- Joined
- Apr 15, 2019
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I'm not sure about the racism aspects but there are definitely some troubling behaviors with the various US police forces that have contributed massively to the disconnect and distrust from large parts of the community.
Firstly there is turning them into revenue generators. The Fergusson riots a couple of years back happened in towns where the local police force were responsible for 30 - 40% of the towns revenue with fines and seizures. And that mostly involves "nickle and diming" the poorer parts of for bullshit breaches of laws and seizing property in the name of "the war on drugs". That kind of thing is never going to make a police force trusted or beloved by its citizens.
Secondly we have the role of the police unions. Who make it near impossible to discipline or fire officers who misbehave (see for example New York and the death of Eric Garner). This case is unusual in that the local police union haven't stepped in to claim that his actions were correct. In many other cases where an officer has been fired, a couple of months later they are rehired after negotiation with the police union on the grounds of "improper firing".
Thirdly we have the US legal concept of "qualified immunity" which makes police and prosecutors immune to suits over their behavior no matter how egregious unless "there is clearly established precedent that the behavior was wrong. This had led to examples of cases being quashed where the police officers stole money from the accused, threw flash-bangs into a baby's crib, shot bystanders while trying to shoot their dog, or WWE slammed a person head first into the ground (as well as protecting prosecutors who withheld evidence showing that the accused was innocent as another example).
Finally we have the militarization of the police. It's hard to argue that this isn't happening when you have police officers going around wearing the same camouflage as the US Army wears and driving the same vehicles. Behaving like you are on enemy territory can only encourage treatment of locals as the enemy.
Firstly there is turning them into revenue generators. The Fergusson riots a couple of years back happened in towns where the local police force were responsible for 30 - 40% of the towns revenue with fines and seizures. And that mostly involves "nickle and diming" the poorer parts of for bullshit breaches of laws and seizing property in the name of "the war on drugs". That kind of thing is never going to make a police force trusted or beloved by its citizens.
Secondly we have the role of the police unions. Who make it near impossible to discipline or fire officers who misbehave (see for example New York and the death of Eric Garner). This case is unusual in that the local police union haven't stepped in to claim that his actions were correct. In many other cases where an officer has been fired, a couple of months later they are rehired after negotiation with the police union on the grounds of "improper firing".
Thirdly we have the US legal concept of "qualified immunity" which makes police and prosecutors immune to suits over their behavior no matter how egregious unless "there is clearly established precedent that the behavior was wrong. This had led to examples of cases being quashed where the police officers stole money from the accused, threw flash-bangs into a baby's crib, shot bystanders while trying to shoot their dog, or WWE slammed a person head first into the ground (as well as protecting prosecutors who withheld evidence showing that the accused was innocent as another example).
Finally we have the militarization of the police. It's hard to argue that this isn't happening when you have police officers going around wearing the same camouflage as the US Army wears and driving the same vehicles. Behaving like you are on enemy territory can only encourage treatment of locals as the enemy.
