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Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

nytimes.com

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Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#91

Post by [deleted] »

nradov wrote: post #19
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

Policing has to be one of the hardest jobs in our modern society, I honestly couldn't event imagine the stress. Imagine picking up a JIRA ticket at work and not knowing if that ticket is going to a run of the mill bug fix or something that can kill you. That's just out of the realm of possibility for an SWE but for a cop it can be any one of the calls they take on a daily basis. I've always had respect for cops becau…

Law enforcement can be dangerous but it's only #22 in occupational death rates. Lumberjacks and roofers are far more likely to get killed. https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-j...

[deleted]

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#92

Post by vinnymac »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #33
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine just doing your best to help your local community by building some online community notice board, only for a rabid horde to start picketing your house, shouting ALL PROGRAMMERS ARE BASTARDS!!!

The problem is lots of police members don't do their best to help their local communities, and the ones that do stand behind that ones that definitely don't.

Most people I know can't distinguish the difference between an anonymous hacker and their IT department. Many roles are vilified by society due to ignorance, not just the police. I hear about the good software developers are doing in the world, much more often than I do the police. That certainly has an effect on everyone's perceptions of these roles in society.

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#93

Post by RankingMember »

ssully wrote: post #28
smileysteve wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you make the incorrect commit in the moment -- or don't check with compliance, then a person is dead, you're on trial by the public; and possibly at risk for jail time. [Addendum: And you're being promoted based on arrests, while sharing frustration with management about compliance, and likely seeing other cowboy coder style actions]

You might be surprised to see the rate at which police are charged and convicted of a crime while on the job. Hint: The number is incredibly low.

Yep, most around here just get put on "desk duty", essentially a "hey let's wait for this to all blow over then we'll get you back out there" play.

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#94

Post by kortex »

plank_time wrote: post #59
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

Policing has to be one of the hardest jobs in our modern society, I honestly couldn't event imagine the stress. Imagine picking up a JIRA ticket at work and not knowing if that ticket is going to a run of the mill bug fix or something that can kill you. That's just out of the realm of possibility for an SWE but for a cop it can be any one of the calls they take on a daily basis. I've always had respect for cops becau…

The paranoid mentality that any call could kill you is the exact reason why so many unarmed black people are shot. If you can’t carry out a day’s work without the unreasonable fear that you will be shot, and any action makes you “fear for your life” so that why you emptied your clip into a car, then you shouldn’t be a cop. Cops needs to have cooler heads and this should be measured and verified before allowing them t…

Police departments increasingly utilize military gear and tactics. I wish they would also "take" the UCMJ, rules of engagement, and Geneva conventions.

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#95

Post by mtrower »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #12

Democracy is said to be the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. However, I note that, from a democratic perspective, it appears that the broader public does not actually want a reduced police force, and this appears to be true across racial lines[1]. So, let us perhaps say, instead: democracy is the theory that the extremely-online elites and activists know what the…

> So, let us perhaps say, instead: democracy is theory that the extremely-online elites and activists know what they want, and that the common people deserve to get it good and hard.

Holding a (small time) elected leadership position, this definitely matches my own observations. I have to deal with the opinions of those I represent on the matters I’m elected to handle quite frequently; the opinions of the few and the loud quite often do not match the opinions and priorities of the majority, but the few and loud do stand out, and the pressure they create gives the illusion of majority opinion.

Does this make sense, or am I not expressing myself well?

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#96

Post by y0ssar1an »

Coincidentally, the murder rate is way up.

> A 25 percent increase in murder in 2020 would mean the United States surpassed 20,000 murders in a year for the first time since 1995. (The final official numbers for 2020 will not be released until late September.) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/upshot/murder-rate-usa.ht...

Thanks, BLM.

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#97

Post by [deleted] »

Analemma_ wrote: post #64
nradov wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law enforcement can be dangerous but it's only #22 in occupational death rates. Lumberjacks and roofers are far more likely to get killed. https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-j...

And the majority of those are traffic accidents. If you limit it to homicides it drops many more places.

[deleted]

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#98

Post by RankingMember »

bena wrote: post #23
bserge wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing it would've been better if they went with "Distribute funds properly" instead of "Defund the police".

But they don't want that either. They want to keep everything they have and have other people handle all of that stuff they don't want to.

Bit of a broad brush there, innit? Who is "they"?

Re: Police have been quitting in droves in the last year

#99

Post by pacbard »

nradov wrote: post #19
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

Policing has to be one of the hardest jobs in our modern society, I honestly couldn't event imagine the stress. Imagine picking up a JIRA ticket at work and not knowing if that ticket is going to a run of the mill bug fix or something that can kill you. That's just out of the realm of possibility for an SWE but for a cop it can be any one of the calls they take on a daily basis. I've always had respect for cops becau…

Law enforcement can be dangerous but it's only #22 in occupational death rates. Lumberjacks and roofers are far more likely to get killed. https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-j...

I wonder if the stress comes from how a police officer dies on the job rather than the absolute death rate of the profession.

Lumber harvesting is the most dangerous profession in the US but I imagine that most deaths would be described as "accidents". For example, someone cuts a leg with a chainsaw, a tree snaps in a weird way, someone gets pushed off a cliff.

Police officers, on the other hand, usually due to violence while interacting with other people.

In other words, a lumberjack, roofer, etc could think that they won't die today on the job because they are being careful, because there are safety protocols set by OHSA, etc. The same might not be true for police officers because there is little that they can do to address how others will interact with them.

In a sense, police officers might process their job more closely to how a soldier process their job than a lumberjack/roofer.

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