Best country in the wooooorrldd
At least the US has working courts that gave the wrongly arrested man some redress. Almost $900,000 for 37 days in prison isn't bad at all.
Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
391–400 of 543 posts
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
And insurers doing their due diligence and charging based on potential for liability would go a long way to mitigating abuses. Best solution would be to simply require licensing and conduct standards to be a police professional similar to that required for Registered Nurses.
Is privatising ethics enforcement like this a good idea?
As opposed to doing nothing?
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
I fully agree, but you will never hear a candidate for sheriff call out an incumbent for being a shitty person. They're cops first, and public officials second, so both candidates will say they'll bring down crime more, but they will never betray the tribe by suggesting that law enforcment institutions can harbor criminal behavior.
It would be nice if someone ran against Sheriff Nick Weems using this case in their ads and speeches as an example of why Weems is unfit for the job and a liability for tax payers, but if someone did they'd have to be prepared to move away if they lost the election because otherwise they risk being retaliated against by someone who has already proven that they don't care about people's rights. It'd be better for law…
> but if someone did they'd have to be prepared to move away if they lost the election because otherwise they risk being retaliated against by someone who has already proven that they don't care about people's rights.
This is the big problem. A cop friend once told me that even he will not report abuse because he, and his family will be targeted by his fellow officers. They will do everything to make your life hell if you mess with them. One example is your license plate ends up in a database that gets you pulled over frequently and other forms of passive harassment.
The cops are just another gang, one that we call "the good guys." But honestly, not that many are good at all. Most are just ass holes looking for a power trip and carrying a gun is boner material for these cretins. The few decent or good people either leave or keep their head down and tow the line.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
Municipal insurers already do that
It seems like municipalities just past the insurance costs onto taxpayers.
The problem is that if elected officials are not comfortable confronting police unions about their conduct then any cost you pass on to the union or the officers is potentially just passed on to tax payers. Not that I disagree with any idea to hold police more accountable. You just have to address the issue from more than one direction.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, in the UK this is only true for the most absolutely serious cases where someone has been killed or seriously injured. Wrongful arrest doesn't. It may face career risks. Ultimately the US lacks some sort of Federal "inspectorate of police" that would be able to ban people from being law enforcement officers or at least require e.g. retraining or restriction of duties, without leaving it up to frankly corrupt local…
> US lacks some sort of Federal "inspectorate of police" I don't think this is true, or at least it's not entirely true. Various states and law enforcement agencies have an office of the inspector general which at least should provide some oversight. We also have the courts and individual officers and agencies can be sued in the court of law which also provides a means of oversight. You seem to be suggesting that eve…
Piscis primum a capite foetet
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#396The fact that taxpayers and not the police themselves have to pay the settlement is the worst part of this. Every settlement against the police should be taken from their pension fund. This is something I've been advocating for decades now, because it creates an incentive not to do things like this. Right now, good cops don't patrol bad cops because it won't affect them. By aligning the incentives right, it will mean…
What if a majority of taxpayers voted for that sheriff?
Another huge problem with our times is that local media is completely hollowed out. Voter awareness was never amazing but now there is no local paper to highlight abuse or corruption. Every problem becomes a national problem with no accountabillity. Lots of people in the state I live in vote for their sheriff. I would be shocked if one in one hundred even knew who that was.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#397I’ll cut against the grain here and say it’s ABSOLUTELY appropriate for taxpayers to pay the bill here. It’s pretty toxic that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own government in a democracy. In this case, it’s especially bad, given the sheriff is elected by the people directly. But I’d go even further and say even where control is less direct, we need incentives for voters to take this stuff serious…
You're on the right track - the services of government should be more accountable to the people, and the people should hold some responsibility for the actions of their government. For police in particular, the unions prevent a lot of police accountability, and because of the power that police wield over the population, I am comfortable saying I support unions EXCEPT police unions. At best they should be ballot initi…
> If I go further down my rabbit hole of systemic issues, I think citizens should be more involved in community policing in large populations.
This is something I have thought of too. We are all interested in living in a safe society; However, there are many people who know damn well they can get away with all sorts of idiotic behavior because the cops aren't looking, but everyone else is. So give everyone else a method to discourage that behavior.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, in the UK this is only true for the most absolutely serious cases where someone has been killed or seriously injured. Wrongful arrest doesn't. It may face career risks. Ultimately the US lacks some sort of Federal "inspectorate of police" that would be able to ban people from being law enforcement officers or at least require e.g. retraining or restriction of duties, without leaving it up to frankly corrupt local…
Yeah. Did any meaningful consequences befall anyone for the Horizon IT scandal?
On 23 February 2024, King Charles III revoked Vennells' CBE
So, not very much, and I suppose you can argue about whether it's meaningful, but it is a consequence.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
And insurers doing their due diligence and charging based on potential for liability would go a long way to mitigating abuses. Best solution would be to simply require licensing and conduct standards to be a police professional similar to that required for Registered Nurses.
Is privatising ethics enforcement like this a good idea?
Alternatively: Make the insurance come out of the collective pensions of the police department.
Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
For which they'd pay with taxpayer's money anyway
Right - but you are not considering that it's possible for a police department to be so bad as to be uninsurable. Even if the police continue to do misconduct, bad departments would get into situations where no insurer will cover them, and they are forced to make changes. It's not a perfect fix at all , but it would be a nice end-around for qualified immunity.
Would they, or would we just have less police?