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> What's the big deal? People on HN explore adjacent topics quite frequently, and the idea that both police and prisons exist to exert power over (and frequentl
by D13Fd 4y ago
> What's the big deal? People on HN explore adjacent topics quite frequently, and the idea that both police and prisons exist to exert power over (and frequently choose to exercise violence upon) the population is a very common and uncontroversial feeling.
It's popular right now to bash the police as corrupt and as not having people's best interest at heart. But the fact is that those are only some of the police. And when we start throwing out our respect for the institution as a whole, that's when we'll start seeing real corruption.
The big deal to me is that not everything has to be about police officers. The article raises a real issue about prisons scanning mail and refusing to deliver paper copies. That's horrible, and there is a ton of interesting stuff to discuss there. Why do we need to steer it towards yet another uninteresting and rote "police are all corrupt" "hell yeah suck it bootlickers" discussion?
> Not trying to "out" you here, just trying to understand why you're fighting so hard on their behalf, but do you maybe have a friend or relative that works in the police? Nothing wrong with it, but I have seen that this causes people to be more willing to turn a blind eye towards (or even to outright forgive and excuse) some of the darker things they do. Often viewing them as victims to be defended, while many of the rest of us tend to want the police to be more accountable and generally less violent.
I have zero relatives in law enforcement and I don't work in law enforcement. But I really think the rote "police suck" attitude and the current popularity of completely thoughtless police bashing is really going to hurt us all in the long run.
The flaw in your reasoning is that because some police officers have done bad things all police officers are bad. That's not true and it's not supported by the evidence.
- smcl 4y ago> some police officers have done bad things all police officers are bad The flaw here is that there are countless examples of one police officer doing something terrible, and an entire department rallying around them in support. Or the opposite - like Adrian Schoolcraft attempting to blow the whistle, and being terrorized by the NYPD as a result. The police generally do suck, and in the US at least they cost a lot of money and do little good while also doing some pretty shitty things and getting away with it. That's going to lead a lot of people to hate them for life, and it would take a herculean effort to reverse that. This is why I wondered if there's maybe a family/friend connection, because while I’m not exactly screaming for the abolishment of the Police altogether, I do think it's sort of absurd to come out swinging in defence the police as the exist in many countries
- D13Fd 4y agoYou've still said nothing about why this thread should be about police departments rather than mail scanning.
- smcl 4y agoYes I did, in fact you know this because you even quoted me saying why I thought this was acceptable and on-topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34507130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34507130
- yladiz 4y agoCan you provide the evidence you mention at the end of your comment?
- D13Fd 4y agoNo, because my point here is that we shouldn’t be steering this thread into a discussion of police corruption, which has nothing to do with the article.
- yladiz 4y agoI’m skeptical of you because you do continue to push your point that the police are not corrupt, and that you don’t any provide evidence to prove your aforementioned point. Additionally, because a discussion isn’t completely related to the article doesn’t mean it can’t be discussed here so it doesn’t make sense to try to shut it down because you both disagree with it and disagree that it belongs here.