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America has some institutional and cultural problems that no other developed, westernized democracy has, at least in terms of the extent of the problems. One of

America has some institutional and cultural problems that no other developed, westernized democracy has, at least in terms of the extent of the problems. One of these is policing. What happens in these cases is taxpayers will need to pay for a settlement. The officers, and their departments, are often not held seriously accountable. In the recent shooting of Alton Sterling that just happened, the officer's body cameras "fell off." Oh, oops. Why is that acceptable? Compare this to other professions: A surgeon makes a mistake during a procedure, the response is not "oops." It is: you will lose your life savings, even potentially their medical license. Police should be the most transparent of organizations, and the most scrutinized, not immune to it. What happened to protect and serve?

icebraining 10y ago
A surgeon makes a mistake during a procedure, the response is not "oops." It is: you will lose your life savings Really? Don't they have insurance for that?
- wallace_f 10y ago
  It's true, they all carry malpractice insurance so that doesn't happen. It does not change the fact they can easily make a mistake and lose a case that will cost them their life savings or more, even if it is possible to carry insurance to cover that cost.
DanBC 10y ago
> A surgeon makes a mistake during a procedure, the response is not "oops." It is: you will lose your life savings, even potentially their medical license. Medical errors are a significant cause of death. If the responsible clinician involved lost their life savings every time someone died after a mistake the US wouldn't have any doctors. It also sounds like a lousy way to prevent medical error or to learn from mistakes. Did you mean "mistake", or did you mean something like reckless negligence?
- wallace_f 10y ago
  >Did you mean "mistake", or did you mean something like reckless negligence? The comparison was to the body camera falling off, which seems closer to reckless negligence, but we don't often hear that language used when discussing policing. Maybe it should be, but let us please not go microscopic in a debate about the meaning of words here -- the comparison is valid, I believe, and I don't think you've shown why it is not? All my argument is saying is that the bar is set extremely high for doctors, extremely low for policeman, and that police officers have an equally important job to do in society, and should be subject to similar standards.

icebraining 10y ago

A surgeon makes a mistake during a procedure, the response is not "oops." It is: you will lose your life savings Really? Don't they have insurance for that?

wallace_f 10y ago
It's true, they all carry malpractice insurance so that doesn't happen. It does not change the fact they can easily make a mistake and lose a case that will cost them their life savings or more, even if it is possible to carry insurance to cover that cost.

DanBC 10y ago

> A surgeon makes a mistake during a procedure, the response is not "oops." It is: you will lose your life savings, even potentially their medical license. Medical errors are a significant cause of death. If the responsible clinician involved lost their life savings every time someone died after a mistake the US wouldn't have any doctors. It also sounds like a lousy way to prevent medical error or to learn from mistakes. Did you mean "mistake", or did you mean something like reckless negligence?

wallace_f 10y ago
>Did you mean "mistake", or did you mean something like reckless negligence? The comparison was to the body camera falling off, which seems closer to reckless negligence, but we don't often hear that language used when discussing policing. Maybe it should be, but let us please not go microscopic in a debate about the meaning of words here -- the comparison is valid, I believe, and I don't think you've shown why it is not? All my argument is saying is that the bar is set extremely high for doctors, extremely low for policeman, and that police officers have an equally important job to do in society, and should be subject to similar standards.