Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
There needs to be an independent police force to police the police. Internal affairs is a joke, and the interests of DAs are too closesly aligned with police to be a reliable check.
In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
91–100 of 222 posts
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only problem with this reasoning is Minnesota is one of the most liberal states in the Union.
What are you basing that off of? Trump barely lost Minnesota in 2016 (46.9 Clinton to 45.4 Trump), and it's a swing state in virtually every national election.
Half my family is from there so partly anodically, but these seem to back it up:
* http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/221721-how-r...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Minnesota
"Minnesotans have voted for Democratic presidential candidates ever since 1976, more times consecutively than any other state outside of the south, and longer than any state."
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Is it? I'm a Canadian and everything I hear about the US police terrifies me - SWATing leading to innocent people being killed, unarmed black men being shot, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, the impossibility of convicting police for just about anything. If the worst thing they were doing was selling drugs that'd be an improvement as far as I can t…
I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...
In most "oh things are terrible in America" matters, I believe other countries are about as bad, but have a tamer media. But police misconduct really does seem to be worse in America. For reasons I don't fully understand.
One part of it is probably guns: even in states with strong gun control, there are plenty of them in the hands of hoodlums, so voters appreciate the Dirty Harry approach to dealing with them.
But to me that doesn't quite explain why cops seems to have such semi-formal impunity (see for example http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/get..., http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/pol... and http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/pol...).
Of course we can guess various reasons, voters like police, cops stick together etc, prosecutors and police work together etc. But those things are true in other countries too.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#94Does a citizen have any legal recourse or entitled to compensation if a citizen's house was raided multiple times on false pretenses or a fabricated warrant by these fine upstanding officers (The ones being indicted)? I'm asking for a friend.. :-/
Ianal and couldn't answer any particular in your case. I do have a lawyer friend who makes a regular income suiting the Oakland police department. The broader issue is naturally the police have a lot of leverage on your average court system, police are often not liable for even the most egregious mistake, only actual malice is required and occasionally then legal contortions can justify various behaviors and so-forth…
I'm hoping to discover a pattern of this behavior. I've seen more than 4 warrants all listing the same untrue facts that led to a judge signing off on the warrant. No proof just hearsay. I will consult with a lawyer. But this came up and I've known this place to harbor people smarter than I, so I figured I'd ask..
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#95Why is there not more transparency? It makes zero sense. What is going to stop something like this occuring again? Officers going to jail?
The history of the early 20th "progressive" movement was a legacy of legal devices which make the police basically outside the control of local political institutions. Police are civil servants like health inspectors or zoning experts.
These changes were made to prevent the previous situation, where a "political machine" could control a town, appoint their people to the important posts and create a town-wide corruption system, often by tossing boons to the poorer people in the central city (Tammany Hall was the most infamous of these operations[1]).
Of course, one might this replacement system degenerated to the point that you have similar corruption, perhaps even less accountability and fewer boons to the disenfranchised.
But the present order is very strongly entrenched in American politics and given the American system is presently close to a mockery of democracy, the chance of change today looks slim no matter how many egregious appear.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has anyone been charged with the false report of the scissors hijab attack?
No. What possible reason would they have for charging a child?
To play devil’s advocate for a moment: children are often coached by parents in cases like this. Remember “balloon boy,” who hid in the garage per his dad’s instruction so the family could get their 15 minutes of fame?
That said, kids like to make things up too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#97Why is there not more transparency? It makes zero sense. What is going to stop something like this occuring again? Officers going to jail?
There should be a body cam on every officer and their police powers and privileges should deactivate the moment its turned off deliberately or “accidentally”. A time delayed feed should be made public and an independent federal agency should randomly audit the recordings for civil rights abuses.
Police should be treated like other political officials and there should be a democratic mechanism for the public to remove them from their position.
There should be a national ban on psychological profiling during the police hiring process. Police departments should compensate their officers with substantially higher salaried instead of their current compensation: poor pay with perks like the chance to exert power, abuse people, steal things, and almost completely avoid prosecution.
Finally, police officers should be required to live in the areas they police. They should be provided with the same public housing the general public enjoys if they have trouble finding or affording a house.
Of course, these ideas are too sensible to be ever become real.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Is it? I'm a Canadian and everything I hear about the US police terrifies me - SWATing leading to innocent people being killed, unarmed black men being shot, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, the impossibility of convicting police for just about anything. If the worst thing they were doing was selling drugs that'd be an improvement as far as I can t…
I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...
Oh, I'm not under any illusions that this kind of thing never happens in Canada, but I think if you look at the response to that incident (compared to cases in the US) there are hopeful signs.
The Braidwood Inquiry concluded the use of Tasers in the case wasn't justified. The officers were charged with perjury (not murder, but at least something). The RCMP issued an apology to Dziekański's mother.
Compare this to the response to fatal shootings in the US, and it's very clear to me I prefer this line of the sand.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are you basing that off of? Trump barely lost Minnesota in 2016 (46.9 Clinton to 45.4 Trump), and it's a swing state in virtually every national election.
Half my family is from there so partly anodically, but these seem to back it up: * http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/221721-how-r... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Minnesota "Minnesotans have voted for Democratic presidential candidates ever since 1976, more times consecutively than any other state outside of the south, and longer than any state."
> Half my family is from there so partly anodically, but these seem to back it up.
Your family must live in the Twin Cities metro because Minnesota gets real conservative real quick outside of Minneapolis, St Paul and the inner Suburbs.
Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
#100The first two federal officers involved in a Bitcoin-related investigation (Silk Road) stole the money and tried to cover it up. Which shows just how bad US law enforcement culture is. People like this can, and should be, filtered out. At some point I hope to see a #MeBlue social campaign by good cops to out bad cops.
I personally think some police abuse should be considered treason and handled appropriately via those laws. Same for political corruption