University of Florida Cops Poll (Barney Fife or something more ominous?)

What drove the cops to do what they did?

There seems to be three primary camps here on DU.

1. The Randi Rhodes Camp - There is a vast consorted effort to suppress free speech and John Kerry is a low life scum bag who was behind what happened.

2. The cops were like Barney Fife Camp - The campus cops probably had never seen much interesting action and this was their chance to jump into action just like they see on TV! They got over excited and over reacted in the tradition of legend cop Barney Fith! Reprimand them and have the chief give them better training!

3. Cops were right camp - The kid was a rude, disruptive, jerk. He resisted arest and the cops were only trying to get control of the situation.


So is this something dark and ominous or just a bunch of green cops who need a little better training? Which camp are you in?

I'm not sure what the Feith thing means.

I did a search on Google and Barny Feith came up with all kids of sites. Guess I should have tried the other spelling.

He's a lot more sinister. One of the spies Rummy embedded in the Pentagon.

Douglas is clearly a geek who is out of touch with reality! At least Barny has personality.

Maybe they just wanted to nip it! Nip it in the bud!

Thats great!

http://www.simpleprop.com/images/wade/welovebarneyfife.mp3


Sung to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire"]

Andy Griffith on TV,
Sheriff Taylor
Mayberry,
Mount Pilot,
North Carolina,
Raleigh

Fishin' hole,
Earnest T.,
Courthouse,
Opie,
Goober Pyle,
Gomer Pyle, (Golllllly!)

Aunt Bea in the kitchen,
Lousy pickles,
Good friend chicken,
Helen Crump,
Otis drunk,
Emmett's Fixit Shop

Criminals would come to town,
Fearless Fife tracks 'em down,
His eye would pop,
His gun would drop,
He's my favorite TV cop

We love Barney Fife...
He's the Deputy of Mayberry
We love Barney Fife...
He upholds the law with Opie's pa

Floyd the barber cuttin' hair,
Howard Sprague,
Barber chair,
Barney's job is never done,
Law and order's in his blood,
His shaky gun is at your service,
Catchin' crooks makes him nervous,
Thelma Lou's official stud,
Nip it
Nip it in the bud
(This is Deputy Fife speakin'
And I'm armed!!!)

Andy plays the guitar,
Barney's in the squad car,
Driving Mayberry nuts,
He's law enforcement klutz

Ticket writing everyone,
He's got one bullet for his gun,
Bad guys are on the run,
Book 'em Barney
Murder one!

We love Barney Fife...
He's the Deputy of Mayberry...
Andy Griffith is our life
(Yeah yeah yeah),
When the show is done
We'll watch another one
(Re-run, re-run, re-run)
WE LOVE BARNEY FIFE! (Marcus Tee

When you give them tools that are easier to use than reasoned judgment, chances are they'll take the easiest choice. The other problem is that people drawn to positions of authority tend to be authoritarian in mindset. If there is no check on their decision process, they will use as much power as they can. I think my viewpoint applies not just to law enforcement but government and corporate positions of power.

The cops did what they were trained to do. And that is to punish even the slightest resistance with what normal humans would consider torture.
A good candidate for the police is a person with an authoritarian personality and a little sadism is also helpful. So this should be no surprise to any of us because this is what we want to keep us safe.

Being a campus cop must be boring as they dont got much to do except give a ton of parketing tickets, and maybe break up an occasional frat party. They saw a chance to "big guys." They thought it would be cool to taser some "hippy scum" kid who was already secure so they could punish him and show him who is boss. Whoever tasered him needs fired. Some people dont belong in law enforcement.

the cops and Meyers overreacted. The audience acted like a bunch of assholes too. John Kerry was the only one who kept his composure.

They've seen all those fun videos of people writhing in pain, but their beloved taser was still holstered, just waiting for a rowdy student to try to check out too many books from the campus library, or cut in line at the beer bong. They probably figured BushCo would back them up on this one.

.