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Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

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Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#471

The 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…

Their pension is funded by tax dollars, this doesn't change the incentive structure.

You'd need to have it either impact their pension payments in a way that cannot be backfilled or more directly force the police officers themselves to carry liability insurance (far better).

Of course tax dollars pay their salaries as well, but if an officer became uninsurable then it weeds them out eventually.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#472

The 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…

> Every settlement against the police should be taken from their pension fund. So... collective punishment? https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/art...

Nice... I'm always disappointed when I see otherwise "enlightened" people being fine with civilizational regressions like this simply because it's a group they don't like. It's moves like this that chip away at your society.

Penalizing a group of people for the actions of a few is the very definition of collective punishment, and is universally condemned in the civilized world for very good reason. If you can't get such a fundamental thing through your head, ask your AI agent.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#473

The 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…

That's a lot of liability for police. They would likely buy insurance against it.

They'd just refuse to arrest anyone, sort of like SF cops did when they didn't like the DA. Eventually people decide they want cops with all their problems instead. Don't underestimate the ability of police to look after themselves.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#474

The 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…

How would this work? Where do the money for their pension fund come from? Would taking money from it result in them receiving smaller pensions?

Well many government pension funds are horribly underfunded, so likely it would just add to the underfunding till eventually the government would bail it out. It is an expensive, inefficient way to try and solve the issue - when they screw up this bad, you fire them - this is how every other organization works.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#475

The 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…

From what I could tell from the article, an officer submitted a warrant request to a judge and the judge approved it. That request was potentially incomplete because it left out the fact that the victim here didn’t actually make the meme. On the other hand I’m not sure whether omission matters since it would still be protected speech if he made it. So I would place a good amount of blame at the feet of the judge, who…

It wasn't an elected judge who issued the warrant, but a magistrate, whom the lawsuit noted "is a nonlawyer with no formal legal education."

Surprisingly, this isn't unusual. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/02/784225337/south-carolina-magi...

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#477
post #71

I’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…

Taxpayers should get a line item on their tax bills that specifically counts the amount of their bill that went toward settlements arising out of police misconduct, so they can see in numeric terms what they're voting for.

Yes, and if you're not happy with the way the president and the government treat your money you should ensure they are (A) not voted in again and (B) pressure new candidates to use the full extent of the law to punish them.

And quite frankly even if you're a hard-line rightwinger, the way this administration treats your money is so objectively bad, you have to be brainwashed to deny it.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#478
post #71

I’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…

> I’ll cut against the grain here and say it’s ABSOLUTELY appropriate for taxpayers to pay the bill here. It's one thing to agree that he should be compensated (I agree), but the figure doesn't make much sense. Per the article: > During his stay in jail, Larry lost his post-retirement job and missed his anniversary — as well as the birth of his grandchild. That's all pretty rough, but I fail to see how it entitles hi…

What would be the best mechanism?

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US Constitution is an amazing document, I suggest you read it if you are an American. It's pretty short and has a lot of stuff that is useful to know, even if you aren't a lawyer (I am not). Because I am not a lawyer, I didn't word it exactly correctly. The Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution says, in its entirety: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a prese…

Those are constitutional rights, by definition.

You meant what? The civil rights you identified were constitutional rights.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself. I'd rather them be outside Europe as well, Scotland, Wales and Ireland can stay though.

You are making a normative claim (what you want). Not a nominal one (what is). Completely irrelevant, the UK cannot be outside of Europe geographically because of your feelings.

Easily done with a few bagger 288.
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