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    highfalutinwithbakuninStassa Edwards
    10/20/15 11:11pm

    I currently live in Virginia. I hate Virginia. There are no normal bars (most counties have rules that food must make up 50% of sales at places that serve alcohol). There is a whole alcohol police force. I can’t believe how elitist and classist entire towns are. The worst part is that you can’t criticize Virginia to people here because they just stick their fingers in their ears and say LALALA VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS IT HAS THE MOUNTAINS IT HAS THE BEACH VIRGINIA HAS GOT IT ALL LALALA ROBERT E LEE

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      gramercypolicehighfalutinwithbakunin
      10/20/15 11:18pm

      Well, if nothing else, you must admit: Virginia > Florida.

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      Tony Stark, forever grey.gramercypolice
      10/20/15 11:24pm

      Virginia is just Florida with worse beaches.

      And Texas is just Florida with shitty black tar beaches and SNAKES.

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    BabyFireflyStassa Edwards
    10/20/15 11:09pm

    I hope he gets every fucking penny, continues his education, and has a better life than any of those sad ass mother fuckers ever will.

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      PoodletimeBabyFirefly
      10/20/15 11:17pm

      Here’s a question: do alchohol control board goons have the same level of protection as regular police officers? And specifically, when they lose their lawsuits, do the taxpayers pay out as usual? If so, that’s triple jeopardy for us right there: 1) We, the citizens and taxpayers, get beaten by the cops; 2) We get arrested, even when they have no probable cause; 3) When the cops get sued and lose, we, the taxpayers, foot the bill. It’s like a completely unconsenting form of masochism-by-cop that we have to shell out for, as well. Sick!

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      reoneBabyFirefly
      10/20/15 11:22pm

      Completely agree.

      “...the agents involved with the arrest were neither suspended nor punished.”

      No, of course not.

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    JessaminaStassa Edwards
    10/20/15 11:54pm

    His ID wasn’t fake, in the end. And even if it had been fake, this would have been excessive (excessive isn’t even a strong enough word!) The wrongful and violent arrests of black men is an epidemic. I can’t even imagine how scary it is to be a black man in the U.S. (Canada has this problem too, but I think to a lesser extent, based on media coverage). I can’t imagine how scary it is to be the parent of a black male child and wonder if he will be safe walking to school, going out with friends, or going to the corner store to buy a pack of candy. Nothing has changed, has it?

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      ShygurlJessamina
      10/21/15 12:18am

      I have a 14 y.o. Black & Puerto Rican son, who’s right on the edge of manhood. He’s tall for his age, and easily mistaken for someone a couple years older.

      I’ve had the unfortunate talk with him regarding race relations in America. I tried my best to explain that slavery isn’t over, it’s just now in the new forms of jails, prisons, and other penal institutions.

      On a side note, I came across these Adidas online some time ago. And the image of the Martese Johnson in leg irons/chains reminded me of them.

      WTF?!?

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      beefShygurl
      10/21/15 12:46am

      Oh, Jeremy Scott. As an American, how oblivious and obtuse do you have to be to think there’s nothing wrong with your design? Yes, Jeremy, you got it exactly right, the average American sneakerhead (I have no stats but I will go out on a limb and say sneakerheadism is a way of life for many young black Americans, like that kid on HONY whose shoes were confiscated by his momma bc he was cutting class) wants to wear tacky orange shackles as a fashion statement in America.

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    HaHaYouFoolStassa Edwards
    10/21/15 9:10am

    When agitating for change in how policing is done in America, one of the main things we need to be pushing for is personality/trait testing to exclude from officer training the types of individuals who are prone to answer tension with violence, and who are seeking the position because of its power over others. That go a LONG way toward making the culture change we need to see in our police forces across the nation.

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      GhostbearHaHaYouFool
      10/21/15 9:32am

      That's only part of it. The current training is a big problem. It emphasizes escalation over de-escalation, ignoring laws, and being quick to respond with violence.

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      HaHaYouFoolGhostbear
      10/21/15 9:37am

      You’re absolutely right, that needs to change as well. I’m just saying that I think we’re going to get a lot farther a lot faster if the only people we hire into our police forces are the kind of people who are prone to de-escalate, anyway. And that’s completely achievable.

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    AnnieW50Stassa Edwards
    10/20/15 11:12pm

    The more suits they win (people wrongfully attacked) the more likely this crap will stop.

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      jpomonkeyAnnieW50
      10/20/15 11:36pm

      Yeah, no. It doesn’t work that way. In Portland, the cops have been out of control for a long time, and the families of those killed often win multi-million dollar wrongful death suits. The city pays because they have insurance against such things, and things don’t change, despite the fact that the Justice Department has stepped in to try to get re-training for officers and put in other controls to make sure incidents don’t happen again. But they keep happening.

      I agree that the city and individual officers should be sued in any and every case where fucked up shit happens, but it usually doesn’t have much effect.

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      Tony Stark, forever grey.jpomonkey
      10/20/15 11:38pm

      A bunch of small suits don’t help in isolation. You’re rolling the dice on a very small chance of an officer being held accountable for his actions. But the national trend towards accountability can’t HURT.

      Really, police unions need to be gutted and rebuilt. From the bones of the current head of the NY police union, who may be the world’s biggest shithead.

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    rusholmeruffianStassa Edwards
    10/20/15 11:38pm

    I sincerely hope, as a part of any settlement, that the officers involved are terminated without pensions. This is starting to become a sought after outcome in police brutality suits; there was a recent case of a woman beaten to a pulp by a California Highway Patrol officer that had this in the settlement.

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      AdamITguyStassa Edwards
      10/20/15 11:22pm

      Good for him. The “changes” our governor has proposed is just more training. Yeah, that’ll help. How about we take police power away from the ABC investigators? That’s change I could get behind.

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        jpomonkeyAdamITguy
        10/20/15 11:38pm

        So what’s the deal with ABC? Do they have the same power to arrest people as the police do?

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        AdamITguyjpomonkey
        10/20/15 11:46pm

        Yes. They are sworn police officers, but the issue is they are overly aggressive. Most notably in this instance with Mr. Johnson and this other instance also at UVa. Both times they made an assumption and both times they were wrong. Hopefully they’ll pay for their mistake again and some actual change will come from this incident.

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      whassaStassa Edwards
      10/20/15 11:07pm

      Good for him.

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        Rory of the HillsStassa Edwards
        10/21/15 1:25am

        I think it should be mentioned that several of the agents who arrested Martese were the very same agents involved in this dangerous debacle! http://gawker.com/sorority-girl-...

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          McRosieRory of the Hills
          10/21/15 7:59am

          Holy shit, what is wrong with these people?!

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          wafflesfriendsworkMcRosie
          10/21/15 9:43am

          Power and entitlement.

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        I love you but I've chosen hooning!Stassa Edwards
        10/21/15 5:38am

        Apart from everything, that kid has a pretty neat style!

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          SprocheteI love you but I've chosen hooning!
          10/21/15 8:50am

          He’s adorable.

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