If there’s one thing we all know, it’s that we gotta a lot of laws in this country. And I’m not talking about financial laws, trading laws, tax laws, and environmental laws. There are a shitload of laws And for a good reason.
Because both the US congress, as well as state, and even local legislatures exist for two simple reasons. The first is to pass a budget to allow the government to operate, and the second one is to pass laws. And once the budget is done, that allows the legislatures to spend all of their time trying to figure out how to piss us all off! Which they do with great gusto.
You know, there are crosswalks at every corner in a city or town. But if you run across the street in the middle of the block, then you’re guilty of jaywalking. But only in America can a jaywalking charge lead to a black or brown man to a beating and a trip to the lockup.
I’m old enough, and urban enough to remember way back when, when people used to actually park on the street! what a concept. And on most main thoroughfares, there were parking meters on poles at the head of the spot. The motorist parked, got out of his car, and shoved enough quarters into the meter to cover the amount of time he’d be parked there. Some motorists rolled the dice, either underpaid their expected time, or stiffed it altogether, figuring they’d be back out before getting caught.
But the cities had meter maids. These were police employees who drove cute little gas tricycles. They’d park at the end of the block, get off, and walk down the street looking for meters that had expired with cars parked in the spot. Then you know what they did? They issued tickets! And when they were done, they stuck them under the windshield wiper on the rivers side to ruin their day. No muss, no fuss, no confrontation.
And when you look at the number of motorists that are killed while driving black, it’s insane. Because in almost every instance, the offense that they were pulled over for was a non criminal offense. Just to name a few;
- In Texas a woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for failing to signal a turn. That’s not a criminal act, it’s a traffic violation. But she pissed off the officers by refusing to put out her cigarette, and taping her stop, and three days later she was dead in a Texas ajil, allegedly by suicide
- In Minnesota officer Kim Potter was convicted of manslaughter for allegedly accidentally shooting a black motorist running on allegedly expired license plates. In the middle of Covid. Teri drove for a year on expired plates, even though she had renewed the plates, because stickers were not being mailed out. There was a star next to her plate in police records showing she was legal
- In Atlanta in 2020, police shot and killed a man after a struggle when he fell asleep in the drive through ane at the Burger King
- In New York, police officers choked Eric Garner to death for the grievous sin of selling loose cigarettes, a misdemeanor
- In Minneapolis, officer Derek Chauvin literally choked unarmed george Floyd to death in the street, with his knee in Floyd’s neck, for the grievous sin of allegedly passing a bogus $20 bill at a store to buy smokes
- And now, 29 year old Tyre Nichols is dead for the national crime of reckless driving, which is the most stupid violation of all, since it’s up to the officer to determine what constitutes reckless driving. It’s a free pass to pull over anybody you want
Notice the pattern here? Every single one of these incidents involved non violent crimes, and every one of the traffic stops involved non criminal traffic misdemeanors. And in every case, the police already knew who the offender was, and how to find them. Why was the stop even required?
I was born and grew up in Illinois. And in Illinois we have the novel creation of tollways. Those are highways where you pay every 10-15 miles with coins in a toolbox to drive on them, for maintenance and upgrades. And as technology sped on, the Illinois toll authority came up with toll tags you could get from the toll authority, where you rove straight through special lanes, and the sensor read your tag and charged your account, which you paid monthly. The lanes had front and rear cameras that captured the license numbers of cars without tags, and automatic tickets were issued and mailed out.
In most American cities, and even on many highways, there are remote radar guns that check the speed of cars going by, along with cameras that capture license plates. If they detect a violation, a ticket is automatically generated, along with the proof of violation, and mailed out.
Look, in every case described above, especially the traffic stops, the police already knew who the motorists were, based on their license plates. They had their addresses. Why risk a confrontational altercation, which could place the officer in risk, when you can simply mail out a citation for the violation, along with a court date? The motorist has no choice but to show up in court, unless he wants to risk having his license suspended.
The answer is so simple. Decriminalize traffic stops! Look, meter maids used to slide parking tickets under windshields. Send out unarmed officers to look for moving violations, use technology to identify the vehicle and verify the violation, and then send the tickets out in the mail! With the wonders of technology available to us, why continue to risk provoking potential violent traffic stops over something that’s worth nothing more than about $250 in fines and court costs?
The problem isn’t the police, it’s the police culture. Cops no longer go out to serve and protect, it’s a confrontational attitude. A few years ago, a New York precinct got involved in a controversy when they flew a flag in the squad briefing room that read FOB with the station name after it. In military terms, FOB means a Forward Operating Base, a fortified base entrenched in enemy territory. And when armed police officers start seeing the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect as the enemies, we’re not in a good place.
The answer is simple. Don’t defund the police, remove the petty, non criminal interactions that always seem to lead to tragic confrontations. Let the non armed officers deal electronically with simple traffic violations, and let the officers remain free to confront really serious threats. Everybody wins.
A personal aside. A few years ago here in Vegas, I got to see an excellent example of non confrontational policing in action. I was at a stoplight on Sandhill. There was a police cruiser parked at the curb on the SW side he street with its lights flashing. There was an obviously homeless man, possible with mental issues sitting with his back against the wall of a gated community. The female officer had exited the vehicle, stood before the man, and engaged him. Her hands were by her side, not gripping her service weapon. When he answered her, she moved to a distance beyond arm’s length, and sat down with her back against the wall while she continued talking to him in a calm and respectful manner. That is what effective community policing looks like. There are good cops out there who honestly want to serve and protect. Now we just need to get the assholes out of there, and let the do it.
The problem, when I was a cop, was enticing the right kind of people to apply. I did background checks for a few years and there were only two people I said should not be hired. They were both hired – both were fired, one after killing a teenager, the other after making too many stupid (illegal) arrests. Police work is not attractive to most people these days. When I applied, I was one of about 3-4k for about 30-50 openings. When I retired, they were lucky to get 100 to apply for the same number of openings.
And it’s not attractive to decent people because of the level of crime, the business of carrying a gun everywhere & because they don’t want to put their own lives at risk. It IS attractive to a person that has a desire to Lord it over others, who wants to be the ‘bigshot’, who fancies himself as a cowboy & loves wearing battle gear,, and especially if he has racist feelings – all of those are ‘male’ traits ! And if even not consciously being that way, it is those feelings that the job encourages & rewards. And I think the problem is many people can’t see what they are becoming or don’t care !
I keep reminding people of a 2006 FBI report on white supremacist infiltration into law enforcement. (https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Jan-6-Clearinghouse-FBI-Intelligence-Assessment-White-Supremacist-Infiltration-of-Law-Enforcement-Oct-17-2006-UNREDACTED.pdf)
Until the fall of 2020 it was hardly heard of and heavily redacted. Having lived in St Louis and worked in Ferguson at the time of the Michael Brown murder and succeeding demonstrations, I became aware of the report and read a redacted copy. Aldo, a number of news reports emerged regarding the involvement of numerous metro police officers with the KKK. And so the results of that report were hardly news to anyone who had been paying attention.
If more publicity was given to this assessment, perhaps a cry would go up to rid police of these white nationalists , who believe that it is their mission to destroy as many people of a darker hue from American society. These people, often heavily recruited from the right(er) wing of the military, have no business anywhere near a promise to “serve and protect,” when their entire indoctrination has been to lose their humanity and become a “lean, mean fighting machine” and to seek out and destroy.
Prior military experiance should disqualify everyone to becoming a poilce officer.
It’s way too likely they are damaged goods and could be more likely to go full blown warrior on some undeserving citiczen over something petty or a simple misunderstanding than they would be respectful and compassionate while on the job.
I am retired military, after 20 years of active duty. I did briefly consider going into police work, after my divorce and job loss. I think you need to evaluate all applicants on an individual basis. Former military people can make excellent law police.
I’m also prior military before becoming a police officer. I don’t think that should be disqualifying. No prior work experience of any kind should. Police agencies have started making a college degree a requirement for employment. That piece of paper doesn’t prove you learned anything, just that you met the requirements for graduation. I think raising the age requirement to 25 would solve a lot of problems (some agencies hire at 18). It would force applicants to have some real world work experience.
I disagree and quite strongly. Each individual should be evaluated based on a variety of factors to ensure they have the traits we should all expect, even demand of police. What someone did, and even more importantly HOW they performed in the military, especially in high adrenaline situations should for anyone with military experience get a close look. Just as in business environments when people/a group is under high stress and pressure some rise to it, keeping a level head and not only do well in accomplishing what needs to be accomplished but even leads others to do the same. Some crack, or even fall apart. The nature of so much modern warfare puts a special emphasis on those who transition from a military to a civilian law enforcement career.
You might be astonished at the Rules of Engagement troops often operated under and most do well in avoiding issues that concern me as well as I’m sure they do you. In fact, DE-escalation is part of training. Unfortunately some don’t believe in that type of thing, or are if not openly hostile to it then at least resentful. That’s why close examination of their military service is so important. In fact it’s crucial to determining who is suited to law enforcement and who isn’t. I might also point out that within the branches of the military there are “police” as well. Believe it or not, sometimes the rules can be stricter for military police than civilian ones. And accountability for fuckups including and especially in use of force situations is swift. And severe. Personally, I think someone who did well as an MP would be an excellent candidate for civilian LE and I knew several guys from my own service who went on to just that.
Yes, I served in the Marines long ago. I volunteered for infantry and was trained in that field with a specialty in anti-tank warfare. Yet I’d wind up being sent to the DC area for temporary duty which turned into a permanent duty station attached to the Provost Marshal’s Office. So for a time I wore a badge. But in the end, I don’t think nearly enough goes into psychological screening and background checks for police in this country. And cops in this country don’t get near the amount of training found in other democracies. That is part of the problem and always has been. One of the things that’s made it worse in my lifetime is population shift from small-town/rural America to urban/suburban areas. There’s a LOT less of the old school type of cops being truly members of the community they police. Not that small town jurisdictions didn’t sometimes have police/sheriff types that abused their position including corruption. And locals afraid to speak up. But I agree with something I read here earlier (or maybe yesterday) in a comment that one big change that’s contributed to the “us vs. them” mentality of police is that having cops literally walk beats is pretty much a thing of the past. Driving their “beat” in cruisers doesn’t allow for getting to know or at least interact regularly with the people in their areas. I could go on and on about this but the bottom line is that the average person isn’t suited to police work. Never has been. Unfortunately too many people get accepted into the ranks of law enforcement that simply don’t have the needed traits to both protect and serve.
That’s as true of former military as it is for those who never served. But I’d remind you that at least some level of discipline is required for a person to just make it through boot camp and earn an honorable discharge. That’s more than an awful lot of civilians bring to the table.
I don’t completely agree, especially when it comes to handling special assault. The military record on these crimes is appalling. Civilian. police already tend to disbelieve the woman if she exchanged three sentences with the rapist or had one date and turned down a,second. The military tends to punish the victim.more often than not. husband wascareer Navy and for 7, years Stars,and Stripes was my neespaper. There were a,lot sexual.assault cases. The defense was usually,”Who are you gonna believe, this happily married CPO.with 15years and an unblemished record? Or these three girls fresh out of boot camp who whined about having to peel potatoes?” More often than not, the rapist walked. And that was only if it went tomtrial, which it seldom did. We don’t need cops with that attitude; women deserve better
Every applicant for a police academy should have to take the MMPD, which can screen out the worst applicants This needs to be followed up.with screening by a shrink and one from out of area and not working within a PD. When shrinks work.for and with the police they tend to identify with them and creates bias that favors,supporting the cowboys. We don’t need John Waynes out there. And all of this is after a background check.
When you teach,you are fingerprinted and your prints are sent, along with work and residential history, to the F.B.I. Teachers usually aren’t armed,,despite what Rs think, so they are much less dangerous than armed police.
Most large agencies have been doing this for years. In 1989, when I was hired, I took the MMPD and another psych test (I can’t remember the name) and had an interview w/ a psychologist (from out of state). So did the two fired police officers I mentioned in a previous comment. While helpful, these screenings aren’t foolproof. When I was hired, the process took about a year – first, civil service test to make sure you can read and write and think logically; second, a physical to make sure you’re healthy enough (to incluce body mass index); third, the psych evals and lastly, background and credit checks. At each stage, some applicants fall out, but some who should never be police officers manage to get thru all the screening.
I do think agencies should continue to do all the screening they can prior to hiring, but that is not a panacea. Raising the age limit to be a peace officer (legally that’s what the position is called) to 25 at a minimum would mean applicants would have had to have some real world job experience. The best officers I worked with weren’t the fresh out of college ones, they were the ones in their late 20s, early 30s who had real lives and work experience and weren’t consumed with being “the POLICE”.