This. They are a minority, but not a small minority. My guess is that they make up something like 1/2 to 2/3 of Republican voters. Republican voters, in turn, make. up something like a little more than 1/4 of American adults. So probably somewhere around 15 to 20 % of all American adults.
My guess is that it was the old Eric Cartman. He was thinking “respect my authority.” Not respect the law, or the authority vested in me by the legal system, but “respect my personal authority.”
Yes, that’s why I think he was guilty of murder 1. He had plenty of time to reconsider.
These are all excellent points. And to drill into the specific realm of policing, it is much more than a few racist assholes causing the problem. The system of policing in the U.S. teaches cops that every person they encounter is a potential threat. Their actions are governed by the mantra “I’d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six.” Every interaction - traffic stop, domestic argument, trespassing, homelessness, suspected forgery - could potentially be dangerous, so they must go in armed and ready for violence at any moment. They escalate any situation just by walking into it.
Add in system racism that causes many police, not just the “racist assholes”, to see POC as a bigger threat, and you end up with a system that is dangerous for everyone, but even more so for Black people.
Agree. I’ve thought for a while that American police suffer from some sort of pre traumatic stress disorder. They are effectively broken people before they hit the street on their first day.
They’re disappointed because they are fascists who have contempt for anyone who doesn’t have their worldview and/or background. Riots - hell even a noisy protest - would have validated their biases that liberals and minorities are a threat to their kind. The absence of a riot deprived them of an opportunity to confirm their suspicions. But this kind of polarization is very real and I don’t see signs of it going away anytime soon.
There are agencies that get it right, but they pay well and they can afford to be selective. I’ve wondered if perhaps we couldn’t have something like the 1994 crime bill all over again but this time, instead of purchasing tanks, body armor, and battering rams, we could spend less on weapons and more on increasing law enforcement pay and professionalism throughout the country. Start with the major metro departments first, and maybe then encourage federal/state/local partnerships that work toward replicating these efforts. Instead of the crime bill, call it the community protection or cooperative community safety act - whatever you want to call it.
Depends on state law. In my state (Kansas), for example, it applies only to “any inherently dangerous felony,” with the list of those defined in statute: rape, robbery, kidnapping, arson, endangering the food supply, fleeing law enforcement, criminal discharge of a firearm, and so forth. If you’ve somehow managed to get somebody killed in the course of embezzling public funds or counterfeiting identity documents or falsely registered an aircraft under a non-existent owner’s name or distributing unauthorized gambling devices, while those are felonies they are not “inherently dangerous” so the death would not qualify under the felony murder statute. (Of course, it might qualify under some other murder/manslaughter statute.)
What do typical US police officers make? Anyone know what the typical salary is in Minneapolis? Here in Canada it’s typically over $100K.
The typical Toronto Police Service Police Officer salary is $107,824. Police Officer salaries at Toronto Police Service can range from $94,500 - $113,962.
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/Toronto-Police-Service-Police-Officer-Salaries-E130795_D_KO23,37.htm
Because readers who get caught up in fights in the comments will keep coming back to the page to continue fighting, which drives up page clicks.
This seems like a situation where crew resource management training might have served them well:
CRM started in aviation, but it has spread to firefighting and other endeavors. Maybe ought to spread to police training as well.
Worth noting that that’s somewhat inflated by the conversion rate from CAD to USD. It works out to about 75-92K USD.
The prosecutors who did an excellent job disagree with you and I still think that it’s different than you think it is. A pretty good explanation is linked below (ignore that the article quotes Nancy Grace at first).
From the article: "Even proving Chauvin had an alleged intent to kill Floyd–which could plausibly fit the definition of second-degree murder in Minnesota–would prove difficult. That is especially true because Chauvin is also charged with manslaughter based on negligence. The dichotomy is this: prosecutors seem to have made a determination about Chauvin’s state of mind and decided that he simply lacked the criminal intent–what lawyers call mens rea –to kill. In order to get to “murder one,” prosecutors would probably have had to at least start with “murder two” and likely would have not filed manslaughter charges at all.
Understood by the common law as “malice aforethought,” prosecutors have, so far at least, found no evidence to suggest that Chauvin explicitly wanted or planned to kill Floyd."
I don’t watch the idiot named Tucker Carlson often, so I’m not sure if this is normal. He goes into a very odd, unhinged laughter around 3:15:
What the fuck? Is this part of his schtick?
Really?
Only two of the 18 complaints were “closed with discipline,” according to a MPD internal affairs public summary. In both cases, Chauvin received a letter of reprimand.
According to Communities Against Police Brutality, a Minnesota nonprofit that created a database of complaints against officers in the state, Chauvin received oral reprimands for using a “demeaning tone,” “derogatory language” and other language that merited discipline.
So only two legit complaints, and of those demeaning tone," “derogatory language” and other language that merited discipline.
Nothing for excessive force, etc.
People often filed complaints for things like getting a speeding ticket they that was undeserved, etc.
There was nothing in Chauvins file which indicated a killer.
Actually, according to your cite, he was disciplined 5 times, not 2. So still a problem officer.
Only two of the 18 complaints were “closed with discipline,” according to a MPD internal affairs public summary. In both cases, Chauvin received a letter of reprimand.
# 17 misconduct complaints did little to derail Minneapolis officer’s career. That’s not unusual in police departments nationwide.
A complaint isnt always legit. My wife works at Ralphs. Since she has to ask people to wears masks she is logging like a complaint a day. From maskholes. Sure that’s retail, not police, but still complaints arent always legit.
There was nothing in Chauvins file that indicated a killer.
Your second cite, above, lists 5 complaints that were sustained, so 5, not 2 as you keep insisting.
5 sustained, 5 with reprimands, either oral or by letter.
It looks like a couple of the cases are repeated; there are just two with reprimands, 03-1999 and IA07-39. My questions are:
- How does the number of cases compare to other officers?
- Who’s doing the judging and based on what?
Here’s a NYTimes article on Chauvin’s prior issues with policing. It’s a single article based largely on anecdotes so we can’t base all opinions on it but it does seem to paint a picture of an officer run amok: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-past-cases.html