Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

xxp from this article it sounds like a significant amount is easily possible. the case made about dallas here is probably not unique: http://www.npr.org/2016/07/11/485512674/in-dallas-tragedy-falls-on-already-embattled-police-department

Dallas police are so underpaid that they routinely flee the force for smaller, neighboring departments or to cities such as Austin and Fort Worth, where starting pay at a lower rank is $10,000 to $15,000 better and health benefits are more generous.

The Dallas department — with about 3,500 sworn personnel — is currently short at least 200 officers.

"We're the lowest-paid department in the Metroplex. We're losing officers to suburbs at a tremendous rate," says Det. Ron Pinkston, president of the Dallas Police Association.

Dallas' elected leaders say they can't pay the cops more because of a looming police payroll lawsuit, a nearly broke pension fund and competing needs such as crumbling streets.

Fred Frazier, chairman of the Assist the Officer Foundation, says by his count, 94 officers have left DPD since October.

"I hate to see our profession in decline. We can't even get guys to come for recruiting. We've had to cancel the last two [police cadet academy] classes cause there's not enough guys who want to be police officers," Frazier says.

Anybody read this?

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, July 11, 2016 5:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One of my good friends is an education policy guy with a strong emphasis on statistical analysis and he just posted the following:

Media confusion and/or misrepresentation of results:

WSJ: "Police shootings exhibit no bias against blacks, but blacks are more likely to be handled roughly when stopped by police."

Actually, the data underlying the main "shootings bias" finding (extensive margin) comes only from Houston - a fact buried in the article and not made entirely clear. The "rough handling" findings are based on a much broader set of data. A proper summary would be, "Police shootings IN HOUSTON appear to exhibit no bias..." (See Section IV and Table 5 of the paper.)

NYT: "But when it comes to the most lethal form of force — police shootings — the study finds no racial bias."

Both articles neglect to mention that the results are *conditional* on various forms of arrest or other police encounters. The author isn't asking, "If you're a random black man, are you more likely to be shot by police than a random white man?" - he's asking, "Once you've been stopped by (Houston) police, are you more likely to be shot if you're black instead of white?"

Fryer (in a follow-up interview) said, "I agree that blacks are more likely to be stopped, more likely to be harassed and more likely to be arrested." Higher encounter rates x Same shooting rates = Higher overall shooting rates.

The point is that the study is asking a narrow question regarding conditional shootings, but the media is being sloppy or misleading about reporting the "conditional" part.

Imagine if a study compared AIDS rates among Haitians to rates among Americans who regularly have sex with Haitians and found that rates are about the same between two groups. This would be similar to the media saying, "The study found no evidence that AIDS was more prevalent among Haitians than among Americans." The "conditional" part is critical.

IOW, rip van winko OTM

the woman whose post DJP shared seems intelligent and sincere and caring, but at the same time her post betrays -- perhaps vicariously -- some of the bent logic and worldview of many in law enforcement.

This is why one of my takeaways was that the training police officers receive merits some serious reconsideration.

https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2016/07/blueprint-better-policing-minnesota?utm_content=bufferdc6d3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

reform suggestions by a couple local criminal justice profs

https://twitter.com/HIMANSHU/status/753363161839828992

http://gawker.com/heres-audio-of-what-sounds-like-an-nypd-captain-pressur-1783544682

Transit cop's chief straight up tells him, "Stop citing people you actually see jumping turnstile and harass more black males instead."

jesus christ

Trumppence

https://www.stpauls.co.uk/SM4/Mutable/Uploads/imported_media/Jane_Darwell_in_her_role_as_the_bird_woman.jpg

man, crazy. i never even heard about this NYPD 12 thing until now, and this happened months ago

http://i.imgur.com/TgpIeYx.gif

fuck the usa

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/update-expected-in-death-officer-jacai-colson/274260312

come the fuck on

did they apply the ol 'in his mind at the time' standard?

previous story: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/maryland/bond-hearing-in-prince-georges-co-officers-murder/84782698

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (WUSA9) -- The shot that killed Officer Jacai Colson during a shootout Sunday at Prince George's County police headquarters was "deliberately aimed at him" by another officer, police officials announced Wednesday.

Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said the officer fired at Colson, who was in plain clothes during the shootout, because they perceived him to be a threat.

"I do not believe for a second that a police officer intentionally fired at another police officer," Stawinski said.

so to answer your question: yes

were the cops all from the same precinct? what was the expectation that they knew each other?

i haven't read about this case beyond a few stories just now, but while there's some potential for implicit bias working (white cop sees colson, and shooters, thinks: one of them), the circumstances make it sound eligible to be a genuine accident, apart from that potential. which would mean the law would be hard to apply otherwise.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/atlanta-cop-who-shot-unarmed-black-man-charged-wit/nry7G/

And here we go again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/18/us/baton-rouge-shooting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-ab-top-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Strategically speaking, declaring war on the cops is not going to solve the problem of unprovoked police violence against black men. Then again, extreme passivity by black men during interactions with the police hasn't solved the problem, either.

If anything is going to get assault rifles banned...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/opinion/sunday/were-helping-deport-kids-to-die.html

this was a powerful piece about the Obama administration's complicity in Mexico's deportation program. basically, they are refusing to give asylum to people who aren't migrants but refugees, fleeing powerful gangs in el salvador and honduras.

i'm not always a big believe in national conversations, but i think America needs to start talking about the moral responsibility we have toward central america. these countries were directly devastated by US policy and not just economically. i don't think anyone here needs the reagan year footnotes

sorry wrong thread

why would we need Reagan-era footnotes when obv he was the GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER

this is the end (maybe) of a tweetstorm from journalist JJ McNab on the baton rouge shooter, who was a sovereign citizen

https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/755091929726001152

there's a KC star story linked in there too.

"Note that his given name GAVIN EUGENE LONG is in all capital letters while his "corrected" name Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, is mixed case."

man, jj's tweets = one helluva rabbithole

setep en ra = son of ra

hoooooo boy

*chosen by ra, sorry, not son of

I want to read more jj macnab now

many right-wing tweeters point out Long's involvement w/ Nation of Islam but don't mention his marine background

xpost: she's a good follow on twitter

i didn't know there was a significant black offshoot of the sovcit movement, or black-nationalist uptake of those ideas.

"I'm a sovereign human being, I stand under common law only" - Thread of Freemen

moorish science temple predates sovcit stuff, and actually NOI was an offshoot historically speaking.

that said, in that period the mst wasn't sovcit in ideology, closer to garveyism but without any repatriation stuff

or related to a black offshoot of freemasonry when that was still a prominent "civic society" force

Video Shows Unarmed Black Man Pleading With Arms Raised Before Getting Shot by Police

“I thought it was a mosquito bite, and when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I’m thinking I just got shot!” Kinsey told WSVN. “And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

in my hometown too

the cynical part of me wonders how many white technocrats who previously underplayed this as a "problem" will start getting concerned now that the cops are shooting people who take care of their autistic kids

moorish science temple predates sovcit stuff, and actually NOI was an offshoot historically speaking.

^^^

mst/noi have all kinds of things that are weird and imperfect but they also have done a lot of good for people and should not be conflated w/freemen who're a narcissistic cult imo

And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

reminds me of the officer who shot philando castile desperately screaming "why did he move?" after pulling the trigger (uh, because you asked him for his id). suggests that a lot of cops out there shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a loaded gun.

so what i get from this is that when you militarize the police, they start acting like they're in nam? huh. didn't see that one coming.

Show me some ID! (But without moving your hands, or any other appendage, towards anyplace your ID might reasonably be located!)

It is just enraging and horrific to me that there is an actual existing human mindset that can't see the problem there.

we may be getting to the point where people will opt for scannable neck ID bar codes so they'll no longer have to chance reaching for their wallet

to what extent are officers, generally-speaking, exposed to high-stress situations in training? reminds me of something I read from Malcom Gladwell (I know, I know), which he alludes to here:

MG: I talked for a long time when I was doing "Blink" with a fascinating guy named Gavin deBecker, who runs one of the top personal security agencies in Los Angeles.

Basically, if you're a movie star or a billionaire or the Sultan of Brunei, he provides you with your bodyguard. DeBecker talked a lot about how rigorously he trains his people. If the quality of our coordination and instinctive reactions breaks down when our heart rate gets above 145, he wants to expose his people to stressful situations over and over and over again until they can face them at 130, 110 or 90.

So he fires bullets at people, and does these utterly terrifying exercises involving angry pit bulls. The first and second and third and fourth time you run through one of deBecker's training sessions you basically lose control of your bowels and take off like a scalded cat. By the fifth time, essential bodily functions start to return. By the 10th time, you can function as a normal human being.

shit i get all stressed out and inaccurate when i'm playing a FPS and stuff gets hairy

remind me why we roll our eyes at Gladwell?

iirc he's pro cigarette smoking or something

Well he's a corporate shill...

Perhaps it is because Gladwell strikes the pose of always knowing everything that is important to know about the subject he is addressing and then makes a show of drawing the only possible conclusion. He treats his readers as cattle being driven up a chute into his selected cattle car.

he spreads conclusions not understanding, and he doesn't understand the statistics he's reporting, which is why in his world all effects are large

he's also a plagiarist https://ourbadmedia.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/a-guide-for-journalists-on-how-to-understand-our-gladwell-reporting/