4 ms·

It's also amazing the amount of people who have never dealt with cops who think it's a giant, unthinking, unfeeling blob, and make broad generalizations about h

It's also amazing the amount of people who have never dealt with cops who think it's a giant, unthinking, unfeeling blob, and make broad generalizations about how it behaves and what its flaws are. I've dealt with lots of cops for minor stuff (trespassing, traffic infractions, crashed parties), and have only had a bad experience (turned out fine anyway) once. I have several relatives who have been in and out of the system, and from my point of view, they were probably treated more fairly than they deserved. I get that that is not everyone's experience, but it makes me skeptical that the problem is somehow grand and structural and not just "some people are assholes."

ineptech 5y ago
Every profession has abusive people; it's a structural issue when a profession can't or won't weed them out.
- lr4444lr 5y ago
  What profession has an effective method of weeding out abusive people?
  - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
    This is 100% a bad faith question. And even if it's being asked in good faith, it's entirely irrelevant. It's essentially whataboutism. But I'll address it anyways. If I have an abusive co-worker in my tech job and my manager and HR refuse to do anything about it, it just makes work suck. But an abusive cop ruins lives with bullshit charges and bullshit handling of innocent people. In worst-case scenarios, they're murderers that get away with it. So yeah...it's a pretty clear distinction, and I refuse to believe you're asking this question in good faith.
    - lr4444lr 5y ago
      It's not in bad faith, but it is rhetorical: people protecting their own, at an industry or occupational level, is the rule, not the exception.
      - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
        Yeah, the problem is, as I mentioned, the consequences to society are very different between a cop being abusive versus your local plumber or other $JOB.
      - ineptech 5y ago
        For violence? Really? When was the last time you found yourself defending a coworker who beat someone up in the workplace?
    - BobbyJo 5y ago
      It's not whataboutism, it raises a good point: What's the best we can do with regard to weeding out bad cops? Like, what does doing a good job of that even look like? The ideal is obviously 'no bad cops' but everyone here can agree that's not really achievable, so what does doing a reasonable, or even great job look like. How many bad cops are on the force if we do everything we can?
monocasa 5y ago
And pretty much every interaction I've had with cops has been extremely negative. From stealing money out of my wallet, making up DMV issues to steal my license, to threatening my friend with jail time for trying to report a violent rape inflicted on her.
Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
The problem is that the assholes too often don't face repercussions. If you have the right to refuse to unlock your phone for a cop, then a cop that demands it even after the suspect has actively refused it should be reprimanded. The meme of "We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing" runs rampant because it's often true. Police have literally gotten away with murder, either because the DA or whoever decides to not press charges, or the prosecution literally sabotages their own case to protect the police, as in the case of the shooting of Daniel Shaver, where the prosecution and defense attorneys asked the judge to not show the bodycam footage to the jury [0]. Anybody who's seen that video knows how damning it was, and it's absolutely reprehensible that a prosecutor would want to not show it to the jury. What made it so much worse was that the police department released the video only a couple hours after the trial had completed with the Not Guilty verdict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver#Body_camera_footage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver#Body...

ineptech 5y ago

Every profession has abusive people; it's a structural issue when a profession can't or won't weed them out.

lr4444lr 5y ago
What profession has an effective method of weeding out abusive people?
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  This is 100% a bad faith question. And even if it's being asked in good faith, it's entirely irrelevant. It's essentially whataboutism. But I'll address it anyways. If I have an abusive co-worker in my tech job and my manager and HR refuse to do anything about it, it just makes work suck. But an abusive cop ruins lives with bullshit charges and bullshit handling of innocent people. In worst-case scenarios, they're murderers that get away with it. So yeah...it's a pretty clear distinction, and I refuse to believe you're asking this question in good faith.
  - lr4444lr 5y ago
    It's not in bad faith, but it is rhetorical: people protecting their own, at an industry or occupational level, is the rule, not the exception.
    - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
      Yeah, the problem is, as I mentioned, the consequences to society are very different between a cop being abusive versus your local plumber or other $JOB.
    - ineptech 5y ago
      For violence? Really? When was the last time you found yourself defending a coworker who beat someone up in the workplace?
  - BobbyJo 5y ago
    It's not whataboutism, it raises a good point: What's the best we can do with regard to weeding out bad cops? Like, what does doing a good job of that even look like? The ideal is obviously 'no bad cops' but everyone here can agree that's not really achievable, so what does doing a reasonable, or even great job look like. How many bad cops are on the force if we do everything we can?

monocasa 5y ago

And pretty much every interaction I've had with cops has been extremely negative. From stealing money out of my wallet, making up DMV issues to steal my license, to threatening my friend with jail time for trying to report a violent rape inflicted on her.

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago

The problem is that the assholes too often don't face repercussions. If you have the right to refuse to unlock your phone for a cop, then a cop that demands it even after the suspect has actively refused it should be reprimanded. The meme of "We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing" runs rampant because it's often true. Police have literally gotten away with murder, either because the DA or whoever decides to not press charges, or the prosecution literally sabotages their own case to protect the police, as in the case of the shooting of Daniel Shaver, where the prosecution and defense attorneys asked the judge to not show the bodycam footage to the jury [0]. Anybody who's seen that video knows how damning it was, and it's absolutely reprehensible that a prosecutor would want to not show it to the jury. What made it so much worse was that the police department released the video only a couple hours after the trial had completed with the Not Guilty verdict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver#Body_camera_footage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver#Body...