Police brutality: Difference between revisions

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Police brutality became common in Germany following [[Adolf Hitler]]'s rise to power, particularly when [[the Holocaust]] got underway. SS-''Reichsführer'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] established the ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' as the official police force of Nazi Germany, giving them nearly unlimited power to persecute ideological opponents and "undesirables" of the Nazi regime such as Jews, freemasons, the churches, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other groups defined as "asocial". The Nazi conception of criminality was racial and biological, holding that criminal traits were hereditary, and had to be exterminated to purify German blood. As a result, even ordinary criminals were consigned to [[concentration camp]]s to remove them from the German racial community (''Volksgemeinschaft'') and ultimately exterminate them.

=== United Kingdom ===

Police in the United Kingdom have been accused of using excessive force against black suspects and others. Incidents include the death of David Oluwale, a homeless black man who drowned in the River Aire while being chased by police in circumstances that have never fully been established, leading to the prosecution of [[Geoffrey Ellerker]] and [[Kenneth Kitching]], both of whom were acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of having beaten Oluwale on several previous occasions. The [[Battle of Orgreave]], the most violent industrial clash in British history, saw strikers badly beaten by police before being prosecuted for riot based on testimony from police officers; the trial eventually collapsed after multiple police officers were found to have lied during the trial. During [[The Troubles]] British police were accused of murdering Irish Republican suspects such as terrorist [[Diarmuid O'Neill]], who was allegedly shot while trying to surrender. Black suspects such as Christopher Alder, Sean Rigg, Roger Sylvester, Kingsley Burrell, Sheku Bayoh, Sarah Reed, Simeon Francis and Dalian Atkinson have died either in police custody or as a result of force used during arrest. The Metropolitan Police have even been officially censured in 2022 for using excessive force after police officers shut down a 2021 vigil commemorating the [[Wayne Couzens|murder of Sarah Everard]] in breach of lockdown restrictions.

=== South Africa ===

South African police regularly used police brutality during [[Apartheid]]. Examples include the [[Sharpeville Massacre]], when 69 anti-Apartheid protestors were shot by police, and the killings of a number of protestors during protests in Soweto. Post-Apartheid incidents include the 2013 murder of Mido Macia, when eight police officers later convicted of murder handcuffed a suspect behind their van and dragged him for about 800 metres, and the [[Marikana Massacre]], when striking miners were fired on with rubber bullets, water cannon, stun grenades and tear gas and 34 were shot to death by the South African Police Service.

[[Category:Evil vs Evil]]

[[Category:Vigilante]]

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 Police brutality became common in Germany following [[Adolf Hitler]]'s rise to power, particularly when [[the Holocaust]] got underway. SS-''Reichsführer'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] established the ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' as the official police force of Nazi Germany, giving them nearly unlimited power to persecute ideological opponents and "undesirables" of the Nazi regime such as Jews, freemasons, the churches, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other groups defined as "asocial". The Nazi conception of criminality was racial and biological, holding that criminal traits were hereditary, and had to be exterminated to purify German blood. As a result, even ordinary criminals were consigned to [[concentration camp]]s to remove them from the German racial community (''Volksgemeinschaft'') and ultimately exterminate them.
+=== United Kingdom ===
+Police in the United Kingdom have been accused of using excessive force against black suspects and others. Incidents include the death of David Oluwale, a homeless black man who drowned in the River Aire while being chased by police in circumstances that have never fully been established, leading to the prosecution of [[Geoffrey Ellerker]] and [[Kenneth Kitching]], both of whom were acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of having beaten Oluwale on several previous occasions. The [[Battle of Orgreave]], the most violent industrial clash in British history, saw strikers badly beaten by police before being prosecuted for riot based on testimony from police officers; the trial eventually collapsed after multiple police officers were found to have lied during the trial. During [[The Troubles]] British police were accused of murdering Irish Republican suspects such as terrorist [[Diarmuid O'Neill]], who was allegedly shot while trying to surrender. Black suspects such as Christopher Alder, Sean Rigg, Roger Sylvester, Kingsley Burrell, Sheku Bayoh, Sarah Reed, Simeon Francis and Dalian Atkinson have died either in police custody or as a result of force used during arrest. The Metropolitan Police have even been officially censured in 2022 for using excessive force after police officers shut down a 2021 vigil commemorating the [[Wayne Couzens|murder of Sarah Everard]] in breach of lockdown restrictions.
+=== South Africa ===
+South African police regularly used police brutality during [[Apartheid]]. Examples include the [[Sharpeville Massacre]], when 69 anti-Apartheid protestors were shot by police, and the killings of a number of protestors during protests in Soweto. Post-Apartheid incidents include the 2013 murder of Mido Macia, when eight police officers later convicted of murder handcuffed a suspect behind their van and dragged him for about 800 metres, and the [[Marikana Massacre]], when striking miners were fired on with rubber bullets, water cannon, stun grenades and tear gas and 34 were shot to death by the South African Police Service.
 [[Category:Evil vs Evil]]
 [[Category:Vigilante]]