Police brutality at Hofstra ahead of the presidential debate

Here's a video of what happened:

http://glassbeadcollective.org/emily/IVAW_NICK_MORGAN.mov

I called the local police department near Hofstra and they put me in touch with the public information officer. He claims that the horses were brought in to get people to disperse from what was a credentials only area (managed by the secret service). He says that despite what the video suggests, the horse did not in fact trample Nick (I don't believe that). They are not denying that it happened. But they don't see anything that suggests that. Until they have video that shows this clearly (more so than in what existing video shows) they probably won't do anything about it. Currently, the incident is "under investigation."

They also claim that the accusations about his medical assistance are false and that an ambulance was blocked by the protesters. He was arrested after he was in the hospital and it was determined that he had broken the law.

It was clear that this guy has been answering calls about it all week. He claimed that he was there and that most reports (like the one in the video) are distortions of the truth. They were trying to clear about 300 people from a four lane highway using horses. His story was that the cops tried to pull Nick out from the crowd since he was inciting them and they pulled him back. The consequence was him falling and hurting himself. He also claimed that they were trying to push through a gate at the time.

It's a real stretch to fit his story to the video... I guess you can't expect much more from the Police.

Why do the police get to speed?

I see cops speeding (20-30 mph over the limit) all the time. When a cop doesn't have his lights on, should he be allowed to speed?

If the lights aren't on, he's not in a hurry. This follows by definition of when lights are required. So we know that the cop isn't in a hurry.

The argument for defensive driving is: even if you're a safe driver, other people might make mistakes, causing an accident. And the argument against speeding is that the consequences of an accident are worse at higher speeds. Then, it follows that cops, by speeding when their lights are not on, are putting the public at risk for reasons that wouldn't even warrant lights.

I've had people say that they're trained. If that's so, then they could just make this training available to the public at a charge and they could be "certified" to speed. I'd pay a good bit for that. Since we don't have that option, it can't be training.

If only I could pull cops over when they speed...

Obama tax plan

So, I'm in support of income re-distribution and progressive taxation. But I finally took a careful look at Obama's tax plan (after a friend pointed some things out to me) and I see some things that I'm not so sure about. What is the economic rationale for "refundable" tax credits? I'd be happy with his tax plan (http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/taxes/Factsheet_Tax_Plan_FINAL.pdf) if he'd just remove the word "refundable" from it.Â