No… They are saints.
I don’t live in Honolulu or Maui. Geography matters. And yes, there has been occasional bad behavior even where I live. But I’m not going to risk a woman’s safety because of that, when I have a strong understanding of the elements I’m weighing.
Nor do I know exactly where you live, or have any interest in knowing. If you are somehow under the illusion that your department is immune from such things, there isn’t much I can do to talk you out of it.
Translation: I’ve made up my mind, don’t confuse me with the facts.
Oh, I’m sorry Carol, I didn’t know that you live in the 1 jurisdiction in America whose police force don’t behave like police forces everywhere else in the country. Thank you for the education.
So America is completely homogeneous, and Hawai’i, which has a totally different ethnic and cultural make-up than just about everywhere else, is identical to the continental US. Thanks for letting me know!
Spend five minutes googling “police misconduct litigation Hawaii” and you’ll see that it’s not much different than anywhere else. But, being an upper middle classed white woman, I am sure you’re quite the expert in how your state’s police forces treat everyone.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM rather knowledgeable on the subject. I might ask, if geography is irrelevant, why did you rush to provide cites from the state of Hawai’i when I posted?
After all, location doesn’t matter. I should think you would have chosen any old random instance of police behavior.
Because, again, I don’t know, nor want to know, exactly where you live, and provided examples from your state. Perhaps your particular town is a nirvana, and the police are the very best police America has to offer.
You know zero about where I live, and it DOES matter.
Other than your statement that you live or lived in Hawaii, you’re right, I have no idea. Ok? Again, policing deficits are nationwide, and have effected every state and region of America. You’re free to assume your area is exempt. Statistics probably don’t support that.
CairoCarol, I’m sure your community is much safer and the police are less violent than many larger cities. But you’re being naive if you think “suspicious” looking outsiders to your community are completely safe when police approach them. Don’t call it white privilege if that offends you, but it is privilege.
I assumed nothing. I did the research, met the police, talked to formerly incarcerated people, interacted with police/meth-addicted-homeless situations, and more.
I would be suspicious if mjmartin was outside my place from his behavior here!
I live in Lake county Ohio. There are a lot of homeless here, I was one once. The police have always been decent. Tempted to post my city so mj can look up stats.
A veritable beacon on the hill. How excellent. Glad to know 1 such place exists in this country.
Maybe ya’ll SHOULD read the opening page of my link. It notes that Native Hawaiians are disproprotionately arrested and that citizen trust of the police has deteriorated over the years. I’m not claiming that things are perfect here. And sure, one reason I could personally call the cops and feel comfortable about it is because I can rest secure in the knowledge that they won’t turn against ME. If I were an undocumented immigrant, I’d have to suffer whatever crimes were committed against me. I never said the world was fair.
I don’t see anyone addressing the vulnerability of women or the fact that as a gender, we understandably feel less secure most of the time.
Hahaha… Like that would ever happen.
I mean, I think we can all agree here that the fundamental problem is not that some individual cops are bad people, or that some individuals are criminals, or that some individuals are too paranoid about criminals, but the general trend of the “copification” of communities.
That is, more and more interactions between strangers are being mediated by LEOs, even for very commonplace things. Partly this is probably due to the prevalence of firearms carry and uncertainly about whether any particular stranger might be armed and irrational, even if without any criminal intent originally. Partly, probably, due to sensationalist media stories about catastrophic stranger interactions that are statistically very rare.
Your post is very reasonable and I personally agree with it (I think - I don’t have any contiguous 48 experience with “copification” but it tracks with what I’ve read), but I doubt that mjmartin sees the “fundamental problem” in such measured terms.
Couldn’t find any recent shootings, but a 26 second tasing that left a man braindead, for the crime of playing his music too loudly.