this is a video of Sgt. Shamar Thomas venting his anger onto the police of New York City in response to the Occupy Wall Street violence. he talk's about serving and fighting for our countrymen not assaulting them for no reason. with all the publicity and emotions that had been going on during the movement do you think if there hadn't been so many cameras around, do you think the police force would have reacted differently to his tirade? what if he had been some random outspoken person as opposed to a war veteran?
Based on the video, it looks like Shamar is just trying to get attention. We do not know if the cops actually beating people without reason. I am really surprised that the police did not do anything though. I think that the police men would have reacted differently if it was not a war veteran yelling at them.If police officers were really beating people for no reason I would understand why Shamar was yelling at them.
ReplyDeleteSeeing how strongly the police responded to the occupy wall street, I think Sgt. Thomas is justified in his venting. There were dozens of police officers deployed, but none of them were doing anything. I was not surprised at all that the police didn't react. With all the cameras and media around, the headlines in the newspaper the next day would have read, "police beat civilians and take Iraq war veteran into custody." Sgt. Thomas knew the police weren't going to do anything because he was in uniform. If it had been any other civilian yelling at the officers, they would definitely had been arrested.
ReplyDeleteI think that Sargent Shamar Thomas is not too out of line in his venting. I think that the fact that he has been to Iraq to fight for our country gives him credibility but the way he does it does not give him the best attention. When he slows down and talks to him appropriately I believe that he gets the people to listen to him and give him a chance.
ReplyDeleteHis rant is not justifiable. It is also illogical to assume that just because the people in this video do not have guns that they cannot be dangerous.There are many accounts of these protesters getting out of hand and injuring others and damaging property. Also it is needless to say that they are causing a disturbance with these actions and therefore police intervention is necessary.
ReplyDeleteI also found it very 'honorable' when the sergeant tells the police that if they want to kill and hurt people, they should go to Iraq. But I guess its ok to kill civilians as long as they are not American, they're only people from Iraq.
What does "they're US citizens" mean? Would it be ok to kill the local foreiner on a business trip here because he's not a US citizen. Apparently it would be since if the police want to hurt people they should hurt only the ones that aren't american.
This man would be more intelligent if he didn't speak. First of all, these occupiers are disrupting normal business activities by damaging property and keeping people from going to work or doing some other productive activity. If these occupiers want to stand in the street and keep others from doing things that they need to do, it is their choice; as is not going to work and thinking that they will miraculously make money by doing nothing. However, the people that want to actually earn money need to go to work and the occupiers just don't care and become disorderly. The police presence is clearly a necessity in this situation, and if things get out of hand it is the occupiers' own fault if they get hurt or killed. Nevertheless, the sergeant yells the same words over and over to make a point, and people applaud him as if he did make a point(thereby communicating their intelligence as well). The reality is he makes no point by yelling like a maniac and saying very stupid things.
This person clearly became too excited when he realized the camera and the attention he was getting.
The police did the right thing by not responding to this mans moronic statements. If they did it would only have given him more attention.
Based off the video, I think that Shamar’s outburst was justifiable but inappropriate. I know that the Occupy Wall Street movement stands for everything that seems to be “American”, and the fact that the protestors were being harmed seemed to upset Shamar. He said “If you want to go kill and hurt people, go to Iraq!” Seeing the police brutality upset Shamar, and may have triggered some sort of correlation between the violence that he experienced overseas. I feel that the police were sensitive to Shamar’s plea because he was in uniform, but if he was an ordinary citizen, this situation may have ended a lot differently. I feel that the outburst was inappropriate because Shamar was doing it for camera attention towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree with Vanea, I mean yes it may seem like the Shamar's reaction was inappropriate but you also have to understand this guy has been overseas he has seen violence on an everyday basis and to come home and see that there is violence here.We have to remember that soldiers come from war traumatized with all they go through in war. Soldiers go to war to fight for our safety yet we are still not even "safe" I believe that is the actual point he was tryng to get across.As for the polices reaction,I believe they didn't do anything because they knew that the Shamar was saying the truth and also because of the cameras.
ReplyDeleteHats off to the police for not giving this guy the satisfaction of losing their cool. I think it would have been a completely different scenario had the cameras not been there. If not for the publicity, I don't think that this guy would have ever climbed up on his psychotic soap box, giving the police nothing to need to react to.
ReplyDeleteHe keeps talking about there not being any honor in harming unarmed civilians, and regurgitating his service record to the point that it makes me wonder a. what his service record actually entails and b. if maybe he has a guilty conscience about some of the things he may have been apart of while in the military. He starts off yelling about cops hurting people, then jumps to screaming about the cops wanting to kill people.
Echoing scooby, this guy would have sounded a lot better had he remained silent. He may have strong feelings about the events surrounding OWS, but this video seems more like someone trying to make the most of their 15 minutes of fame.
I think that there was wrong doings in both sides of the fight. While some of the actions of retaliation from the police where completely justifiable, that doesn't mean that all of their actions where justified. People have a habit of letting things getting out of control, and in some case that happened in the case in OWS.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, Sgt. Thomas didn't need to go on the huge rant that he did against the NYC. He went on talking about how he served his people by going to fight in a war over seas but he probably hasn't spent a day in the shoes of a cop in NYC. Cops help defend the citizens against themselves and so even though they may have attacked protesters who were getting a lil to rowdy it was to simply protect the other citizens in the crowds.
I think that there was wrong doings in both sides of the fight. While some of the actions of retaliation from the police where completely justifiable, that doesn't mean that all of their actions where justified. People have a habit of letting things getting out of control, and in some case that happened in the case in OWS.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, Sgt. Thomas didn't need to go on the huge rant that he did against the NYC. He went on talking about how he served his people by going to fight in a war over seas but he probably hasn't spent a day in the shoes of a cop in NYC. Cops help defend the citizens against themselves and so even though they may have attacked protesters who were getting a lil to rowdy it was to simply protect the other citizens in the crowds.
Some of the points that Shamar makes are logical, however this appears to be a spectacle put on for the cameras. He attempts to portray the police as very brutal, when in fact they are there to promote the best interest of the civilians. The fact that he is a war veteran gives him credibility, but he abuses that fact by bringing it up so much. Save for a few isolated incidents, the police have done there jobs as prescribed monitoring the occupy protests, so Shamar's assertions are largely unfounded. I don't think that he would have put on such a dramatic spectacle had there been no cameras present.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell if his anger is justified because the video does not show any of the violence. The fact that he has served does make people want to give him more credibility because people have respect for veterans, but that does not mean that the credibility is rightfully given to him. You don't know if he actually dealt with anything like this while over seas. Without seeing why he is so upset it is hard to tell if his anger is justified or if he is yelling at police officers just trying to do their job.
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