To be glad i dont live in America having seen this on Sky News.

[sunshield]

Video: Texas Officer On Administrative Leave After Bikini-Clad Girl Detained
09:40, UK,
Monday 08 June 2015

This is quite shocking and telling about life in the US . A Policeman throwing a 14 year old girl on the floor then sitting on her "screaming" at her when she is obviously in pain with her hands in handcuffs. Worst of all he pulls is Gun out at Teenagers who have just gone to see what is happening offering no threat of violence or menace towards the police.

It seems the police officer is getting some "thrill" pointing his gun at kids. Is this typical behaviour of "law Enforcement" officers in the US or just that aimed at black teenagers. Sky News Website.

[lem73]

don'trunwithscissors I feel quite justified in calling the two African Americans fellow students who my friend and I had a horrible experience with in the early 90s racist. Most of the verbal abuse they threw at us referred to us being white. That incident aside, I can totally understand why America is a tough place to live if you are black or even Hispanic.
Alice your repetitive comments about the UK not being so perfect are becoming boring. Yes, I think most people would admit we still have a problem with racism but we have come a long way. For example I have a friend who recently retired from the Met. He admits when he started in the early 80s that you would hear absolutely shocking racist comments from older cops. He says given that atmosphere no wonder the Stephen Lawrence investigation got screwed up. However he really believes that when he left it was a much better organisation in terms of dealing with ethnic minorities.
Referring back to the title of the Op, I actually have the choice of whether or not to live in the U.S. Dh's company would rather he moved to the West Coast. While my main reason is not wanting to disrupt the kids, I also worry about how my Muslim teenage boys would be treated.

[Hoppinggreen]

I'm sure not all white Amercans can be racist but I have been truly shocked by the attitudes of white Americans I have met on holiday in the carribean towards the staff in the hotels.
According to staff we spoke to this was not unusual and stemmed from a deep rooted fear, most Americans were shocked that we were " brave " enough to leave the hotel at all and this was in a very safe area.

[AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore]

your repetitive comments about the UK not being so perfect are becoming boring

Bummer for you. Truth hurts.

Yes, I think most people would admit we still have a problem with racism but we have come a long way. For example I have a friend who recently retired from the Met. He admits when he started in the early 80s that you would hear absolutely shocking racist comments from older cops.

I heard some shockingly racist comments as late as 2008 when I was working in a UK constabulary, so please don't kid yourself that racism has made huge progress in the last 20-30 years in the UK. You only have to look at some of the threads on MN to know better.

I think it just makes people feel better to point the finger somewhere else and say "oh they're worse than us...."

[dontrunwithscissors]

lem Perhaps this is me being a pedantic academic , but what you are describing is prejudice, not racism. I've also been the focus of much racial harassment, given that my research has taken me to mainly black neighbourhoods.* On one occasion, I was stopped by (white) police while walking through a black neighbourhood because they seemingly thought I was either lost or mad, and needed saving. It took five minutes in the back of their car to persuade them that I was there voluntarily and on my way back from a BBQ.

*But for the most part, I experienced tremendous generosity and warmth.

[SenecaFalls]

Obama has created a problem whereby conservatives can point to his success and argue that black poverty and inequality is a product of individual failure and the cultural pathology of the ghetto.

Obama did not create this problem. It is a systemic problem.

[dontrunwithscissors]

OK, sloppy writing, Obama's election has created the problem that conservatives can point to his presidency as evidence that the civil rights struggle is over and racism is dead.

[AliceAnneB]

Yes, yabu to generalise the entire US from one incident. It's a big country. And some states are more different from each other culturally than some European countries.

What happened to those kids is inexcusable. I think the U.S. has a huge problem in recruiting good police officers because their job is so high risk thanks to the lax guns laws. Cops get shot at quite a bit in some areas. The whole system is so vastly different.

[amarmai]

He dragged her down by her hair while she was leaving the pool party and knelt on her back while brandishing his gun at other black teenagers who had also been evicted from the community pool party. The police were called by one of the organisers , who said she had not intended it for black youth. Sadly in US a black person is killed by a police officer every 8 hours . This particular one is no longer a police officer.

[amarmai]

sorry- every 28 hours

[Want2bSupermum]

I think it's very hard from someone who is sitting in their armchair in the UK to really understand the complexities of US society and the issues the police have and face day to day.

There are problems with the police both here and in the UK. You can't look at the gun stats here and compare to the UK. The U.S. is the size of Europe so a direct comparison highlights your ignorance of the very basic differences.

If you look at what has happened over the past 30 years of mass illegal immigration it has disproportionately affected the lowest socioeconomic groups which are predominantly minority groups here in the US. It's sickening to see nothing done to protect these groups both in the UK and the US.

[sunshield]

My (departed and greater missed uncle) told me a story of what happened to him when touring with my Auntie near Atlanta in 1995 (just before the Olympics.

Uncle walked in to a bar in a small town just outside Atlanta , sitting in the bar are 3 black guys from New York drinking . Uncle (ex Navy) starts talking to the guys after about 10 minutes the bar manager asks Uncle to stop talking to the "Blacks" Uncle refuses "Don't tell me who I can drink with " The Manager then calls the local cops who arrest Uncle for "Drinking" with ** after uncle would not stop talking to them. Uncle was thrown in the local Jail but made so much noise Shouting at the "racist" bastards. They called his wife to post bail and "urgently" said he needed urgent "mental help".

This was just 6 months before the Olympics in Atlanta yet black people were still not able to drink in certain bars. This might have be against the "law" but in reality the Sheriff of the town was "racist" and hated blacks !.

[SenecaFalls]

The police were called by one of the organisers , who said she had not intended it for black youth.

The news accounts I read said that the organizer was a black woman and the first 911 caller was a white man.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Its not only America but here as well. Our tv just decides not to report.
there was one in Bury a few weeks ago.
A young lad with learning difficulties had apparently been rude to an OAP, he was pinned down by police who had gun out and taser iirc.
Will see if its still on dh fb and link.

[BigChocFrenzy]

The UK and other EU countries have some racists within the police force and may also act brutally sometimes.
However there is a HUGE difference between the USA and other Western countries in the rate at which police actually kill unarmed civilians, see Guardian Database Death Count
I don't see how anyone examining those statistics can keep excusing the US police as being no worse than others. They are orders of magnitude worse when it comes to killing people.

Also, statistically an African American who is shot dead by police is twice as likely to be unarmed as a white who was shot.