Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

british isles eh whatever

outic,

if you were de blasio, and you knew that elements of the police were hostile to you personally, that they also despised the recent anti-police protests, that emotions were running high after the killing of two officers carried out on the nominal behalf of these protesters' cause, and that the entire world has watched, over the past several months, a much smaller city in this country devolve into riots under very similar circumstances, would you seriously not try to de-escalate this situation? you don't have to believe it is right, i guess, but i'm not sure it's plausible for a mayor to act otherwise while still carrying out his duty as mayor.

fantastic xp

see the joek is to call anybody in the UK british explaining comedy makes it funnier to u see

dublin's not in the uk...

mayor shakey would be like "this was a good start - i expect more cop-killings in the morning"

de-escalate the situation

it seems to me that the institution that is threatening to keep escalating the situation is the police department. so while "placating" them makes total sense given the politics of the position De Blasio is in (ie, he's the mayor and requires, at least to some extent, the cooperation and loyalty of the police department) it does not actually de-escalate the situation, insofar as it leaves the public with the impression that reverting to the status quo - where it's ok for the PD to regularly murder black men - is acceptable. From my point of view (as a non-resident and non-mayor of New York City) this is not really acceptable. The police department needs to be disciplined, or at least be shown that the possibility of disciplinary action can be reasonably expected. The murders are, frankly, irrelevant and not a reflection on the protestors or their goals. I get why De Blasio is acting as he is - which is probably even counter to his own instincts - but guess what this is what happens when you're the mayor and in charge of corrupt institutions, the institutions bend you to their will through the leverage of political expediency.

lol mordy

but seriously as mayor I would immediately empower an independent (ie, non-DA) prosecutor to be in charge of police brutality/fatality investigations

the police department would hate this and probably have me killed immediately

dublin's not in the uk...

yes yes hence my post immediately following my typo do keep up

either way, isn't it problematic to insult someone by referring to him by the nationality of his nation's former colonizer?

it seems to me that the institution that is threatening to keep escalating the situation is the police department.

this is not rly true tho
but I do generally agree with the rest

and I'm not from fuckin Dublin, which btw is part of the uk tbrr

xp this wasn't that and the thread does not need sidetracking that way

insofar as it leaves the public with the impression that reverting to the status quo - where it's ok for the PD to regularly murder black men - is acceptable. From my point of view (as a non-resident and non-mayor of New York City) this is not really acceptable.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 00:17 (1 minute ago)

this is not a particularly lucid reading if it requires entirely forgetting comments he made a couple of weeks ago about the fear of his own son being murdered by the nypd, comments that absolutely nobody in the america media is forgetting

outic OTM throughout

I get why De Blasio is acting as he is - which is probably even counter to his own instincts - but guess what this is what happens when you're the mayor and in charge of corrupt institutions, the institutions bend you to their will through the leverage of political expediency.

^^^^^

requires entirely forgetting comments he made a couple of weeks ago about the fear of his own son being murdered by the nypd, comments that absolutely nobody in the america media is forgetting

huh have literally not seen this quoted anywhere

not surprised he said it (makes total sense)

that's why the police turned their backs on him during a recent appearance iirc

This is blatantly illogical to blame the shooting of two police officers on protests. I watched CNN as the verdict was read, and both media and police anticipated RIOTS. Of course there are going to be protests. Grow up and deal, already.

nonetheless his goal at present seems to be mending his relationship with the police department, I would imagine with the ostensible goal of developing a "working relationship" wherein he can extract some kind of compromises/reforms to which I say yeah good luck with that police departments are reformed by force from the outside and not by cooperation from within - best examples being the police departments that the feds have taken over

xp

This is blatantly illogical to blame the shooting of two police officers on protests.

tbf to De Blasio he does not actually say this. Other people say it though.

Oh, I did not have De Blasio in mind, it was one of those awful police union spokespeople who actually said this. + other pro-police commenters.

Patrick Lynch, see upthread.

The mayor described his son as "a good young man, [a] law-abiding young man who would never think to do anything wrong" -- but he noted that "because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we've had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him."

if you didn't see those then fair enough, assumed that they were well circulated, cites 'the dangers that he may face' from twitch cops

ya i saw this everywhere, routinely put next to "obama says trayvon could have been his son" to be like WHY ARENT THEY SUPPORTING OUR COPS

there's a possibility that de blasio either reverts to type in defending police orthodoxy

maybe he will try to reconcile some of the reformist inclination he alluded to before with boilerplate pro-cop rhetoric

maybe any meliorist liberal program for the improvement of criminal justice is futile and some sort of radical ex-nihilo restructuring of society and institutions is required (not entirely supported by american or other history but possibly valid prospectively)

there are clearly elements here that are distinct from the usual, if one just elides those comments and the extraordinary treatment of the mayor by his own city's officers in the aftermath then you are treating distinct elements with indiscriminate cynicism

not to mention what treesh is saying about it being in the common interest return not to the situation of the 1970s described in that bloomberg article where cops were executed and they in turn became even more vicious and paranoid

Good article, with lots of details to infuriate you, on police violence in Milwaukee:

http://slnm.us/A4T54bj

I just assume any slate article about Milwaukee is a pre-emptive scott walker for president hit piece

Celebrity Twitter assholes include James Woods, stridently anti-de Blasio and opining that Sharpton (and I'm not a fan) is "directly responsible" for the cop murders.

did Woods ever capture those Al Qaeda guys who were on that plane flight with him

real american hero, that James Woods

Somebody remind these red-blooded Americans of the Enlightenment philosophy the "Founding Fathers" were influenced by.

Anyhow, that Milwaukee article was in Salon, not Slate.

Oh and also - Adam Baldwin - there's a persuasive individual. I'm going to change my mind right now!

The tragic killing of two officers by an emotionally and psychologically unstable shooter is being used to further the political goals of an establishment that’s been challenged through effective, largely nonviolent protest. Despite that movement’s focus on the criminal justice system as a whole, from policing to the role of district attorneys and the grand jury system, police leadership and rank and file are using this moment to claim victim status....

What’s equally predictable and disappointing is the near-erasure of Shaneka Thompson from the story of Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s shooting spree. Thompson is the 29-year-old ex-girlfriend whose Maryland apartment Brinsley entered before shooting her in the stomach and leaving her to scream for help. “I can’t die like this. Please, please help me,” she is reported to have shouted as she banged on a neighbor’s door. According to news reports, Thompson is a health insurance specialist with the Veterans Administration and an Air Force reservist. Brinsley took her phone with him as he headed north to New York, using it to post self-incriminating rants to Instagram before killing Officers Ramos and Liu and, finally, himself.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/193577/why-no-one-talking-about-nypd-shooters-other-target

otm

http://news.yahoo.com/grand-jury-clears-houston-policeman-fatal-shooting-black-213936653.html

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0K11EV20141223?irpc=932

Reuters interviews black NYPD officers about their experiences off-duty.

NY police officers arrested less than half as many people and wrote one-tenth as many summonses than in the same period a year ago, building on a drastic drop in activity that began shortly after the murder of two officers.

I love how this is like a tacit admission that NYPD arrests have nothing to do with actual crimes being committed

it's kinda funny that the only point these assholes are proving is we don't need so many of them.

i think they're waiting for a moment when something/anything horrible happens in the city so they can do the "SEE! SEE!" thing but i doubt they're gonna make it

Nah, that way they surrender whatever moral high ground they think they have. They wouldn't play it up.

I was under the impression that it was about money. Less fines etc. = less money for city hall to play with.

What, like the two cops shot this morning isn't being played up?

Cops being in danger is the crux of what they want people to think this is about, so of course its fair game for them. However if civilians get hurt as as a direct result of the tactics they're using to protest, then they've put the lives of the people they're meant to protect in harms way just to make a political point which is horrible PR.

I was under the impression that it was about money. Less fines etc. = less money for city hall to play with.

― tsrobodo, Tuesday, January 6, 2015 2:43 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, it's all about this afaik

cities and states rake in a FUCK TON of money from fines/fees/penalties. years past boston brought in something like $70 million worth of parking ticket fees. i know that's not a police-enforced area but imagine if parking attendants stopped enforcing that shit?

doubt this will go anywhere but good on them for trying: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Group-seeks-new-grand-jury-in-Ferguson-police-5997288.php

exactly why that shit should not be counted on as a revenue source. xp

protect and serve the bottom line

juking the stats and all that

"givin' a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck", etc. etc.