In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
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In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
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Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#2> It’s not standard to conduct investigations beforehand because that delays the apprehension of suspects, he told me.
When a man's job depends on him apprehending suspects, then he will find a way to create more suspects for which to apprehend.
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#3> It’s not standard to conduct investigations beforehand because that delays the apprehension of suspects, he told me. When a man's job depends on him apprehending suspects, then he will find a way to create more suspects for which to apprehend.
This was the line that stuck out to me as well. What a bunch of disgusting hypocrites. What happened to serve and protect? What about innocent until proven guilty?
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#4I'm confused as to why a report of a squatter requires any kind of raid to begin with...
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#5I'm confused as to why a report of a squatter requires any kind of raid to begin with...
It might be a terrorizing terrorist
Or a drug overlord.
Or Harry Potter.
:D
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#6> It’s not standard to conduct investigations beforehand because that delays the apprehension of suspects, he told me. When a man's job depends on him apprehending suspects, then he will find a way to create more suspects for which to apprehend.
This was the line that stuck out to me as well. What a bunch of disgusting hypocrites. What happened to serve and protect? What about innocent until proven guilty?
What happened to serve and protect?
Police in the United States have never had any such legal duty, and this has been backed by court precedent. It's purely a motto.
Two relevant cases are South v. State of Maryland (1855) and Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005).
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#7> The culture that encourages police officers to engage their weapons before gathering information promotes the mind-set that nothing, including citizen safety, is more important than officers’ personal security.
This seems like the thing police forces need to change in order to fix the situation.
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#8Karma's a bitch
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#9I sometimes find ex-military folks analogies between their wartime service and situations in civilian life rather forced, but this analysis is exactly right. I used to ask myself why the Israeli Defence Forces would risk innocent palestinian civilian lives to kill the terrorists who hide among them by using drones or airstrikes instead of the kind of techniques they would no doubt use if the terrorists were surrounded by Israeli civilians. The simple answer is that the life of an Israeli civilian is considered (by the IDF) to be worth more than that of a palestinian civilian.
The same was clearly true in the United States' early approach to counter-insurgency in Iraq, as described in this piece, where the life of an American soldier is clearly much more valuable to the US Government than those of the Iraqi civilians we went to 'save'.
The sad thing is the comparison I would always quote was "what would the police do in the United States, if you had a dangerous criminal surrounded by civilians?" They probably wouldn't use an airstrike, they would probably use some other technique with a higher risk to the police, but a lower risk to the civilians they are sworn to 'protect and serve'
This article (and lots of other data) suggests that is changing: if everyone is a suspect until proven innocent, there is no need for police restraint. The worse that can happen is a dead 'perp' I guess...
Re: In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me
#10I'm confused as to why a report of a squatter requires any kind of raid to begin with...
I'm going to go full-on cynical here:
A) because they can, and B) because it counts towards SWAT gear maintenance
To expand on point B, I would not be the least bit surprised if police departments' beancounters actually kept tabs on the average cost of SWAT gear maintenance costs. Higher number of conducted raids means a lower bolded number in metrics spreadsheet.
... which actually brings up another item. Do the personnel on a raid get paid dangerous duty bonuses?