5 ms·
Another poster already alluded to the point, but I'd like to make it explicit: if you believe Chicago is exceptional in this, you are wrong. The NYPD is almost
by __jal 11y ago
Another poster already alluded to the point, but I'd like to make it explicit: if you believe Chicago is exceptional in this, you are wrong. The NYPD is almost as bad (as far as we know, the NYPD doesn't have an off-the-books torture chamber[1], rather preferring to sodomize arrestees with brooms in the regular jails on a more ad hoc basis).
But just as life-destroying are the things that go on in smaller communities, where talking about conspiracy is just as valid, but the stakes, departments and communities are smaller, so it doesn't get as much attention. I know from personal experience that small town cops can be just as awful, and power structures in small towns don't get the same push back as they do in larger places.
I'm pretty sure we are seeing the beginnings of a sea change here.
Citizen surveillance tech has reached the point that the behavior of police can't be ignored any more, and the disconnect between law, policy preferences and "rough justice" as actually practiced is shocking to people who lived comfortable enough lives to not notice before[2].
Prosecutors and especially judges, always slow to change when change makes their jobs harder, will take longer to get used to the notion that wink-and-nod isn't going to work any more. Police unions are going to lose this fight, especially as activists are starting to become savvy to the tactical advantage of splitting Republicans between law and order fears and union busters.
The result, at least hopefully, will be police that, if not actually part of the community again, are not able to function as the biggest gang around with legal cover.[3]
[1] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicago-police-abused-detainees-loman-square-lawsuit/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicago-police-abused-detainees-...
[2] Not casting any aspirations there; we all pick and choose where our outrage lands to some extent, I'm just as oblivious to some injustices as other people are to this. It is simply human nature to worry about things closer to one's self.
[3] Not all police, some of them are very good at what they do, etc. At least we can retire the "few bad apples" deflection.
- rayiner 11y ago> rosecutors and especially judges, always slow to change when change makes their jobs harder, will take longer to get used to the notion that wink-and-nod isn't going to work any more. Police unions are going to lose this fight, especially as activists are starting to become savvy to the tactical advantage of splitting Republicans between law and order fears and union busters. I'm optimistic. State budgets are such a mess that the police unions are going to get hit hard from both sides. Young families on one hand, when police pensions start cutting into education, and fiscal conservatives on the other, who will relish the opportunity to take out public unions. The Illinois that rises out of the ashes of bankruptcy might look a lot better.
- mslate 11y agoI'm not sure why anyone is excited about paying policea less--the less they're paid, the more corruptible they are.
- cjslep 11y agoI envision asset forfeiture of houses and cars increasing as police budgets decrease.
- dragonwriter 11y agoMost state laws don't allow police departments to keep the proceeds of forfeitures under state law, and the policies around local agencies doing federal-law forfeitures which do allow the agencies to keep proceeds have been narrowed recently because of concerns of inappropriate use.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoWhat about splitting the left with people who despise police unions and those who support all public sector unions 100% of the time?
- frandroid 11y agoI don't see a lot of people on the left supporting police unions just because they're unions. Some will support their right to unionize but none of the subsequent behaviour from police unions. You can't really split the left in a significant way on this.
- __jal 11y agoIf you can find someone who "support[s] all public sector unions 100% of the time", have a great time. I'm sure there's someone out there, but I've never met them.
- eric_h 11y agoThe worst part of the "few bad apples" deflection is that when used, everyone is dropping the second part of that idiom. It's "a few bad apples spoil the bunch|barrel"
- Terr_ 11y ago"It's just a few pints of Ebola-blood."