An unarmed Black man was attacked by a police officer’s K-9 as he surrendered to authorities with his hands up, despite an Ohio State Trooper repeatedly urging officers not to release the dog.
Good thing they brutally assaulted an unarmed truck driver with an animal, Roman Gladiator style, for driving down the highway without a mud flap on a truck he doesn’t even own while working for a company that probably pays him just above minimum wage.
This kind of behavior will never change unless the monetary awards that go to victims of police brutality start coming directly out of police pensions rather than tax payer dollars. Second, they need to tie police unions to the local city or state labor unions so that they get the same collective bargaining as every other public servant, and see how fast it kills the “thin blue line” mentality.
Agreed, we have to start hitting them where it hurts the most and that’s in the pockets. Their pockets, not the taxpayers.
Yeah, getting the people to pay damages isn’t stopping the problem, actually applying justice to cops who abuse authority would however, but it seems like only in rare cases is justice ever served in that regard
I think it needs to be a multi-pronged approach:
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There need to be financial penalties that affect entire departments so that officers are encouraged to self-police, and root out bad actors who are negatively affecting their own livelihoods. This could then be backed up by a citizen review board where officers wages or pensions are not collectively sanctioned if they can reasonably demonstrate that they attempted to report abusive or unethical behavior, but it went unacknowledged by management or senior staff.
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All individual State & Local police unions need to be folded together with the normal labor unions for State, City, or County workers. This accomplishes two things: it removes the power of individual collective bargaining where they can hold those jurisdictions hostage at the expense of all the other employees, and it also makes them part of the community of workers & citizens that they SHOULD be representing. Until we make a structural change back towards community policing where there is a strong emphasis on improving public relations, listening to public feedback, and focusing on issues that are impacting the people in their communities we will continue to have this artificial separation of ethical priorities where police operate as an enforcement arm of the government rather than an integral part of a communities’ social welfare & safety net.
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Lastly, I agree with your sentiment that police should be held to the same standard criminally and ethically as any other private citizen. We can no longer allow there to be this veil of ignorance where we turn a blind eye to the violence that is perpetrated by police, and where their behavior is just written off as being “part of the job”. Getting to that point requires strong leadership with an emphasis on continuing training, education, and resource management that is directed more towards accomplishing community goals rather than buying surplus military equipment.
All of these things are going to be difficult, and it is likely that we will have to suffer the consequences of our inaction & complacency. Many police will quit their jobs, like we have seen in Seattle for example, and it will take a long time to get better quality officers who care about doing their duty in a humane way. I have doubts about whether or not most people are willing to suffer these short term consequences in order to build a more positive future for the profession. Only time will tell, but I for one would rather start that journey rather than burying our heads in the sand and kicking the can down the road for another generation or more…
That was a very sensible post and I agree with your points, it would make a vast difference. I felt like in many ways this was tried in the 90’s but I could be misremembering, however it did seem like an era of Police Reform that sadly backtracked after 9/11 and Bush
I can’t really speak to what policing was like in the 90’s because I was just a bit too young to remember. I totally agree that things changed for the worse after 9/11, and seem to have both regressed as well as becoming more visible due to the internet.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, and I am by no means anti-police. I respect that it is an incredibly difficult job that taxes the psyche of those who choose to pursue that career path. There needs to be a mutual respect, and strategy between the population and its public servants. It is just a microcosm of the major societal problems we are wrestling with in the United States more broadly.
I wish people would put a greater emphasis on pursuing well-being through creative problem solving rather than focusing on partisan politics or the “culture war”. If we could start by focusing on issues where there is positive public sentiment rather than hyper-focusing on small ideological differences I think most people would realize that their differences don’t really matter as much as they thought. I choose to be cautiously optimistic that we can get there.
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End qualified immunity is a must to get any of the above started.
“Do not release the dog with his hands up,” a state trooper warns several times from a distance.
I love (/s) both that the local cops needed to be told that, and that in addition, the local cops still didn’t fucking listen. The bar is on the floor and they still manage to limbo under it.
I especially like that the state police gave a lawful order to the lesser division, the lesser division ignored it and faced zero repercussions apparently. That cop should have immediately been arrested. ACAB
Obviously the overall issue of incompetence and pigheadedness and probable sadism remains, but I don’t think state troopers have authority over local police.
I think you’re right, state doesn’t have authority over local. Regardless, they’re all dickheads.
I dont think it works like that, but regardless, cops are high on their ego and will not listen to anyone who isnt their supervisor, even if what theyre being told is logical.
Using dogs on people is some barbaric, ancient world cruelty. It’s also animal abuse. It’s insane that we still use dogs to maul humans.
yeah, but he was clearly resisting. /s
He should have just complied!
Wait, he was complying?
Well he should have just complied harder!
“American cops once again pull the classic ‘American Cop’.”
Ahh, Circleville, Ohio, nice small town with a population of 13k, voted by a 2 to 1 margin for Trump. Setting a police dog on an unarmed black man after he’s already surrendered has to be nothing but the action of one bad apple… oh wait… fuck.
Shit, I guess they did try that in a small town, and have decided to keep trying despite the fact the Feds have opened an investigation into it:
A state and federal investigation have been launched into the Circleville Police Department after concerns have risen that certain officers have abused their power. At the center of the investigation is the department’s newly-promoted deputy chief.
The second-in-command, Doug Davis, was bumped to the job earlier this year after the ousting of then-deputy chief Phil Roar during a harassment and assault investigation that ultimately led to Roar’s retirement. Davis assumed the position of deputy chief but was only on the job for two months before he was placed on leave; leave that has spawned a criminal probe into allegations of civil rights violations.
What people forget about the phrase including the term ‘bad apple’ is that it’s ‘one bad apple spoils the bunch.’ Even if it was “one bad apple,” the rest of them are complicit. Of course, it isn’t, but the “good” ones who don’t do the profiling or anything else racist personally are still complicit. ACAB.
Yeah, it’s definitely an “actions speak louder than words” kind of dealio. I’d accept the one bad apple response if their actions showed that their approach was “let’s get rid of this apple asap to prevent contamination and also immediately investigate the apples in the bad one’s immediate vicinity for signs of spoilage”.
I am sick of hearing about these stories from all over the world. No, wait…
I’m not defending the US. But…
Asian countries like Russia and China censor. You don’t hear stories from Arabic countries, India, or northern South America I presume because they hardly have reporters and the rest of the world (wrongfully) wouldn’t care anyway.
Most of the rest of the world also doesn’t have a history of African-descendant slavery; but racism, classism, and sexism are still common in most places in the world. Religious persecution too. You do hear about that stuff if you know where to read.
I travel to circleville fairly often for work. The town is as you’d expect for middle of Ohio. Trump flags everywhere and the usual “washing machine in the front yard” type of small towns surrounding circleville. Doesn’t surprise me.
Imprison the cops who do this. Maybe that’ll get them to start acting right. Luckily most cops aren’t like this. But the minority doing shit like this piss me off so much.
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