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The author works at The Federalist Society. A conservative online magazine. Honestly, why is this article even on HN? It's copaganda but with an even worst twi

The author works at The Federalist Society. A conservative online magazine. Honestly, why is this article even on HN? It's copaganda but with an even worst twist of being a pro-private military force. The militarization of the police has been an on going issue since the 90s and now we're jumping to having corporations hiring random goons as a private police force for the wealthy and their corporations.

pmarreck 4y ago
[flagged]
- nucleogenesis 4y ago
  You’re right - whether being oppressed by people with the veneer of accountability or by a private military force without any, we should just shut up and accept it all as-is because there can’t possibly be any other way to have security.
  - pmarreck 4y ago
    Compare the track record of US police to the police in nearly every other country, and then get back to me.
    - harimau777 4y ago
      I'm not sure what you mean. This suggests that the per capita rate of police killing people is much higher than in the rest of the developed democratic world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforc...
- pleasantpeasant 4y ago
  You're putting in a lot of words in my mouth and it's a bit weird how aggressive you're coming off here. There's nothing I'm proposing here at all. I'm only critical of the obvious pro-private militarized police force, which every American should be. And this article is blatant propaganda for that agenda. The author herself works at The Federalist Society, a far-right conservative magazine.
  - pmarreck 4y ago
    I didn't see much particularly pro- about it, other than the fact that they seem more focused on treating people like people and not like case numbers. Was that part not true?
    - mikem170 4y ago
      I think they were referring to how the article seemed to be one-sided. It didn't mention any of the controversy around their activities, like the article link [0] provided by the (currently) top rated comment in this discussion, which talked about how poorly trained these security people are, how they have broken the law, beat up and shot people, how the local prosecutors are not happy with some of this stuff, etc. It would have been a more fair article if they mentioned this other stuff, but they didn't, it only painted these private security people in the best light possible. Call that a lie of omission. Some people feel this is manipulative. [0] https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/02/part-two-police-prosecutors-downtown-portland-wary-role-of-private-security/ https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/02/part-two-police-prose...
      - pmarreck 4y ago
        That's fair. And balanced. Too bad our media seems to have given up on that.
- DoctorOW 4y ago
  I dislike the binary of "completely pristine" and the current state of police. One of the professions more likely to be a victim of violent criminals are delivery drivers. Still, if heavily armed delivery drivers started killing innocent people one would be allowed to critique that without being labeled "anti-pizza". That statistic is one of a number of things that are disallowed in conversations before being offered my "effing pick" between accepting no accountability for the actions of the state or no laws ever.
  - nibbleshifter 4y ago
    > heavily armed delivery drivers Protagonist from Snow Crash!
- culi 4y ago
  > copaganda Police budgets are higher than they've ever been in history and they're spending millions on social media and "strategic communication" https://therealnews.com/police-departments-are-spending-millions-on-copaganda https://therealnews.com/police-departments-are-spending-mill...
  - leeroyjenkins11 4y ago
    Maybe because some moron on Twitter can have people calling for the head of cops who shoot people trying to stab other people. And maybe they need to pay police more because no cop wants to make life and death decisions and have uninformed people asking why they couldn't shoot the knife out of their hands. Couple this with DAs unwilling to prosecute crimes and reclassifing crimes to hide how bad things are, also having no cash bail, why would a cop stick around for what used to be a decent salary?
    - orwin 4y ago
      Certainly not to protect the children, else Ulvalde wouldn't have happened.
    - culi 4y ago
      The average cop in the San Jose PD makes $131k and has great benefits compared to other jobs you can get without a degree IMO less cops is a good thing. We put too much on them. They shouldn't be the ones responding to mental health crises, cats stuck in trees, and suicide attempts, muggings, car accidents, etc all at once. Many cities are already experimenting with mental health first responders and similar things. This definitely seems like the right direction and will also alleviate concerns about less people wanting to become cops. It'll also mean people with more expertise can focus on specific needs of a specific situation. Police already have some of the most powerful unions and are able to use taxpayer money to fund their own lobbying (to be funneled more taxpayer money, sigh). Many departments already have tanks, drones, and other military equipment that they only got because some "defense" contractor managed to convince a politician to subsidize them. Departments like NYPD also include fines and ticket fees into their budget expectations creating a strong incentive to be overly punitive. All of these are signs of an institution that's grown far too strong and desperately needs to be broken apart
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

pmarreck 4y ago

[flagged]

nucleogenesis 4y ago
You’re right - whether being oppressed by people with the veneer of accountability or by a private military force without any, we should just shut up and accept it all as-is because there can’t possibly be any other way to have security.
- pmarreck 4y ago
  Compare the track record of US police to the police in nearly every other country, and then get back to me.
  - harimau777 4y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean. This suggests that the per capita rate of police killing people is much higher than in the rest of the developed democratic world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforc...
pleasantpeasant 4y ago
You're putting in a lot of words in my mouth and it's a bit weird how aggressive you're coming off here. There's nothing I'm proposing here at all. I'm only critical of the obvious pro-private militarized police force, which every American should be. And this article is blatant propaganda for that agenda. The author herself works at The Federalist Society, a far-right conservative magazine.
- pmarreck 4y ago
  I didn't see much particularly pro- about it, other than the fact that they seem more focused on treating people like people and not like case numbers. Was that part not true?
  - mikem170 4y ago
    I think they were referring to how the article seemed to be one-sided. It didn't mention any of the controversy around their activities, like the article link [0] provided by the (currently) top rated comment in this discussion, which talked about how poorly trained these security people are, how they have broken the law, beat up and shot people, how the local prosecutors are not happy with some of this stuff, etc. It would have been a more fair article if they mentioned this other stuff, but they didn't, it only painted these private security people in the best light possible. Call that a lie of omission. Some people feel this is manipulative. [0] https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/02/part-two-police-prosecutors-downtown-portland-wary-role-of-private-security/ https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/02/part-two-police-prose...
    - pmarreck 4y ago
      That's fair. And balanced. Too bad our media seems to have given up on that.
DoctorOW 4y ago
I dislike the binary of "completely pristine" and the current state of police. One of the professions more likely to be a victim of violent criminals are delivery drivers. Still, if heavily armed delivery drivers started killing innocent people one would be allowed to critique that without being labeled "anti-pizza". That statistic is one of a number of things that are disallowed in conversations before being offered my "effing pick" between accepting no accountability for the actions of the state or no laws ever.
- nibbleshifter 4y ago
  > heavily armed delivery drivers Protagonist from Snow Crash!
culi 4y ago
> copaganda Police budgets are higher than they've ever been in history and they're spending millions on social media and "strategic communication" https://therealnews.com/police-departments-are-spending-millions-on-copaganda https://therealnews.com/police-departments-are-spending-mill...
- leeroyjenkins11 4y ago
  Maybe because some moron on Twitter can have people calling for the head of cops who shoot people trying to stab other people. And maybe they need to pay police more because no cop wants to make life and death decisions and have uninformed people asking why they couldn't shoot the knife out of their hands. Couple this with DAs unwilling to prosecute crimes and reclassifing crimes to hide how bad things are, also having no cash bail, why would a cop stick around for what used to be a decent salary?
  - orwin 4y ago
    Certainly not to protect the children, else Ulvalde wouldn't have happened.
  - culi 4y ago
    The average cop in the San Jose PD makes $131k and has great benefits compared to other jobs you can get without a degree IMO less cops is a good thing. We put too much on them. They shouldn't be the ones responding to mental health crises, cats stuck in trees, and suicide attempts, muggings, car accidents, etc all at once. Many cities are already experimenting with mental health first responders and similar things. This definitely seems like the right direction and will also alleviate concerns about less people wanting to become cops. It'll also mean people with more expertise can focus on specific needs of a specific situation. Police already have some of the most powerful unions and are able to use taxpayer money to fund their own lobbying (to be funneled more taxpayer money, sigh). Many departments already have tanks, drones, and other military equipment that they only got because some "defense" contractor managed to convince a politician to subsidize them. Departments like NYPD also include fines and ticket fees into their budget expectations creating a strong incentive to be overly punitive. All of these are signs of an institution that's grown far too strong and desperately needs to be broken apart

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]