Viewing life through a filtered lense.

I got to view a video earlier this week that was posted on some fella's personal web page or blog. It was entitled something like "American police abusing power." I watched the video. It starts off with some guy screaming at someone not to touch him. You don't know anything more than that because all you can see is what appears to be a computer desk at some library. The camera begins to move about and people begin to stir, but you still see nothing. Soon, everyone stands and begins to look at what's going on. The camera, however, is still missing the action. Suddenly there is a horrendous scream like the guy is being tortured. A few seconds pass after the "torture" with some heavy breathing followed by the same guy yelling at the top of his lungs something to the effect of "I was going to leave this God Forsaken Place and you tazzed me!" Ah ha, I thought, there are police involved right from the start from the recording. Of course that was nothing more than an educated guess because the camera man is still getting nothing but shots of spectators. The apparent offender continues to declare his intent to leave, but from the soundsof things, he had yet to do so. The police warn that he will be tazzed if he does not stand up. the warning is given a number of times. I talkin' at least five times in a raised, clear voice. The camera man shifts through the crowd and finally gets a shot of a couple of cops standing in the doorway and a couple more hunched over. The command to stand is issued a few more times with a warning that the tazzers will be used. Finally, ZAP! The guy screams his tortured cry, accompanied with flailing about of the body. Now the spectators are starting to demand that the policemen stop. The "offender" demands the badge numbers of the officers. The spectators follow his lead and begin to make the same demand. All the while, the cops still order the offender to stand. At this point, seemingly everyone in the whole building is coming to investigate the situation and the offender is silent. I suppose now that he has EVERYBODY'S FULL ATTENTION, there was no need to declare or demand anything at the top of his lungs. He's carried out of the building by his arms - handcuffed behind his back - and to the squad car. At least I assume so because the camera man never really seemed to get the hang of getting a good shot. The lobby of the building is full of angry spectators, with what I thought was additional police guarding the entrance. You can see people with their phones trying to do what the camera man apparently could not do, probably in defense of the offender. On spectator tried to protest one of the cops standing guard. The cop ordered him to step back or he will get tazzed. The spectator hesitantly obeyed. the video ended soon after that.

I got the impression that apart from the cops, all the spectators there were college students - still quite young. It seems to me that college students are so desperate to take a stand against something that first impressions are all they need to get fired up, formulate opinions, and publish their ideas criticisims on the World Wide Web. I'm basing this off of my own fram of thought back when I attended college. There is nothing new under the sun, just different degrees of the same old mess with ridiculously increased intensity. Of course, that is your fault - we older generation I mean.
Getting back to the subject. My mind set canged whenI got into the real world. I saw the world for what really was and college didn't prepare me for what I saw and experienced. Yet just as I suspect so many other college students of yester-year and the present have, I assumed college life was giving me an accurate trial run of the real world. If I'd seen that video years ago, I would have been fired up too. Today I look at them through the eyes of an adult that has had plenty of play time in real life.
I took notice that the recording takes place sometime after the incodent starts, so you don't know why the cops came for that youg man in the first place. I noticed that the visuals of the video sheds zero light on what was happening. I heard the police give warning time and time again to a man who would not budge. I say that because for some thime there was no movement and the oreders seemed to come from the doorway of the "library." I noticed that once all eyes were on the offender, he had no desire to talk. I noticed that averyone else who received an order from an officer obeyed, though reluctantly.

I don't want to raise my kids to distrust local authority because they don't have a good handle on what real life is. I plan to keep them out of prison. I don't want them to formulate their opinions on popularity, mainstream, or some sort of bleeding-heart fad. I want them to remain reserved until they feel they've received all the information necessary to formulate an inteligent decision. Yet, while I say all of this, I have to remember that we all have prospectives that have been skewed to a certain degree.

I wish I could find that site. If I do I'll add it to this post. 'Til next time.