Our Boys In Blue

[Friday]

"In other news, a cop was spotted just playing basketball with some black kids, here are some pictures we have of the event, which were taken by random passerby and not us because we sent a photographer because it was a photo op."

"The black kids reported that the cop was "cool" after we paid them to say so. They then were arrested and held facedown on the pavement for several hours as we circled them, repeatedly calling them "worthless" and "filthy fucking n-----s. At the culmination of the racial slurs, the boys were raped, and then shot. We are at this time urging the public to not speculate on where the bullets may have come from. We of course recovered the money we paid them from their corpses."

[Mongrel]

[Mongrel]

The Intercept: Minneapolis Police Union President: “I’ve Been Involved in Three Shootings Myself, and Not a One of Them Has Bothered Me”

There’s been a big influx of PTSD. But I’ve been involved in three shootings myself, and not one of them has bothered me. Maybe I’m different.

[Friday]

He's not wrong.

[Mongrel]

I always remember that one of the reasons that the Nazis turned to gas chambers was that carrying out the mass killings of the the earlier parts of the Holocaust (the "Holocaust by bullet" phase, as it's been termed) was actually causing soldiers PTSD and damaging general morale for the Wehrmacht/SS.

[Friday]

Also, the fact that Kroll, who is the poster boy for every single thing that is wrong with Police in America, is named Kroll, is just so beyond perfect. I could not come up with a better name for that character in a book.

[Mongrel]

There's literally a minor Tintin villain named Dr. Krollspell, whose job it is to interrogate people. Not kidding.

[Friday]

He said that in his early days of training, the rule was to “ask them nicely to do something the first time,” then give them a “direct, lawful order” to do so, and if they refuse — “you make them with force, that’s how you get compliance.”

“Those days are over,” he said. “Now, it is ask them, love them, call, you know, give them their space and give them their voice. And this is what they’re training new officers. … Our cops went through that and they’re going, ‘Oh my God.’ Yeah, procedural justice. And the theory behind it being that, you know, the white men have oppressed everyone else for 200 years. So it’s their opportunity to get back.”

hahahahahahahahahahaha

man, Kroll

you are just my favorite human being

[Friday]

Boston Police Sergeant unsuspectingly brags about hitting protesters with his car to live body cam

"This thing just went on fuckin' automatically"

[Friday]

"How the Police Killed Breonna Taylor"

A comprehensive look and a simulated visual reconstruction of the shooting and murder of Breonna Taylor put together by the NYT.

Don't click if you're in a bad mood, and be prepared to be in a bad mood after you finish watching.

[Thad]

Clearview Helps New Jersey Cops Jail The Wrong Man For Ten Days

Given facial recognition tech's predilection for false positives, the only thing surprising about its link to false arrests is how long it took.

[beatbandito]

what happens to the good apples

[Yoji]

While we're at it: never forget what they did to Adrian Schoolcraft.

For those who don't know, he was an NYPD officer, and a good one. He actually enjoyed walking his beats and gave a damn about the communities he patrolled. At some point, he started making secret audio recordings of his daily business (this was in the late 00s, before body cams were a thing) as a form of insurance, but instead he ended up recording misconduct in his unit that included illegal Stop-and-Frisk quotas. For all his troubles, he was harassed by his own squad, wrongly held in a mental hospital briefly, and ultimately fired.

The only good cop really is an ex-cop, because good cops never last.

[Büge]

While we're at it: never forget what they did to Adrian Schoolcraft.

[Brantly B.]

One palatable way to phrase police reform is to pitch a system where the "good apples" have ultimate authority over the bad. That's impossible in the current environment, though; that troublesome third of the population is actively interested in maintaining a police force that is biased, authoritarian and brutal. The culture of American law enforcement isn't the root problem but a particularly dangerous symptom, and any reform in that area is going to be bandage even in the most ideal case, until that root problem is somehow addressed.

Now, I know what half a dozen of you are about to say, and please just go ahead and pretend I just physically socked you in the jaw before you post any response along the lines of "SO YOU'RE SAYING we shouldn't try to work for moderate change, why don't we just give up everything then, wow whose side are you on, sliding slope, sliding slope, you are a Racist and everything you have to say is evil." Ain't nobody got time for that old bit.

[Upthorn]

One palatable way to phrase police reform is to pitch a system where the "good apples" have ultimate authority over the bad. That's impossible in the current environment, though; that troublesome third of the population is actively interested in maintaining a police force that is biased, authoritarian and brutal. The culture of American law enforcement isn't the root problem but a particularly dangerous symptom, and any reform in that area is going to be bandage even in the most ideal case, until that root problem is somehow addressed.

I feel like, if we had police that actually policed the troublesome third of the population the same way they police everyone else, the troublesome third of the population would become smaller and less troublesome, though?

So in that respect I think actual police reform is beyond a bandage. It's actually getting it to happen that's the problem.

[Blossom]

[Mongrel]

It took me a little bit, but OMG. Perfect.

For the confused: 1312 = ACAB

[Thad]

In the first six months of health care professionals replacing police officers, no one they encountered was arrested

Since June 1, 2020, a mental health clinician and a paramedic have traveled around the city in a white van handling low-level incidents, like trespassing and mental health episodes, that would have otherwise fallen to patrol officers with badges and guns. In its first six months, the Support Team Assisted Response program, or STAR, has responded to 748 incidents. None required police and or led to arrests or jail time.

The civilian team handled close to six incidents a day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, in high-demand neighborhoods. STAR does not yet have enough people or vans to respond to every nonviolent incident, but about 3 percent of calls for DPD service, or over 2,500 incidents, were worthy of the alternative approach, according to the report.

STAR represents a more empathetic approach to policing that keeps people out of an often-cyclical criminal justice system by connecting people with services like shelter, food aid, counseling, and medication. The program also deliberately cuts down on encounters between uniformed officers and civilians.

[Friday]

yeah but now those cops who would have done that work will lose their jobs

are you anti JOBS thad