[Repost] LWT: Police

Excerpts:

“…as we were continuing to boost funding for police and give them more authority we were simultaneously slashing spending on key social services that meant that in many communities, the police were the only ones left to handle almost any issue that people had which is a real problem as this former Dallas police chief readily admits: “We’re asking cops to do too much in his country. We are. We’re just asking us to do too much. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve; not enough mental health funding, let the cop handle it; not enough drug addiction funding, let’s give it to the cop. Here in Dallas, we got a loose dog problem; let’s get a cop to chase loose dogs.”

“A whole sub industry of police training has also cropped up to reinforce the message that cops are at war and perhaps no one takes that idea further than this guy (Dave Grossman), ‘Once you’ve made the decision to take a human life, you’re a transformed creature… You’re a predator. What does the predator do? They kill. Only a killer can hunt a killer. Are you emotionally, spiritually, psychologically prepared to snuff out a human life in defense of innocent lives? If you can’t make that decision you need to find another job.’ You know the problem with telling someone that they’re a predator is that it primes them to see the rest of the world as potential prey…”

“When faced with accountability that they don’t like, unions will often issue the ultimate threat to simply pull back and let crime rise. For instance, listen to how the head of New York City’s largest police union reacted when the judge recommended firing the officer whose chokehold led to the death of Eric Garner, ‘The criminal advocates have gotten what they want. The police department is frozen. The police department can’t stop the killers. They can’t stop the criminals. They can’t effectively do their job. I’m sorry to say that we have to tell our police officers to take it a step slower.’ He just basically threatened inaction against the killers as a bargaining chip.”

“Qualified immunity means that a public official is immune from lawsuits unless their exact conduct has already been ruled unconstitutional in a previous case and I do mean exact because small, tiny variations can result in the case being thrown out.”