Yes, I, myself only went once. and even then it was only with another person and I spoke to no one.
You (white guy) assume that I (not white guy) would have the same experience that you would when going to the police. My experience, the experience of my friend, and the experiences of other victims (predominatly women of color) show me that this is not true. The scars I have from racist police show that is not true. Go into any neighborhood of color and ask if they think the police are their friends.
I acknowledge there is a chance I would get real tangible help. My experiences lead me to beleive taht this is not likely. I am not saying, again, that I WONT go. I'm saying that is my last resort, I think there are many options to be exhausted before putting myself through what will most likely be a de-humanizing experience. IS that really so hard for you to understand? You think I wont go because I'm being stubborn? really?

I wont go because I know what will happen, or more accurately I know what will most likely happen.


a cop threatening to rape or arrest someone doesnt show they have the mindset of a rapist? I wasnt trying to misrepresent, which is why several times I gave the name and implored you to look it up.

NO I DON'T. I NEVER said it was a sure thing, I said cops fuck up and I know cops treat minorities differently. All I said it is foolish not to try. I said that one visit is not enough to prove that it is doomed to failure. Frankly, you didn't even drop the issue that the victim was black until after I had started commenting and your story continued to evolve (and continues to evolve) to make going to the police station look impossible. You have said that you wont go, but I'm glad to hear that you have changed your mind. I am not glad that merely because I am white, and you are not white, the fact that I disagree with you is because of my supposed white privilege.

Who said the victim was black?
Anyway I really feel like a lot of our disagreement is on misunderstanding. internet tone and all that, differing definititions etc. I freely admit I have let emotions get the best of me here and kind of made an ass of myself. It is a very emotional issue for me so please try to understand that. Some of my 'venom' or... combative tone whatever, comes from the fact that I already know going to the police is an option. I personally having had a looooong list of incidents with racist toledo police, and the kind of rape culture in toledo, do not feel that it is the best option, specifically it was already tried. Has it been tried to exhaustion? no. But I already tried, and did not get good results. So, keeping in mind that the police are an option, I was looking for ideas on other things I could do. So when you insisted to keep going to the police, I should have said calmly, I'll keep that in mind, do you have any additional suggestions? Not try and show you why that is not the best course of action. Because then we just get into an argument about cops and we all know where that will lead, esp with me. So, an attempt to get this back on track at least a little, thank you for your suggestion. do you have any other suggestions?

PS I posted the link because mafia mentioned how few here seem to know what it is. It wasnt directed at anyone in particular, rather general tone of various comments in the thread

I'm sorry I assumed "of color" meant black as it does in my research, my research ends 150 years ago though.

I accept your apology, and apologize myself for harping on it. I would say a victims rights organization or a hotline that was mentioned before since they are the experts. I wouldn't do anything that could get you arrested or sued, you don't want to come out a loser for what this creep did.

Look Sic. Whatever you do, do it within the confines of the law. Don't do something that will see you behind bars for 5 to 10.

Look I've had warrants for my arrest since pandora was on this site. I think I will be ok. Not that I'm saying I will do anything 'illegal' but I think there is a gross over-estimation of police power on this thread.

power is wrong word. initiative. intelligence. ability. power they have in spades. shit, there are even predator drones spying on us right now

numerous police stations also have tanks, APC's its pretty ridiculous how they have been militarized

Sorry, American police departments have tanks? What? Which ones? Are these tanks in the sense of... armoured vehicles with heavy weapons that ride on treads? The fug...

I'm pretty sure the most advanced military equipment the police in my city have is a horse.

He's devastatingly cute though...

So I decided to research this. Apparently three horses are currently on active duty. All as handsome as the one I've seen I'm sure.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-19/news/30418859_1_protesters-tank-tampa-police

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1KAOjhQM0Dw/TY8XLJo5e5I/AAAAAAAAMe4/4p_NaePw15Q/s400/police_tank_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://dotconnectoruk.blogspot.com/2011/03/police-use-tank-to-make-arrest.html&h=302&w=400&sz=40&tbnid=tqMV6ja0GV-NoM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpolice%2Btank%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=police+tank&docid=sWPuA1ddcDt5BM&sa=X&ei=poTzTrDFCqiSiQKD2b3DDg&ved=0CCsQ9QEwAA&dur=2556

be wary, second website seems kinda wacky. just posted it for the pic. This is just from a 2 minute google search, I know there are numerous PD's around the country that have APC's and or tanks, or heavily armored humvees that might as well be

@Friendly Sword-

Yep, our cops have tanks. My town, a town of about 50,000 with maybe 4 murders a year, at least 100 miles away from any larger town, felt the need to go out and buy an armored police vehicle that is essentially a light tank with a battering ram in lieu of a cannon. We've also criminalized not cooperating with the police. We are indeed slipping into a police state.

Yeah Fairfield cops have cars with *gasp* bicyccles on them! And Cincinati cops have *gasp* Segways! Get real. LA might have their armored SWAT unit, bujt even it isn't equiped with a big gun. Now sic is just pulling shit out of his paranoid ass.

I know we're really getting off topic here, but can I say I really miss mounted police. We had them both in Boston and at my university. You'd think it's stupid, but my god there is nothing more intimidating than walking past a police officer on a fucking horse.

There's nothing like getting trampled and billy clubbed by a pig on an animal that covers the roads in shit.

oh PS my friend got arrested like 2 weeks ago for asking a cop for his badge number.

oh and another one got charged with felony assault on a police officer for trying to go into city council meeting (open to public) with an 8x11 poster with the 1st amendment written on it

@ bob, what city is this?

@Draug And I'm glad I don't live in the USA, with its overfilled jails and trigger-happy cops ;) Of course each case is different and so a small beating like mine (remember, I was absolutely fit, just really bloody) can be classified either as infraction against public order (up to 5k CZK of fine) or as a crime of hooliganism (fine or up to 2 years in jail). Usually, if two guys enjoy a fistfight in a pub and mess each other bad, it's hooliganism. In my case, it wouldn't be a crime of causing physical harm or anything even more serious because the guy didn't actually hurt me plus he didn't planned it. The most serious punishment I could invoke would be probably racially motivated assault since the guy was a Roma and shouted something about me being a white swine.

Anyway, if you punch someone in such a way that he is incapable of going to work even for a one day, getting into jail is more or less guaranteed. If you pre-plan it and don't actually hurt him, your chances are better but jail is still more likely than fine. If you don't even plan it, you might very well end up with only paying a fine. I don't see it as really fucked up just more benevolent. The laws are usually dictated by the needs of the society and since violence is not really that much of a problem over here, I guess we can settle with the possibility of getting slightly busted without punishing the bad guy.

@sicarius

Wausau, Wisconsin.

You mean not a problem unless you're a Roma, that is.

http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/articles/roma.pdf

"European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Annual Report 2010

During the period 2000-2008, 10 of the 12 Member States which publish
sufficient criminal justice data on racist crime to be able to undertake an
analysis of trends, experienced an upward trend in recorded racist crime. The
Czech Republic experienced a downward trend, and Poland’s overall trend
remained constant for the period for which data is available." page 36, figure on 37

http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/AR_2010-conf-edition_en.pdf

In 2008, there were 217 reported racial crimes. If we assume 90% latency (which is an upper bound in Roma organizations estimates), we have 2170 racial crimes. There was a minimum of 17 875 reported victims of violent crimes in 2008. If we take these odds that are the most skewed towards racist crimes, we get that 12,14% of all violent crimes are racist crimes. Obviously, racism is a two-way problem but let's assume that all racist crimes are white-on-Roma crimes. The estimate is Roma form 3% of the population of the Czech Republic (though officially, more people confess to Jedi faith than Romani nationality). The worst case scenario is that Roma are 4 times more targeted by racist violence than they should be targeted by violence in general. Not a good score for the Czech Republic. Now show me a country that fares significantly better after applying the same criteria.

You will find some and not few but definitely not so much to warrant much more draconic -approach to punishment of violence.

Just stop.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/694756

Your country's treatment of the Roma is reprehensible. It has taken every ounce of EU pressure to get you to do anything about it since the Velvet "Revolution".

Notice this:

"Prague was severely censured by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled the Czech Republic was discriminating against Roma children by putting them in special schools – for "backward" kids – as a matter of public policy, a systematic streaming that precluded them from advancing academically and led to early drop-out, usually after Grade 8, which is required to obtain a driver's license.

The government has, formally, phased out that program but many gypsy students are still segregated in Roma-only classes within mainstream schools, where they follow a different curriculum and are stigmatized from the get-go.

******The Czech Republic is the only EU country that has no anti-discrimination laws that could prevent such things.**********

Of course the problem is widespread. An example of the treatment of the Roma in Russia -
However, the ERRC is concerned that new cases of grave human rights abuse have continued to be reported by Roma in Russia after the report's publication. For example, from May 29 to June 2, 2006, authorities bulldozed 37 houses belonging to Roma families and set fire to the ruins in the village of Dorozhnoe, in Kaliningrad region, thus condemning to homelessness more than 200 Roma, including over 100 children. Regional authorities began their eviction campaign by initiating court proceedings to have the Roma families' ownership of their homes declared void. In proceedings that violated fundamental standards of due process, the court issued decisions on May 3, 2006 rejecting the families' claims and opening the door to the forced evictions that would follow. Despite protests from international organisations, the Russian authorities continued the forced eviction, and destroyed all houses belonging to Roma in Dorozhnoe. Over a hundred of the displaced Roma, who had lived legally for long periods in their homes, were forced to live in tents and other temporary shelters and are being threatened with physical expulsion from their land. Others have fled elsewhere or been expelled from the area.

Plenty more here: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2636

Yes, those evil communists actually made sure Roma had rights in eastern Europe. Aren't we all so glad the Wall fell?

Not as bad as france......

France got bad press for expulsions, Czech is far worse by all accounts. The French thing was shocking because Roma typically flee Czech and Hungary and seek asylum in France.