Take that, “blue wall of silence.” From Anthropoliteia.
Tag: police culture
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Political Correctness Kills?
No.
My buddy Ron Smith has a column with the headline: “Fort Hood massacre shows how political correctness can kill.” (just for record, columnists don’t write headlines.)
I’m not a fan of political correctness (though I like being polite) and don’t consider myself very politically correct (though I try and be considerate). But I’m pretty certain that political correctness does not kill.
Just because shooter Major Nidal Hasan expressed some things that are now seen as warnings and just because he’s Muslim… does that mean these signs were ignored because of “political correctness”? I don’t think so. More likely nobody did anything because, I don’t know, how can you know and what are you going to do?
If you’re a cop reading this, ask yourself this: how many of the cops that you work with are, to some kind of scary degree, crazy? I don’t know how you define crazy, it’s entirely up to you. But perhaps you can use this definition: If you heard that he flipped (and I’m assuming it’s a guy) and shot somebody–maybe an ex girlfriend or complete stranger or themselves–if you heard this would you think, “I guess that wasn’t a complete surprise.” How many of these people do you know? I’ll bet it’s more than one.
So what have you done with that information? Called 911? Told internal affairs? Of course not. You talk to your friends to make sure you’re not the only one who thinks this. I mean, you want to make sure he’s crazy and you’re not, right?
You talk about it. You laugh about it. And then you do nothing. You do nothing not because you’re afraid of liberals and the ACLU or the politically correct police. Since when did you care about these groups? You don’t do anything because, well, who the f*ck knows?! There are lots of crazy people. Some of cops and some are soldiers. But most take the their meds and even more manage just fine.
And every now and then one does flip. And in hindsight the “signs” often seem clear. But now, for the first time in America, one of these crazy mass-murdering shooters is Muslim. And now people think that if only we’re weren’t so worried about offending Muslim, this would have been stopped? Since when we were so worried about offending Muslim?
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Update from Seattle. Funeral of Officer Tim Brenton.
Seems like they got the guy! Right in the middle of the police funeral. “Largest regional response to a scene ever.”
The story in the Seattle Times and from a comment left below:
Today, was a very long and emotional day starting at 9 AM with a 1500+ LE, fire, emergency vehicle procession from the UW to the Key Arena to memorialize Officer Tim Brenton.
It was probably the largest LE funeral procession in recent memory.
It took 3 hours for the entire procession to reach and fill the arena. The memorial service started at 1 PM, and ended at apprx. 3:15. The entire process was covered end-to-end by all 3 local news networks.
At 3:30 PM – all networks broke news that an officer-involved shooting had taken place. LE cars from throughout the region converged on that spot. Largest regional response to a scene ever.
Seattle detectives were following a citizen lead on a possible car linked to the officer’s death. Person of interest encountered; fled, brandished a weapon and detectives responded, bringing down the person. Wounded but still alive, he was airlifted to the hospital.
It’s an irony and providential occurrence if in fact this person turns out to be the main suspect – just in timing (funeral), LE presence and response, and the incredible pall this awful officer death has cast over the many hearts of this community.
We, the entire community, hold our collective breaths a little longer until more and final info is known and verified.
“3 George 13, Officer Timothy Brenton, 9:50. ‘Gone but never forgotten’”.
Thanks for posting this thread.
~A SPD officer’s proud sister~
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Shut yer mouth, dude!
Why is it so hard for some people to just shut up?
Some people are using this video as anti-cop propaganda. I see an officer acting in an incredibly professional and even patient manner. He’s doing his job. He follows the rules. He tells his name and badge number when asked.
A little skateboarder calls him a dick. To his face. Twice. He gets locked up. Legally. Good. The kid could have done two things to not get locked up (and I’m purposefully ignoring the skateboarding is a crime issue): 1) carry ID, 2) don’t call a police officer doing his job a dick.
If the San Francisco Chronicle is to be believed, the officer has been assigned station duty while the matter is being investigated?! That’s a crime. The officer did nothing wrong. Now thatcould have been me.
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The Murky World of CIs
Peter Hermann has a good story in the Sun. “It is a murky, secretive place where cops and crooks mingle and exchange information for money, a place where the line dividing law and disorder often blurs.”
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Good Cops, Bad Cops… and Bad Emmys
Randy Cohen writes in his New York Times blog:
The Emmys will be awarded this Sunday, Sept. 20. As ever, among the nominees are various police programs (“C.S.I.,” “Life on Mars,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” “The Closer,” “Saving Grace”) built around the Hero Cop. It might be a Hero Cop with a flaw — a drinking problem, a disdain for the rules, an alarming tendency to travel through time — but the quintessence persists, one so fantastical as to constitute a fundamental falsehood. Does according special praise to these shows endorse and hence promulgate a lie?
Read the answer here (I’m quoted in it).
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Houston police beard ban legal
“U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal determined the policy violated no state, federal or constitutional rights and dismissed the lawsuit Sept. 3.”
That may or may not be true. But I’ve never understood why beards are banned by most police departments. Why do police departments care? Are we still living in 1960? Are people with beards inherently untrustworthy? Are we afraid that sideburns will lead to long-haired-hippy freak police officers dropping acid? Just what is it about facial hair that means you can’t be a good police officer? I think it’s just a way to keep the P.D. closed and conservative.
This mindless conservative pseudo-military B.S. bugs me. It serves no purpose other than helping ferment an us-versus-them attitude among police and the public. And I think it also helps keep otherwise good people from wanting to become police officers.
God forbid cops have whatever hair and sideburns they want. I mean, the public might think police are… er… normal?
Here’s the A.P. story.
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Police Suicide
Buried in a story about an LAPD narcotics officer killing herself is this information: “Between 1998 and 2007, 19 LAPD officers committed suicide.” That’s a lot. More, in fact, that the 11 LAPD officers who have died in action.
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PocketCop
Baltimore experiments with new smart phones.
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Don’t Tase Me, Sis
A nice articlein Reason by Radley Balko. This one on police TV shows and use of force.
Of course, there isn’t “always a good time to use a Taser,” as the multitude of viral web videos depicting taserings of grandmothers, pregnant women, and children will attest. TLC’s ad campaign is offensive, though merely the latest iteration of a genre of television that trivializes the state’s use of force and makes a mockery of the criminal justice system.
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Cop reality shows glamorize all the wrong aspects of police work. Their trailers depict lots of gun pointing, door-busting, perp-chasing, and handcuffing. Forget the baton-twirling Officer Friendly. To the extent that the shows aid in the recruiting of new police officers, they’re almost certainly pulling people attracted to the wrong parts of the job.Read the whole article here.
[thanks to Marc for the tip]