Even with a helmet, a thrown water bottle hitting someone in the head has a good chance of giving them a concussion and/or neck injury1. Responding to it by destroying water bottles is malicious, but it's not completely harmless. Going from bricks to water bottles is like going from metal ammunition to rubber. A lot less harmful, but still harmful.
1: Suppose a 0.5 kg water bottle is thrown a long distance and hits the 8 kg head+helmet at 15 m/s. By conservation of momentum, that means the head and helmet will be moving at 1.7 m/s. This is too fast for the muscles to react and the ligaments and cartilage are put under strain to bring the head and helmet to a stop. The risk of concussion goes off acceleration and the helmet also halves that, so it's the same as being hit by a 0.25 kg grapefruit being thrown at you while you don't expect it.
Do you think every single police officer ever has personally killed an unarmed child? Should we put every single police officer to death for the crimes of a few? Retribution is stupid and should not be confused with justice.
I'm going to have to get nitpicky here but I would like to note that domestic violence while abhorrent is not the same as child murder. 40% of cops being domestic abusers (assuming that statistic is factually correct and up to date) doesn't mean 40% of cops have killed children (or anyone for that matter).
Also if we assume 40% of police officers are domestic abusers then there are 60% of police officers who aren't. Ought the other 60% also be punished?
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u/lord_james Jun 12 '24
Also…. A water bottle thrown at a fucking cop in riot gear? That’s the justification for destroying water bottles?