![[Home]](/wiki.gif)
Letter To Jeff Katz Radio Show About The October 2005 Lousiana Police Beating Of Robert DavisLetter To Jeff Katz Radio Show About The October 2005 Lousiana Police Beating Of Robert Davis
On October 11, 2005 Jeff Katz discussed abortion to teenagers without parental permission or notification, breathalizers in schools, setting record for number of times saying vermin, and the police beating of retired teacher Robert Davis. I tried to get on the show with my comments, but I called too late. So I sent this email:
Hi Jeff!
The abortions for tots that the politicians try to push are terrible. But it starts much more innocently… I was just reading in the IJ that in Marin they are having 5 month waits on dental visits for children and poor people, even to fill a cavity. And yet eventhough there is a huge backlog, they are setting aside hundreds of thousands of dollars to do additional screenings at day care centers. Who could complain about the government coming into the day care centers and examining the children without the parents permission?
Not to long ago, on a regular well kid checkup for our 5 year old at Kaiser, the doctor insisted that we had to have an overpriced local dentist, he stopped just short of demanding the name of a local dentist. Forget the fact that we pointed out that my wife is from Malaysia, and we go back to Malaysia to visit family a couple of times a year. We save a ton of money by having our dental needs taken care of there.
I tried to get on to help you with your vermin award… But I have to protest your use of the word vermin for all the people you mentioned. I used to raise gerbils, which are officially considered vermin in California. Gerbils are very intelligent and interesting creatures. Those people you named would give vermin a bad name!
Finally, the beating in Louisiana: I’ve watched the CNN video several times, and read all their stories.
From the video, it seems that for whatever reason, the teacher didn’t willingly put his hands behind his back to be hand cuffed. Hard to believe he wasn’t drunk or drugged out. Sure maybe he was protesting being arrested, but it looked like he was going beyond complaining or demanding to know why. Seems to be very simple, a cop wants to arrest you, you better put your hands where he can handcuff you. Complain verbally, protest verbally, of course, but don’t physically resist. That’s just common sense. It seems like the cops were over the top, but that teacher can’t claim that he was cooperating.
But what really bugs me is this, and I’d like to hear your comments on this: Look at how the cop on horse was making sure to prevent a video taping from a good distance away. And if that wasn’t enough, look at how the other cop, the A.M. Smith roughed up the report that he threw against the car. Is this how cops are supposed to be allowed to treat reporters that are videotaping what the cops are doing? That bothers me deeply, they should be transparent in what they are doing, they shouldn’t be threatening reporters who were much too far away to be accused of interfering. Recording what any person standing a similar distance away could see is not an interference with anything except for police abuse.
Where is the case of the reporter against that cop? Do reporters expect to be treated like that by cops, is it a normal part of the job? Do reporters just not bother to press charges for being handled like that?
I agree it’s difficult to respond to how the officers treated the teacher. But, with your police experience, I hope you’ll take the time to watch the video a couple of times, and let me know what you think about the issue of how the reporters were being treated.
- G.
|
Interested in Do The Anti-Spam Laws And Anti-Telemarketer Laws Really Protect Consumers, Or Are They Political Tax Grabs?