> The case started in 2014. James, then a college student, was walking between two summer jobs in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when two men stopped him, demanded his name, and took his wallet. Thinking he was being mugged, James ran. But the men caught him, beat him to the point that his face was unrecognizable, and choked him unconscious. James only later discovered that the men were members of a police task force—one an FBI agent and the other a local detective. The officers never identified themselves as law enforcement to James, and bystanders who witnessed the beating were equally in the dark, calling 911 to report what they believed to be an attempted murder in broad daylight. Uniformed officers arrived, and, even though it was clear James was not the wanted suspect, arrested James, transported him to the hospital, and handcuffed him to his bed.

> They are doing their job, this is their job.

Maybe elaborate on that a little I'm not sure I understand. How exactly is what they did their job?

I think you misunderstand giraffe_lady's point. She's saying that beating up on random people is actually the job of the police - not the job we think they have, not the job they have morally or legally, but given the system and society we have, that's their actual job. And the question is, why do we as a society want our police to do that?

I'm not sure that I agree with her point. But that's what I think she's saying.

> She's saying that beating up on random people is actually the job of the police

I mean it's obviously not literally that. Is it the outcome of something that is the police's job? Maybe but then what would that be?

Maybe they were just trying to score some internet points by being a troll, I don't get it.

The point I was making is similar to "the purpose of a system is what it does."

Regardless of or alongside what we say the police do, or what they claim to do, they also beat the shit out of people a lot. We don't prevent them from doing this, or usually impose consequences for them doing it, we don't even seem to generally mind that they do it. We continue to pay them.

So, the job of the police is what they do, and a significant portion of what they do is beating the shit out of people. That makes it their job in a limited but still useful and very real way.

It’s their job to beat people senseless?

Kind of. It was pretty much the job of the proto-police forces which naturally became our modern police forces. The development of policing in America is much more crude and ad-hoc than people would like to admit. I don't think modern police generally join the force with this spirit but there's a root of violent lackiness that has maybe never been fully exercised from the system.

Police should enforce the law, they are not in the retribution business.

Tasers and chemical agents aren't as effective as they'd like, and guns are a bit too permanent (though that doesn't always stop them). The truncheon is a long-standing symbol of police for a reason.

>"this is their job."

To beat the living shit out of people? I doubt it.

Well we pay them to do it, don't stop them from doing it, and almost never impose consequences for doing it. In a real practical way I think that makes it their job.

"we" do not pay them for doing it. Government does and is not asking us. We are just a cowards that do not have enough guts to protect our rights or hoping that as long as it is not me it is fine.

The mistake you are making is to think that beating people up is part of their job description at all. They're supposed to either arrest people or stop them from fleeing, beyond that any violence is utterly off limits.

Any LE officer that 'beats people up' deserves to have the book thrown at them. With some extra penalty because of the abuse of their badge.

No the mistake you've made is thinking that their job is defined or limited by the job description. What police do is violence, and it's not off limits at all because they almost never face consequences for the violence they do.

So regardless of what we say the police should be, or the standard we say they should be held to, in practice they beat up who they want and we let them. We keep paying them to do it and don't stop them from doing it, that makes it their job in a very real way.