This amounts to the police becoming a mafia with a protection racket. They realized that they have little or no motivation or incentive to actually do their jobs if they can extract more money with side jobs.
Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
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Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#412You have to have been raised pretty sweetly to not have known this kind of racketeering was a 'thing' for a very long time. Pressure to hire cops is rampant. 'rent-a-cop' is not aimed at the fact that security companies apply aggressive mimicry to their people, but that these people are themselves often off-duty cops. Security companies are strongly "encouraged" to hire off-duty cops, and find themselves left out to…
Some types of publics works projects require hiring police for traffic safety and insurance reasons.
In addition, retired police officers often can keep their uniforms and work privately in an official capacity.
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
Harm reduction is a component of public safety.
If your interest is harm reduction, then you should be focused on reducing the number of handguns in circulation. You should also consider looking in to the data about what actually happens to your chances of being shot once you buy a gun. It’s pretty stunning.
I agree with all of the points you just made, and don't wish to be anywhere near a gun, personally. This does not change the fact that there are some people that feel the opposite, and will obtain a firearm regardless. If I can, I'm going to incentivize them to choose the safer option.
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#414If you find these corruption allegations hard to believe, I lived on the South Side of Chicago in the late 90s, and cops there expected to eat for free wherever they went and blew through stop signs and red lights like they weren't even there. (I have never seen this kind of police behavior anywhere else I've lived, which includes downtown Seattle.) Oh, and I had a detective tell me once (after they'd found the guy w…
That happens in San Francisco too. Back in the day when someone tried to negotiate with the union, a bomb was found in the city with an implied threat.
No implied threat- they bombed the mayors office
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came here to mention this. It's the biggest shakedown of all time in Massachusetts. They are required to do all these jobs that most states don't require them to do. They are extremely expensive, like 10x what a construction worker costs to wave flags on the side of the road. And the police don't even really pretend to do the job most of the time. They are off on the side of the road drinking coffee and playing with…
If I thought we had a chance against the police union, I'd suggest we co-found a computer vision startup that does the same job for free ;)
Anytime I drive through VT or NH it's amazing how well the construction workers direct traffic, and they don't get to charge $100 an hour or whatever the police actually charge.
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's pretty eye opening to watch every bill pushed through in the name of firearm safety turning out to have massive exemptions for off duty and retired cops. They're such a powerful political force that it's outright expected they should have a disproportionate ability to deliver force even after they're retired .
My favorite part is that California has a roster of handguns approved for sale. The pretext for its existence is consumer safety (it is entirely separate from bans on stuff like assault weapons or large magazines), but the actual effect is that you have a very limited selection in stores, and most of the designs are very dated. But if you're a police officer? You get an exemption! Apparently, the state has no regard…
Another reason why I left California. You can't buy a Canik's as a non-LEO. Also,
criminals get whatever guns they want and carry them while law-abiding citizens can't do anything except wish not to be mugged or murdered with strong objections. It's completely absurd given how violent America is.
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#417The Target here in ATX next to downtown hired 2 ex-PMC's in full plate carriers. (APD's call backlog for nonviolent reports runs 36- to 48-hours, so it might as well be never. A private person must then either be equipped to defend themselves, cease venturing in public, or move because the police may be too busy or too unconcerned elsewhere.)
ATX? PMC? APD? I think I can maybe reverse engineer the meaning of two of those, but really you should use acronyms in full on first use. xPD is often how Americans refer to the police departments, so possibly that with “A” being a city or state or similar. ATX I can now assume is referring to the same “A” in APD, leaving “TX”, so I assume Austin, Texas and Austin Police Department? It shouldn’t take this much effort…
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Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would record that conversation and send it to the FBI, and if that didn't get any traction, the Press.
Yeah, I mean, nobody knows how to skirt the law better than cops, and they of course never exactly phrase it in such a way as to be extortion. It’s bullshit, and I’ve talk to people from all over the country and I think it’s pretty pervasive. But my business relies on permits that they sign, and it just feels like I could probably spend a lot of time and money and ruin myself fighting it, over what is really a relati…
I think this kind of defeated attitude enables this behavior. You should expect good behavior by default from public officials, normalizing the idea that this kind of corruption is deviant (even if it is more common than that) and expect punishment. Even as a bystander you can help influence opinion, expectations, and standards.
This is a good tactic in many other situations as well.
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#419Earlier quoted context omitted.
And, for the record, this embodies what most people meant when they said, "Defund the police." Not, "Get rid of the institution of law enforcement." Instead, "Lower funding so that the remainder is forced to be put towards necessary tasks which the police are actually effective at," reducing their ability to engage in the kind of paid apathy or harassment the GGP describes, and freeing up funding for preventative soc…
You can't lower the funding. 1. They self-fund. All confiscated cash is for keeps. If they're not allowed to keep it by state law, they're welcome to call in feds who will do the bust and give them 80% as a finders fee. 2. They extort cities into not "defunding". They don't want it, and they play hardball. > nd no one in their right mind, even on the ACAB side, wants police to go away entirely. No one's ever accused…
Dude, nobody expects a random cop to spend a month trying to track down a $200 bicycle. That's not their job.
Your views are extremely myopic. Low-income neighborhoods around me are asking for MORE police because of how things have gotten. It's literally only suburban people who are insulated from crime that are saying dumb things like "defund the police"
Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people are so privileged they think the police do nothing, the prisons are only filled with the wrongfully convicted, and crime isn’t really a problem. That being said, I’m all for attempting the experiment, preferably far from me.
> Some people are so privileged they think the police do nothing They do plenty of things. And I'm glad I'm privileged enough that I never suffer them doing things. No, I started the conversation out talking specifically about "the things they do what we would actually want them to do". This is because, were they gone, we wouldn't have to worry about them doing "the things they do that we never want done to ourselves…
You must live a sheltered life to think this. Viewing an entire group of people as evil or inherently bad. People like you are the reason why progress in the area is so hard. You don't understand the reality of the job.