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I've lived here a long time and come to the realization through observation that the NYPD operates like a private security force for capital. Their primary conc
by ixtli 6y ago
I've lived here a long time and come to the realization through observation that the NYPD operates like a private security force for capital. Their primary concern is to defend private property, the people themselves come second. The "community outreach" they do is just enough to keep us from getting accusatory.
- coldtea 6y ago>Their primary concern is to defend private property, the people themselves come second. And of course the more private property one has, the better the protection...
- neltnerb 6y agoUntil someone decides that the capital committed a drug crime because it smelled suspicious.
- vkou 6y agoYou're confusing private property with personal property. The police don't care about your personal property. Just try to get them to do anything useful in response to a burglary. Private property, like land, or the means of production, is an entirely different story. Those things receive full police protection.
- neltnerb 6y agoGood point, thanks. I did mean personal property.
- jackcosgrove 6y agoThey were more honest back when they called it movable property. As in, a peasant's movable property is taxed while a lord's immovable property is not. It's easier to tax things that can be picked up and taken if the tax is not paid.
- justforyou 6y agoCivil Forfeiture means private property can be a liability unless one has a lot of extra liquidity to fund a legal defense.
- sudosysgen 6y agoCivil asset forfeiture only matters for personal property. Private property, such as investments, stakes in ventures, and so on, is not affected by civil asset forfeiture. I've never seen anyone have their business seized without trial, but people have had their houses destroyed without trial.
- sagarm 6y agoThey've tried: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323539804578264242356172154 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323539804578264...
- coldtea 6y agoThe rich have so many layers between them and their property, that "Civil Forfeiture" is not an issue, sometimes not even when convicted.
- minikites 6y agoThis is true of every police department, not just the NYPD.
- greenhatglack 6y agoMost police in the world works like this. The only exception to this rule is countries like Japan, Switzerland and Singapore. In those countries, as a working class citizen you can rely on the police to make sure to keep monopoly on violence and keep you safe, when they fail to do so, they will at least bring some level of justice to whoever did you wrong - though less in Switzerland than I'd like. At least the US offers weapons for your own protection. In parts of Europe you just have to accept being sexually assaulted or stabbed.
- diegoperini 6y agoI don't believe Japan's policing system solved their sexual harassment/assault problem in public spaces, at least that's what I see in the popular media. A Japanese woman here would be more knowledgeable than me on this though.
- greenhatglack 6y agoGiven their spread of CCTV and police officers you have a higher chance of apprehending someone compared to other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics
- fileeditview 6y agoIt's sure worth handing guns to everyone for defense. If everyone is armed that really makes the world a safer place. How else could you e.g shoot somebody to defend your parking spot? /s But seriously.. do you have been to Europe? You need to visit some very extreme areas to be in real danger. What you describe is pure hyperbole.
- greenhatglack 6y agoMost working class in Europe live in "extreme" areas also "not-wanted-to-be-officially-known-as-no-go" zones. Lol, I love how you question if I've live/d there, like the complete inability to take in information that might not be fit to your world view.
- m-p-3 6y agoLaw and Order takes a different meaning when the thing about order is not about having a peaceful society, but an obedient society that keeps the status quo and the order of importance between the rich and poor.
- jackcosgrove 6y agoOrder in the English language began as a synonym for rank. Law and Order meant Law and Social Ranking. In set theory this is the same as the concept of ordinality. The original Latin reflects the broader meaning of any pattern relationship, literally threads in a weave.
- specialist 6y agoI just read Caro's The Power Broker. People have voiced this criticism for a while now. Change some dates and names, the story could easily be told again today.
- Pfhreak 6y agoHistorically, this is what police were in the Northeast US. (In the South, police trace their heritage to slave patrols. I'm sure they would argue that these patrols were also just defending property. Gross.) Landowners and merchants hired private police to watch over their holdings. Over time, they convinced locals that it would be in the public good if the guards they hired were paid for by everyone. In the 1850s, in Boston, they formalized this arrangement into the first police department in the country. (There's an interesting history here around the oppression and then incorporation of Boston's Irish population by the police force.) Edit: Curious about the downvotes -- this is a review of US history.
- bsanr 6y agoThat history is - surprise, surprise - closely related to the region's race and class relations. Boston has always been the flashpoint for such issues, more so than New York City, in part because of its smaller size and more pointed and concentrated relationship with the slave trade. The two great waves of Irish immigration meant tensions among the working and lower-middle classes, which had previously been largely black - tensions which were gladly encouraged by New England's wealthy. Incorporating Irish into the police force was a direct (and highly successful) attempt to foment interracial clashes; this preempted the forming of interracial bonds within those lower classes, which would have allowed them to demand more rights and a better quality of life from the elites. This is the same thing that happened with labor unions; Irish and black fraternization is bad for business, so court the Irish and foment bigotry against their black neighbors (to the point where they don't even want to be neighbors anymore). The way that this dynamic extends into the busing crisis and the infamous racism of Boston sports fans should be obvious.
- corebit 6y agoIt's become popular to regurgitate that bit about police and slave patrols but it has no real basis in reality. That isn't to say that there isn't some example of a slave patrol that was pressed into service as police, but Police are a concept that all of America inherited from the English roots of our governments.
- 6y ago
- abandonliberty 6y agoPublic legal record shows that the police are there to protect society rather than any person. Their job is to maintain law and order sufficiently so that society doesn't collapse, people keep working, etc. "the duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
- pjkundert 6y agoClearly, it is not to protect “private property”, as in citizen taxpayers’ property. They will let that burn, and leave you to die. Their sole job is to protect the state’s property. And the lives and property of those who control the state. Proof: every riot thus far in 2020.
- tartoran 6y agoYou’re confusing police with firefighters. NYPD don’t handle fires at all
- ves 6y agoI think “let it burn” was either meant figuratively or in the sense that the police won’t prevent arson. I don’t think the implication was that police should be putting out fires once started, or that they’re doing that but selectively.