Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

difference between violent vs. lethal i think

like garbage collector or fishingperson may be more lethal jobs than cop but neither requires you to violently subjugate people and be frequently present in situations of high animus, its just a fucked up brutal job that cannot be good for ones mental health has got to be a big part of the equation

and it is also relative to most jobs pretty dangerous

i mean im not looking to excuse any cops here they made their choices and have to live with their moral standing within our police state but to some extent theyre getting chewed up by that same sick system too

being brian williams is a v dangerous job iirc

some say the gunfire made him lose his mind

i mean if i had to be an instrument of oppression think id much rather be a prosecutor or judge

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cm3LJxmWAAA97PY.jpg

was the robot bomb used cuz he was camping the spawn point

one guy was prob just like "you know what wld be some cool shit"

snopes confirmed second shooters are an urban myth

was the robot bomb used cuz he was camping the spawn point

― am0n, Friday, July 8, 2016 3:44 PM (3 minutes ago)

lolz

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-22/police/seeing-through-police/

i thought this was quite good. little sketch of a goffmanian micro-sociology of the police.

This Fucking Guy: http://beta.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-ambush/2016/07/08/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-calls-dallas-protesters-hypocrites-running-snipers-bullets

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-22/police/seeing-through-police/

i thought this was quite good. little sketch of a goffmanian micro-sociology of the police.

― j., Friday, July 8, 2016 3:51 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great piece!

What an asshole. Even the governor, who's also a big asshole, had a fairly level-headed response by comparison. Really makes it painful to live when I consider that the people around me willfully vote for these shit heads, not to mention John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. What a rogue's gallery of awfulness.

xp

This Fucking Guy: http://beta.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-ambush/2016/07/08/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-calls-dallas-protesters-hypocrites-running-snipers-bullets

― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain)

Sentiments like this have helped me purge my Facebook page quite nicely.

Painful to live here, that is

xp

I hope Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick bravely resists the pull of his misunderstood definition of hypocrisy the next time someone demonstrates how amazingly punchable his face is.

i wonder to what extent cop dramas and films condition regular police officers to believe that their jobs are far more dangerous than they are. /notippergore
― Mordy, Friday, July 8, 2016 1:49 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i imagine the grind of the job, day-in day-out probably gives them a more specific sense of this…. that’s like asking "i wonder to what extent welcome back, mr. kotter conditions high-school teachers to believe that their jobs are far more fun than they are."

(er, typo in name of tV show, but you get the idea)

i adore the show welcome back mr kotter i trust youve been well

read a secondhand comment by an ex-police officer that made the point that a lot of police forces have had an influx of recruits returning from iraq/afghanistan

i'd imagine the daily events of that job, where you're in uniform with a gun, might carry some mental weight

i disagree. i think the teacher analogy is bizarre but more importantly what we have are at least a certain percentage of police officers whose relationship to reality and the citizens they are responsible for is out of touch with reality - out of touch with the day-in day-out grind. i would not be surprised to learn that it is heavily informed by fictional media.

that's to am xp

you know i've never thought to ask my teacher relatives how the "welcome back kotter" tv series has affected their jobs. maybe i should start!

that n+1 essay posted upthread is v good

Nuclear power plant employees adore the Simpsons

maybe cnn.com could get rid of the 3 line headline and the black background now, for fuck's sake

they live for this shit

if it bleeds it meets their needs

cnn anchors really need to start cutting on camera

not sure this was noted

"Stocks for Smith & Wesson rose about 3% on Friday while stocks for fellow firearm manufacturer Sturm Ruger went up by 5%. The shares surged in anticipation of higher gun sales due to fears of stricter gun control policies following the worst mass shooting of police in US history.

In addition to shares of gunmakers, shares of Taser and Digital Ally also surged on the news. The two companies make wearable video cameras worn by US police, and Taser also makes electroshock weapons used by some police."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/08/smith-wesson-gun-stock-market-dallas-shooting

some day these ppl gonna get tired of buying guns after every newsworthy shooting "i already have 25 guns" theyre gonna say to themselves

what's the exchange rate between guns and black lotus cards

Food vs. Guns

slightly irritated that the guardian (and prob other sites) still have the headline they had in the morning, about the sniper wanting to kill white people/officers. were there any headlines reading similar things about the racist things police officers said? seems a bit unnecesarily inflammatory.

"The deceased suspect has been identified as Micah Johnson, B/M/25. The suspect has no criminal history. Information provided through the course of the investigation, indicates that the suspect was an Army veteran and others have identified him as a loner. The suspect’s Facebook account included the following names and information: Fahed Hassen, Richard GRIFFIN aka Professor Griff, GRIFFIN embraces a radical form of Afrocentrism, and GRIFFIN wrote a book A Warriors Tapestry.

so this is professor griff's fault. I knew it.

and others have identified him as a loner.

🤔

What kind of legislation can I ask my represenatives to support/propose? Is there anything on the table? I am interested in increasing accountability -- convicting racist cops -- but also in reforming police procedure and the overall paradigm that governs how they treat certain parts of the public -- way too much acceptance of all sorts of brutality and nonsense. I am less interested at this point in agonizing about how a lot of white people share their ignorant viewpoints on this topic on the internet. Police violence is a concrete problem. It's reflected in statistics. We should be able to address it.

wapo article says that at one point the dallas police chief thought at least four gunmen were involved:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/08/like-a-little-war-snipers-shoot-11-police-officers-during-dallas-protest-march-killing-five/

Some good proposals here about reforming police training and other issues.

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/criminal-justice-reform/

How will Hill implement this though? Obv you cant get federal legislation through with a republican congress but there should be more serious initiatives on the state level in blue states. I dont see it -- the vague admission of the problem by the MN governor was represented as a watershed but it was purely symbolic

It's reflected in statistics. We should be able to address it.

― Treeship, Friday, July 8, 2016 6:02 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

except that it isn't --- there's no reliable set of gov't-collected data (at least that's my understanding). one of the first steps would be to mandate data collection at a municipal level. while we're at it, let's let the CDC starting working on gun violence data

the idea that we can make decisions based on data assumes:
- data was collected
- the methodology for collection is sound and the data set is complete
- the data collected is relevant and not subject to biases that are external to the collection methodology

leaving out one variable -- for instance gun violence per capita without correcting for population density -- throws everything off

police violence is also not reflected in stats because it's not mandated to be reported, or reported in the same way, or unequally reported even in places where it's mandated

https://twitter.com/davidcrespo/status/751564021111947269

"What kind of legislation can I ask my represenatives to support/propose?"

tweet at ben sasse and ask him to write a bill requiring all members of congress to spend at least 75% of their waking hours watching literal dumpster fires

They'll just find a way to reason that what's on fire in the dumpster is printouts of Hillary's missing emails.

They'll just find a way to reason that what's on fire in the dumpster is printouts of Hillary's missing emails.

― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain)

oh, good. well, since they have an obligation to find out THE TRUTH about hillary, there's nothing for it but for them to dive into the burning dumpsters.

there's no reliable set of gov't-collected data (at least that's my understanding). one of the first steps would be to mandate data collection at a municipal level. while we're at it, let's let the CDC starting working on gun violence data

― jason waterfalls (gbx), Friday, July 8, 2016 4:20 PM

this would be a great place to start, are there any organizations actively pushing for this?