SHOULDERS TO THE MAT — 1, 2, 3 — PIN; TELL THAT TO THE NH STATE POLICE

In today’s time it should be well understood that everything is documented.

Everything.

The beauty — if one could call it that — of high technology is such that privacy is a thing of the past.

I mean people find it necessary and — incomprehensible to me — acceptable to divulge to perfect strangers in cyberspace their most intimate secrets.

Like what they had for breakfast.

Or perhaps when they parted ways with yesterday’s breakfast.

Preposterous really.

So how is it then that it can be a mystery to anyone when the sensational event is sought, captured and disseminated around the globe milliseconds after it takes place?

Micro-milliseconds in fact.

Or is it that we are so hungry for attention, so nauseatingly desperate for fame and notoriety that we just do not — cannot(?) — think beyond that?

Maybe we just don’t care.

But there are consequences.

There are always consequences.

Ask the city of Los Angeles about consequences in the aftermath of the now historical Rodney King hellacious police beat-down.

The LA Riots claimed 53 lives & caused 2,000+ injuries. The physical damage done to the area and the emotional havoc wreaked defies description, not to mention rationality.

And we were “treated” to footage of this violent confrontation as it unfolded, courtesy of video taken from a balcony overlooking the scene.

In 1991.

That’s right; 25 years ago — before the internet — immediate documentation chronicling this horrific nightmare was created and made available.

THEN.

Apparently we have learned nothing.

Are we simply so angry today or are we just plain stupid?

And since when does a suspect surrendering on all fours demand any kind of beating by multiple police officers simultaneously, let alone the severe thrashing inflicted by members of the NH State Police Force this week?

But that’s not all.

Did the police think that this would fly under the radar?

In today’s world?

Did they think period?

A Sidebar: Law Enforcement — Policing — is a thankless, difficult and dangerous job. Men and women who sign up for this risk their lives for the communities they serve every time they put on the uniform. And sometimes even when they don’t. As citizens we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude as well as our allegiance and respect. But clear thought must prevail especially in the face of intense and searing heat. The heat of the moment.

Addendum: The two state troopers in question, one from Massachusetts and one from New Hampshire, were arrested on Tuesday July 19th. after being seen on television news in May allegedly beating a suspect who had ostensibly surrendered, positioning himself on all fours. They were booked on assault charges, posted cash bail and will be arraigned.

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in August 2016.]