3 ms·

I'd just caution that Bill Parker, police chief in 1950 Los Angeles, was also thinking he had consent of "civilization" in suppressing the "disorderly chaos", b

I'd just caution that Bill Parker, police chief in 1950 Los Angeles, was also thinking he had consent of "civilization" in suppressing the "disorderly chaos", but which often really meant anyone not fitting certain stereotypes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line This lead to extreme racial injustice/discrimination, which lead to the 1965 Watts riots. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots We can say we are governing by consent, but we also have to ask, whose consent? I like the idea here. But it still requires more safeguards to be adequate.

smcl 3y ago
You seem to have taken the words "policing by consent", applied your own interpretation of what that means and focussed on that. From the second paragraph, we can see that the actual meaning of that phrase is in this context is: > "Policing by consent" indicates that the legitimacy of policing in the eyes of the public is based upon a consensus of support that follows from transparency about their powers, their integrity in exercising those powers and their accountability for doing so. So there's a bit more nuance and explicitly references transparency, integrity and accountability. If you keep reading there's a nice list of 9 principles in a pretty easy-to-digest form further down the page which set things out in a bit more detail. This doesn't mean that the UK's police is perfect (see the recent report on the Met police down in London for one example), but it means that they're driven by different goals/principles and held to different (arguably higher) standards than those in, for example, the USA.
- hgsgm 3y ago
  The police cars here have "Protect and Serve" decals. Saying it doesn't make it so. The proof is in the behaviors.
  - smcl 3y ago
    And the behaviour is guided by what they are legally allowed to do, or what they think they can get away with. It's pretty clear that the US is far more lenient on police and frequently lets them get away with murder, often quite literally. They're above the law. As I said, UK police aren't perfect and tbh I'm sure they'd love to carry guns around and push people around a bit with a bit more impunity. But they aren't untouchable in their duties.
    - ali_m 3y ago
      > I'm sure they'd love to carry guns around Some of them would, but perhaps not a majority. When the Police Federation most recently surveyed their members on this question in 2017 [1], 66% were opposed to routinely arming officers with firearms (although that number is down from 82% in 2006). [1] https://www.polfed.org/our-work/operational-policing/firearms/ https://www.polfed.org/our-work/operational-policing/firearm...
      - smcl 3y ago
        Pleasantly surprised by that, though the decline is a bit concerning.

smcl 3y ago

You seem to have taken the words "policing by consent", applied your own interpretation of what that means and focussed on that. From the second paragraph, we can see that the actual meaning of that phrase is in this context is: > "Policing by consent" indicates that the legitimacy of policing in the eyes of the public is based upon a consensus of support that follows from transparency about their powers, their integrity in exercising those powers and their accountability for doing so. So there's a bit more nuance and explicitly references transparency, integrity and accountability. If you keep reading there's a nice list of 9 principles in a pretty easy-to-digest form further down the page which set things out in a bit more detail. This doesn't mean that the UK's police is perfect (see the recent report on the Met police down in London for one example), but it means that they're driven by different goals/principles and held to different (arguably higher) standards than those in, for example, the USA.

hgsgm 3y ago
The police cars here have "Protect and Serve" decals. Saying it doesn't make it so. The proof is in the behaviors.
- smcl 3y ago
  And the behaviour is guided by what they are legally allowed to do, or what they think they can get away with. It's pretty clear that the US is far more lenient on police and frequently lets them get away with murder, often quite literally. They're above the law. As I said, UK police aren't perfect and tbh I'm sure they'd love to carry guns around and push people around a bit with a bit more impunity. But they aren't untouchable in their duties.
  - ali_m 3y ago
    > I'm sure they'd love to carry guns around Some of them would, but perhaps not a majority. When the Police Federation most recently surveyed their members on this question in 2017 [1], 66% were opposed to routinely arming officers with firearms (although that number is down from 82% in 2006). [1] https://www.polfed.org/our-work/operational-policing/firearms/ https://www.polfed.org/our-work/operational-policing/firearm...
    - smcl 3y ago
      Pleasantly surprised by that, though the decline is a bit concerning.