5 ms·

Garbage men pick up the trash every week. Yet, every week there's more trash. I fix bugs even though more bugs will inevitably be found. If what you say is tru

Garbage men pick up the trash every week. Yet, every week there's more trash. I fix bugs even though more bugs will inevitably be found. If what you say is true, what police officers are refusing to do is their job. And it's not that different than many other jobs out there. They're not elected officials, it's not their job to legislate or choose who to prosecute.

hunterb123 4y ago
Neat analogy, but you didn't finish it. It would be like if the garbage men took the trash out and at the end of the month and the person in charge of the dump released it all back out on the streets. Certainly you would have a garbage strike, which is what happened, and the dump manager (DA) was recalled. When you arrest the same person over and over again and they are just let out by the DA, you may just not arrest that person again. You aren't refusing to do your job, you're listening to an elected official that has more power than you do. Do you have any criticisms to direct at the DA, or do you agree with their actions?
- sophacles 4y ago
  Most of the sanitation workers I know would love it because of job security. Maybe if we treated cops like people with jobs, we'd be able to hire some that work.
- slg 4y ago
  >When you arrest the same person over and over again and they are just let out by the DA, you may just not arrest that person again. Great, so everyone agrees the current approach doesn't work. Now we need to come up with a better solution. Option 1 is to throw these repeat offenders in jail and consider the situation fixed. Option 2 is to take the money that we are paying the cop that now refuses to arrest anyone and instead pay someone who is willing to work with this repeat offender and help get them a home, job, treatment, or whatever else they need to stop living life like this.
  - eternalban 4y ago
    Soon we will have colonies on other planets and there will be an option 3. Police that refuse to do their job because the DA's office is politically indoctrinated are not helping anything. It's almost immature. Police have unions and associations, political connections (even today), connections with the press (even today), so we're not talking about some powerless sector of society. The mature response is for SF police to do its job (because if we do the math, it is also wasting the time of criminals), and have its organizational arms make a stink about it in the public space. Publish statistics and weekly 'wtf DA?' blog posts. I mean it's the 21st century.
  - ummonk 4y ago
    I prefer Option 3 - executions - but I'll settle for Option 1.
    - Georgelemental 4y ago
      Some people are too far gone for Option 2, but don't deserve 1 or 3. Like serial shoplifters, first-time drunk drivers, non-violent drug dealers… We used to know how to deal with these people, and many countries still do. Corporal punishment and public shaming have been the go-to solutions for millions of years. We should bring them back. You can make a criminal deeply and viscerally regret their crime, without destroying their life.
      - LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
        > Corporal punishment and public shaming have been the go-to solutions for millions of years. We should bring them back. You can make a criminal deeply and viscerally regret their crime, without destroying their life. People have a hard time with the idea that caning or standing on the street with a sandwich board detailing your crime can be the empathic answer. Better than letting you hurt others, and letting the crime harden you until you need harsher responses. > Like serial shoplifters, first-time drunk drivers, non-violent drug dealers… Then non-violent drug dealer has to mean someone selling something that can't kill or seriously injure you. Fentanyl dealers might as well be selling arsenic and should be treated accordingly.
- 8note 4y ago
  Which part is "predicting the DA's decision" in a police officer's job description? Why hasn't it been replaced by ML? For a different analogy, at a startup, the pm changes the requirements every so often, therefore the engineers are fine to play foosball all day?
  - hunterb123 4y ago
    It's not about predicting the DA's decision, it's about enforcing the current laws that were decided upon by the people. The problem was the DA was letting people off even though they were breaking said laws.
    - anigbrowl 4y ago
      You're presuming the outcome of the charge. DAs often don't prosecute because the arrest or paperwork is deficient and the case won't stand up in court.
pyuser583 4y ago
It’s the job of police officers to arrest people that won’t be charged?
taskforcegemini 4y ago
you'd not be fixing bugs, you'd make pull requests that never get merged.

hunterb123 4y ago

Neat analogy, but you didn't finish it. It would be like if the garbage men took the trash out and at the end of the month and the person in charge of the dump released it all back out on the streets. Certainly you would have a garbage strike, which is what happened, and the dump manager (DA) was recalled. When you arrest the same person over and over again and they are just let out by the DA, you may just not arrest that person again. You aren't refusing to do your job, you're listening to an elected official that has more power than you do. Do you have any criticisms to direct at the DA, or do you agree with their actions?

sophacles 4y ago
Most of the sanitation workers I know would love it because of job security. Maybe if we treated cops like people with jobs, we'd be able to hire some that work.
slg 4y ago
>When you arrest the same person over and over again and they are just let out by the DA, you may just not arrest that person again. Great, so everyone agrees the current approach doesn't work. Now we need to come up with a better solution. Option 1 is to throw these repeat offenders in jail and consider the situation fixed. Option 2 is to take the money that we are paying the cop that now refuses to arrest anyone and instead pay someone who is willing to work with this repeat offender and help get them a home, job, treatment, or whatever else they need to stop living life like this.
- eternalban 4y ago
  Soon we will have colonies on other planets and there will be an option 3. Police that refuse to do their job because the DA's office is politically indoctrinated are not helping anything. It's almost immature. Police have unions and associations, political connections (even today), connections with the press (even today), so we're not talking about some powerless sector of society. The mature response is for SF police to do its job (because if we do the math, it is also wasting the time of criminals), and have its organizational arms make a stink about it in the public space. Publish statistics and weekly 'wtf DA?' blog posts. I mean it's the 21st century.
- ummonk 4y ago
  I prefer Option 3 - executions - but I'll settle for Option 1.
  - Georgelemental 4y ago
    Some people are too far gone for Option 2, but don't deserve 1 or 3. Like serial shoplifters, first-time drunk drivers, non-violent drug dealers… We used to know how to deal with these people, and many countries still do. Corporal punishment and public shaming have been the go-to solutions for millions of years. We should bring them back. You can make a criminal deeply and viscerally regret their crime, without destroying their life.
    - LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
      > Corporal punishment and public shaming have been the go-to solutions for millions of years. We should bring them back. You can make a criminal deeply and viscerally regret their crime, without destroying their life. People have a hard time with the idea that caning or standing on the street with a sandwich board detailing your crime can be the empathic answer. Better than letting you hurt others, and letting the crime harden you until you need harsher responses. > Like serial shoplifters, first-time drunk drivers, non-violent drug dealers… Then non-violent drug dealer has to mean someone selling something that can't kill or seriously injure you. Fentanyl dealers might as well be selling arsenic and should be treated accordingly.
8note 4y ago
Which part is "predicting the DA's decision" in a police officer's job description? Why hasn't it been replaced by ML? For a different analogy, at a startup, the pm changes the requirements every so often, therefore the engineers are fine to play foosball all day?
- hunterb123 4y ago
  It's not about predicting the DA's decision, it's about enforcing the current laws that were decided upon by the people. The problem was the DA was letting people off even though they were breaking said laws.
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    You're presuming the outcome of the charge. DAs often don't prosecute because the arrest or paperwork is deficient and the case won't stand up in court.

pyuser583 4y ago

It’s the job of police officers to arrest people that won’t be charged?

taskforcegemini 4y ago

you'd not be fixing bugs, you'd make pull requests that never get merged.