The George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests and police conduct

[RedDenver]

 

[Ratt Mhule]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

If you're talking about @Frott Scost's "f*ck them" in an earlier post, I +1 that post because I assume the "them" he's talking about are the police that are assaulting medics. I'm not +1ing the sentiment of hating on all cops. If Frott could clarify, that would be helpful.

Correct. I even clarified in the next post by saying f#&% the police officers that are attacking medics and healthcare workers. I said I am taking that personally because I am a healthcare worker, plus medics are suppose to be off limits in times of war. Not saying this is like war, just pointing out that there are diff rules of engagement for medical personnel. 

[Ratt Mhule]

1 hour ago, Decoy73 said:

These are isolated cases.   Bad?  Yes, but it doesn’t make all cops bad.  It doesn’t help that this stuff is pretty much on a continuous loop on cable news.   In my profession I’ve come across many bad nurses as well.  Like the nurse who was playing Kevorkian a few years back. There’s bad in any field.  

You are absolutely correct. And it is our obligation to report bad or dangerous people to supervisors and HR in the healthcare field. I have already done it in my career. It sucks. I expect good cops to call out bad cops but when I see cops walking past violent and terrible acts, not stopping to help injured people and resigning from task forces because the bad cops got caught and punished as a show of solidarity to the bad cops it makes you wonder a little. Thats all im saying. 

[Moiraine]

24 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

 

 

 

This is literally a case of the police rioting.

[Born N Bled Red]

1 hour ago, BlitzFirst said:

Honestly, I'm not able to differentiate between good cops and bad cops at the moment.  They need to give me a evidence for why they are good...actions speak louder than words and the time to talk about things is past.

 

If I were a good cop and I saw this happening, I'd quit immediately because I wouldn't be able to abide by the oath I swore when I became one.  To me, the only good cop would be one who quit the force when they saw this violence being done by their own unit...and I'd use that platform I had to tear the foundations of the construct that allowed this to happen down.

 

But, that's me. 

 

This is why I'm not able to tell good cops from bad ones.

 

I'm sure they exist, but they aren't very visible.

I understand the urge of quitting in protest. I have seen many people do so in my professional life and in the Trump cabinet/ military over the last few years. Truth is, quitting in protest does nothing but allow the people in charge replace someone of moral character with someone more in line with their way of thinking. By quitting in protest, the quitter forfeits their position within a system to implement change. Thus the very thing a protester is quitting becomes worse with their absence.

[Decoy73]

1 hour ago, Frott Scost said:

not stopping to help injured people and resigning from task forces because the bad cops got caught and punished as a show of solidarity to the bad cops it makes you wonder a little. Thats all im saying. 

I’m a bit perplexed by that too.  It’s not like Buffalo just gut unlucky with 57 bad cops.  I’d say the needle is pointing to more of a systemic issue that we civilians don’t understand.   Leadership?  Culture?  Unions?   

[BIGREDIOWAN]

1 hour ago, BlitzFirst said:

 

 

My cope hate rhetoric?  WTF are you talking about?

 

I don't hate police...I hate the systemic bad parts of policing right now. My old college roommate is part of Nebraska State Patrol.  I am a veteran of the USAF.  I do not hate the men and women in uniform who are servants of the country or servants of the community.

 

There is a problem inside of police departments everywhere in the US and I want that problem addressed and fixed.  I want the bad cops gone.  I want the culture of cover up gone.  I want the racial profiling gone.  I want the excessive violence and militarization of police gone.  I want the racism gone. 

 

If you want that to stay the same, fine.  But don't tell me I hate cops.  I hate what they're doing right now.

Your posts have had an anti-police slant to them from my perspective, that's what I'm talking about. I stand by what I said and I've literally said in this thread that things need to change, we HAVE to do better! Now you're putting words in my mouth saying that I may want that to stay the same or trying to take it that direction? Not even close to the truth! 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

1 hour ago, BlitzFirst said:

Honestly, I'm not able to differentiate between good cops and bad cops at the moment.  They need to give me a evidence for why they are good...actions speak louder than words and the time to talk about things is past.

 

If I were a good cop and I saw this happening, I'd quit immediately because I wouldn't be able to abide by the oath I swore when I became one.  To me, the only good cop would be one who quit the force when they saw this violence being done by their own unit...and I'd use that platform I had to tear the foundations of the construct that allowed this to happen down.

 

But, that's me. 

 

This is why I'm not able to tell good cops from bad ones.

 

I'm sure they exist, but they aren't very visible.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from my perspective on this whole thing. Now I have to PROVE to you that I'm a good cop and others do?!  And if I don't just up and quit I'm not a good cop at this point? 

 

And how am I supposed to up and quit in the middle of a damn pandemic when there are no jobs and pay the bills for my family?! I'll wait for suggestions on that cause I'm ALLLL ears on the suggestions! 

[Decoy73]

2 hours ago, BIGREDIOWAN said:

Read the article I posted from Mike The Cop one page back. The point he makes about the good cops leaving is a valid one. This good cop will be leaving this career field because of this situation and the response towards us since we're being lumped in with the bad ones. 20 years is enough I think in this line of work. The experience of those 20 years will last a lifetime though. 

Pretty good article.  Well written with some very valid points.  I can see how the LE career can just weigh on oneself.  I hope you’re not making career changing decisions just based on HB or other social media influence the past couple of weeks.   Although I would understand how current events play into it.   I work with nurses on a daily basis at my job ,probably more than any other profession, and I’ve always thought that although there are lots of good nurses, the truly great ones are like gold.  I could say the same thing about cops.  Difficult jobs, but the potential for a positive effect on others is extraordinarily  great.  Anyway, I’ll stop rambling now.  Thanks again for your responses.  

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Hearing that 14 Minneapolis officers quit today and another 46 are filing for early retirement. That's ALOT of officers to lose in one day folks and that's what's probably going to start happening across the country. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it society! 

[Moiraine]

18 minutes ago, BIGREDIOWAN said:

Hearing that 14 Minneapolis officers quit today and another 46 are filing for early retirement. That's ALOT of officers to lose in one day folks and that's what's probably going to start happening across the country. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it! 

 

 

Time to legalize marijuana and lessen other drug laws so not as many police are necessary.

 

I looked up some numbers and by my calculation, 6.4% of arrests are due to marijuana and most of those are due to possession. That's a pretty huge dent and could help reduce the # of police necessary, especially in areas with a lot of minorities. Blacks use drug at the same rate as Whites yet they are a hugely disproportionate # of the arrests.

And I'll go out on a limb - make it harder to get guns.

[DevoHusker]

8 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

I actually think a lot of people here and everywhere genuinely want to hear from you. We don't get it. We don't understand what's going on right now. I've been holding the "few bad apples" and "who will you call when YOU get robbed" narrative my whole life, and am now trying to impart it to my teen, but everything I'm seeing from the footage, from first hand reports, and from statements directly from police unions only validates the really dark suspicions that this has always been worse than I thought. Yeah, there are some uplifting stories about good police departments reaching out to their communities, but there are very few on-the-record statements from the "good cops" willing to say the martial law approach is not who we are. 

There are over 800,000 certified cops in the US. You have posted around 300 videos of bad actions by cops...that may or may not depict the whole story of the encounter...I hardly think that is pervasive or indicative of the profession as a whole

[Stone Cold]

Its really really easy to talk about these situations but then put yourself in them.  Look ive been stopped by the police, i was harassed at one point because i went to Dowling (catholic private school) and drove a beater car in a nice neighborhood got pulled over and harassed when trying to teepee when i was a senior.  Im not saying there bad cops, im not saying theres not good cops.  Im saying try to use some perspective.  I have family in the medical field who put up with angry drunk people all the time and yes some times there is a struggle.  But you are on your own turf arent you.  With the push of a button or a shout of your voice you can have a couple of people there in seconds to help you.  When your a cop your sometimes out there on your own, with just you and your weapons.  It is your job to keep your eyes open for things that dont look right, its your job to be first on the scene of a guy with the knife in there hand.  Its your job to help serve that no knock search warrant even though you may or may not think its legal.  s#!t sometimes people do what they do just to survive or do what they think they need to do to survive.  I can honestly say that what happened in minn was no accident, but i dont believe every time someone is shot by the police it was intentioal.  I can only imagine adrenalin pumping just wanting to get home to see your family or your dog or just drink a beer.  Some asshat is being impatient with you yelling at you for pulling them over because of whatever reason.  You ask them to be calm but they start screaming and flailing there arms around in anger.  They reach for something after youve told them to be cool and they dont because there to pissed off at the situation.  It takes 2 seconds to unholster your weapon and pull that trigger.  And that trigger takes very little energy to pull.  2 seconds to change your life, 2 seconds to change theres, 2 seconds to decide if its them or you.  If you just stop and think of it that way i think maybe things would be different.  Theres a reason i drive my wifes minivan if i go to a friends house to drink for the evening and i dont drive my chevelle.  Theres a reason when i do get pulled over even though im pissed i remain cool.  Theres a reason that if im pulled over and the officers hand is visably on his gun i become (extra) cool.  Because they are nervous about something and i dont want to increase that.  We will never know what its like to be a cop unless you become one, to always be on guard, to always feel like your being judged, to always know someone is watching your every more.  They are still just people

[Guy Chamberlin]

15 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

There are over 800,000 certified cops in the US. You have posted around 300 videos of bad actions by cops...that may or may not depict the whole story of the encounter...I hardly think that is pervasive or indicative of the profession as a whole

 

To be honest, it's not just the videos or the events of the past two weeks. It's been a problem forever and the discrepancies in response time, enforcement, jail sentences and internal reviews have been well-documented. The anecdotal evidence of virtually anyone who is black is pretty overwhelming. I have never been pulled over in my car without already knowing what I did wrong, and I have never been told to lie face down on the cement in my nice business suit as my middle-class black colleague was when a crime was committed nearby and the suspect was black. We can talk good cops and bad cops, but there really isn't a debate that the prejudice itself is pervasive. 

 

The videos are the game-changer. And with them you realize how much this s#!t happens (or happened) when the public wasn't equipped with cell phone cameras.  

 

The Floyd case is really key to the good cop/bad cop debate. We can clearly see at least one of the cops getting really nervous about how Floyd is being treated, timidly trying to intervene, but afraid to countermand the senior officer. Had one of those cops stepped up and pulled Chauvin off Floyd and saved Floyd's life, we wouldn't know that he saved Floyd's life, just that he had challenged and embarrassed a senior officer during a routine arrest.  BRI can correct me, but a move like that might not mark the young officer as a hero. His life in the department could get very awkward from there. 

[teachercd]

Man, I am willing to bet not one of you b!^@hing about cops has had a bad experience with them.  Yet there you are up your cross attacking a dude you don't know who has been nothing but helpful with his replies.

 

Some of you are acting like dorks.