The story behind the crying cop

[newsprint_kuno]

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gwapa lagi ang tupad ni Joma, ing ana na basta first deployment. Tanang antos naa..

[Synthetic]

bug.ata sa akong dughan uy

[tmhiong]

Thomas van Beersum ang pangalan sa Foreigner and he's a commie....





Alipures diay ni siya ni JoMa Sison...

aw alam na!

[wak_wak]

mao ning pulis nga di ganahan ug gubot.. di sya ganahan mu bunal kay kibaw sya sayop.. kung war freak pato na pulis ang gi atubang sa puti, cgurado gi bunal2xlan nato or gi bawsan pud to ug syagit..

[Crinkles11]

Thomas van Beersum ang pangalan sa Foreigner and he's a commie....





Alipures diay ni siya ni JoMa Sison...

Garaa sa kanahan oi. diri pa ni sa china pisi jud utot aning mga tawhana.

[monrose29]

ang point ra gyud aneh bisan pag 5 hours lang nah sya nag barog diha sakto sa pahuway, sakto sa kaon, og uban pa..sakto sa training.. DELI LALIM ma ipit sa situation nga deli unta angay ma hitabo.. pero sa comment sa facebook gi lookdown gihapon neh nga policeman kay weak og uban pa.... porbida kong mao may gipangita nila nga deli mo hilak og deli ma apektohan sa mga pag daog2x robot nalang unta na ilang gibutang kay walay pag bati og walay kasing2x... pastilan gyud utok aning mga tawhana...

unya bitaw kong ni sukol neh...unsa may istorya pod? abasodo nga pagka pulis? walay training?

wa gyud tay kapa ingnan aneh.......

[Rakizta]

maapektahan jud ang well being sa tawo kong way kaun uy . that shows our human side .lisod ang sitwasyon sa police sad, sakto siya they are just following orders so di sad ta ka blame nila .

[draven]

Source: Open letter to crying cop | ABS-CBN News

An Open Letter to Policeman Joselito Sevilla,
23 July 2013 at 20:10

To Policeman Joselito Sevilla,

I was the foreign protester who was actively denouncing to you the violence used against the activists yesterday at the SONA Protest. I was one of the 41 injured activists in the protest. Many of the injured received head wounds and contusions, two of the injured were senior citizens. They were attacked simply because they exercised their constitutional right to assemble and protest.

I came to the Philippines as part of an International Solidarity Mission and as a delegate of the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines. I attended the SONA protest because I had been outraged by the human rights violations committed by the corrupt Aquino regime. I am tired of the extrajudicial killings, the illegal arrests, the forced demolitions, the land-grabbings, the puppetry to US-imperialism, tired of all the oppression and exploitation of the workers, farmers, students, women, indigenous, urban poor, LGBTs, and all other oppressed groups. I have integrated here in the Philippines with many different sectors to directly see the effects of the basic problems that the Filipino people face. I personally knew people like Willem Geertman, a Dutch community worker who moved to the Philippines, who was brutally murdered by this regime last July 3, 2012. Many of the protesters have many experiences with family members, friends, and acquaintances who have been murdered or tortured by this regime. They had every reason to demonstrate against the Aquino government.

It was by chance that I was facing you. Just before our encounter I was part of the group of peaceful protesters in the front who were beaten with police truncheons. We did not carry any weapons, we only had our banners and flags. After that initial confrontation I got angry and started shouting at the police officer standing in front of me. That police officer happened to be you. I continued to ask you why the police was beating and hurting us. Your response was flashing a peace sign while saying "relax, relax". While you were doing this, a few metres away from us the police was again beating the activists. I started pointing at the attack and shouted "You are the ones that are hurting us! You started this conflict! Why are you doing this?". At this point you started getting emotional and I responded by repeating again and again the question why they were doing this. During your crying you responded to me that you were only following orders. My initial reaction was that this was a legitimization of the violence and a way to absolve yourself of any complicity in the incident. "take responsibility" I repeated over and over.

Then there was a stand-off while negotiations with the police were taking place. We were told to wait for the results. However, even before the results of the negotiations were made known, the second wave of the dispersal started to happen. Our side stayed calm while your side started coming closer and closer. It was obvious that they wanted to start a commotion on our side, which would give them a reason to start attacking the activists with full force. Despite my rage, I remained nonviolent and even put my arms behind my back to show clearly who was the attacker and who was the target. The police started to push us away but I did not see you joining them. You stayed at the same place, crying behind your shield. I was wondering whether you did not attack us because you were overwhelmed of the situation, or if you had a genuine realization about who was causing this excessive use of repressive violence. I did not have long to think about this because I got taken to the back of the protest by comrades who were afraid that the police would be out to arrest me. I tried to look for you after the clashes to have a talk with you, but you were nowhere to be found.

I write this letter because unlike the other police at the protest, you did not act violently like your mates and you did not attack us. You did what you thought was right. You were confronted with the repressive character of the police and did not follow the orders of your superiors. This is a noble act. Historically, the role of the police force is to suppress any type of resistance that has the potential to truly threaten the status quo. I hope you realize that when you follow orders that are detrimental to the people, you become complicit in the crimes that are carried out. If you are really genuine about resisting when it is right, if you really want to serve the people, then you should know that when you take orders, you have a choice and a moral responsibility to refuse to carry out any type of anti-people acts, because when you do choose to carry them out, you are complicit in the crimes that are carried out.

You alone are responsible for your actions. I hope to see you again next year, during the SONA protest of 2014. But then I hope that we will be on the same side. Together against the crimes of the state and against the violent forces that exist purely to defend that state. Together in upholding the interests of the Filipino people.

Take your responsibility and join the people's movement.

Thomas van Beersum
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

[æRLO]

Don't we have enough commies in our country already?

We don't need no attention-whoring Dutch commie to help them out. Anyway, he should be subject to deportation for participating in a protest where he isn't a citizen--which is tantamount to a foreign entity meddling with our internal affairs. The commie punk probably got his hard-on by "sticking it to the man" and getting the attention afterwards.

All he is, is a tourist punk who's using the Philippines as a stage to get his creds with his peers. I wish it wasn't PO1 Sevilla who he had confronted, but a cop who was in the mood for knocking some skulls in.

[reptoid]

Check out the level of racism on Yahoo comments regarding this topic, it's really shocking how many Filipinos behave. Thank God for istorya.net, an oasis of intellectual conversation by comparison.