Just as I am researching the movement for the abolition of prison (please look it up), I find that in march a man from my hometown was beaten to death by police after a car accident!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A car accident! Interestingly enough, the example I was given for reducing the dependency on police was from a woman who fought her instinct to call the police after a car accident. Rodney Wilson is dead, and I hadn't even heard about it. I researched it and most of the news came from a blog. This system is a mess. It's time to be done with it.
Research people research..... Critical Resistance 10, Rodney Wilson, 3 men beat by cops n Pennsylvania...
Now that our media is failing us, we have to educate ourselves. Thank god for the word of mouth. Rodney Wilson,you have made up my mind, I dedicate what I do for this movement from now on to you!!!!!
I did as you suggested and researched the Rodney Wilson death. I failed to see what makes you so certain that the police are responsible. The Medical Examiner's autopsy plus a second autopsy arranged by the family both showed he had highly elevated levels of the drug PCP in his body. He was over 6' tall and 280 pounds, high on PCP and resisting arrest after trying to flee the scene of an accident so its not suprising that force was required to arrest him. He died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital. Tragic, yes but the police did not act unreasonable in my opinion. I prefer the police use necessary force to maintain law and order rather than let somebody high on drugs and driving in a city where any pedestrian is at risk (he could avoid hitting a parked car) go free. Tragic as it is I prefer this outcome rather than an innocent child run down in the street.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that you think the police still had the right to use brutal force after Rodney was already outside of the car, on foot (robbed of the ability to run a child down in the streets). Numerous witnessess reported that the police continued to beat him after he was apprehended and complaining about pains in his chest. That he deserved to be beat after he hit a parked car. That his size, which he cannot control, is a factor that adds to the justification that he should be beat.
ReplyDeleteI obviously don’t know for certain what happened in this case and the police may well have been in the wrong. I don’t think the police had a right to use brutal force unless he was forcible resisting arrest. His size alone is not a factor in and of itself to justify being beat. I only mention it because somebody of his size, if they are pumped up on PCP, could prove to be very difficult to control if they are resisting, and the police would most likely have to use more force. The fact that he had left his car and was fleeing the scene doesn’t mean the police shouldn’t arrest him. True he no longer has a potentially lethal weapon (the car) in his hands but he still should be apprehended. If somebody was drunk and shooting a gun indiscriminately at houses, but then dropped the gun and walked away, should he just be allowed to leave? I am truly sorry about his death and the loss of somebody from your home town. The only reason I first commented on this was because I thought your original post was lacking in facts (or allegations, as the case may be) leaving the impression it was only a traffic accident, while I think there is more to the case.
ReplyDeleteYou did make me realize that my post was a little biased to the facts. I plan to work on presenting without bias before giving my opinion because this blog is an alternative news source. I can understand him being arrested in such times, though I am against the entire prison system (posts to come later), I just don't feel like it was serious enough to resort to those measures.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Thanks for you reply.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your post on the abolition of prisons. I hope it will offer alternative solutions. Thanks.
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