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Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows
- some-guy 7y agoDirect link to The Plain View Project itself: https://www.plainviewproject.org/ https://www.plainviewproject.org/
- mindgam3 7y agoWhich is itself part of Injustice Watch: https://www.injusticewatch.org https://www.injusticewatch.org "a non-partisan, not-for-profit, multimedia journalism organization that conducts in-depth research exposing institutional failures that obstruct justice and equality"
- hoophoop 7y agoDespite all the sentiment analysis algorithms those posts are not routinely spotted and taken down...
- vbuwivbiu 7y agowhat is wrong with these people
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoPeople who face little to no consequences from being violent endorse violence. Water is wet. More breaking news at 11.
- noir_lord 7y agoLots of things are 'obvious' but we do the research to both confirm them and to exclude our biases. When you have enough evidence one way or the other then you can begin addressing the problem properly. Evidence lead policies are the most rational way to addresses things.
- projektfu 7y agoExactly, I've seen for a long time that cops have the most toxic online forums. I mean, I've felt that they're often as bad or worse than the Neo-Nazi ones I've come across. But how do you know that these are real cops, and how representative are they of the force? Proper study shows that they are real cops, many of them are of higher rank in their departments, they make it hard for their coworkers to be treated with respect, they disproportionately harm civilians, and they cost their municipalities tons of money.
- cortesoft 7y agoAre you suggesting we ignore the problem?
- cc81 7y agoOr being in violent environment will often make you numb to violence.
- militaryguy-63 7y agoMost of these comments aren't racist but "just" inhuman and they show how astonishingly incompetent some cops are in social situations. >“I would of pulled the trigger.” This sentence on its own does not show any racism.
- some-guy 7y agoDid you scroll down?
- microwavecamera 7y agoThat was covered in the headline... "Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows"
- cortesoft 7y agoSure, there were non-racist comments that were troublesome... but also a lot of racist ones. What is your point?
- cannonedhamster 7y agoIt shows really poor grammar though.
- kwcts 7y agoI expect policemen, which belong to the forces of order, to be right-wingers. So I don't understand what this article means to say.
- pizza 7y ago> "Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population," the National Center for Women & Policing says. "A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24%, indicating that domestic violence is 2-4 times more common among police families than American families in general." http://womenandpolicing.com/violenceFS.asp#notes http://womenandpolicing.com/violenceFS.asp#notes
- throwaway1492 7y agoSurely there's a segment of the population with similar personality traits predominant to police officers that don't become police officers. One would think they'd also have similar incident of domestic violence if this were a personality trait? Personally, I would have no interest in dealing with the horrible things people do to one another, on a regular basis, as part of my job. No thanks. Reading the news is bad enough, I wouldn't want to live it.
- daeken 7y agoNo one is claiming it's a personality trait, though that absolutely could be a part of it. More likely, it's because police officers can act with impunity in pretty much every scenario. Add in a high-pressure job, and you've got a recipe for abuse.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoNevermind the fact that steroid abuse is common in the police. The BMJ has a lovely factsheet on anabolic steroid abuse: https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/987 https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/987 Risk factors: "employment as nightclub bouncer, professional male dancer, professional wrestler, or law enforcement officer"
- 0815test 7y ago> Surely there's a segment of the population with similar personality traits predominant to police officers that don't become police officers. One would think they'd also have similar incident of domestic violence Funny enough, casual criminals fit that picture quite well. That would explain why they are attracted to "the horrible things people do to one another, on a regular basis" - to a non-trivial extent, they share the character traits of the people who do these things in the first place.
- botwriter 7y agoOh, boy Americans! Trust me as a Brit you will miss your freedom of speech when it's gone!
- qwsxyh 7y agoAs a Brit I don't give a shit about "freedom of speech".
- roywiggins 7y agoPolice are pretty much immune from all consequences. They can barely be fired- even for good cause- and if they are they can be sued to be reinstated. They have nothing to worry about. They have some of the most robust workplace protections in the nation, not least when it comes to extracurricular opinions like these.
- newnewpdro 7y agoPolice are thugs with badges, criminals and cops are two sides of the same coin.
- kulix425 7y agopolice bad
- adolph 7y agoGiven a lack of per capita numbers and comparison to the general population this seems like concern trolling by an advocacy organization.
- some-guy 7y agoFrom the article: Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.
- jonsen 7y agoOf the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.
- deogeo 7y agoThat's an incredibly broad range of subjective infractions. Looking at the examples from the article, one is the "I would of pulled the trigger." - that's in response to an armed robber, a clear case of hypothetical self-defense. The other is "Execute all involved," - is it wrong to believe the death penalty is appropriate punishment for the murder of a six year old child? I wouldn't characterize using lethal force when someone pulls a gun on you, or advocating for the death penalty for child murderers, as unreasonable positions.
- masonic 7y agoTranslation: "80% of officers never wrote a single thing that we could paint in a negative light."
- JumpCrisscross 7y agoDo we have evidence around whether this is a selection effect or a transformation effect? That is, do racist assholes disproportionately gravitate towards the police force? Or does the police force disproportionately turn ordinary people into racist assholes?
- kiran-rao 7y agoThis would be both extremely interesting and very difficult to study.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> This would be both extremely interesting and very difficult to study You’d have to get a department to consent to the random sampling of its officers’ social media histories. (Can’t just use public data due to the selection bias it entails.) The data are there, being dutifully logged by everyone’s cell phones and flung off to servers across the world. Ethically accessing them is the political problem.
- Etheryte 7y agoAlternatively, do heavily prejudiced people commonly not know how to operate social media privacy settings?
- ppseafield 7y agoWhen you don't ever face consequences, why hide? It's just extra work. And then no consequences or even positive reinforcement from your Facebook friends validates them and makes folks even bolder.
- dmix 7y agoThere's 120,000 law enforcement officers in the US. It'd be pretty easy to find 10-15 people blowing off steam and joking on FB about their jobs in ways non-officers may find offensive. Combined with a couple straight up racist ones. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find similar relative numbers in Canada and the UK. These individuals should be punished no doubt and likely will be as a result of this article.
- malvosenior 7y agoHaving grown up in a poor community I got to know a lot of police officers and their children. Racism and thuggish behavior was definitely a huge problem. These posts sadly don't surprise me. That being said, Buzzfeed and their ilk routinely make excuses for people on the left posting the same type of racism and thugish messages. "Ironically" calling for old white men to be punished, routinely calling for violence against Trump and Trump supporters (not ironically), sexist comments against men and so on. I feel the need for freedom of speech is so great that we shouldn't censor any of this stuff but neither should we endorse or support it in the media regardless of what side of the political spectrum it's being perpetrated on.
- phxrsg 7y agoI don't think its a hard distinction to make that the bar is higher when you are issued weapons and authority by the state. Leftist asshole talking about "old white men" online = bad Cop who has the power to use force against you or arrest you talking about how "thugs deserve slugs" = worse This isn't hard.
- malvosenior 7y agoThe media is extremely powerful and has amplifying effects on violence. Both they and the police are strong and dangerous.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- projektfu 7y agoClassic whatabouttism. Does it really make you feel better to imagine two sides, one of which is "left", the other "right", and placing them on a balance? The two sides here are the police and civilians, not police and "leftists on the internet".
- dang 7y agoPlease don't take HN threads further into ideological warfare. If one is already heading there, either take it in the opposite direction, or simply don't reply. This community is about curiosity, and scorched earth doesn't interest or benefit anybody. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Also, please don't use the 'whataboutism' label in arguments here. It falls under the guideline that asks people not to call names in arguments. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20whataboutism https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
- sorokod 7y ago> "A Facebook page called Chicago Code Blue attracted attention for inflammatory comments — such as “Every Thug Deserves a Slug” — after an officer was found guilty in the death of Laquan McDonald." Oh dear, speaking of "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"
- dahfizz 7y agoAs it turns out, when you have a position in society that allows people to get away with hateful violent actions, it will attract hateful and violent people.
- threwnaboot7656 7y agoNow can you imagine what they say in perceived safe spaces, like WhatsApp or the local, cop-friendly dive bar? I can, because I've been in their midst in both of these places and it's as bad, and likely worse, than you'd imagine. It's happened more times than I can count, but it still never ceases to amaze me what some of these people will say to someone who they don't know, but could pass for one of them.
- GoodJokes 7y agoPolice uphold the laws which are written by those in power. The powerful in America racist. ACAB