Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

We still have time to mess this up!

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Everybody saw this coming.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / I’d Call Them Keystone Cops, But There is Nothing Funny Here

I’d Call Them Keystone Cops, But There is Nothing Funny Here

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Because I have a sick and morbid curiosity, I downloaded the entire Justice Department report (.pdf) on the Cleveland Police department and read it. Long story short- Tamir Rice never stood a chance:

Our investigation concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that CDP engages in a pattern or practice of using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. That pattern manifested in a range of ways, including:

• The unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons;

• The unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force including tasers, chemical spray and fists;

• Excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis, including in cases where the officers were called exclusively for a welfare check; and

• The employment of poor and dangerous tactics that place officers in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable and places officers and civilians at unnecessary risk.

That’s pretty much the post-mortem on what happened with Rice, with the cops racing in right next to the kid, unaware it was a fake gun despite that being told to the dispatcher, and then immediately shooting him for no reason.

If you really want to see something flabbergasting, something out of Reno 911 but with deadly results, there is this:

On November 29, 2012, over 100 Cleveland police officers engaged in a high speed chase, in violation of CDP policies, and fatally shot two unarmed civilians. The incident inflamed community perceptions, particularly in the African-American community, that CDP is a department out of control and that its officers routinely engage in brutality. The incident began when Timothy Russell and his passenger Malissa Williams drove past the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland, at which point officers and witnesses outside the Justice Center heard what they believed to be a shot fired from the car. It now appears that what they actually heard was the car backfiring. A massive chase ensued, involving at least 62 police vehicles, some of which were unmarked, and more than 100 patrol officers, supervisors, and dispatchers—about 37 percent of the CDP personnel on duty in the City. The pursuit lasted about 25 minutes, at times reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. During the chase, some of the confusing and contradictory radio traffic incorrectly indicated that the occupants of the car may be armed and may be firing from the car. Other radio traffic did not support that conclusion. No supervisor asserted control over the chase, and some even participated. CDP now admits that the manner in which the chase occurred was not in accordance with established CDP policies. The chase finally ended outside the City’s borders, in an East Cleveland school parking lot, with CDPvehicles located in front of and behind Mr. Russell’s car. In circumstances that are still being disputed in court, thirteen CDP officers ultimately fired 137 shots at the car, killing both its occupants. Mr. Russell and Ms. Williams each suffered more than 20 gunshot wounds. The officers, who were firing on the car from all sides, reported believing that they were being fired at by the suspects. It now appears that those shots were being fired by fellow officers.

writing_process

Holy fuck. That’s all I got. Holy fucking fuck.

It’s not just a perception that they are out of control. They are completely out of fucking control.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    It was also in Cleveland where that dude held those girls for years in his house near where they were abducted.

    So let’s review: the cops excel at killing innocent people and terrorizing those they are supposed to serve but they can’t find missing brown people being held a stone’s throw from where they were taken.

    This show would not last a season, even on TBS.

  2. 2.

    scav

    Was also reading that last night. The fract that this is round two with this organization and they effectively did little after round one, added to they knew they were being investigated and still ran a shop where this kid could get shot in this fashion argues for a profound and endemic indifference to their role, let alone what the public or others think of them.

  4. 4.

    beltane

    Cleveland’s police force would be a model for the country if only Ohio eliminated their cigarette tax.

  6. 6.

    Hawes

    I really don’t mean to troll by saying this, but where is Glenn Greenwald in all this? I’ve never thought that the NSA was as great a threat to civil liberties as tens of thousands of Barney Fifes running around this country in tactical gear and MRAPs.

    But if I really want to take him seriously, this would be a place where his commentary could be helpful.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    CDP officers ultimately fired 137 shots at the car

    In that same year the police in Germany (all police in the entire country) fired 85 shots.

  8. 8.

    Big ole hound

    How can that many armed men be so afraid of two people unless they have become the pitchfork carrying mob.They self-incited this riot and should all have be fired. Maybe this satisfies the need to fire all those weapons at a very scared couple wondering what has happened. Ohio is not a place I even want to fly over. John Cole, sorry you have to be their neighbor.

  9. 9.

    Sourmash

    So they set up their own circular firing squad and then keep firing because they think the mangled bodies in the car are shooting at them? And this “was not in accordance with CPD policies”? Jesus, I should hope not. But what good are policies if 1/3 of the on duty cops don’t know them or refuse to follow them?

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    Orion drifting through clouds to splashdown. 3 parachutes deployed. 2200 feet. Seems it was a flawless mission.

  13. 13.

    RP

    The kicker is that even after the circular firing squad, the occupants of the car were still alive. After a cease fire order had been given, a CPD officer jumped onto the hood of the car and emptied his gun through the windshield, finally killing the two occupants.

  17. 17.

    Shakezula

    I hate to sound uncivil, but we’ve reached the point where anyone who says this isn’t about race should be told to go fuck themselves in a very hot fire.

  18. 18.

    Keith G

    I view this as a test for political liberalism in this country. If we cannot get this right after all this accruing evidence and find ways to restrain the actions of the various policing agencies of this country, then political liberalism has no power and has no ability to change important things.

  21. 21.

    Emma

    @Hawes: They’re not white.

    (edit) That was flip. But can anyone point me at the body of work, other than the stuff he’s done after Obama came to power, that Greenwald has done?

  22. 22.

    scav

    Should we start a pool concerning the name of the representative of the CDP heading the whining brigade that they feel underappreciated? Sgt Manny Bangs? Lieutenant M.T. Clipp?

  23. 23.

    Cacti

    For me the best one on the DOJ report for making me want to laugh/cry at the same time was…

    2011 incident where officers fired 24 shots in a residential area, hitting 14 parked cars and 6 houses.

    I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it wasn’t an upper middle class white neighborhood.

  24. 24.

    Ruckus

    @Cacti:
    And I’d bet that not one shot hit what they thought they were shooting at. Which of course was probably nothing at all.

  26. 26.

    1weirdTrick

    These hard men serving on the front-lines of the war on criminal terror can never, ever be second-guessed. Their, and our lives, depend on split-second decisions and no doubt can be allowed to enter their minds.

    If held accountable for the corpses of old-backfiring-car-drivers, cigarette-hawkers and jaywalkers, they’ll be scared to do real police-work. Fear of lawsuits will turn them into passive PC never-there-when-you-need-thems. Rapists, muggers and unlicensed patchouli salesman will rule our streets.

    And yeah, yeah, much of what they do is “not in accordance with established policies”… but it’s a jungle out there and the boys need to unwind with some cowboy car antics on 12 y.o.s and 100 vehicle car-chases. Which would you rather have? A bunch of well-trained, disciplined pansies who calmly deescalate confrontations with squatter militias and open-carry enthusiasts… or brave, free manly men who jump in without looking or thinking and get the job done?

    Let’s face it. It’s an impossible job that only the police forces of every other 1st world democracy are able to do without using overwhelming force as a first recourse.

  27. 27.

    hamletta

    Rachel Maddow had tape of this chase last night, taken from various traffic cams around the city. It looked like something from It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

    Cole is right: It would be farcical if it didn’t wind up with dead people.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    So, when the new US Congress convenes, what are the odds that they’ll increase the flow of surplus military hardware to police departments without any accountability?

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    I only caught a bit of the conversation on NPR this morning, but they had a woman (psychologist) on who works with cops who are afraid of black men. Big, strong guys who have a deep-seated fear that any black guy they encounter is going to be able to overpower and kill them. And she’s only talking to the cops who are self-aware enough to realize that it’s an irrational fear and are trying to get some help to overcome it! How many more are working the streets with the same irrational fear who aren’t able to admit to themselves that it’s irrational?

    And she said that these were guys who were not consciously racist. The conscious racists are a whole different problem than the guys who have absorbed racist beliefs and act on them without thinking about it.

  32. 32.

    Scott S.

    @Keith G: We couldn’t even get common-sense gun laws passed after a lunatic massacred a bunch of first-graders. Reign in murderous, racist cops? There’s no reason whatsoever to be optimistic about that.

  34. 34.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    And remember that there are 2 higher level Montgomery County OH sheriff’s deputies now on leave for racists text messages with 3 lower level folks also under investigation. And it’s the county adjacent to Greene County, where Beavercreek of WalMart unindicted LEO homicide infamy is located.

  35. 35.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @1weirdTrick:

    Ladies and gentlemen, Darryl Gates!

    Seriously, that’s a pretty good summary of Gates’s preferred style of policing, complete with the Fine, we’ll take our ball and go home if you don’t want our help poutiness that made the LA riots so much worse than they needed to be.

  40. 40.

    samiam

    Cole the 0ne man angry mindless m0b continues to act accordingly. Unable to cope with a world he is not capable of understanding. Expressing what most would consider childishly simplistic opinions. Seriously wonder if he actually has some sort of mental deficiencies now.

  41. 41.

    Belafon

    @Shakezula: Saw a comment the other day that said that lots of whites seem to think that blacks have superpowers. There was also a study that showed that whites thought blacks were about 7 years older than they actually are.

  42. 42.

    James Gary

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    I heard that interview too and it filled me with rage. If I owned an Italian restaurant, I’d sure as hell try to avoid hiring cooks with a deep-seated fear of pasta. Is it unreasonable to ask that individuals with a deep-seated fear of black men NOT be serving as police officers in urban areas?

  44. 44.

    James Gary

    @John Cole +0: Really? It took me a long time to connect Charlie Pierce the WWDTM panelist with Charlie Pierce the blogger…although I think he’s competent in live radio, he’s just nowhere near as sharp and funny in person as he is on his blog.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It really is astonishing how all these incidents involve white cops and black “perps”.

    I’m sure John Roberts will reassure us, once again, that America is now a post-racial society.

  50. 50.

    J

    @1weirdTrick: Well put. Common to many of these horrible incidents is a complete failure even to try to find out what’s going on, and no efforts to give suspects a chance to surrender.

  51. 51.

    Other Chuck

    I find it odd that when talk turns to aggressive/belligerent policing, steroid abuse in seldom mentioned as a possible aggravating factor.

  52. 52.

    bemused

    @hamletta:

    We saw that too. Jaw dropping crazy.

    I just can’t comprehend that out of 100, 37% of police dept personnel on duty, not one, not even supervisors didn’t think this was total insanity?

  53. 53.

    GregB

    Who knew some police departments would view The Blues Brothers as a training film for effective policing.

  54. 54.

    Bill Arnold

    @Elizabelle:

    Orion drifting through clouds to splashdown.

    Very nice.
    Has there been any commentary on them “stealing” the name from Project Orion? (From the linked page: “Mathematician Richard Courant viewed an Orion test and said “Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts.””)

  56. 56.

    ruemara

    The latest shooting death in Phoenix, ran from the cops because he was holding food and meds for his daughter. The amount of people who think running is a killing offense, is huge. Reading this, why wouldn’t you run?

  57. 57.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Cacti:

    2011 incident where officers fired 24 shots in a residential area, hitting 14 parked cars and 6 houses.

    Deer season?

  58. 58.

    NorthLeft12

    I don’t want to stereotype, but just based on my reading of the news over the last four years there are probably numerous LEOs that could use some serious retraining regarding firearm use, personal conflict resolution, anger management, the constitution and bill of rights, etc.

    How about from now on they just list the LEOs that seem to have their shit together and conduct themselves in a professional manner?

  66. 66.

    Paul in KY

    @ruemara: I think, in general, that “don’t run” is good advice. You can’t outrun the radio.

    Also, I am white. So that definitely has impact on my advice (I guess).

  68. 68.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Howard Beale IV: As a joke, we ought to do one with loaded-out kittens and pictures of our war criminals in their sights, with the proceeds going to BJ Calendar recipients.

  69. 69.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    The kicker is that even after the circular firing squad, the occupants of the car were still alive. After a cease fire order had been given, a CPD officer jumped onto the hood of the car and emptied his gun through the windshield, finally killing the two occupants.

    @RP: Live TV, Channel 39, 1987, San Diego.

    A methhead has just set fire to a house and run out the door. He has, an hour eariler, shot and killed a San Diego police officer. He is tackled and handcuffed and placed on the ground while the cops go make sure there’s no one else in the house.

    We’re still on TV.

    An SDPD officer calmly walks up to the cuffed guy lying on the ground, pulls his gun, and puts four shots right into his head.

    Anchors sit open-mouthed for a few seconds. Feed is cut. Next story gone on to.

    No inquiry or investigation is launched. Hell, it’s not even mentioned in any news outlet the next day.

    This has been going on for a long time. It’s only now, when the police are starting to shoot provably and obviously innocent people for no reason, that people are paying attention.

    We have a long way to go and this will get much worse before it is changed.

  70. 70.

    Another Holocene Human

    @BGinCHI: You said exactly what I dropped in this thread to say.

    Also, violent crime dropped again in NYC a couple years after stop n frisk got reeled in. And while there is a ‘secular decrease’ (and NY tightened up their gun laws) there may be something to the theory that the cops were spending more time on crime investigation and less time on chasing the pointless Compstat god and filing paperwork.

    Plus, it’s not inconceivable that that shit actually fuels the urge to commit criminal mischief. (Shootings weren’t actually down–but survival is up–but other kinds of headline crimes dropped.)

  72. 72.

    kc

    Rachel Maddow was talking about Cleveland, and that insane chase, last night. Just unbelievable.

    This country needs a wholesale change in police training and tactics. I hope that with the recent killings of unarmed civilians by cops we can keep the momentum going to do some good.

  73. 73.

    Kryptik, A Man Without A Country

    @Belafon:

    I saw those articles. Most of them centered around the ‘magic negro’ narrative device in films as well as medical diagnoses. None of them really examined the natural outgrowth of that attitude as was demonstrated in the Brown case: treat all blacks as superhuman mutant demons with supernatural bullet-absorbing powers, and you reach for force as a first resort because you assume nothing else will work against something that may as well be the fucking Juggernaut in your mind.

  74. 74.

    Eric S.

    Sometimes I wonder if police officers shouldn’t have “term limits.”

    I had a very good friend in HS and college that went on to become a police officer in a suburb that has a high crime rate. We were roommates for what would have been his 2nd through 5th or 6th year on the force. We haven’t spoken in years.

    In hindsight I can see his progression from a fairly amicable and outgoing person towards a a more reclusive, more reactionary, us vs. them view of the world. His empathy for strangers dissipated year to year. This is certainly born of the culture of a police force. They isolate themselves from others. It may be cliche but there’s a real truth that their jobs constantly expose them to some of the worst society has to offer: deaths for many reasons (they are on seen when a person dies of old age, accidents, murders), domestic abuse, rapes, batteries, etc. etc. etc. Their day-to-day jobs bring them in contact with people having the worst day of their lives.

    There are myriad of problems with policing in out country. Militarization, the War on Drugs, a lack of accountability, the Blue Wall and many others discussed over the past several months. The constant exposure to misery has to play on their psyches.

    I’m not making excuses for them. I’m not defending them.

    I know most of the arguments against term limits for politicans and agree with those. I think many of those arguments apply here as well. I do wonder sometimes though if they cycled out of the job after a few years if the police force overall might be more sympathetic to the public and less isolated.

    /stream of consciousness

  77. 77.

    Tommy

    @Another Holocene Human: I don’t lock my doors. Sure I don’t live in a major metro area, but I am so not worried about crime. I think people might ponder that for a few. They are doing cop stuff. Funny how that works.

  79. 79.

    Ella in New Mexico

    It’s not just a perception that they are out of control. They are completely out of fucking control.

    And terrified of US. Blacks in poor communities just get the worst of it right now, because, well, they always have. It’s a pecking order thing.

    The blame for all of this can be placed squarely on the backs of our friends in Congress who cut funding for community policing and fully backed the erosion of civil rights post 9-11. We were all terrorists, and now we’re all guilty before we’ve even been charged with a crime, violent criminals. Because we question them as to their authority to treat us like we’re prisoners.

    When you ramp up fear, and you release the hounds and you fail to adequately fund police departments to provide training and education and hire people who are at least a few steps up the food chain from criminals, you get this.

  80. 80.

    Laertes

    @Emma: @Hawes:

    I really don’t mean to troll by saying this, but where is Glenn Greenwald in all this? I’ve never thought that the NSA was as great a threat to civil liberties as tens of thousands of Barney Fifes running around this country in tactical gear and MRAPs.

    But if I really want to take him seriously, this would be a place where his commentary could be helpful.

    How in touch with local-policing issues in St. Louis, Cleveland, and NYC do you expect Greenwald to be? Do you know where he lives?

    Why do you feel entitled to decide what should and shouldn’t be his beat?

    That was flip. But can anyone point me at the body of work, other than the stuff he’s done after Obama came to power, that Greenwald has done?

    http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Defending-American-Values-President/dp/097794400X

  81. 81.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @kc: This goes beyond blowing it. It’s absolutely, fucking infuriating. They just managed to play to every single stupid meme for why we shouldn’t take the rape crisis seriously. I hope the fraternity sues them out of fucking existence. I’m long held Rolling Stone’s journalism in contempt but this is a new low.

    Sabrina Rubin Erdely had better be lawyering up yesterday, because she’s going to need it.

  83. 83.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Eric S.: Great point.

    We don’t take care of our decent police officers. We don’t provide them the kind of training that helps them deal with the kinds of stresses they face, we still pay them poorly, we don’t demand that police forces get rid of bad apples before they destroy their morale.

    Dealing with the public and especially the level of society they have to deal with wears people down. They must have equal amounts of good going in or they’ll become the monsters they are fighting against.

  86. 86.

    Paul in KY

    @gwangung: I am. How is running from them any safer than not running (in general)? If you run from them, that gives them carte blanc to consider you an evildoing would-be terrorist, etc. etc.

    Remember, I am talking ‘in general’. Certainly there are times to flee from the po-po. Those times are quite infrequent (IMO).

  88. 88.

    gwangung

    @Paul in KY: Tamir Rice and John Crawford would disagree.

    Also, if you are not a direct threat, running is NOT justification for lethal force.

    I REALLY don’t think you’re listening.

  91. 91.

    Paul in KY

    @gwangung: I understand that in principle (and probably legally) running is not grounds for lethal force. It is grounds, however, for the police to consider you someone who they need to find out just why they are running & if possible, safely pursue you.

    Bottom line: When you run, you give them the reason they are looking for to consider you a perp & to pursue.

    Edit: Poor Tamir Rice didn’t even get a chance to run.

  93. 93.

    brantl

    This is partly the toll of getting police officers from the armed forces, after multiple, PTSD inducing wars. The recent crop of cops is largely from the military, as are their mentors, and the mentors’ mentors.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    I guess the Feds should drop their ongoing federal investigation of UVA based on dozens of other reports dating back over 10 years because one person may have lied, amirite?

    You did notice that there were other stories in the article, right? And the part about the ongoing investigation of other reports? Why are we supposed to conclude that they’re all liars, too?

  95. 95.

    Shakezula

    @Belafon: The 7 year old thing doesn’t surprise me. It allows people to attack and punish boys and sexually exploit girls.

    I wonder if the 7 years thing applies to people who are older. I.e. Do they regularly think 45 year olds are in their early 50s? (I doubt it.)

  97. 97.

    skerry

    @elmo: I saw that. Disgusting. The police in the Tamir Rice shooting didn’t administer any first aid either. Inhumane.

  99. 99.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    I understand that in principle (and probably legally) running is not grounds for lethal force.

    @Paul in KY: It can be. Depends on local department policy.

    So running can get you killed just like anything else involving cops can.

  100. 100.

    Ella in New Mexico

    I absolutely must know how to download the gif John Cole used for this post.

    Please someone help me. :-)

  102. 102.

    Sad_Dem

    @Davis X. Machina: One thing about Bonnie and Clyde: if you look at pictures of the car they died in, it is clear that the police did this amazing thing called “aiming.” The bullet holes are clustered! Compare that to the truck those two small women were delivering newspapers in when the LAPD opened up on them because they may have resembled one big black guy.

  103. 103.

    Ella in NM

    @Kryptik, A Man Without A Country:

    Should be able to just right-click it and select ‘save image as’.

    Thanks!
    I tried that while in Firefox but for some reason it wouldn’t capture the moving image. Then I opened the site with Chrome and it worked perfectly. :-)

  104. 104.

    mouse tolliver

    @skerry:

    @elmo: I saw that. Disgusting. The police in the Tamir Rice shooting didn’t administer any first aid either. Inhumane.

    Makes it easier to skate if the unarmed civilian dies, because dead men don’t contradict bullshit cover stories.

    It’s a recurring theme. I read an another story last week about an unarmed black man who got shot five times. The cops handcuffed him and let him bleed out on the street without calling for medical help.

    Must be some kind of tradition. That’s what crooked NYPD did to Serpico back in the ’70s after he blew the whistle. They let him get shot during a drug bust (which was probably an ambush) and left him to bleed out. He would’ve died if a civilian hadn’t called for help.

  105. 105.

    Shaun Appleby

    Uh-huh:

    Officials said Liang was holding a flashlight in his right hand and a Glock 9-mm. in the other when he opened the door to the eighth-floor landing.

    One bullet flew out and apparently ricocheted into the chest of Gurley, who was on the seventh-floor landing and taking the stairs with his girlfriend Melissa Butler, 27.

    Rocco Parascandola and Oren Yaniv – NYPD officer was texting union rep as victim lay dying Daily News 5 Dec 14

    The bullet flew out. Surely that explains it.

  106. 106.

    joel hanes

    @Eric S.:

    the culture of a police force. They isolate themselves from others.

    Yes.

    And it needn’t be this way.

    It’s known that “community policing”, in which cops walk regular beats, on foot, can dramatically decrease crime and scale down the confrontations that do occur.
    It’s been tried.
    It works.

    But for it to be successful, you have to get the cops out of their patrol cars.
    Cops hate it.

    Cops love the black-and-white patrol car, the cops-only universe. They don’t want to walk; they don’t want a regular beat; they don’t want to have to deal with the community as human beings.
    Apparently it’s just too much to ask.

  107. 107.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    Lost in history. Cop came from “Constable On Patrol”. Old British slang. When did the patrolman walking a beat end? I suspect there were parts of tbe cities that never saw a patrolling ofcocer, even i. the hayday .

  108. 108.

    grandpa john

    @scav: Yeah, and I suspect that some of the others would have also been found guilty if they had actually had been a trial. That’s why the prosecutors had to make sure they weren’t indicted.

  109. 109.

    Elie

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    I think that you are right. It IS very difficult and they get paid very little for the stress. It is also true as has been said, that many are veterans of our recent wars and have not been retrained for civilized society but for being a force of occupation. Paradoxically, similar to recent war experiences for US troops, the de-humanized nature of the conflict adds to the PTSD trauma which then further isolates them from the community. They could escape the consequences of that in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not here. This IS home.

    I would like some up to date analysis on the demographics, work and educational history of the police force in this country. Who ARE these people? My assumptions about their experience may not be right. Who are they and what have been the major trends and changes in this group over the last 5 years.

    Are these new events a pattern or a series of unfortunate ad hoc events?

    On a separate track, what the aich is happening with Grand Juries? Lets get some stats out on that too.

    I see PHD and advanced research opportunities in spades here… I don’t think we know what we think we know.

  110. 110.

    Caravelle

    @jake the antisoshul soshulist: Sounds like a fake etymology to me. More likely-sounding is the one I read in a Terry Pratchett book, that it’s a shortened form of “copper”, which comes from the old Ephesian Latin “capere”, to catch.

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