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it seems unreal to most Americans as well. it's not a practice that's widely known, as the article says. if the cards are given after a "donation", the donatio
by currymj 9y ago
it seems unreal to most Americans as well. it's not a practice that's widely known, as the article says.
if the cards are given after a "donation", the donation is to the labor union representing the police officers, rather than to the force itself. the unions sometimes engage in charitable activities in the area, so there is at least a pretense for making a donation.
the article also talks specifically about NYPD, which while technically a municipal police department, probably shouldn't be seen that way because it's so huge. indeed the mayor of New York describes it as "the seventh largest standing army in the world".
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoI do imagine that it's not significantly different than the professional courtesy one would likely get in a smaller department. But NY being so large, where there's no chance any given officer knows who another officer's family is, they need some sort of card. "I'm Officer Smith's wife" doesn't cut it in NY. But it is amazing how much official bureaucracy has been placed on a system... designed to give people a loophole out of the bureaucracy.
- sandworm101 9y ago>> the donation is to the labor union representing the police officers. Not always. Many US department accept donations directly. Often people donate equipment, up to and including cars. The Tulsa shooting in 2015 involved an insurance salesman acting as a "volunteer" police officer. He had donated substantially to the force and was, allegedly, given privileges in recompense. Pay to play imho.
- currymj 9y agothis is a fascinating fact, and I guess I should have assumed everything was even worse than I thought. I guess it’s the flip side of civil forfeiture, departments funding themselves like businesses.
- digi_owl 9y agoI guess these thing has lead to the saying that the police force is the biggest gang...