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No not really because the president has direct legal authority over the military. Mayors do not directly control police, they're bound very tightly by strong po

by rtkwe 6y ago

No not really because the president has direct legal authority over the military. Mayors do not directly control police, they're bound very tightly by strong police union contracts for starters as to what they have to do to even fire an officer. Also if the military did decide to just go around ignore the President there's not much he could actually do, it happens often enough in other countries we have a name for it... a military coup.

luckylion 6y ago
There's a difference in firing an officer and setting policy though. It's quite normal in most countries that you can't randomly fire employees ("at-will employment" is very rare, globally), but that doesn't mean the employees are free to do whatever they please. And when they break rules, they can very much be fired. Mayors can set policy, but it's easier to have the police to their bidding while simultaneously say how terrible it is what the police are doing. Can't blame them, it's politics, but you don't need to fall for it and assume that police unions run the country with politicians as their puppets.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  > And when they break rules, they can very much be fired. Not if you're a cop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/police-fired-rehired/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/... > A San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released was reinstated in February. In the District, an officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car was ordered returned to the force in 2015. And in Boston, an officer was returned to work in 2012 despite being accused of lying, drunkenness and driving a suspected gunman from the scene of a nightclub killing. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/how-police-unions-keep-abusive-cops-on-the-street/383258/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/how-pol... > "In Philadelphia, an inquiry was recently completed on 26 cases where police officers were fired from charges ranging from domestic violence, to retail theft, to excessive force, to on duty intoxication," Adam Ozimek writes in a Forbes article on reforms to policing. "Shockingly, the Police Advisory Committee undertaking the investigation found that so far 19 of these fired officers have been reinstated. Why does this occur? The committee blamed the arbitration process." This guy got reinstated: > In June 2008, after downing six drinks as part of his wife's birthday celebration on the South Side, Paul Abel was accused of accidentally shooting a 20-year-old man he was trying to pistol-whip.

by rtkwe 6y ago

luckylion 6y ago

There's a difference in firing an officer and setting policy though. It's quite normal in most countries that you can't randomly fire employees ("at-will employment" is very rare, globally), but that doesn't mean the employees are free to do whatever they please. And when they break rules, they can very much be fired. Mayors can set policy, but it's easier to have the police to their bidding while simultaneously say how terrible it is what the police are doing. Can't blame them, it's politics, but you don't need to fall for it and assume that police unions run the country with politicians as their puppets.

ceejayoz 6y ago
> And when they break rules, they can very much be fired. Not if you're a cop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/police-fired-rehired/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/... > A San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released was reinstated in February. In the District, an officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car was ordered returned to the force in 2015. And in Boston, an officer was returned to work in 2012 despite being accused of lying, drunkenness and driving a suspected gunman from the scene of a nightclub killing. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/how-police-unions-keep-abusive-cops-on-the-street/383258/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/how-pol... > "In Philadelphia, an inquiry was recently completed on 26 cases where police officers were fired from charges ranging from domestic violence, to retail theft, to excessive force, to on duty intoxication," Adam Ozimek writes in a Forbes article on reforms to policing. "Shockingly, the Police Advisory Committee undertaking the investigation found that so far 19 of these fired officers have been reinstated. Why does this occur? The committee blamed the arbitration process." This guy got reinstated: > In June 2008, after downing six drinks as part of his wife's birthday celebration on the South Side, Paul Abel was accused of accidentally shooting a 20-year-old man he was trying to pistol-whip.