4 ms·

I feel like at some point in time, entrapment was frowned upon... Unfortunately it's this behavior that reinforces - not helps fix - the often maligned urban/m

I feel like at some point in time, entrapment was frowned upon... Unfortunately it's this behavior that reinforces - not helps fix - the often maligned urban/minority fear of ever helping the police in any way ever. Does the entire neighborhood know who committed crimes X? Yes. Will anyone ever talk to the police? Na.

WildUtah 12y ago
"it's this behavior that reinforces" It's a mild reenforcement but the root reason to fear and not cooperate with the police is the same as ever. When most police resources in the USA are focused on drug enforcement and most Americans have committed federal felonies they don't think they should be incarcerated for and most underclass young men are committing them routinely, you can't expect crime ridden communities to see the police as any kind of blessing.
- ajuc 12y ago
  If most of population performs crimes routinely and don't think it's a crime - it's probably because your law is stupid.
  - rrss1122 12y ago
    Alternately, it's probably because the use of "most" is unwarranted.
x0x0 12y ago
If you read the ferguson report -- and I can't do it justice -- the police were systematically used to assault black people, and use them as a cash source to fund local government. Meanwhile, white people skated on the same charges. I can't do the report justice, but it's utterly appalling. And while white people might not know what is going on, trust me, black people damn sure do. To say the least, this does not improve cooperation with the police. One should understand that the Justice Department did not simply find indirect evidence of unintentionally racist practices which harm black people, but "discriminatory intent”—that is to say willful racism aimed to generate cash. Justice in Ferguson is not a matter of "racism without racists," but racism with racists so secure, so proud, so brazen that they used their government emails to flaunt it. [1] [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/The-Gangsters-Of-Ferguson/386893/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/The-Gang... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/ferguson-police-racial-discrimination.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/ferguson-po...
- dzdt 12y ago
  Crazy stat : city of Ferguson has outstanding arrest warrants on more than half of its citizens. This is an insane police state! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-finding-from-the-doj-ferguson_b_6858388.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-f...
  - ptaipale 12y ago
    That sounds like a red herring. Without reading the story further than the first paragraph, I guess the reality is more like this: Police in city of Ferguson knows of 16 000 arrest warrants for people from all over the USA, plus a number of foreigners, and Ferguson has 21 000 residents. Some smaller city may have just 210 residents, and its police force may (theoretically) also know of the same 16 000 arrest warrants. Does that tell us that the USA is a horrible police state? No. It tells us that people are comparing numbers in a way that does not make sense.
    - dghf 12y ago
      If you do read the story further, and the NBC story it links to, you'll see that these 16 000 arrest warrants were issued by the Ferguson Municipal Court; they're not merely warrants known to Ferguson police but originating elsewhere. > It tells us that people are comparing numbers in a way that does not make sense. From the HuffPo article: "To give some context as to how truly extreme this is, a comparison may be useful. In 2014, the Boston Municipal Court System, for a city of 645,000 people, issued about 2,300 criminal warrants. The Ferguson Municipal Court issued 9,000, for a population 1/30th the size of Boston's." Seems like a reasonable comparison to me.
      - ptaipale 12y ago
        "arrest warrants on more than half of its citizens" -- that is clearly not true. Many of the warrants are on people who are not its citizens. There sure are problems in places like Ferguson, but this comparison seems not entirely honest. Why do you compare arrest warrants of a single municipal court vs. number of residents in that small municipality, and then the arrest warrants of a much larger municipal court system and number of residents in that much larger municipal system? Of course these ratios are different, because by nature a single, small municipality issues many arrest warrants for people who are not residents, while a larger system mostly handles people living inside its constituency. Compare St. Louis metropolitan area and Boston metropolitan area, then you see the scale of problems. It is there, so there should be no need to do flimsy tricks on apples and oranges. The war on drugs sure brings problems, and this is one symptom.

WildUtah 12y ago

"it's this behavior that reinforces" It's a mild reenforcement but the root reason to fear and not cooperate with the police is the same as ever. When most police resources in the USA are focused on drug enforcement and most Americans have committed federal felonies they don't think they should be incarcerated for and most underclass young men are committing them routinely, you can't expect crime ridden communities to see the police as any kind of blessing.

ajuc 12y ago
If most of population performs crimes routinely and don't think it's a crime - it's probably because your law is stupid.
- rrss1122 12y ago
  Alternately, it's probably because the use of "most" is unwarranted.

x0x0 12y ago

If you read the ferguson report -- and I can't do it justice -- the police were systematically used to assault black people, and use them as a cash source to fund local government. Meanwhile, white people skated on the same charges. I can't do the report justice, but it's utterly appalling. And while white people might not know what is going on, trust me, black people damn sure do. To say the least, this does not improve cooperation with the police. One should understand that the Justice Department did not simply find indirect evidence of unintentionally racist practices which harm black people, but "discriminatory intent”—that is to say willful racism aimed to generate cash. Justice in Ferguson is not a matter of "racism without racists," but racism with racists so secure, so proud, so brazen that they used their government emails to flaunt it. [1] [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/The-Gangsters-Of-Ferguson/386893/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/The-Gang... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/ferguson-police-racial-discrimination.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/ferguson-po...

dzdt 12y ago
Crazy stat : city of Ferguson has outstanding arrest warrants on more than half of its citizens. This is an insane police state! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-finding-from-the-doj-ferguson_b_6858388.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-f...
- ptaipale 12y ago
  That sounds like a red herring. Without reading the story further than the first paragraph, I guess the reality is more like this: Police in city of Ferguson knows of 16 000 arrest warrants for people from all over the USA, plus a number of foreigners, and Ferguson has 21 000 residents. Some smaller city may have just 210 residents, and its police force may (theoretically) also know of the same 16 000 arrest warrants. Does that tell us that the USA is a horrible police state? No. It tells us that people are comparing numbers in a way that does not make sense.
  - dghf 12y ago
    If you do read the story further, and the NBC story it links to, you'll see that these 16 000 arrest warrants were issued by the Ferguson Municipal Court; they're not merely warrants known to Ferguson police but originating elsewhere. > It tells us that people are comparing numbers in a way that does not make sense. From the HuffPo article: "To give some context as to how truly extreme this is, a comparison may be useful. In 2014, the Boston Municipal Court System, for a city of 645,000 people, issued about 2,300 criminal warrants. The Ferguson Municipal Court issued 9,000, for a population 1/30th the size of Boston's." Seems like a reasonable comparison to me.
    - ptaipale 12y ago
      "arrest warrants on more than half of its citizens" -- that is clearly not true. Many of the warrants are on people who are not its citizens. There sure are problems in places like Ferguson, but this comparison seems not entirely honest. Why do you compare arrest warrants of a single municipal court vs. number of residents in that small municipality, and then the arrest warrants of a much larger municipal court system and number of residents in that much larger municipal system? Of course these ratios are different, because by nature a single, small municipality issues many arrest warrants for people who are not residents, while a larger system mostly handles people living inside its constituency. Compare St. Louis metropolitan area and Boston metropolitan area, then you see the scale of problems. It is there, so there should be no need to do flimsy tricks on apples and oranges. The war on drugs sure brings problems, and this is one symptom.