I think that’s a really valid point, reminiscent of how people claimed that the election of a (half) Black President marked the end of racism in America.
[They actually made similar comments when The Cosby Show aired, saying that – since a Black physician was now a popular character … (ignoring for the moment the truth about Cos).)
Except I think it points out the problems in the system. Chauvin should have been kicked off the force (or indicted) long ago. The more history we find the more reason to push for reform.
Cops are dicks. Committing crimes they will imprison others for while on duty.
I seem to recall that LAPD had, at one point, transformed itself from being a pariah to a model of how to do urban policing. But everything I’ve read about LASD is a different matter entirely. It’s a cowboy culture for sure.
I think that what we’re seeing now in the late 2010s and early 2020s is the product of 20-30 years of right wing criminal justice. When I was growing up, I remember that liberal democrats were pussies who were soft on crime. I used to watch COPS. I used to watch America’s Most Wanted. I admit it - I enjoyed having a cold one and watching big macho cops gang tackle Lawrence Taylor style the drunken idiot who knocked the breathalyzer out of the cop’s hand and made a mad dash for the fence. It was young, paranoid insecure white fuckers like me who demanded ‘three-strikes your out’ and voted for pro-get tough on crime governors, congressmen, and even a ‘new Democrat’ president. I regret it. I hope others do, too.
I’m not sure I buy this narrative. Some of the worst offending police departments are in very liberal cities: LA, NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, etc. I don’t think we can chalk this up to liberal/conservative policies.
Seattle too. I lived there for 25 years. Seattle cops are the fucking worst.
I do think there’s a strong element of the Stanford Prison Experiment, and/or “Lord of the Flies” at play here.
Or go watch one of the movies about the Third Wave experiment.
One of the things that always struck me about the Stanford Prison Experiment was that they advertised for volunteers, and then randomly assigned them to be either inmates or guards. This wasn’t a case where the natural born killers gravitated to the positions of authority.
Maybe Hobbes was simply right. Maybe we are just ‘nasty, brutish, and short.’
The question, to me, is how we’re either organizationally and societally ignorant of this dynamic or why we’re evil enough to consciously ignore, tolerate, or condone and nurture it.
Maybe it’s as simple as asking “Who profits ?” Maybe it’s the institutions we’ve created and the perverse incentives that give them so much lobbying influence and unassailable inertia.
We need more mental health screening, evaluation, and ongoing care in law enforcement, and we need to figure out where the line is for broken toys and getting them out of positions of power.
A newly-released Louisville Metro PD report says that the officers who killed Breonna Taylor should never have fired their weapons:
Hey, I’m not that short.
You will make up the difference next month. Mostly.
a swarm of police officers ordered the two women to exit the truck and lie on their stomachs in the middle of the street while officers searched the rental truck, according to court records.
Balsaver, 31, and Sen, 33, remained motionless on the pavement as at least 10 officers surrounded them, some with guns drawn, while a police helicopter hovered above, court records and a video recorded by a bystander show.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/10/women-sue-lapd-violent-uhaul-arrest/
Even if the U-Haul had been stolen 10 police officers and a helicopter seems excessive.
Jackbooted thugs under color of authority. Or rather authoritay!
Treated like a fleeing murder suspect rather than someone who forgot to turn on headlights. Officer arrested her for DUI but…facts.
At the Fairfax County jail, Brooks and her attorney said, she twice took a breathalyzer test. The results: a 0.0 blood alcohol level. So Hindenlang charged her with resisting arrest, eluding police, failing to have headlights on and reckless driving.
Guilty of Driving While Black.
The latest on Andrew Brown, Jr.:
More on the above LA cop arrested for kidnapping and assault:
My favorite quote:
[Chief] Moore said the LAPD will also look into its hiring practices and how the department missed earlier allegations of misconduct off-duty and excessive uses of alcohol involving QuintanillaBorja.
“This incident did involve allegations of excessive use of alcohol and not on a single event, but earlier accounts attributed to this officer’s conduct off duty,” Moore said. “This (investigation) will involve us looking at all of that to see ‘How did we miss it?’
How did you miss it? Probably because you weren’t looking for it. Code of silence and all that.
Fro Snowboarder_Bo’s post
Chance Lynch, a lawyer…said…
The only thing as equally untrustworthy as a police union rep is a lawyer! While, I believe his story is closer to the truth than the cops’. I still don’t trust him.
OK, THAT is a porn name!
New York’s Finest
And the winner of the understatement of the year award goes to the FBI director in that article
“Behavior like the type alleged today is a disgrace. It erodes public trust in law enforcement and tarnishes the reputations of the many thousands of officers who honorably serve our communities on a daily basis,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney said in a statement.
Gee, ya think?