Policing in America

[DanaC]

This is a really interesting insight into some of the systemic issues with how policing works in the States.

[sexobon]

… the cops go... and you see what they look like in the United States, use steroid, pumped-up, killing machines and they patrol their beat and if somebody, if they see you drop a cigarette butt on the, on the sidewalk, they're going to show you, they're going to teach you a lesson...

What drivel. Very tw-ish in MO. A propaganda effort from an activist, with a personal grudge against police, who's turned it into a livelihood representing others. The kind of person who got Trump elected.

I've witnessed the evolution of policing in this country from when the friendly neighborhood flatfoot had to move from patrolling on the sidewalk to staying in a police car for their own safety. From carrying a 6 shot revolver on their right hip to carrying that AND a high capacity semiautomatic pistol on their left hip. Then came the semiautomatic rifles and armored personnel carries.

Meanwhile, crime is evolving faster; but, taxpayers who control the purse strings aren't providing the manpower increases to fight it, demanding cheaper technological solutions that the politicians are happy to provide as a placebo. Police found their own coping mechanisms and now the shoe is on the other foot. Police now have the de facto immunity that criminals had when taxpayers looked the other way and threw their police under the bus.

Still, that's separate from actions by a few which shock the conscience. Whether it's crimes by police; or, war crimes by soldiers, lumping all those in a given profession together is a leftist extremist tactic to weaken social cohesion making it easier to divide and conquer in furtherance of personal agenda.

Another four years of Trump for DanaC.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by sexobon

I've witnessed ....

Yeah. You are a bad witness. Crime rates are way WAY down over your lifetime. There is no need for the militarization of Police for the fighting of crime. This isn’t 1989.

[sexobon]

No, you're a bad reader. If you had watched the video, you would've known this is about police attitude, not police weaponry. I gave some background on how the protective and permissive environment for police evolved; but, used most of my post to address what that has generally left us with and differentiating general attitude from rogue actions. Reading comprehension glatt, who it is doing the writing always seems to change yours.

[Happy Monkey]

They're not "rogue actions" if the "punishment" is paid time off or immediate rehiring by another PD even if a firing both occurs and is permanent.


Within the PD, it's not a "rogue action" if they attack politicians for trying to make it illegal for police to do it.


In the case of the old man who was knocked down onto concrete, the "rogue action" was the one officer who knelt to look at the victim, hopefully to render first aid. He was pulled away by another officer, as they walked past him, and later filed a report saying he tripped, with no dissentions.

[sexobon]

That's absurd. There can be rogue individuals, rogue teams, and rogue organizations that don't reflect the actions of most of their peers, not to mention that there's more than one definition for the word rogue to include dishonest or unprincipled. Your narrow minded application is not favorably considered.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The problem is not the bully cops, the mean cops the crooked cops, even the killer cops, the problem is all the other cops who won't lift a finger to stop them.

[sexobon]

The other cops are forced to depend on bully, mean, crooked, and even killer cops to cover their backs so they can stay alive. When it comes down to a choice between cops' lives and perps' lives, the cops are going home to their spouses and children. It doesn't help anyone to make them scapegoats. The problem is perpetuated by the political hierarchy, both uniformed and civilian politicians, who don't weed the bad cops out; because, they don't want to pay (time and money) for the process (legal battles and training replacements) until they absolutely have to. Eighty-Five percent of all problems are directly traceable to top management. Don't you know anything⸮

[Happy Monkey]

If a good person is forced by bad cops to be a bad cop, they're still a bad cop.


A bad apple spoils the barrel.

[Clodfobble]

Also, if a good cop tries to be a whistleblower on rampant corruption in his department, his fellow bad cops will break into his house, physically abduct him, and have him involuntarily committed to a pysch ward for 6 days. It will then take 6 years, numerous journalistic exposes, a published book, and release of the original evidentiary tapes before he is given a $600,000 settlement from the NYPD and none of the bad cops involved are fired.

[sexobon]

Guilt by association is a cop-out* by a citizenry that doesn't want to fight City Hall. Cops' actions are either legal or illegal, after that it's all politics. Everyone in the profession knows it and that's why a fired cop can get a job with another department.

The same occurs in many professions. People get fired for being politically incorrect. It's so extensive in the military that when a servicemember gets their discharge papers, a federal copy and a state copy, the military is prohibited from putting the character of the discharge (e.g. honorable, general, uncharacterized...etc.) on the state copy by some states.

One politician's bad cop is another politicians good cop. One citizen's good cop is another citizen's bad cop. Whether actions are legal or illegal is what counts. If you don't like what's legal because you think it's bad, change the laws instead of using politicians to make scapegoats out of those low on the totem pole. That just passes the problems on to another place and time.

*so sue me

[Happy Monkey]

Something being against the law isn't enough. The cops have to actually investigate it.

[sexobon]

The cops having to actually investigate it isn't enough. The citizens have to pay for the investigation, up front, in the police budget. The citizens have to pay for witness protection, up front, in the government budget.

Taxes WILL go up, substantially.

You need to elect politicians who will do that to for you.

[BigV]

And then the prosecutors need to bring charges and make the case in court.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by BigV

And then the prosecutors need to bring charges and make the case in court.

And then a judge or jury needs to render the verdict.