us anymore. However, what I do take issue with is the fact that Robinson had to taze Vasquez not once, but twice. As if one shot of jolts throughout your entire body wasn't more than enough. I will say this, however: I am in awe that this cop reached for the other holster. Hell, I didn't think cops these days knew where else to reach other than for their pistol. But even Vasquez knew this was more than just business. According to him, Robinson seemed to enjoy his actions, and judging by the video, I can't say that Vasquez is wrong. Look closely, the copper does seem to be letting himself go and going crazy on poor Vasquez even as he was lying on the ground. At least, that's how I see it. I know there are others who watch the video and are thinking No, he was just doing his job. Okay, fair enough, but that doesn't justify why he had to brutally smash the daylights out of Vasquez.

So what did Vasquez do to tick off the popo? Apparently there was some issue with his license plate, the inspection sticker, or something of the sort, and when Robinson attempted to apprehend Vasquez, the latter resisted--by taking his hand out of the cop's grasp. Did he push the officer? Did he curse and spit in his face and tell him to buzz off? Did he use any form of violence or force? None of the above. All he did was pull his arm away from the cop who had no reason to grab onto the arm in the first place. Apparently that was reason enough to justify Robinson's rage. I would say that Vasquez shouldn't have resisted at all, but if you didn't do any harm to anybody, and some copper thinks he is above the law (which they are) and grabs your arm just because, wouldn't you pull it away?

I've said it plenty of times and I'll say it again, even if I'm talking in circles. This new regime of cops misusing their power is not gonna slow down anytime soon. Quite the opposite, actually. It'll get worse and worse, up to the point where our lives our basically run by these people. Okay, so maybe not to that extent, but you get my point. Yes, I know that there are "good" cops out there, I mean I've seen a few stories here and there about a lone wolf cop doing something honorable for once. But you can't deny that good cops are so few and far between that there's hardly enough left to say that most cops are good. Again, this is all how I view it. I know there are more than a few optimistic souls out there that still (somehow) have hope for humanity. I respect your view. If the world was full of pessimistic realists, then we would've gotten nowhere at all. We would be way worse than we are now. Who knows, maybe there is some good change on the horizon, but not soon.

Anyway, there's my update peeps. Thanks for reading, stay up to date, share, and stay safe out there. Have a good one :)