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In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

nytimes.com

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Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#181

Post by DrScump »

alsetmusic wrote: post #137
ams6110 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't judge all the the US by its corrupt big cities. I recognize nothing in this story in my town's local police (we're about 65,000 population, and the cops are quite relaxed and civil as a default).

> Don't judge all the the US by its corrupt big cities. > I recognize nothing in this story in my town's local police (we're about 65,000 population, and the cops are quite relaxed and civil as a default). I was stopped without explanation in Andover, KS (population In a neighboring city (Wichita), police responding to a 911 call that I placed after being robbed at gunpoint played good-cop-bad-cop with me. They suspe…

  refused to press charges
Police don't press charges. DAs press charges; police are merely witnesses in criminal cases.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#182

Post by WillReplyfFood »

mjfl wrote: post #164
antod wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about others, I want my police force judged by their worst interactions rather than the majority of their interactions. I want the standards set high enough that all those bad things practically never happen rather than some small regular percentage of ongoing interactions.

You want to know what the problem is? No sane person would want to risk their life on a daily basis, wrestle people into their cars against their will on a daily basis, and be subject to the scrutiny you describe in your post, the hatred that is described in other posts, all for a policeman's salary. Literally no sane person would take that deal. Are you about to sign up to be a cop? Hell fucking no.

You could say the same thing about a firefighter- and yet they exist. Sorry, if you mistake courage with insanity. Some people have a urge to help that lets them run into the wrong direction.

Without that- you would have died in that car-accident you sometimes get flashbacks to. There is a dentist effect here at work- everybody forgets the negative moments in live, everyone forgets about theire dentist until it hurts again. Police and Emergency services are socially isolated due to that effect.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#183

Post by DrScump »

gt_ wrote: post #154
jbattle wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not anti-bodycam at all - but they don't seem to have had the effect we all hoped for... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558832090... From a minute of googling, looks like San Diego had more dramatic results

...according to a study conducted by the police department in question. I contested a ticket I received from an aggressive traffic cop in Portland for texting in a stand-still bumper to bumper traffic jam. He was on a motorcycle and saw me as he rode by on the sidewalk!!! This guy had incredible nerve. In court, I insisted we view the footage from his body camera, which could only be done if I first refuse his plea o…

Why had you not reviewed the recording (and other discovery) well before the court date?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#184

Post by nathanasmith »

King-Aaron wrote: post #165
refurb wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to stop listening to mass media so much. When I lived in Canada there were stories of police corruption, unwarranted beatings and racism. If you think this is an "only in America" issue you're being incredibly naive.

I disagree - I don't watch any. However, it's a very widely-used phrase, which is what I'm commenting on. It means something is so ridiculous, it could only happen in America. It's like when you see people buying a rifle in Walmart - Only in America. Or when they're getting a one-gallon cup of Coke from McDonalds, or drive away from a fuel bowser with the hose still plugged in etc etc. These things can happen elsewhe…

>it could only happen in America is an extremely well-known and common comment to make.

Why not? Everybody else is making it. Besides, it gives the commenter that oh so delicious smug sense of unearned superiority. Besides, everybody else is doing it. Except..

>It's like when you see people buying a rifle in Walmart - Only in America.

People buy rifles in all kinds of stores all over the world so why would Walmart be any kind of exception?

>Or when they're getting a one-gallon cup of Coke from McDonalds,

This literally does not exist.

>or drive away from a fuel bowser with the hose still plugged in

People do this anywhere they are allowed to pump their own gas. FWIW in my 40 years, I've seen the aftermath of this exactly once.

To respond to your other comment:

>I disagree - I don't watch any [mass media]. This honestly seems like exactly the sort of corruption I'd expect to hear about in the US...

Except according to the corruption perception index, the US is less corrupt than most European countries[0] including the likes of France, Portugal and Ireland, and far less corrupt than the vast majority of countries in the world. You claim to not be watching the media but you're getting your false information from somewhere so maybe turn that off too.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#185

Post by DrScump »

YokoZar wrote: post #62
jdavis703 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Camden shut down it's police department, and last year had the lowest murder rate in decades: http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2018/01/camdens_2017_murd... . As engineers when a system is severaly broken, we know the answer can be to turn it off (e.g. in the case of a bad malware infection). The same can apply to other complex systems too.

It wasn't clear from the article, but the context I found was that the Camden County Police Department took over policing from the Camden City force on May 1, 2013. Cities often have multiple options for who "owns" local policing - county level police, county level sheriff's office, contracting out to a neighboring town, or even state police.

It's often financial -- a larger force can be "sublet" more cheaply than running your own.

Heck, even Cupertino, CA (home of Apple) does that.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#186

Post by King-Aaron »

nathanasmith wrote: post #184
King-Aaron wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree - I don't watch any. However, it's a very widely-used phrase, which is what I'm commenting on. It means something is so ridiculous, it could only happen in America. It's like when you see people buying a rifle in Walmart - Only in America. Or when they're getting a one-gallon cup of Coke from McDonalds, or drive away from a fuel bowser with the hose still plugged in etc etc. These things can happen elsewhe…

>it could only happen in America is an extremely well-known and common comment to make. Why not? Everybody else is making it. Besides, it gives the commenter that oh so delicious smug sense of unearned superiority. Besides, everybody else is doing it. Except.. >It's like when you see people buying a rifle in Walmart - Only in America. People buy rifles in all kinds of stores all over the world so why would Walmart be…

Try to avoid getting so offended over the comment - to anyone living outside the US, the phrase "only in America" is extremely commonplace.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#187

Post by DrScump »

utopcell wrote: post #88

At the risk of oversimplifying, I believe increasing crime rate is a good proxy for police corruption. As an example, East Palo Alto in CA was the crime capital of the country back in the 90s. Then a police force that included parties from surrounding cities was formed to address it and now the city is essentially crime-free.

  the city is essentially crime-free
I think you are misreading a source. Homicide has decreased, but most other crime has increased.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#188

Post by nathanasmith »

King-Aaron wrote: post #186
nathanasmith wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it could only happen in America is an extremely well-known and common comment to make. Why not? Everybody else is making it. Besides, it gives the commenter that oh so delicious smug sense of unearned superiority. Besides, everybody else is doing it. Except.. >It's like when you see people buying a rifle in Walmart - Only in America. People buy rifles in all kinds of stores all over the world so why would Walmart be…

Try to avoid getting so offended over the comment - to anyone living outside the US, the phrase "only in America" is extremely commonplace.

>It means something is so ridiculous, it could only happen in America.

An exaggeration in itself but then you go on to support it with claims that are either entirely false or orthogonal to the point. So I corrected you. Yet somehow I'm supposed to be "offended". Since you are so good at internet psychiatry, here's another word for you. Projection.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#189

Post by always_good »

cgag wrote: post #113
astebbin wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Was it a hoax though? https://youtu.be/QWhUvm8SunY

Wow, great vid. The follow up from Heene himself is pretty convincing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axgyj7g5XZY

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#190

Post by laaph »

mjfl wrote: post #176
JamesBarney wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OP was arguing the police should spend less time wrestling people into their cars against their will.

That's their job.

That's their job when the situation warrants it. It's not their job to practice on every Tom Dick and Harry just for the fun of it.
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