Police behaving badly

[Pocket]

A cop in Alabama was caught calling a neighboring town's department and making false reports. At least six times. The newspaper refers to this as "swatting" but suspiciously avoids saying what happened when the cops showed up at those made-up crime scenes. Usually the point of swatting is to create a disturbance at someone's house, workplace, etc. (I say "create a disturbance" rather than "get somebody killed" because, with the exception of one case I'm aware of, swatting involves literally dispatching a SWAT team and those guys have actual training not to just burst in and start blind-firing at everyone they see.)

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Detained senior police officer commits suicide amid rape accusations

A senior superintendent who had been detained over accusations of raping at least three women died in a police cell in Hiroshima in an apparent suicide, police says.

english.kyodonews.net

 

[Rhinox]

I'm not a cop anymore and it's not exactly behaving badly, but here's some food for thought.

Today I was assigned as security for the Reece Nichols (real estate agents) 2023 Awards party in KC. There they celebrated making over 7 Billion dollars (with a B).
Literally at the south end of the block is a homeless shelter. Not even across the street, but 5 buildings down. My job was to keep the homeless out and away from the free food.

. . . . . . . there was once a time when I had a job that I could take pride in. Where I made a difference in the world. Those days are gone.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Perhaps you

I'm not a cop anymore and it's not exactly behaving badly, but here's some food for thought.

Today I was assigned as security for the Reece Nichols (real estate agents) 2023 Awards party in KC. There they celebrated making over 7 Billion dollars (with a B).
Literally at the south end of the block is a homeless shelter. Not even across the street, but 5 buildings down. My job was to keep the homeless out and away from the free food.

. . . . . . . there was once a time when I had a job that I could take pride in. Where I made a difference in the world. Those days are gone.

Perhaps you could ask someone for any leftover food to "take home(less)"?

 

[Rhinox]

No. Asking for food will get you in trouble. That's not what you're there for.
Instead they gathered all the leftover food and tossed it.

 

[Pale Rider]

FB friend:

Have you ever heard of Sir Robert Peel? He established the London Metropolitan Police in 1829, and is known as the father of modern policing. He taught 9 principles of policing (slightly paraphrased here for brevity) which a lot of people (including police) seem to have forgotten today.

1: Police prevent crime and disorder as an alternative to repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.

2: The power of the police depends on public approval of their conduct.

3: If you secure the respect and approval of the public, you will also secure their co-operation.

4: The more public respect you have, the less you will need to use physical force.

5: Public approval is secured not by pandering, but through fair and impartial treatment, respect for the law, service and friendship to the public regardless of their wealth or social standing, courtesy, good humour, and when necessary, personal sacrifice in protecting the public.

6: Use physical force only when persuasion, advice, and warning have failed, and only use the minimum amount of force necessary.

7: Remember always that the police are the public and the public are the police. The police are a form of community welfare.

8: Police must never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary to punish or judge individuals.

9: The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not public displays of police presence or power.

So ... that's a lot different from the modern approach of making sure the public knows you have an armoured vehicle and qualified immunity and you're eager to use both. By the way, they actually teach this in police academies. Some cops just decide to ignore it.

 

[Pocket]

There's an old joke that starts "In Heaven, all the policemen are English..." I assume there was once a good reason for that.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

No. Asking for food will get you in trouble. That's not what you're there for.
Instead they gathered all the leftover food and tossed it.

I can understand that. It's frustrating being a cog in a machine and sad that they threw out the food. The restaurant I used to work at wouldn't give their old food to homeless people die to fear of legal action (being sued by the homeless people, local government, etc) if the food wasn't fully fit for consumption, stored/transported "correctly", for being returned and refunds given, etc.

I suppose you could (and you shouldn't have to) give those people some food at a later date from yourself if you return back to that area in your free time?

 

[Pocket]

The restaurant I used to work at wouldn't give their old food to homeless people die to fear of legal action (being sued by the homeless people, local government, etc) if the food wasn't fully fit for consumption, stored/transported "correctly", for being returned and refunds given, etc.

Fear of being sued by homeless people who have no money to hire a lawyer is pants-on-head insane. The possibility of local governments hating homeless people so much that they'll make up excuses to go after anyone who helps them, sadly, is not.

 

[Ungnome]

Fear of being sued by homeless people who have no money to hire a lawyer is pants-on-head insane. The possibility of local governments hating homeless people so much that they'll make up excuses to go after anyone who helps them, sadly, is not.

To be fair, it IS a valid concern due to a certain class of lawyers.... They'd gladly take the case and then pocket 90% of the payout if they were to win.

 

[Rhinox]

I can understand that. It's frustrating being a cog in a machine and sad that they threw out the food. The restaurant I used to work at wouldn't give their old food to homeless people die to fear of legal action (being sued by the homeless people, local government, etc) if the food wasn't fully fit for consumption, stored/transported "correctly", for being returned and refunds given, etc.

I suppose you could (and you shouldn't have to) give those people some food at a later date from yourself if you return back to that area in your free time?

I literally live over 75 miles away. I drive over an hour for work daily.

Sir Robert Peel is spoken about intensively at the academy and within criminal justice courses. He's revered as the father of community based policing.

 

[wonko the sane?]

And then summarily ignored in favour of military hardware and culture that goes with it.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

No Officer, it's spelt "PAW Patrol"...

Manchester: Police officer drags and treads on homeless man in sleeping bag

The officer trod on the stomach of the rough sleeper, in an incident Manchester police called "unacceptable".

www.bbc.com

Still, it could be worse... (NSFW)

 

[Anonymous X]

And then summarily ignored in favour of military hardware and culture that goes with it.

I took some criminology modules at university as part of my Bachelors degree. We learnt the origins of the (British and Commonwealth style of) police as based on the notion of popular consent and being policed by your peers, fellow civilians, and locally operated. We also learnt how that was being swept away by paramilitary style policing and managerial policing (managing crime to below a certain visible level in order to prevent it disrupting economic functions of society). The former struck a chord, given it was just after the traditional police uniform had been generally replaced with the current stab vests and moulded armour, giving the constabulary a look more like Judge Dredd…

 

[NovaSaber]

Forty-Six States Paid for Violent, Racist Police Training. We Should Ban Pretextual Stops Instead.

The New Jersey Comptroller’s office found that a police training company gave racist, violent advice. Ban pretextual traffic stops instead.

theappeal.org

For decades, we’ve been told police officers just need training and resources to do their jobs correctly. These items, including cultural sensitivity training, implicit bias training, de-escalation training, and so on, cost billions every year. But we know from the senseless killings of Tyre Nichols, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and many others that no amount of training or resources will stop police from killing Black and brown people. Nor will it ensure that police treat people with dignity and respect.

Worse still, the “training” that cops already receive often glorifies violence, reinforces racist ideas, and is taught by officers with histories of misconduct. A damning new report has once again underscored that point.

 

[Pocket]

"But we know from the senseless killings of Tyre Nichols, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and many others that no amount of training or resources will stop police from killing Black and brown people. Nor will it ensure that police treat people with dignity and respect."

OK, I guess we just give up on ever fixing the system and just advocate for anarchy?

 

[Ungnome]

Step one would be to limit the power of the police union and institute more oversight. Unions, in general, are good, but there are edge cases and the current form of the police union is one of them.

 

[Spin-Out]

"But we know from the senseless killings of Tyre Nichols, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and many others that no amount of training or resources will stop police from killing Black and brown people. Nor will it ensure that police treat people with dignity and respect."

OK, I guess we just give up on ever fixing the system and just advocate for anarchy?

the system is working as intended. to the people in charge, most pigs in the US being racist, murderous sacks of jive is a feature, not a bug. the good cops are the actual glitches in the system, which is why a lot of them either quit, "accidentally" get killed from "friendly" fire or "mysteriously" get murdered in cases that for some reason aren't investigated thoroughly.

 

[NovaSaber]

Someone sends cops to do EMT's job, goes exactly how anyone should know to expect by now.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/san-anselmo-man-tased-by-police-during-seizure-alleges-cover-up

 

[CoffeeHorse]

An informal survey of several Bay Area cities by KTVU showed that police typically respond to medical calls, even when a crime is not alleged.

In big cities, like Oakland, police are dispatched because it's never clear if medical emergencies could also involve more dangerous elements. In smaller cities, like Piedmont, dispatchers receive all the police, fire and medical calls and send police to every call; it's up to the officers to use their discretion to determine whether they will respond.

You know I don't talk like this often on Allspark. But what the actual hug.

edit: Huh. The swear filter still works on me in this subforum.