Police Officers Are Mostly Parasites

[GwynnInTheHall]

I see this as a perfect opportunity to hire and train, from the ground up, a new force with a new perspective, new training, and new guidelines to follow. What a great experiment this could be.

As for the video, I think it is a great example of the systemic problems of tactics and training. They were all geared up for a battle. They are clearly following a military mindset--to keep the peace means to bust some heads, if needed. Some may have to be put down for the greater good and order. Everyone is jacked up for a fight. Adrenaline is running high. Everyone thinks they are in the right.

And then a 75 year old man walks up slowly. He gently puts forth a cell phone that touches a LEO. In response another pushes him--not so hard that I think he intended for him to fall and be seriously hurt, but that is what happened. Right after, the human instinct of guilt and concern from an officer is seen as he starts to bend down to check on the elderly man, but he was put in check by another officer who called it in. And the rest march on, with their mission in mind, as they have been trained to do.

I see all that, and I don't see a group of dozens of evil men. I see a group of officers trained to face an enemy, to keep the peace, when in fact, the enemy is their community, or at least a very large part of it, that want to be heard, and want change. When I hear that in response to the incident, which again, I don't think involve any officers willfully trying to seriously hurt an old man who did nothing that warranted such force, but did in fact seriously hurt an old man that did nothing that warranted such force, I am reminded of the mindset of us vs them that is so endemic to forces in our country. Each of them believes they are sticking up for two officers who were simply doing their jobs, who did not intend to injure that man, and did so while following their orders and using the amount of force they are trained to use.

And for that, I don't hate them, and I understand their perspective, while also seeing that perspective as part of the problem. I am hopeful for the unique opportunity their decisions could lead to. Has there every been such a perfect test case opportunity? I hope it isn't squandered.

We are not the enemy.

[Kevin Seitzer]

This is nuts if it's accurate reporting:

[madducks]

Wow! Minneapolis City Council members (9 of 13) intend to defund and dismantle the city's police department.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/ge...day/index.html

"We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe," Council President Lisa Bender told CNN.

[Sour Masher]

Wow! Minneapolis City Council members (9 of 13) intend to defund and dismantle the city's police department.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/ge...day/index.html

"We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe," Council President Lisa Bender told CNN.

Change of this magnitude can lead to good. I do worry about the intermediary period with such moves. Where will law enforcement needs be outsourced? If so, to where, and what will the response times be? LEOs from outside the community may have as many or more issues gaining trust.

Also, defunding seems a misnomer--these plans are more about diverting funds from reactive policing to preventative measures.

[chancellor]

Change of this magnitude can lead to good.

It'll solve the overpricing of the Minneapolis real estate market in a big hurry, that's true.

[Sour Masher]

It'll solve the overpricing of the Minneapolis real estate market in a big hurry, that's true.

Ha, not so good for current home owners. Clearly, law enforcement is needed. Doing away with it would be bad for a community, so the idea of defunding rather than restructuring and diverting some funds to preventative programs is absurd. But restructuring is needed, and some deferral of funds likely makes sense. Might be some growing pains, but the hope is a better system in the long run. A lot will depend on if there will be a thoughtful plan for change or just reactionary appeasement.

[Hornsby]

People misread things into the wording...it's actually pretty bad phrasing by the council and the protesters. At this point there is NO set idea of what to do, they only know that they want change. Now, what form that change takes can go in a number of different ways. That can defund part of the police, re-direct funding to more social services, have social services respond to more domestic situations, and on and on.

People who think that cops will go away completely are not being realistic, nor would the public really want that. What they DO want is a force that is properly trained to do a demanding job, and to get rid of the bad apples as soon as they show a hint of not being fit for the new police paradigm.

[chancellor]

Ha, not so good for current home owners.

Very true. And while I agree with Hornsby's assessment about bad phrasing by the council, I know suburban houses are already getting crazy offers. My best friend's MIL, who's elderly and physically frail moved close to them in Bloomington about six weeks ago. Her house, which is farther north and west, needed some work before going on the market - minor roof repairs, painting, wood floor buffing/sanding/restaining, dry wall work - which they planned to do over about a two-month period. He's supposed to finish up in a couple weeks. The house isn't on the market but they have a listing agent, and she had two people basically give her cold offers this weekend at a price that far exceeds recent market value. Same agent's web traffic spiked to 5-6 times normal.

Limited database, I know, but my POV it's tip of the iceberg.

Edit to add: And the list of small/medium sized businesses that are leaving and/or never reopening after being destroyed in Minneapolis is growing quickly. One of them is the best niche bookstore in the Midwest, Uncle Hugo's/Edgar's.

[Sour Masher]

People misread things into the wording...it's actually pretty bad phrasing by the council and the protesters. At this point there is NO set idea of what to do, they only know that they want change. Now, what form that change takes can go in a number of different ways. That can defund part of the police, re-direct funding to more social services, have social services respond to more domestic situations, and on and on.

People who think that cops will go away completely are not being realistic, nor would the public really want that. What they DO want is a force that is properly trained to do a demanding job, and to get rid of the bad apples as soon as they show a hint of not being fit for the new police paradigm.

That is the obvious goal. I hope they can develop a plan to make it happen. I think it CAN happen. But it takes thought and planning, and likely bringing in outside support to help develop.

[Gregg]

That is the obvious goal. I hope they can develop a plan to make it happen. I think it CAN happen. But it takes thought and planning, and likely bringing in outside support to help develop.

Amen!

[Sour Masher]

This is our VPs response whem specifically asked what we can do to change in the wake of the Floyd murder video. It is a good reminder to me that his words might be gentler and far less crass, but underneath the niceties his message would be largely the same as our POTUS. Instead of addressing the issues, ignore them and blame those that are calling for change. Instead of thinking about how it is always challenging to be over-policed in some communities where trust in LEOs has been replaced by fear, we have a focus on how hard it is on LEOs right now with all the protests and anger:

“It’s a challenging time to be in law enforcement, but I would tell you that Donald Trump and I know and believe that the men and women of law enforcement — our white officers, our African American officers, our Hispanic, Latino and Asian officers — they’re the best of us and we ought to set aside this talk… about institutional racism and institutional bias,” Pence advised.

[TranaGreg]

" ... we ought to set aside this talk… about institutional racism and institutional bias,” Pence advised.

the Dems should run this as a commercial, just this quote, on repeat ...

[Sour Masher]

Confirming what we have all suspected, this is what happens in cases when a fellow cop steps in to stop another cop from choking a cuffed man--they get fired. This is the problem with the culture of policing. It isn't just that some bad apples get to wear badges, it is that no other LEOs are allowed to stop their behavior or call them out: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ge...2E4?li=BBnbfcL

[Teenwolf]

Confirming what we have all suspected, this is what happens in cases when a fellow cop steps in to stop another cop from choking a cuffed man--they get fired. This is the problem with the culture of policing. It isn't just that some bad apples get to wear badges, it is that no other LEOs are allowed to stop their behavior or call them out: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ge...2E4?li=BBnbfcL

Or stated another way, there are no good apples. Once they are exposed as good, they're rooted out.

ALL cops are complicit. Its so unsurprising that 40% of them are spousal abusers.

[Teenwolf]

This is our VPs response whem specifically asked what we can do to change in the wake of the Floyd murder video. It is a good reminder to me that his words might be gentler and far less crass, but underneath the niceties his message would be largely the same as our POTUS. Instead of addressing the issues, ignore them and blame those that are calling for change. Instead of thinking about how it is always challenging to be over-policed in some communities where trust in LEOs has been replaced by fear, we have a focus on how hard it is on LEOs right now with all the protests and anger:

“It’s a challenging time to be in law enforcement, but I would tell you that Donald Trump and I know and believe that the men and women of law enforcement — our white officers, our African American officers, our Hispanic, Latino and Asian officers — they’re the best of us and we ought to set aside this talk… about institutional racism and institutional bias,” Pence advised.

Joe Biden hasn't been much better. Shoot them in the leg!

"Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, shoot them in the leg instead of in the heart,” Biden said, going on to argue that “There’s a lot of different things that can change” in police training.

He also just stated his resistance to defunding police instead proposing increased funding to "community police" by $300 mil. Such a neo-liberal piece of shit.

You see those pics of Pelosi etc al wearing those African clothes and taking a knee? Clowns! My wife was like "you don't have to take a knee, you literally run the country!" Its all such obvious bullshit virtue signaling while offering nothing.