The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[CountDeMoney]

Policing is (not unconnectedly I imagine) like guns for me. There's just a vast cultural gulf. The best I can do is try and understand.

This is not the policing I knew 20 years ago.  This is not the kind of policing we did.

Back then, only LAPD had that kind of militaristic, adversarial philosophy.  But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

[Jacob]

Interesting writeup from a reporter who went to Ferguson: http://grantland.com/features/ferguson-missouri-protest-michael-brown-murder-police/

[11B4V]

Policing is (not unconnectedly I imagine) like guns for me. There's just a vast cultural gulf. The best I can do is try and understand.

But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

^^^^^^^^
This right here, IMO, is the biggest problem with PD's nowadays. Badge heavy, PTSD ex-military cops that have no business wearing a badge. Let alone carrying a gun.

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

[frunk]

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

His mustache?

[11B4V]

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

His mustache?

Dont be "that" guy.

[Sheilbh]

Back then, only LAPD had that kind of militaristic, adversarial philosophy.  But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

Yeah. It just seems so far from 'police by consent' that I have about as much understanding of American cops as of French gendarmes running through Gare du Nord with what looked to me, as a shit-scared fourteen year old, like machine guns.

[mongers]

Policing is (not unconnectedly I imagine) like guns for me. There's just a vast cultural gulf. The best I can do is try and understand.

But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

^^^^^^^^
This right here, IMO, is the biggest problem with PD's nowadays. Badge heavy, PTSD ex-military cops that have no business wearing a badge. Let alone carrying a gun.

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

Thanks, two interesting views from the coalfaces, so to speak.

[Razgovory]

Policing is (not unconnectedly I imagine) like guns for me. There's just a vast cultural gulf. The best I can do is try and understand.

But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

^^^^^^^^
This right here, IMO, is the biggest problem with PD's nowadays. Badge heavy, PTSD ex-military cops that have no business wearing a badge. Let alone carrying a gun.

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

Eh, you are always going to get a share of the bullies and jackasses.  You can't turn them all away because they make up such a significant number of applicants.  The sad truth is that a lot of people become cops so they can throw their weight around.  The people who would make good cops often don't apply.  The best you can do is have a strict organization and keep them on a short leash.

[Ed Anger]

My dad once asked me why I didn't become a cop like him. I told him there would be too many bodies in the Morgues.

[Razgovory]

My dad once asked me why I didn't become a cop like him. I told him there would be too many bodies in the Morgues.

Also you wouldn't be able to afford a home in France.

[CountDeMoney]

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

That, IMHO, is the biggest problem BPD has, and why the "Stop Snitching" culture is so ingrained here;  nobody talks to the cops, because the cops aren't talking to them.
 
What is police work?  When somebody is bitching about their garbage pick-up and getting the run-around from the city, you don't say "hey, that's not my job."  You come back a few days later with a name and a phone number for them to call.  Because that is what gets you picked out from all the other cops on a scene by somebody who has something to say--"I ain't talking to Jones, he a thug, I'll talk to Ryan"--and you will catch up with them later.  And they'll give you a name.  That is police work.   

That's what I never understood why they had the attitudes.  Don't worry about the knuckleheads and the action, there will always be plenty of that to go around, you don't need to look for it.

Giving two teens shit for walking in the street?  You fucking kidding me?  You don't have anything better to do?  Dropping a choke hold on a guy for something like untaxed cigarettes that only warranted a citation?  End your career and possibly go to jail because you couldn't be bothered to talk to him for 10 more minutes?  Choking out a guy from behind when he's already cuffed and not fighting? 

Couldn't work with those guys, and they wouldn't be able to work with me.  Especially that one motherfucker that laid his hands on another cop's prisoner a while back.  That happened to me once, and we damned near came to blows right then and there.  My cuffs, my prisoner.  You don't fucking touch him.  Goddamn, that video made me mad.

Need to go back to community policing, and do it old school.  First thing I'd do is kick everybody out of their cars and get them walking the beat.  You can't police a community from behind rolled up windows and a mobile data terminal.

[citizen k]

The people who would make good cops often don't apply.

Or are not allowed to even interview for a position.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/09/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-connecticut-judge-rules-that-police-can-bar-high-iq-scores.html

[Eddie Teach]

I will still maintain that a cops best tool is the one below his nose.

His mustache?

Dont be "that" guy.

[CountDeMoney]

Deputy Travis Junior: To me it doesn't make sense if you gotta pray facin' a certain way... if God's everywhere shouldn't you be able to face any which way when you pray? Like is his receiver somewhere in the Middle East and he's listening to the receiver or somethin'?

Deputy James Garcia: Yeah, it's like, I have a plan with God but it's like a bad cell plan, doesn't work in certain areas.

Deputy Travis Junior: Five calls a day.

Deputy James Garcia: See I got anytime minutes with my God.

[alfred russel]

I think part of the militarization has to do with the risk aversion we've developed. When the powers that be are arresting a mother for leaving a 9 year old unsupervised in the park, or giving out million dollar judgments for spilling coffee on yourself, or mandating bicycle helmets, what do you think they will do when it comes to something genuinely dangerous like policing in troubled neighborhoods? Maybe it used to be acceptable, even in more violent times, to just knock on the door and talk to a likely criminal, but now you need the security of an armored vehicle.