Ass Whippings For Everyone

I was planning on talking about some other stuff today, but this Philly cop beating is blowing up on the news. Now typically I wouldn't want to piggyback on what other folks are doing, but after watching the video and reading some comments at other spots I needed to say a little something.

Random ass whippings are not cool.

It's true that being a police officer is a high stress and high danger job, but that doesn't mean ass whippings can be handed out randomly. It just doesn't work that way. I understand officers were on edge because of the shooting of a police officer recently, but that doesn't mean that the police can retailiate against anybody they think has a gun and who pisses them off.

But, what I find more troubling are some of the comments I've read on a couple of other sites. I read The Field Negro everyday, and he was the first person to hip me to this shooting thing. I read his post on the subject and thought it was a good take on the topic of police brutatlity.

Unfortunately, when he was discussing the police shooting that touched off all this anger in officers he referred to the suspected perpetrator an "animal." It was a passing sentence, he didn't dwell on it, but it stuck with me and I commented on it over at this site.

I think it's important that we as human beings recognize that no matter what action another human being commits we cannot revoke their humanity. That is given to them by God and he is the only entity that has that power.

Look, I despise child rapists, serial killers and a whole host of other criminals. There is nothing redeeming about preying on the weak or wreaking havoc in other people's lives. Most criminals are not good people who've gotten caught on the wrong path, they are people who have made a decision to live a life they believe will provide them with the easiest path to what they want to accomplish.

But, they are still humans.

I firmly believe that society's willingness to classify criminals as subhuman is the reason why our prisons are hotbeds of violence and depravity that teach inmates how to become better criminals much faster than they teach them how to become productive members of society. There should be much more outrage about the way this country habitually imprisons innocent people, or the way we sentence those who are guilty. There is no excuse for society's cavalier attitude about prison rape or any other form of violence in correctional centers. If we deprive people of their freedom and take them under the care of the state, do we not owe them something?

When we as a society establish different levels of humanity, it is only a matter of time before we are justifying hideous actions against our fellow man because they have been placed in the wrong strata. This rationale has allowed genocides and enslavement to occur in countries across this globe, and it contributes to most of the evils done by humans.

Truthfully, it's not even a race issue, although I don't think it's a coincendence that black criminals are more likely to get that sub-human label than white criminals. No, I think it's our need as humans to justify our own callous natures; after all, it's ok to hate an animal, but it's kind of bad to hate a human.

We can lash out and give in to our feelings of anger without the nasty burden of guilt. We can justify any action, ignore any wrong, as long as we are convinced that those being hurt are less than human. In some ways, we even believe them to be less than animals because certain feelings we express towards criminals would never be acceptable if they were directed a cute dog or pretty cat.

However, deep down inside, we know it's a lie. In fact, I think that it's the knowledge our own hypocrisy that makes us lash out even more. We know that it is wrong to turn our backs on fellow humans, we know that it is wrong to hate no matter how heinous an individual's actions may be.

But, we cling to our lies because they are easier than the truth.