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Pyroxene Stigma posted:This is patently false. Our police have gotten excessively militarized: they're taking a shotgun to an anthill. We need more accountability and self-control in our police, not more force. Not only are they taking a shotgun to an anthill they're saying the ants are organizing against them and will have their own shotguns soon so they need high explosives. The next anthill will no doubt be more dangerous so we need to go after it with a loving tank.
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Jun 29, 2014 18:43
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Accretionist posted:What do you guys have in the way of policy preferences? I'll cross-post mine from this month's politics thread. The biggest one would be actually punishing the guys that are actively corrupt or downright negligent because they know they will never get prosecuted for anything, ever. If somebody gets killed by a SWAT team raiding the wrong house then somebody gets punished. That poo poo isn't cool. The other thing would be an elimination of no-knock warrants for drug raids or, gently caress, an end to drug raids in general. Regulation and oversight are probably other big things, as often police just flat out can't be prosecuted after getting their hands on and destroying all the evidence. Those always-on cameras are a good start but allowing the public to film the public actions of police and forbidding the police from seizing cell phones in those situations would be a good start. Sorry officer, you don't get to keep "losing" tapes from your squad car or confiscating phones that caught you doing something you should not have then acting like you had no idea what happened to them. You know. I know you know.
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Jun 29, 2014 18:50
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AlexG posted:Demilitarizing the police is important, but so is de-policizing (or whatever) many issues that are currently treated as law enforcement problems - homelessness, addiction, mental health, etc. Often, for people in poor or marginal communities, the police force is the only functioning institution around. Continued lack of political interest in social inclusion has put the burden onto the police, who then apply law enforcement reasoning, or military-based reasoning, to their approach. The last resort - getting the police involved - has become the only option. This also relates to the continued enormous reach of the prison and probation system, particularly among racial minorities, since as soon as your problem starts being treated as a criminal issue, you're at the mercy of the criminal justice system. Another major leap would be ending the for-profit prison system. Right now there's a pretty massive incentive to cram as many people into jail as possible and the end results or misery involved be damned. If there aren't enough criminals then just create more. It's a perfect storm. The public won't elect politicians that are viewed as being soft on crime. Our society has criminalized being poor. For profit prisons have contracts with government entities that require them to have X number of people in the jail. Our system is god awful at rehabilitating criminals or giving them a way out. Once you're in the justice system you're in it for life and you can be in it for the dastardly crime of being caught with a few ounces of weed. ToxicSlurpee fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 21:13
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Pohl posted:Once upon a time I would walk to and drink daily at a certain bar. One of the people I met there was a law enforcement officer. I liked him, and we had a great time together. Still, he drove home drunk; not just drunk, but loving hammered, every night. I mean every night, we were there seven days a week. I would walk home, he would drive 20 miles to his house. He even told me that he had been pulled over on numerous occasions, but luckily, once the people that pulled him over realized he was a cop, they gave him a warning and let him go. He would laugh about that. To him it was a joke. Yeeeaaaah it can get much worse than that. The area where I'm from the police used to make a literal loving game of getting absolutely hammered, completely falling down drunk, then driving around trying to avoid each other. If they did get caught they'd see who could blow the highest number on a breathalyzer and punish whoever got the lowest by giving them a warning and sending them home. Sometimes they'd get bored, steal a breathalyzer from the station, then spend the entire night driving from bar to bar to see who could get the highest score. They'd brag about it in public, harass people at random, and pull guns on people during traffic stops for speeding. Sometimes they would just randomly pull people over and cite them for traffic violations that were literally physically impossible in the circumstances. Then you'd constantly hear them lamenting the fact that everybody in the area loving despised them. edit: And just to make it clear I'm not judging police for drinking or getting merry. If they want to grab a breathalyzer and see who can get the drunkest fine, whatever, I don't give a poo poo. What I take issue with is the fact that they drove while doing it. That isn't the least bit acceptable for anyone to do. ToxicSlurpee fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 21:31
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