As we go to concerts, festivals or
any public events, do you look around and what do you usually see, cops. Cops
are there to protect and serve the citizens to make sure they are safe. But
when does protecting people and getting involved too much? In Pittsburgh Pride
Fest, Ariel Lawther is under arrested after she “assaulted” a Pittsburgh police
officer. The police officer was trying
to break up a fight between Ariel and Eric Moure. Do you think that the police
officers are doing their job or making it worse?
On June
15, 2014, Ariel Lawther was at Pittsburgh Pride Fest, when she got into an
argument with an anti-gay protester, Eric Moure. They were in the middle of the
street, when the police officer, Souroth Chatterji, came in and tried to break
up the fight. In the meantime, the police officer said that Ariel began
punching him in the chest. This is the time where the police officer pushed her
into an opening trying to hand cuff her. As he pushed her, he pushed her in the
upper chest area and neck. Is this were police officers cross the line?
Couldn't he have simply tried to ask her to stop and say he was a police
officer instead of pushing her? The police officer was scared of Lawther
hurting innocent people in the crowd, so he grabbed her by the hair on her head
and shoved her out of the crowd. Jenna Kenny, a bystander who recorded the
parts of the fight and arrest that took place, posted this video on
Facebook. As Jenna was interviewed for
the news she said, “She didn't put up a fight. The only time she was throwing
her hands up in the air is when he grabbed her.”
Mayor,
Bill Peduto, ensures that this case will be fair and complete investigation so
that the both parties get fair treatment from Pittsburgh. Peduto wants the city not to worry and to make
sure that the city is safe and gives each party to explain their side of the
story.
Our law
enforcement is supposed to protect and help serve citizens but does that give
them the right to hurt the citizens in the time they try and arrest them? The
police officer who made the arrest is off duty until the investigation is over
and has come to justice. I think we need
to have better law enforcement rules that you should need to go through before
touching or hurting the person before arresting them? Why didn't officer
Chatterji try and talk to Ariel before grabbing and pushing her out of the
crowd? Could this situation have been avoided by trying to settle this in a
civilized manner?
Do you
think that cops are over abusing their power or just protecting citizens? Is it necessary for them to attack citizens
without trying to talk to them? In Ariel case she was just trying to protect
herself and to stand up for what she believes in. Where does the line cross for protecting and
abusing?
I agree with you that cops should try to talk to citizens first. But I don't think we should blame them, because we don't know exactly what happened. Eventually we should not forget that besides protecting other citizens, cops need to protect themselves too.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely all cops should have to talk with citizens before they go in for the action
ReplyDeleteI disagree where you say we need "better" law enforcement rules. This man was trying to keep other people safe, he did go over the line. But just because one police officer does something, or makes a mistake suddenly the entire force is being ridiculed? I think that the cops in America are judged off of the ones that abuse their power and that is sad because the ratio of good cops to bad cops is pretty good. For all the stories in the news that people hear about cops hurting people I have seen very few where a cop is the hero in a situation. Yes cops should try to talk to people before getting physical and most do but this man made a mistake and now every cop turns into a bad cop. And the rules need to be changed because of one man, that's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of your topics but one thing I was curious about was, like JC3#8140 said how come the entire police task has to be judged off of a few who make a poor decision. I believe we need to take a step back and try to help the man that screwed up rather than leave it all out there for the police force to take the blame. I'm not one to point fingers but sometimes a man needs to take responsibility for his actions.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on this topic. I do think force needs to be used in some instances but not like how these officers are using it. There is no need to judge the whole force because of a few out of line people.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what the other two said above. Why does everyone have to be in trouble for what one man did. I believe that we don't need better law enforcement because guys like this will always break the law. I also agree with what brady said. we should try to help this man realize what he did wrong.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that the wrong actions of a few seem to cast a dark shadow over the majority of cops that do things the right way. It is a very stressful job with a lot of pressure but that doesn't make overuse of force acceptable.
ReplyDelete