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> Did the thought ever cross your mind that the police may be able to get security footage from a nearby storefront to identify the assailant I'm aware that po

> Did the thought ever cross your mind that the police may be able to get security footage from a nearby storefront to identify the assailant I'm aware that police do this when investigating crimes. However, this is also a source of misidentifying people, which often ends poorly. Young, black, and in a yellow shirt? Must be the first black guy we see in a yellow shirt! I find it unlikely that your call is going to lead to a correct prosecution over a mugging, and further think that you need to counterbalance your want to feel better and more secure by calling big tough guys with guns with the very real prospect you're going to get someone else harassed, hurt, or killed. > did you just assume police are mobile morons who serve no purpose other than to shoot and beat people? I don't assume they're morons, nor that they think that's what their purpose is. However, they had to get investigated and forced in to a settlement by the federal DoJ for racially motivated policing and a record of unnecessary violence, including stomping a restrained man in a cell while screaming they'd beat "the Mexican piss out of him", regularly hassling the wrong black person who didn't even match the description given but just happened to be within a few blocks, and shooting a Native American woodcarver multiple times in the back while he was peacefully crossing the street because he was "armed" with a carving knife. I didn't assume that they were psychotic thugs on a powertrip, no, they demonstrate that the police agency is completely unwilling to deal with these psychopaths in their ranks and instead will shield them from consequence. (They fought federal reform of their criminal policing tooth and nail - and still do to this day.) When I go a month without hearing about how the local police brutally assaulted or murdered an innocent person, I'll stop acting like the local police force routinely assaults or murders citizens. And until then, people calling the police need to realize that some police are psychopaths who will brutally assault or murder citizens in response to their call.

jamespo 12y ago
So given the option, you don't want their intervention if you're getting attacked?
- sarciszewski 12y ago
  What's the difference between a gang member and a police officer? Social acceptance. They all engage in the same behavior, have their own rites and colors, and a shared identity and sense of loyalty to bend the rules for one another.
  - nights192 12y ago
    No- one set goes through an (at least semi-)standard training process, with public scrutiny upon their every action at a personal level with additional access to public records of most of their related actions, while the other is recruited through familial relations and contacts, with the media investigating the group with a view from a collective standpoint with far more limited resources available.
    - jMyles 12y ago
      Perhaps it's useful to think of this as a spectrum rather than a stark distinction. In some places and at some times, police organizations behave in ways that we traditionally regard as "gang-like," while in other places and times, gangs behave in places that we think of as more "civic."
    - sarciszewski 12y ago
      https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipula... Any time someone creates a throw-away account to post a pro-government opinion, I immediately assume it's GCHQ/JTRIG.
jMyles 12y ago
My brother, who is an awesome, gentle, smart, great dude, is training to become a police officer. I haven't talked to him much about it. I'm not exactly sure what to say. Your statements rings very true to me, though. For the first time, I'm a little worried for my little bro.

jamespo 12y ago

So given the option, you don't want their intervention if you're getting attacked?

sarciszewski 12y ago
What's the difference between a gang member and a police officer? Social acceptance. They all engage in the same behavior, have their own rites and colors, and a shared identity and sense of loyalty to bend the rules for one another.
- nights192 12y ago
  No- one set goes through an (at least semi-)standard training process, with public scrutiny upon their every action at a personal level with additional access to public records of most of their related actions, while the other is recruited through familial relations and contacts, with the media investigating the group with a view from a collective standpoint with far more limited resources available.
  - jMyles 12y ago
    Perhaps it's useful to think of this as a spectrum rather than a stark distinction. In some places and at some times, police organizations behave in ways that we traditionally regard as "gang-like," while in other places and times, gangs behave in places that we think of as more "civic."
  - sarciszewski 12y ago
    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipula... Any time someone creates a throw-away account to post a pro-government opinion, I immediately assume it's GCHQ/JTRIG.

jMyles 12y ago

My brother, who is an awesome, gentle, smart, great dude, is training to become a police officer. I haven't talked to him much about it. I'm not exactly sure what to say. Your statements rings very true to me, though. For the first time, I'm a little worried for my little bro.