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Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

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Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#22
post #16

Given a lack of per capita numbers and comparison to the general population this seems like concern trolling by an advocacy organization.

From the article:

  Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#23

Do we have evidence around whether this is a selection effect or a transformation effect? That is, do racist assholes disproportionately gravitate towards the police force? Or does the police force disproportionately turn ordinary people into racist assholes?

Alternatively, do heavily prejudiced people commonly not know how to operate social media privacy settings?

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#24

Do we have evidence around whether this is a selection effect or a transformation effect? That is, do racist assholes disproportionately gravitate towards the police force? Or does the police force disproportionately turn ordinary people into racist assholes?

This would be both extremely interesting and very difficult to study.

> This would be both extremely interesting and very difficult to study

You’d have to get a department to consent to the random sampling of its officers’ social media histories. (Can’t just use public data due to the selection bias it entails.)

The data are there, being dutifully logged by everyone’s cell phones and flung off to servers across the world. Ethically accessing them is the political problem.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#26

Do we have evidence around whether this is a selection effect or a transformation effect? That is, do racist assholes disproportionately gravitate towards the police force? Or does the police force disproportionately turn ordinary people into racist assholes?

There's 120,000 law enforcement officers in the US. It'd be pretty easy to find 10-15 people blowing off steam and joking on FB about their jobs in ways non-officers may find offensive. Combined with a couple straight up racist ones. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find similar relative numbers in Canada and the UK.

These individuals should be punished no doubt and likely will be as a result of this article.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#27
post #8

> "Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population," the National Center for Women & Policing says. "A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24%, indicating that domestic violence is 2-4 times more common among police families than American families in general." http://womenandpolici…

honestly, is this really surprising? people become police officers not just to "help others" but to do it through the use of force, weapons and authority.

if you group people by profession and gender, you can probably find 1000 things that are specific to that group. it's like saying that programmers/engineers have a higher probability of being good at math or being introverted vs the general population.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#28
post #8

> "Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population," the National Center for Women & Policing says. "A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24%, indicating that domestic violence is 2-4 times more common among police families than American families in general." http://womenandpolici…

Surely there's a segment of the population with similar personality traits predominant to police officers that don't become police officers. One would think they'd also have similar incident of domestic violence if this were a personality trait? Personally, I would have no interest in dealing with the horrible things people do to one another, on a regular basis, as part of my job. No thanks. Reading the news is bad e…

No one is claiming it's a personality trait, though that absolutely could be a part of it. More likely, it's because police officers can act with impunity in pretty much every scenario. Add in a high-pressure job, and you've got a recipe for abuse.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#29

Do we have evidence around whether this is a selection effect or a transformation effect? That is, do racist assholes disproportionately gravitate towards the police force? Or does the police force disproportionately turn ordinary people into racist assholes?

The first, you'd think. Police forces have a recruitment problem, if they began firing those who have a history of excessive force use they'd be short-staffed.

Re: Police Post Racist and Violent Messages on Facebook, a Review Shows

#30
post #16

Given a lack of per capita numbers and comparison to the general population this seems like concern trolling by an advocacy organization.

From the article: Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederat…

Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.
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