Police officers CANNOT LEGALLY, nor should the public tolerate it when they act as judge, jury and executioner. Kelly Thomas' past does not give a half-dozen or so cops the right to do this to him:
His parents are presumably housed and yet tolerated Kelly living on the street rather than with them. Why, because they were afraid of him.
Judgmental much? Our whole wretched "system" of not allowing long-term commitment of the mentally ill is a causative factor in such cases. Kelly Thomas was an adult. His parents could do very little to help him unless he accepted help. They could not force him to live at home, or take his meds, or get treatment. All they could do was watch the deterioration of their once beautiful baby boy. There is no help for families in such situations.
I am not saying that Kelly deserved to die a horrible death...
Yes you are. Worse, what you and others with your blindly pro cop viewpoint are doing is this...you're saying cops can pretty much do anything they want, and the citizenry needs to just shut up and not question what they do. Half a dozen cops beat an unarmed man to death? No biggie. The man was just some homeless schizo with a violent past.
in my view Ron Thomass crusade has an unwholesome flavor
Schizophrenia is a bona fide brain disease that usually hits young people in their late teens or eary 20's. Don't know if you're capable of putting yourself in the place of parents who raise a beloved child to that age, then watch them deteriorate mentally almost overnight with a disease that has no cure. Then, on top of that, parents discover there isn't anything they can do once their sick child reaches adulthood. If you have not experienced it personally, then you can't even begin to understand the hell parents in such a situation go through.
The last words Mr. Thomas' son ever uttered were, "Dad, dad, dad..." as cops were beating him into a coma from which he would never recover. So how the hell can you sit around judging Mr. Thomas and the way he is dealing with his grief and anguish?
Once again, blind acceptance of authority and police actions is NOT a constitutionally conservative position. Quite the opposite. It is exactly such blind acceptance that opens the door to totalitarianism.
Bears repeating.
I guess you’ve written a term paper, or maybe even a doctoral thesis, explicating conservatism and that is what makes you so high and mighty.
Well, does total intolerance for differing points of view also fit in with your conservative template? Just wondering.
While you’re busy on that Ph.D., learn to read. Nowhere did I state a “blindly” pro-cop point of view. An investigation is in progress. I would accept the results of the investigation being done internally, by the FBI and by independent sources. I advocate transparency and consideration of all the facts.
One of the morning radio ranters on KFI wondered why the investigation is “taking so long.” It needs to be thorough... duh. He stated they don’t need to question witnesses, all they need to do is view the videotape. Why talk to witnesses,? he wondered. Really, I wonder if the guy can tie his own shoes.
The investigation, and possibly a trial, needs to interview everyone starting with the original callers to 9-1-1, all medical personnel on scene and in the hospital, bystanders and so forth.
Anyone who was not there or not involved does not have the info those witnesses have. But you and the angry mob want to bypass all available information and the investigation and I guess a trial, because YOU have made yourselves “judge, jury and executioner.”