[UPDATE Below]
Anyone see the joke?
So who will it "impact"? Will it "impact" the Eureka Police Department? Are these offending officers still working in Eureka on the E.P.D.? How many people were brutally beaten in Eureka during the past ten years, but didn't have the misfortune of dying?
The next time you are confronted by one of these three police officers and you see their name tag, Laird, Winkle or Whitmer, you'd better realize they're no joke.
When you read what Police Chief Murl Harpham has to say about this incident and his defence of his and his officer's continued right to use excessive force anytime they determine some "suspect" is not "compliant" you should clearly understand his definition of and what he means by "tough cop." It certainly doesn't have anything to do with restraining someone for transport. It has everything to do with beating or torturing someone into submission. When the city endows a group of people with that right - a right that puts them totally above the law, with complete impunity, you empower a gang or pack mentality and Cotten was just one of the many guaranteed casualties. Read the deeper meaning emphasized by what Murl Harpham says as quoted in the Tuesday, September 29, 2011, issue of the Time-Standard. Harpham's defense of this kind of police action makes him and his officers defacto judge, jury and executioners. What he fails to understand is that his attitude in trying to make such a defense is what delegitimizes the justification of his authority and mandates the pack or gang mentality that permeates policing today. As such, they become the law, dictating to everyone what they can and can't do on any given whim.
What impressed me is how candidly Murl Harpham defines the war and simplifies whose lives are most valuable in this community.
What impressed me is how candidly Murl Harpham defines the war and simplifies whose lives are most valuable in this community.
The only people that award, if paid, sends a message to are the people that own property and pay taxes in the City of Eureka. Problem is, THEY ARE NOT LISTENING. If they are "hearing the word," they're afraid somone might brand or accuse them of being a "cop hater."
[UPDATE] Humboldt Herald has some terse and wanting re-write of this matter. He says: Eureka Police lose big in Martin Cotton case – How he comes to that conclusion is a rather dark mystery. Sounds like this blogger's been spending too much time with the people over at the Times-Standard.
--Joe
In this day and age, any intelligent person should be a cop hater.
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