Police Brutality is Like Rainbows and Puppy Dogs
As you may recall, back in May there were pro-illegal immigrant demonstrations in various places, but most notably in Los Angeles. They almost went off without a hitch, until the police moved in late in the day with some fierce overzealousness and shot up some peeps with rubber bullets. That, and shoved around some reporters and old people (etc). As I recall, no one was seriously injured. Given that my memory is about as good as Paris Hilton is monogamous, however, it’s possible all of LA was nuked and I wouldn’t recall it.
As you might have guessed, the lawsuit lottery apparatus is in full effect. I heard a soundbite from one of the lawyers today, in which she said something to the effect of “Despite being harassed and threatened, these people have still bravely decided to pursue justice”. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is more or less correct. She’s saying that the police actions were an attempt to silence her clients, and despite the fact that they’re going to be under threat of continued violence by the Man, they’re still going to fight this out in court so that justice can be achieved.
I think this is the first time I’ve cussed in one of these blogs, but I think it’s warranted here: Of course they’re going to fucking pursue this in the courts. 1) The police weren’t trying to kill them or “silence” them. 2) The police aren’t going to continue to harrass them. 3) LA generally doesn’t pursue illegal immigrants, no matter what the circumstances. 4) Filing a racially based lawsuit in Los Angeles, especially if it involves the police, is a veritable gold mine for the plaintiffs. The tort system in LA has gone freaking nuts.
This has nothing to do with what happened in the park that day, but has everything to do with trying to cash in like opportunistic bastards. It would be far braver of these people NOT to pursue this in court, as that might show some real damned courage.
I don’t understand how draining the city’s coffers dry in any way helps make stuff like this better. It takes money out of badly needed programs and redistributes it into the hands of a few people.
Now, I should note that I have not seen a dollar figure yet. I would bet your left nut, however, that it’s going to be astronomical. If Brandy or bloody Tennie Pierce are any indications, LA is going to be defending itself against claims for hundreds of millions of dollars.
I have no problem with lawsuits of this nature in principle. If you are injured, you should be entitled to compensation for the injury, expenses, and income lost. I’m even ok with some punitive damages. But it makes no sense in this day and age to let plaintiffs get away with highway robbery against nervous municipalities. If any of these lawsuits ask for any significant amount of damages, I say fuck the plaintiffs. They’re brutalizing the city and its (literally) poor citizens far worse than the police did to them.
In my personal opinion, I think the police department and the court system should be abandoned (utterly and totally), but I don’t imagine I’ll see that any time soon.
Per the money, here are the facts:
(1) To eat and live, you need money.
(2) In America, the more money you have, the better you eat and live.
(3) Money is hard to obtain.
If this were truly a place where you could divide the money up equally and everyone would be happy, I’d say screw frivolous lawsuits. But we live in a place and time where that simply isn’t true. If you don’t have money, your quality of life goes down; there’s no way around it. This is America. As a result, the goal should be obtain as much money as possible. If you don’t, then you will enjoy an inferior life. As such, I’m all for frivolous lawsuits. I keep crossing the street hoping that one day I’ll get hit by a car, like an acquaintance of mine up at Berkeley (she refers to the time she was hit by a car as winning the lottery).
Comment by Dave — 14 September, 2007 @ 13:22