The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[Berkut]

The article said it was US Marshals effecting the arrest, not local PD.

[Oexmelin]

In 2017, the FBI reported that white supremacists posed a "persistent threat of lethal violence" that has produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000.  Alarmingly, internal FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and anti-government militia groups they investigate often have "active links" to law enforcement officials.
...
Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and elsewhere.
...
In 2019, a group of Proud Boys in Washington, DC, disrupted a permitted flag burning by members of a communist group in front of the White House, instigating a scuffle. DC police arrested two of the communists but escorted the Proud Boys away. Some officers fist-bumped them as they later walked into a bar. An investigation determined that the officers had not violated any police policies.
...
A police officer in Olympia, Washington, was placed under investigation for posing in a photograph with a heavily armed militia group called Three Percent of Washington. One of the militia members posted the photograph on social media, claiming that the officer and her partner had come over to thank them as they guarded a local shopping center

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law

[viper37]

yeah make sense I am just worried a general anti-police sentiment will take hold in your country, which would be really detrimental, regardless of how many cruel racist shitheads there are in the force.

Maybe if there were a general anti-police sentiment, there would actually be political will to make changes.

yeah, that's what happenned in the USSR under Staline.  There was a general anti-police and anti-kgb sentiment that lead to change.

Was the change you are referring to the creation of the KGB, which did not exist in Stalin's USSR?

Well, I did say the police too.   But good point.  NKVD would have been more appropriate.

Anyhow.  The point stand.  Protests rarely change anything.  They're just a way to vent frustration.

[grumbler]

I actually said,  "The Patriot Prayer group has a lot of people in and around the police force."  I'm sorry you assumed I meant just in Portland, or specifically just PPB. I didn't.

When you said "the police force," I assumed that you mean "the police force."  I'm sorry that you didn't realize that you should have "various police forces" when you meant "various police forces."  The word "the" is the definite article, meaning that there is just one.  You used the singular "force," meaning just one.  English is difficult, but it is more difficult to communicate in when you are being snotty about your own mistakes.

[grumbler]

In 2017, the FBI reported that white supremacists posed a "persistent threat of lethal violence" that has produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000.  Alarmingly, internal FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and anti-government militia groups they investigate often have "active links" to law enforcement officials.
...
Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and elsewhere.
...
In 2019, a group of Proud Boys in Washington, DC, disrupted a permitted flag burning by members of a communist group in front of the White House, instigating a scuffle. DC police arrested two of the communists but escorted the Proud Boys away. Some officers fist-bumped them as they later walked into a bar. An investigation determined that the officers had not violated any police policies.
...
A police officer in Olympia, Washington, was placed under investigation for posing in a photograph with a heavily armed militia group called Three Percent of Washington. One of the militia members posted the photograph on social media, claiming that the officer and her partner had come over to thank them as they guarded a local shopping center

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law

It's not just that some of these police are members of far-right gangs, it's also a concern that police recruit screening doesn't identify people like this as unsuitable for the job.

[Sheilbh]

There's been similar reports about the far right and military from the UK intelligence services and counter-extremism programs. Basically there are a number of squaddies with links to radical far right groups. I think there's been similar reports in other bits of Europe and I think there's a real need for the military in our countries to really curb far-right activity in their ranks.

Not sure if it's been an issue in the US.

[The Minsky Moment]

Definitely an issue in Germany where far right militants have gotten their hands on confidential info in police files.

[Syt]

Definitely an issue in Germany where far right militants have gotten their hands on confidential info in police files.

Yup. The first few times this happened (it first cropped up last year or the year before) the official line was, "It's impossible to say who it might have been. One person unlocks the computer, and then everyone uses it."

And the Interior Minister dismisses calls for studies into the subject, because "discrimination is forbidden." Nevermind that the police union published calendars with racist cartoons. Instead the police forces invoke the spectre of left wing violence.

[Tonitrus]

It's not just that some of these police are members of far-right gangs, it's also a concern that police recruit screening doesn't identify people like this as unsuitable for the job.

That is one of the issues that is likely in need in reform.  My understanding in most US jurisdictions is that the police hiring seems to be almost entirely in-house, with the decision to hire individuals made by the agency (or perhaps more to the point, members of the agency) itself.

One of systemic problems overall is that police agencies seem are too insular to outside control and accountability. 

[Razgovory]

You know, the "Defund the police" movements would probably get more traction if they changed it to "Defund the the deep state".

[11B4V]

BLM and BtB rallies in town this weekend.

Relatively uneventful.

[Tamas]

I think military and police are dream jobs for far-right types, so they need stringent rules and being kept to them to avoid an overtake (something the US seem to be lacking at least in case of the police), but it is such a natural fit that eliminating this danger altogether will be impossible

[Josquius]

Also helps that the military and the far right target their recruitment at the same groups.

[grumbler]

Also helps that the military and the far right target their recruitment at the same groups.

If this is true, then I suspect that the British Army will realize their mistake soon enough, and target their recruiting more along the lines of other countries' militaries.   The far right are trying to recruit ill-disciplined and intolerant mugs; those are they type that are unlikely to even make it through boot camp.

[Eddie Teach]

The military is targeting physically fit people below 35. I'm not sure who the far right targets.