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In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

nytimes.com

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Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#101

Post by duck »

2trill2spill wrote: post #99
duck wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half my family is from there so partly anodically, but these seem to back it up: * http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/221721-how-r... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Minnesota "Minnesotans have voted for Democratic presidential candidates ever since 1976, more times consecutively than any other state outside of the south, and longer than any state."

> Half my family is from there so partly anodically, but these seem to back it up. Your family must live in the Twin Cities metro because Minnesota gets real conservative real quick outside of Minneapolis, St Paul and the inner Suburbs.

Nope, farm country. And as with all things political, it is way more complex and not so binary, but that said, the whole point of this thread is around the Twin Cities and who they've elected... so I agree.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#102

Post by olivermarks »

jacquesm wrote: post #86
olivermarks wrote: post #56

Adding to this common problem in larger metropolitan police forces in the US is their rapid militarization. Shaking down kids while cruising around in a black and white is one thing. Being equipped with military gear including armored cars opens up a whole new level of control issues. http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-the-rook-armored-cater...

> Shaking down kids while cruising around in a black and white is one thing. Being equipped with military gear including armored cars opens up a whole new level of control issues. I'm not sure which one of those two does more damage to society in the longer term. The second obviously has problems but the first chips away at the foundations and I suspect that long term that one will have far more potential to do damag…

The ongoing debate between moderates and the far right in Israel is an extreme example of this control issue. The 'Rook' mentioned in the link is built on a caterpillar chassis, as is the case with the armored devices Israel uses to destroy Palestinian homes and schools. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-destroys-two-...

A caption of one of the linked photos about the Rook at the Philadelphia police equipment convention - 'The last attachment is the grapple claw, which can remove fortified doors and burglar bars and even be used to remove debris from natural disasters'.

Surely natural disasters and helping people comes first not, as an afterthought....

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#103

Post by anonoholic »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #93
ronilan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...

In most "oh things are terrible in America" matters, I believe other countries are about as bad, but have a tamer media. But police misconduct really does seem to be worse in America. For reasons I don't fully understand. One part of it is probably guns: even in states with strong gun control, there are plenty of them in the hands of hoodlums, so voters appreciate the Dirty Harry approach to dealing with them. But to…

The UK's media is vicious, yet there are few areas where the UK (or other countries subject to UK media scrutiny) are on-par with, or worse than, the US. North Korea maybe?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#106

Post by Frondo »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #93
ronilan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...

In most "oh things are terrible in America" matters, I believe other countries are about as bad, but have a tamer media. But police misconduct really does seem to be worse in America. For reasons I don't fully understand. One part of it is probably guns: even in states with strong gun control, there are plenty of them in the hands of hoodlums, so voters appreciate the Dirty Harry approach to dealing with them. But to…

A lot of it is how the police largely pick on the most vulnerable populations--poor people, minorities, ex-cons, people with drug problems, whatever. They're not dumb, they know that if they tried to shake down drug-addled sons of senators, they'd be fired. So, like all abusers, they pick targets that can't fight back. And those targets are the ones with the least political/economics agency, the fewest connections, the least ability to respond to police brutality, whatever.

And the middle and upper classes--the only voices ever represented in media (excluding the current endless spate of articles interviewing poor Trump voters)--of course they not only have no problem with the police, they don't know anyone who's been shaken down. As a general rule, at least.

So, you look at the predominant voices in the media, and they have no problem with the corruption of cops, and they don't know anyone who does.

Gosh, even my nominally progressive sister goes into any discussion about police brutality with an assumption that whoever got shot deserved it. And she's generally aware of social issues!

The biases are baked in so deep, and so uncomfortable to unpack, it's easier to just to turn away from it all.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#107

Post by ColanR »

jacquesm wrote: post #86
olivermarks wrote: post #56

Adding to this common problem in larger metropolitan police forces in the US is their rapid militarization. Shaking down kids while cruising around in a black and white is one thing. Being equipped with military gear including armored cars opens up a whole new level of control issues. http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-the-rook-armored-cater...

> Shaking down kids while cruising around in a black and white is one thing. Being equipped with military gear including armored cars opens up a whole new level of control issues. I'm not sure which one of those two does more damage to society in the longer term. The second obviously has problems but the first chips away at the foundations and I suspect that long term that one will have far more potential to do damag…

The big problem is when the police officers that enjoy shaking down kids are equipped with military gear. That is a scary thought.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#108

Post by thenayr »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #93
ronilan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...

In most "oh things are terrible in America" matters, I believe other countries are about as bad, but have a tamer media. But police misconduct really does seem to be worse in America. For reasons I don't fully understand. One part of it is probably guns: even in states with strong gun control, there are plenty of them in the hands of hoodlums, so voters appreciate the Dirty Harry approach to dealing with them. But to…

"hoodlums" aren't the problem with guns though... It's white males with a history of domestic violence that are the problem.

And no...the US is in a league of it's own when it comes to police brutality towards minorities.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#109

Post by thriftwy »

ronilan wrote: post #58
patmcc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Is it? I'm a Canadian and everything I hear about the US police terrifies me - SWATing leading to innocent people being killed, unarmed black men being shot, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, the impossibility of convicting police for just about anything. If the worst thing they were doing was selling drugs that'd be an improvement as far as I can t…

I’m a Canadian too. The 49th is just a line in the sand. Here’s a reminder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_inci...

> In February 2009, it was reported that Canada had unilaterally suspended its mutual legal assistance treaty with Poland, thus blocking Poland's own investigation of the Dziekański Taser incident.

Whoa, those cops surely have a serious level of political backing.

This baffles me always to no end - the flame with which the officials would defend cops who went seriously out of borders. Every time in every locale.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#110

Post by jbattle »

txsh wrote: post #97
bob_theslob646 wrote: post #12

Why is there not more transparency? It makes zero sense. What is going to stop something like this occuring again? Officers going to jail?

There should be a body cam on every officer and their police powers and privileges should deactivate the moment its turned off deliberately or “accidentally”. A time delayed feed should be made public and an independent federal agency should randomly audit the recordings for civil rights abuses. Police should be treated like other political officials and there should be a democratic mechanism for the public to remove…

I'm not anti-bodycam at all - but they don't seem to have had the effect we all hoped for...

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558832090...

From a minute of googling, looks like San Diego had more dramatic results

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