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In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

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Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#91

Post by i_like_apis »

rusk wrote: post #69
i_like_apis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is a scumbag? Easy question. 99% of those arrested are scumbags. This is speaking as someone who has been to jail and met the population that gets arrested. They are the worst, and their opinion in regard to rating cops should be largely ignored.

Obviously excluding yourself, I guess that means you spoke with 99 people all of which were scum, which strikes me as being fairly socially active for a fish out of water!

Sounds like you're casting some sort of sarcastic doubt.

I've mixed with a population of about 500. Spoken to many, intentionally and otherwise. Very familiar with their culture. Trust me, 99% of the arrest population is scum.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#92

Post by chrisseaton »

karmelapple wrote: post #77

I've always found it interesting that when I'm pulled over for a traffic violation, a police officer can use their discretion on whether to punish me. I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, and a couple times I simply got a warning, and other times I got a ticket and had to pay a fine. If I committed a crime, why should an officer have that leeway? They caught me, I should have to pay the consequences... rig…

Because the purpose of the fine isn’t the money, it’s getting you to be more safe. If they can achieve that with a friendly chat then isn’t that better for everyone?

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#93

Post by blahyawnblah »

karmelapple wrote: post #77

I've always found it interesting that when I'm pulled over for a traffic violation, a police officer can use their discretion on whether to punish me. I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, and a couple times I simply got a warning, and other times I got a ticket and had to pay a fine. If I committed a crime, why should an officer have that leeway? They caught me, I should have to pay the consequences... rig…

Here in Oregon it's the policy of the DMV, Department of Transportation, and police departments to educate drivers. After enough warnings or you're acting like you don't care you will get a ticket.

Interestingly enough, I've been pulled over several times but always by a different department it seems like. They obviously don't talk to each other or I would have gotten more tickets by now.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#94

Post by robonerd »

throwntoday wrote: post #45
nxm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This^. The rating system puts the public in danger as a result if the right punishment (proper fine) is not given.

Fines are stupid to begin with. If they are too low nobody will care and the sheer number of people breaking the law makes enforcement pointless. If they are too high, they can send the average person into financial ruin, and the wealthy can continue paying their way around trouble. Even a ticket of a couple hundred dollars insane to the average American. In either case, without any proper oversight, this money just…

Even small fines come with a large serving of shame, at least for a lot of people. Receiving an inconsequentially small fine can be the kick some people need to sort themselves out, if they perceive the social denunciation implicit in the fine.

Of course, some people are shameless.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#95

Post by redsid »

daenz wrote: post #12

I think their heart is in the right place (officers should have direct and transparent reputations to people). But in order to implement this "correctly", you need to go one step further into a dangerous territory: the ratings that an officer receives should be weighted by the rating of the person who rated them. Absolute scumbags shouldn't be able to hurt reputations in quite the same way as upstanding people. If yo…

Hah. So, China's social rating approach on all citizens as the starting point

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#96

Post by rayiner »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #60
rayiner wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How a cop treats someone they view as a "scumbag" is a lot more illustrative and important than how they treat those they view as "upstanding people." Why? > A big part of the problem with the current policing system is that cops treat some groups completely differently from how they treat others. And what are those groups?

Why? It’s kind like human rights - the majority of people who are at risk of having them infringed are unpleasant or unsympathetic characters. I’d argue a cliché “upstanding law-abiding citizen” type doesn’t generally have that much to fear from a police interaction. They are generally being dealt with on a presumption of good faith, and have at least some access to leverage and ability to push back against unfair tr…

> It’s kind like human rights - the majority of people who are at risk of having them infringed are unpleasant or unsympathetic characters.

I think some people have a view of "human rights" that fixates on and elevates "unpleasant or unsympathetic characters" but I don't think it's intrinsic to the concept of human rights.

> I’d argue a cliché “upstanding law-abiding citizen” type doesn’t generally have that much to fear from a police interaction. They are generally being dealt with on a presumption of good faith, and have at least some access to leverage and ability to push back against unfair treatment. Someone who’s already been identified as a “scumbag” doesn’t, and that is why their treatment is more illuminating.

Illuminating of what exactly that would make their view more "important" (as stated above) than the views of law abiding citizens?

> There are many of them and they vary by region. Police very observably interact differently with richer versus poorer groups, for example, or with groups from different ethnic backgrounds.

I think if you break it down more granularly, you'll see that what police interactions vary more within, for example, ethnic groups, than between ethnic groups, based on characteristics such as past criminal history, etc.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#97

Post by [deleted] »

karmelapple wrote: post #77

I've always found it interesting that when I'm pulled over for a traffic violation, a police officer can use their discretion on whether to punish me. I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, and a couple times I simply got a warning, and other times I got a ticket and had to pay a fine. If I committed a crime, why should an officer have that leeway? They caught me, I should have to pay the consequences... rig…

[deleted]

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#98

Post by bostonsre »

0des wrote: post #83
karmelapple wrote: post #77

I've always found it interesting that when I'm pulled over for a traffic violation, a police officer can use their discretion on whether to punish me. I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, and a couple times I simply got a warning, and other times I got a ticket and had to pay a fine. If I committed a crime, why should an officer have that leeway? They caught me, I should have to pay the consequences... rig…

The purpose of a traffic stop is seldom due to traffic infractions. Traffic stops are an access vector, or as police call it, a point of contact.

Are there any numbers to back that up? I'm sure there are some bad apples out there that make up excuses because they think someone looks suspicious tho. But it also seems like there are a huge number of bad drivers out there that do dangerous things and having traffic laws that are sometimes enforced seems like it has to curtail some of that behavior.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#99

Post by pvg »

karmelapple wrote: post #77

I've always found it interesting that when I'm pulled over for a traffic violation, a police officer can use their discretion on whether to punish me. I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, and a couple times I simply got a warning, and other times I got a ticket and had to pay a fine. If I committed a crime, why should an officer have that leeway? They caught me, I should have to pay the consequences... rig…

If I committed a crime

The difference is that citeable infractions like plain speeding are not crimes.

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