Vox - Trump tells cops they should rough people up more during arrests (2017)

NY Times - Sessions Indicates Justice Department Will Stop Monitoring Troubled Police Agencies (2017)

NY Times - Barr Says Communities That Protest the Police Risk Losing Protection (2019)

Law wrote: ↑

May 29th, 2020, 8:11 pm

I believe most of you know I'm a police officer, if you didn't know, now you do. Trust me when I say this, everyone I work with, everyone I've worked with, everyone I went to the academy with, is against what the murderous police force in Minnesota did. I don't need to repeat what happened, and I don't need to tell you what should have happened. You all know.. we all know (PD's). A handful of "cops" made the entire police force in the country look bad.. again. It keeps happening, and as history shows it will probably keep happening. I came on when Michael Brown was killed.. so I joined the police force when, like the past 3 days, an entire city was on fire.

I've been a cop for six years and people always ask the same question, "why?". My career goal, if I make it to the end, is to help people. I do help people, I go on thousands of calls a year helping people. You don't hear about that, and you shouldn't, because like nurses/doctors/physicians, it's in my job description to do just that. So, while yes there are thousands of terrible, shitty, pieces of shit racist cops in America, there is also tens of thousands of good men and women who signed up for the same reasons I did. I'm against police brutality just like you. Law out.

Thanks for sharing this dude, I think it's something a lot of people need to hear. I would only say I hope you and people like you try to spur institutional change to holding police accountable whenever possible.

I have extremely complicated feelings on police in general. My dad was CPD for 30 years and I've been around cops my whole life, and I've seen the impact on them over my 29 year lifetime. I've seen my dad go through dozens of life and death situations, like getting shot at as his patrol car drove through the wrong neighborhoods. Years of being hated and spit on by the people you try to help will sow seeds of prejudice, discord and bigotry, programming that's hard to overcome. This is especially true when mental health support is underfunded and underprioritized. That said, most cops (including my dad, who's a huge asshole FYI) are conservative, and therefore more likely to have prejudicial attitudes towards people of color, they're more aggressive in general, and so forth. This is a bad, bad combination.

But what I can say is I have unending empathy for the police who act in good faith and try to make a difference, only to have your ability to do so soured and mired by the behavior of people in your profession you cannot control. It can be a soul sucking and thankless job, and as much as there is a vital, vital need for massive change, we have to remember a 911 call can be the difference between you living or dying. The road does have to go both ways.


-Vader

Law wrote: ↑

May 29th, 2020, 8:11 pm

I believe most of you know I'm a police officer, if you didn't know, now you do. Trust me when I say this, everyone I work with, everyone I've worked with, everyone I went to the academy with, is against what the murderous police force in Minnesota did. I don't need to repeat what happened, and I don't need to tell you what should have happened. You all know.. we all know (PD's). A handful of "cops" made the entire police force in the country look bad.. again. It keeps happening, and as history shows it will probably keep happening. I came on when Michael Brown was killed.. so I joined the police force when, like the past 3 days, an entire city was on fire.

I've been a cop for six years and people always ask the same question, "why?". My career goal, if I make it to the end, is to help people. I do help people, I go on thousands of calls a year helping people. You don't hear about that, and you shouldn't, because like nurses/doctors/physicians, it's in my job description to do just that. So, while yes there are thousands of terrible, shitty, pieces of shit racist cops in America, there is also tens of thousands of good men and women who signed up for the same reasons I did. I'm against police brutality just like you. Law out.

Thanks for sharing this. I know you often like to joke/fuck around on here and I enjoy that but appreciate this sincere post.

TeddyBlass wrote: ↑

May 29th, 2020, 5:47 pm

If you're not being vocal about a cop putting a knee on a man's neck for ~9 minutes, but you're vocal when protests turn to riots — it doesn't matter how many "what the cops did was wrong but" you try to pepper into to your statement — you really oughta reevaluate your priorities.

We need justice for George Floyd

That's just making false assumptions about one's priorities. There was really nothing left for me to say about what the police did. It was a clear black and white situation. I could have been the thousand person to write "Justice for George Floyd " on the internet, sure, I'll give you that. Protests turning to riots is a more complex situation since there are obviously good intentions behind the protestors and that's why it nudged me to write. Perhaps it was bad timing but not a case of warped priorities.

Vader182 wrote: ↑

May 29th, 2020, 7:04 pm

Master Virgo wrote: ↑

May 29th, 2020, 7:01 pm

How about we don't put protesters who are rightfully there to stand against a corrupted system, in the same basket as opportunist looters, in the first place. Something to consider.

There's some major hypocrisy in some relying on the infamous "bad apples" stuff when it comes to defending police, but deny the faintest possibility not all protestors have the same values, or behaviors, when it comes to how to protest.

"The riot is the language of the unheard." - MLK

I hope that's not directed at me. Not once did I defend the police or said anything about "bad apples". WTF? And I'm obviously all for the people who are actually protesting and their cause, I've stressed that numerous times. Don't put words into other people's mouth if that's the case.

My first post was about condemning opportunist looters who use the cause to act shitty. That's it.

Either way, who gives a shit about a condemnation of US looters or support for protests from a random guy from Poland. My mistake for sharing my observations in the first place. All of this was just a waste of time for all of us. My apologies.

When the police arrests CNN reporters on live camera and none of the other police officers speak out against it or try to stop it in that moment, it is difficult to believe the 'a few bad apples' point of view. More like 'if it does not affect me it's not my problem'. The reason they behave this way is because they do not fear accountability. The American police is heavily militarised and they behave like the general public is an enemy to be brutalised and to be treated without compassion. Shame on them.

Here's a 1 hour video by Leon Thomas (Renegade Cut) on the video game Disco Elysium, wherein he talks about the police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4sHDGiDC0

A completely irrelevant opinion from Eastern Europe:

I understand that the mayor, the governor of the state, etc. HAVE TO try to convince these people to go home and "demonstrate peacefully" - I don't blame them, it's their duty to take care of their state, their city, and to try to keep up peace. Still, I don't see any problem with the rioting, however extreme this might sound. The things that led to the death of this man are symptoms of a systemic problem, on one hand it is very complex, but on the other hand, it is a very simple thing. You can look at it both ways and I think both ways are right. It's simple because police officers shouldn't kill unarmed people lying on the ground, but it's complex because off all the fucking factors that contributed to this messy situation. And there's no immediate, easy solution to this. It needs to be solved from "above": there need to be widespread changes initiated from the top of the ladder, but there's been no progress on this front in the past years - or decades. So when the solution doesn't arrive "from above", then the "bottom part" of this societal structure will rise up and try to take matters in their hands. This is how all riots and revolutions started: when powerful people fail to act on a long term basis, civilians will try to resolve things on a short term basis. And even if it is messy, even if it turns violent, even if it involves rioting and looting, I... have to say, I don't blame those people on the streets, burning cars and breaking in windows. I wouldn't say I would take part - mainly because I'm a coward - but I definitely understand where this comes from. This is just a force of nature, really. People on the top of the ladder have repeatedly failed to act (I'm not even sure anyone even initiated any sort of action regarding police brutality or systemic racism issues in the past few decades), and now civilians are rising to the occasion. This is just how these things work, and have always worked throughout history.

At the moment rioters are not attacking other civilians, if I'm right. I really hope it stays that way, because it could get really messy. But there've been a chain of events that set this in motion, and I wouldn't want to ask these people on the streets, as another civilian, to "go home" because they "disrespect the original victim's memory" or whatever. I would never do that because, I think, this sort of attitude misses the whole point - I'm not speaking to LelekPL here, because this attitude is all over Twitter. Once again, the mayor, the governor have to take a stance againts rioting, and that is perfectly fine. But as a simple "commoner", I can totally understand why people NEED to be on the streets now.

And on top of it all, the mayhem, the pain, the outrage of the people who've had ENOUGH of the BULLSHIT... is one man, fuelling the fire.

You need to bring that fucker DOWN in November, otherwise it's going to get even worse.

Honestly I'm feeling bad today because it pains me to even click on the news. What's happening right now in the world, in US, is terrible and people have every right to be on the streets and do whatever the hell they want because the oppresors have been doing the same thing to them for decades, only in silky gloves.

Let them get this out of their system. And then VOTE in six months.

It's not just a couple of bad apples if the fucker who does this, is not immediately arrested and there has to be riots in the streets for them to finally do the right thing. A couple of bad apples can't make the freaking day to day experience of African Americans to be harassed in different forms. These good cops that are supposed to be the majority, where are they? Why are they not reporting these incidents? How are they not effective to stop the countless misbehaviours of their fellow officers if there are indeed so many of them.

It's a systemic issue. The job has an appeal for a certain type, but that's not the problem. People at the top are responsible for not vetting and controlling as well as the cops who are aware, but decide to look the other way. Fundamental change is needed. Laying off a few rednecks doesn't cut it.

I feel like there’s this underlying “don’t be a snitch” mentality amongst cops as the community itself can be pretty tight knit and when you have to often rely on your colleagues for support, you don’t want to be with a cop who wouldn’t have your back. Or you wouldn’t want to be seen as one. This isn’t in defense of cops btw, more like me maybe trying to get behind the rationale of the silent “good” ones who, for a variety of reasons, don’t speak up.

I do think in theory a good cop can exist and they do exist. But I’ve heard so many people say that good cops become ex cops very fast and there has to be a reason for that. The system is unforgiving and rotten down to its core and it will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t go along with the flow. Don’t know how to solve this, this is all very depressing. But maybe prohibiting PDs to conduct internal investigations on their own officers would be a not-so-bad start.