Originally Posted By: andrewg
Originally Posted By: Cristobal
It is good that this protest is peaceful. There is a horrible problem with abusive cops in this country.
It all started around 40 years ago. I still recall this cop. He said during the conversation that:
"...there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who are cops, and those who aren't."
That one sentence tells you all you need to know about why these atrocities happen.
I am of the opinion that todays police are no worse than they were in the past. Like I've said, most police are great people doing an incredibly difficult job.
So why does it seem like we see more and more cops doing bad things?
Because we are SEEING it more. It does not equate that they are doing more bad things....it's the coverage and availability of phones/cameras that are present to record it. It's not a "horrible problem" anymore than it was thirty years ago.
Here is an intersection opinion published by Radley Balko that blogs for the Washington Post:
Myth: YouTube videos and cellphone footage prove that today’s cops are out of control.
Most criminologists believe that today’s police departments are more professional than ever before. Cops tend to get more training, and departments are guided by defined rules and procedures. Most decent-size police agencies have internal affairs departments, and a growing number of cities have installed citizen review boards.
That hardly means there are no problems in policing today, of course, or that these developments suffice to safeguard civil liberties. But it’s likely that the ubiquity of cellphone cameras and the diffusive power of social media are simply making us more aware of rule-breaking cops, rather than showing that there are more of them than before.
But even if there may be fewer rogue cops who abuse their authority and use force outside the bounds of department rules, it’s also true that, as a matter of policy, police use more force today than they have in the past. SWAT tactics, for example, are increasingly used for credit card fraud and other low-level offenses, administrative warrants, or even regulatory enforcement. Use-of-force training today puts less emphasis on conflict resolution and deescalation, if they are addressed at all. The problem isn’t cops breaking the rules — the rules themselves are the problem.
They got that right. Every day police agencies are encouraging the hiring and training of more storm troopers, instead of problem solvers.
Propagation of the belief that police are a superior race of human being, and that only criminals dislike police abuses are a major issue as well.
Police agencies incorrectly assumed that no matter what wrong was done, that nobody would care or find out. They are learning a very difficult lesson right now with the protesters.
Stupid or not, the protests are working in that they're making it very hard for bad police agencies to go on with "business as usual".
Originally Posted By: Cristobal
It is good that this protest is peaceful. There is a horrible problem with abusive cops in this country.
It all started around 40 years ago. I still recall this cop. He said during the conversation that:
"...there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who are cops, and those who aren't."
That one sentence tells you all you need to know about why these atrocities happen.
I am of the opinion that todays police are no worse than they were in the past. Like I've said, most police are great people doing an incredibly difficult job.
So why does it seem like we see more and more cops doing bad things?
Because we are SEEING it more. It does not equate that they are doing more bad things....it's the coverage and availability of phones/cameras that are present to record it. It's not a "horrible problem" anymore than it was thirty years ago.
Here is an intersection opinion published by Radley Balko that blogs for the Washington Post:
Myth: YouTube videos and cellphone footage prove that today’s cops are out of control.
Most criminologists believe that today’s police departments are more professional than ever before. Cops tend to get more training, and departments are guided by defined rules and procedures. Most decent-size police agencies have internal affairs departments, and a growing number of cities have installed citizen review boards.
That hardly means there are no problems in policing today, of course, or that these developments suffice to safeguard civil liberties. But it’s likely that the ubiquity of cellphone cameras and the diffusive power of social media are simply making us more aware of rule-breaking cops, rather than showing that there are more of them than before.
But even if there may be fewer rogue cops who abuse their authority and use force outside the bounds of department rules, it’s also true that, as a matter of policy, police use more force today than they have in the past. SWAT tactics, for example, are increasingly used for credit card fraud and other low-level offenses, administrative warrants, or even regulatory enforcement. Use-of-force training today puts less emphasis on conflict resolution and deescalation, if they are addressed at all. The problem isn’t cops breaking the rules — the rules themselves are the problem.
They got that right. Every day police agencies are encouraging the hiring and training of more storm troopers, instead of problem solvers.
Propagation of the belief that police are a superior race of human being, and that only criminals dislike police abuses are a major issue as well.
Police agencies incorrectly assumed that no matter what wrong was done, that nobody would care or find out. They are learning a very difficult lesson right now with the protesters.
Stupid or not, the protests are working in that they're making it very hard for bad police agencies to go on with "business as usual".
