• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The words do not have to be perfect.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

In my day, never was longer.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / It’s the Policies, Stupid

It’s the Policies, Stupid

by John Cole|  April 13, 20217:58 pm| 83 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Shitty Cops

FacebookTweetEmail

This morning I went off on an angry rant on the twitter machine when reading about the killing of Daunte Wright, and discovered that the cops pulled him over for fucking expired tags. Basically, it is my belief that cops who pull people over for shit like expired tags, not being able to see a second license plate, air freshener hanging from the mirror, or other bullshit like that, are in essence online trolls in real life. And the cities and communities that have their cops out doing this are doing so for several reasons:

1.) To raise money to fund the government so taxcut Jesus won’t get a sad.
2.) To harass and keep minority communities in “their place”
3.) To maintain a militaristic carceral state

Who, exactly, is safer in that Minnesota community because a couple of bored cops decided to fuck with a black kid with expired tags? Who is safer in Virginia because a bunch of bored cops decided to fuck with an Army LT because they couldn’t see his second license plate? No one.

It’s the same god damned thing that went on in Baltimore and NYC with the street level harassment of fucking with people sitting on their stoop listening to music and having a beer. It’s the same bullshit as roughing people up and breaking down doors because you smelled weed smoke. It’s the same fucking thing that was discussed in the detailed Ferguson report in 2015 when we last had a functioning DOJ.

And, it doesn’t just happen to minorities. It happens at a far greater rate of occurrence for minority communities and is far deadlier for them, but the same shit happens to poor white people here in West Virginia and elsewhere. There aren’t enough black people to fund the government here, so you gotta fuck with other “undesirables.”

And it makes life a living hell for everyone. People lose their ability to drive over bullshit because they can not pay the cascading fines or take off to make all the court dates, and shit spirals out of control and before they know it they owe thousands of dollars for a fucking nine dollar license plate tag, have lost their car, lost their job because they can’t get there, and are further mired in poverty and hopelessness. It’s the same fucking thing credit card companies do to trap people in indebtedness. Why do many poor people drink to excess and do drugs? Because we have made their lives fucking unbearable without them.

And this is not new. We all know this. It has been happening long enough that we all are aware this goes on. I’d also posit that it has been going on so long that people who like to abuse people are drawn to policing, because it gives them a license to bully and hurt people. So, at this point, if you are not actively working to try to fundamentally reform policing and government, you are part of the problem.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Madame Vice President, Confusing the Haterz
Next Post: Finally Pulling Out »

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    bbleh

    April 13, 2021 at 8:00 pm

    “Power corrupts.”

  2. 2.

    geg6

    April 13, 2021 at 8:06 pm

    Exactly right, Mr. Cole.  Exactly right.

  3. 3.

    Immanentize

    April 13, 2021 at 8:10 pm

    John,
    It might be worse than you imagine — it looks to me like he was stopped as a “training exercise.” Like they used to send newby cops in NYC to minority areas to practice “stop and frisk.”

  4. 4.

    JoyceH

    April 13, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    I went around with a guy on Facebook who insists that if people would just instantly obey any police order, everything would be peachy. Right. In that Virginia case, one policeman was screaming at the Army LT to keep his hands out the window while the other was screaming at him to get out of the car now. You can’t keep your hands out the window and open the car door at the same time, so apparently that would have justified a shooting? Please.

    But what’s struck me about these videos is how the police always START at high alert, guns drawn and screaming like they think they’re taking down a terrorist. We have too many pure cowards in police departments. (And not surprising that cowards turn out to be sadistic bullies, too.)  I think a big part of the problem isn’t having bad policies, it’s having the wrong people.

  5. 5.

    Yutsano

    April 13, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    To wit…

    The pervasiveness of white supremacy is literally killing us.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 8:12 pm

    nine dollar license plate tag

    In 1979. Maybe.

    DMV fees have become steadily more eye-popping.

    ;)

  7. 7.

    Immanentize

    April 13, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    @JoyceH: The traning paradigm is (supposed to be):

    1) ASK
    2) TELL
    3) DEMAND

    Now things can go from one to three very fast, but one is supposed to do all the steps.

  8. 8.

    debbie

    April 13, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    I would bet these policies originated with the unions.

  9. 9.

    Immanentize

    April 13, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    @NotMax: The State allowed additional time for DMV things because of Covid.  They were not supposed to be stopping people with tag issues.  This is why, I believe, they actually stopped him, as he told his Momma on the phone when he was stopped — that the stop was for the air freshener on his mirror.

  10. 10.

    Poe Larity

    April 13, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    angry rant on the twitter machine

    You should be getting paid for that on substack.

    fundamentally reform policing and government

    As you say, police funding is tied to taxcut jesus, so how will defunding work? Would more money lead to a more professional police force? City Councils were afraid of cops and their votes until the Defund movement took hold.

    *not to imply that I don’t think the Defund brand is the most effectively distilled public policy strategy of the last decade.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    @Immanentize: Who was the trainee in this “training exercise” because the cop who shot Wright had 26 years under her belt?

  12. 12.

    Immanentize

    April 13, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    I’m so sick of this.  I am gonna go now.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    April 13, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    Some pretty enraging testimony in the Chauvin trial today.

  14. 14.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    I had a comment #36 at the protest post that is more appropriate here. Being a luddite I don’t know how to bring it over. Any one who can do so, or tell me how to do so, would have my gratitude.

    copied from protest thread for sam (by WG)

    My little city had protests last summer, and the police handled it pretty well. Things went smoothly.

    The police union wants to stir stuff up. City council passed some ordinances outlawing stuff (chokeholds, e.g.) that are currently illegal under state law. Takes them out of discussion in contract talks with the union even if state law changes. The union is pissed.

    My husband went to an inner city/downtown Catholic high school in the late 1960s. He knows a lot of retired cops. Despite the blue wall, they are pretty disgusted with the current situation and very grateful to be retired.

    They blame a lot of this on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Younger cops are all veterans, and basically see themselves as an occupying force. The Ohio supreme court decision letting them move out of their cities compounded this problem.

    An issue they (older and retired cops) hadn’t realized was the Lewinski phuck-up training. They hadn’t realized how unqualified he is. And his training has become so popular that local police forces can’t avoid it. If they don’t let these guys go to it then the union will demand it. If that fails, the FOP will pay their way.

    In my city the retired cops knew how to de-escalate. The current cops less so, and the younger they get the worse they are at it, and they aren’t learning. Things will get worse.

    Lewinski and his ilk really need to be totally discredited. I don’t know how to get that ball rolling, but it is as important (and maybe part of ) what peaceful protests are trying to accomplish.

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    April 13, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    All of the Orange Clown’s AGs were terrible, but just imagine if he’d gotten that dirtbag Rudy confirmed.

  16. 16.

    wenchacha

    April 13, 2021 at 8:28 pm

    There has to be some better way than this. I cannot imagine the anxiety of raising Black children in this country. It is a shameful thing for Americans.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    @sab

    When in doubt, link it.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    @Immanentize: Didn’t mean for my question to sound like a personal attack.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    @Mike in NC: To replace Barr?  Or what part of government would Ghouliani be destroying?

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    April 13, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    People lose their ability to drive over bullshit because they can not pay the cascading fines or take off to make all the court dates, and shit spirals out of control and before they know it they owe thousands of dollars for a fucking nine dollar license plate tag, have lost their car, lost their job because they can’t get there, and are further mired in poverty and hopelessness.

    And, of course, this just circles back around and hurts the community. People without jobs aren’t buying stuff from the local market, so everyone around them is poorer. They aren’t paying their taxes, so the local government has to turn the screws harder and try to collect ever more in the form of fines and fees to continue functioning.
    If we want to fix policing, we need to go far beyond the police. The police have been corrupted because the laws they are enforcing are unjust. That’s not to say that legal reform will solve all the problems in our police departments- plenty of police ignore changes in the law they don’t approve of- but police reform will fail as long as the police are expected to enforce unjust laws.
    There are other things that need fixing, too. As you say, a lot of the problems in poor communities are because the government is trying to use the police to generate revenue. We need to end the system of funding local governments exclusively from local revenues and ensure that all essential functions of local government receive adequate funding from the state. At the same time, we need to end the abuse of fines as a revenue source by sending all fine revenue back to the state government.

  21. 21.

    Betsy

    April 13, 2021 at 8:33 pm

    OK I know the problem is totally systemic and cultural and societal, but I can offer one tiny tiny thing that would help a little bit. We need to engineer our streets so that they are self enforcing. Requiring police enforcement of traffic is such a massive waste of money and of course is totally inappropriate because the police being people, and having cultural biases, will just pick on out groups.

    But it is possible to build the streets so that they don’t need constant law enforcement monitoring.

    The Dutch, for example, build self-enforcing streets. On Dutch streets it is almost impossible to either make a conscious bad choice, or to make a common driving mistake. This simply eliminates  a lot of the human biased enforcement role.

    (Not to mention, Dutch streets are incredibly safe for all users, including people on foot and on bike. In this country we could really use some safety on streets for people who don’t drive cars or can’t afford them. I’ll give you one guess as to the representation of people of color among low-car-owning populations, and who are also more likely to walk or use a cheap bike to get to work and for other essential mobility.

    Also guess what, in this country people of color  get killed and injured at massively higher rates when they are walking or using bikes, largely because the areas where they live and work are poorly served with walk bike infrastructure. More racism)

    Not to mention that if you do really want a police force for criminal stuff, you shouldn’t be wasting the police force’s time on traffic infractions.

    I could go into lots of history about how the American car and oil industry spent lots and lots of money on advertising and lobbying for the last hundred years to create a situation where the police are used on vehicular matters so much of the time.
    A legacy of motor industry and oil industry domination of cultural politics since cars  become a mass consumer product. A lot of our thinking about crash victims, driver behavior, and traffic policing is an outcome of these industries working to have subsidies and cultural ideas about their products to sell more of them and help them dominate our street systems.

    It doesn’t have to be this way.

  22. 22.

    Immanentize

    April 13, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: It wasn’t you at all.  The shooter was the trainer.  I’m tired of dead kids when cops shoot.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    April 13, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    @sab: Here is your comment:

    My little city had protests last summer, and the police handled it pretty well. Things went smoothly.

    The police union wants to stir stuff up. City council passed some ordinances outlawing stuff (chokeholds, e.g.) that are currently illegal under state law. Takes them out of discussion in contract talks with the union even if state law changes. The union is pissed.

    My husband went to an inner city/downtown Catholic high school in the late 1960s. He knows a lot of retired cops. Despite the blue wall, they are pretty disgusted with the current situation and very grateful to be retired.

    They blame a lot of this on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Younger cops are all veterans, and basically see themselves as an occupying force. The Ohio supreme court decision letting them move out of their cities compounded this problem.

    An issue they (older and retired cops) hadn’t realized was the Lewinski phuck-up training. They hadn’t realized how unqualified he is. And his training has become so popular that local police forces can’t avoid it. If they don’t let these guys go to it then the union will demand it. If that fails, the FOP will pay their way.

    In my city the retired cops knew how to de-escalate. The current cops less so, and the younger they get the worse they are at it, and they aren’t learning. Things will get worse.

    Lewinski and his ilk really need to be totally discredited. I don’t know how to get that ball rolling, but it is as important (and maybe part of ) what peaceful protests are trying to accomplish.

  24. 24.

    Ruckus

    April 13, 2021 at 8:41 pm

    I wrote on here recently that I have a HS friend who became a CHP and stayed for his 30. He’s about as left as it gets, and told me a number of years after he had retired that the only reason he stayed in after 20 was the pension, that so many cops weren’t in it to enforce the law any longer but because they liked to fuck with people. Bullies with a gun. And of course there have always been cops whose main concept of living was to fuck with people, like being a cop because they get to carry a gun and a nightstick, and use them occasionally. But he said that the percentage of those doing the actual job and the ones making everyone’s life a living hell went from a few bad apples to the entire barrel being rotten. Which it always does.

  25. 25.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Thank you so much.

  26. 26.

    Redshift

    April 13, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    A Center for American Progress email this week had links to some good stories about efforts in various places to take traffic matters or of the hands of the police and have unarmed personnel giving out tickets. It’s so obvious once you think of it. I hope we get that in the next round of police reforms here in Virginia; since we elected a Democratic trifecta we’ve gotten, among other things, changes so stuff like an obstructed view (e.g. an air freshener), window tinting, and taillights can no longer be the primary reason to be stopped.

  27. 27.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 8:45 pm

    @NotMax: How did you do that?

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    April 13, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Barr eventually resigned to try to salvage his reputation, but Rudy stayed to the bitter end and helped egg on the mob. “Trial by Combat”? What a douchebag.

  29. 29.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    We are gonna have to federalize policing standards etc aren’t we…? Maybe just maybe requiring a Bachelors degree for a job that routinely involves life and death decisions wouldn’t be a bad way to start?

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    April 13, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    Patrick Skinner (@SkinnerPm) is a good “follow” on Twitter. Ex-counterterrorism expert who became a beat cop. Profiled in The New Yorker a few years ago. Plus he has pet and garden videos!

    We have got to change what it means to be the police in America. We stress that cops are only human but then call our neighbors monsters. We excuse our own emotions and then demand our neighbors be robots of polite compliance. But its more than that.

    Elsewhere he expands on that paradox, that cops are excused for blowing “split-second” decisions in “high-stress” situations but ordinary citizens are expected to obey those cops’ orders immediately, efficiently and calmly (on possible pain of death). WTF?

    There is real crime that police must address. Stuff hanging from a rear view mirror ain’t it. We need to stop treating regulation violations like violent crime. So we need to slow down, stop confusing compliance with success, and keep our guns in the holster. Start there.

    Word. Who makes an expired-tag air-freshener stop a life-and-death crisis? It ain’t the goddamn motorist.

  31. 31.

    hueyplong

    April 13, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    That Cole dude is on a roll.  He should have his own website.

  32. 32.

    MacBaby25

    April 13, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    As a long time reader and first time commenter, I have to say I agree with everything John said. It is beyond depressing to see this happen every week. Something must be done to stop this insanity. Who am I kidding, all these police will either get acquitted, get fired, or quit, and still be able to get their pensions in perpetuity, while the people they kill will be dead.

  33. 33.

    anon

    April 13, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    @Redshift:

    its 2021, just use cameras and AI, and send tickets in the mail.

  34. 34.

    Steeplejack

    April 13, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    @sab:

    Go to the comment you want to bring over, right-click on (or press and hold) its time stamp to copy the URL, then use that like an external link in a comment here, as NotMax did. Then people can click over and read the comment there. Viz.,

    sab: “My little city had protests last summer . . .”

    If you highlight the link in this comment you will see that it goes to your comment #36 in the other thread.​

  35. 35.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 8:59 pm

    @Poe Larity:

    you defund the Police Department. All the Cops get laid off. No more Police Department, no more Police Union.

    you move the money to a completely new Department, the Department of Public Safety.

    the Department of Safety has 1 Nurse, 1 EMT, 2 Social Workers, 2 Community Service Workers, for every “Peace Officer”, “Traffic Warden” and “Detective”.

  36. 36.

    Dan B

    April 13, 2021 at 8:59 pm

    There’s a new meme about how to tell if someone is American.  A TV reporter in Knoxville mistook live footage of a police helicopter with the canned footage from the school shooting.  She said that she, “had forgotten about the other shooting.”  She nearly giggled at her error.

    This is revolting.

  37. 37.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:01 pm

    @Ksmiami: Then they have to stop having age 30 as the cut-off for hiring, because it’s pretty damn hard to go from high school to six years enlistment to four years of college and the police academy and then enlist by thirty. Leaves you maybe a year to think about it or screw up. So all we get is the kids of the current cops who will be born wanting to be just like dad.

    Though many of the cop’s kids I know are excellent. Others had the rules bent to be hired when they were iffy to pass the psych tests. Rules were bent because their dad’s were respected cops.

    The shorter the window of hiring is the worse the hires will be because they need guys in these jobs.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    April 13, 2021 at 9:05 pm

    @sab: what I said doesn’t work, will try again. Or use Steep’s answer at #34 and ignore me altogether.

  39. 39.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:06 pm

    @Dan B: I was just debating with my husband how many local school shootings we have had. I had forgotten a few.

    We had bomb drills in elementary school in the 1960s. We eventually realized those were political theater and a joke.

    My grand-daughters have had active shooting drills since kindergarden, and the oldest is now in college. Nobody has ever thought these were a joke.

  40. 40.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:07 pm

    @Steeplejack: Thanks.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    April 13, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    I am on the same page with John Cole’s rant, except for two things.

    Why do many poor people drink to excess and do drugs? Because we have made their lives fucking unbearable without them.

    Yeah, that’s part of it. But people drink and do drugs because it feels good and people are stupid. But the middle class and rich often get to go to clinics to dry out and get second and third chances. Less fortunate people end up dying in the gutter.

    And this is not new. We all know this. It has been happening long enough that we all are aware this goes on. I’d also posit that it has been going on so long that people who like to abuse people are drawn to policing, because it gives them a license to bully and hurt people.

    The police are often able to restrain themselves and be nice and polite to the right people. And for a long time, people not only expected the cops to harass black and brown people. They heartily approved of it.

    This is not just a matter of bullies and sadists becoming cops. They are doing what they think is expected of them. People have to decide what kind of police force they want. They have to decide to stop being complicit in racist practices.

  42. 42.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    @anon: Ohio cities tried that and the GOP legislature freaked out and cut state funding.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    April 13, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    “Carceral state.”  New vocabulary for me.

    “ “The term carceral state often calls to mind institutions of confinement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but… it also comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the criminal justice system.”

    from The Carceral State website, a project of University of Michigan students and faculty. 

    Website published May 2020 by Documenting Criminalization and Confinement, a research initiative of the U-M Carceral State Project

  44. 44.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    @sab:

    in Finland you have to have a 4 year degree, in broad based specific programs, to even apply.

    Then, 20 months in a Police Academy,

    and you don’t get to carry a gun.

    Get 5 years in, nose clean, a 12 month course, and you still don’t get to carry a gun, but you get to be an Armed Response Officer and have one locked in the trunk of your Police car.

    Two years after that, nose clean, and another 12 month course, you can become a SWAT member.

    and every 6 months, you have to requalify on everything and go through a performance review.

    Vs. A GED and a 15 week course to become a Licensed LEO.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    April 13, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    @sab:

    Not quite as detailed as it could have been. If you need further details, let me know.

    If you hover over (or highlight) the time stamp for any comment you will see that it contains a permanent URL you can use to link back to that comment from elsewhere (including other sites, e-mail, etc.).

  46. 46.

    Miss Bianca

    April 13, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    You’re making the same point my publisher has been making for a while, John. He’s assigned me the “Sheriff’s Blotter” weekly feature, based on the deputies’ reports, and I’ve been starting to keep a closer eye on these things. Next step is going to be digging into how much of the sheriff’s budget comes from this kind of stuff. I’ve already found out that he basically rents out our county jail to other counties to house inmates in. No wonder he’s bitching that the county needs a bigger jail!

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    @Mike in NC: Ah ya.  Forgot the bastard resigned Just before Christmas.

  48. 48.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lzUXEiYUOsA/YHYEkguZT9I/AAAAAAABBaM/hC6Q4P4niNMW0e9c6KLBD1NirEIZqKGNQCLcBGAsYHQ/s526/169490242_3547352298702543_7543239869496106870_n.jpg

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    April 13, 2021 at 9:22 pm

    @Jay:   Finland probably is not swimming in guns and assault weapons, as is our “exceptional” country.

    But I like their system, if it is as you have laid out.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 9:24 pm

    @Elizabelle

    Gentlemen avoid saying “penal’ when ladies are present.

    // :)

  51. 51.

    debbie

    April 13, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    Andy Borowitz makes a good point over on FB:

    The question isn’t how you could mistake a gun for a taser. It’s how you could mistake someone with an air freshener violation for someone you should shoot.

  52. 52.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Finland has lots of guns, just not pistols and assault rifles.

    Most of the guns are used by hunters, farmers, trappers.

    Another key difference is the absence for the most part of ammosexuals.

    a BIPOC person in traffic, doesn’t scare me. A  Gunhumper with his NRA performative decals, truck balls on the back of his Coal Roller scares the shit out of me. KKKops never stop them.

    Too gutless I guess.

  53. 53.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    @Jay: Also, if you require a four year degree, and everyone goes into the military (standard in the US)  then a stop-loss order that keeps you in ( Bush did that) blows your chance of civilian employment in police or other jobs (e.g. air traffic control) if a college degree is required and civilian employment has an age 30 cut-off. Police go into the military first. Others go after college. But either way, the age 30 cut-off is a problem.

  54. 54.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    @sab: 40 years old today is still pretty young and fit…Rt now our police forces seem to be made up of raging ego misfits who should be kept far far away from jobs dealing with the public.

  55. 55.

    NetheadJay

    April 13, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    Truly righteous rant Cole and exactly on point. One of the most hopeful things I’ve seen in the last year or so is that there are increasingly people who see and understand this. Change can be infuriatingly slow but I think there’s a movement gathering enough steam in this policy area that we’ll see stuff actually happen in the not too distant future.

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    April 13, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    Maybe just maybe requiring a Bachelors degree for a job that routinely involves life and death decisions wouldn’t be a bad way to start? 

    You coastal elitist.

    In all seriousness, I’d like to pay police far more and then be far more selective about who gets to be an officer. And if you fuck up, you are outta there. I want people who are absolutely top of the line, not these weaksauce thugs and enablers.

    We also need far fewer laws.

  57. 57.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    @Brachiator: the entire heritage of policing in this country is suppressing slave revolts, crack downs on labor unions and recapturing runaway slaves… the time has come to forge a new paradigm.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    April 13, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    @Immanentize: They obviously have the wrong people training.  Chauvin was training also.

  59. 59.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    @sab:

    in most of the ROW, military service is not a requirement for Police Employment, nor is being under 30.

    In Canada, the usual path is a BS. in Criminology and Psych, ( majors/minors) then a minimum of a year in a Force run or affiliated training Institute, if RCMP, that means two Winterpeg winters, ( but also horses).

  60. 60.

    Soprano2

    April 13, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    I call them “bullshit stops”. I think a lot of the time they think they’ll find drugs or an illegal gun,  which is the real reason they stop someone for a broken taillight or window tinting. Around here there are a lot of cars with expired temporary tags (this was true pre-Covid). I figure there’s no money in it for them to stop a car with those on it. There must have been a change in the law,  because you never used to see that.

  61. 61.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    @Suzanne: far fewer dumb laws that are selectively enforced against certain people and communities. Enough.

  62. 62.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    @Jay: Canadian cops are the best- and they are trained to de-escalate situations as opposed to the roid-cortisol compliance culture of American cops

  63. 63.

    maura

    April 13, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    @bbleh: my first thought exactly.  and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  and that lady copy murderer thinks she will not have to face the music if she resigns.  20_+ year vet and she does not know the difference between her gun and her taser?  pitiful , pathetic.  racism fear rage.  that’s the reason she  killed him

  64. 64.

    Kelly

    April 13, 2021 at 9:44 pm

    If the cops are gonna do bullshit stops could they at least stop the guys with illegal extra bright headlights or running with their fog lamps lit with no fog? Maybe even just for badly aimed headlights?

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 13, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    @Suzanne: We also need far fewer laws.

    Amen. I believe the warrant that turned the cops into Rambos on Daunte Wright was for a misdemeanor marijuana charge. Marvin Scott was taken to the police station for a misdemeanor possession charge

    On March 14, Scott was arrested in Allen, nearly 15 miles from where he lived in Frisco, on a marijuana charge. Authorities said he had less than two ounces — a misdemeanor. The 26-year-old, who received a schizophrenia diagnosis two years ago, sometimes used the drug to self-medicate, according to the family’s lawyer, S. Lee Merritt.

    He died in police custody. I’m a Biden fan and a strong believer in the necessity of normie politics, but Joe needs to get over his reefer madness.

    And of course, we need to start taking mental illness seriously in this country.

  66. 66.

    Feathers

    April 13, 2021 at 9:48 pm

    @Ksmiami: It’s because policing isn’t a normal job where you quit if you feel too old or unhealthy. Cops get an extremely generous pension after 25 years. My brother just retired at 52 and he really doesn’t need to work again for the rest of his life. So whatever your age cutoff is, you have to figure that everyone will stay on the job for 25 years. A 30yo cutoff means your oldest beat cops will be 55. Some detectives and people who make it into management will of course stay longer.

    Police pensions warp policing by keeping people who don’t want to do the job anymore slogging through, hating every day.

    A note on government pensions. Yes, they are a good thing. However, we’ve basically trashed private sector retirement. But a secure retirement for only government workers (and the wealthy) is not sustainable.

  67. 67.

    cain

    April 13, 2021 at 9:52 pm

    @Betsy: 
    The other thing I can’t really stand is – out here in Hillsboro we had a number of traffic lights go out – not a single cop showing up to direct traffic. I mean wtf – this part of your writ.
    I have yet to see any of these assholes go out and direct traffic.

  68. 68.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:55 pm

    @cain: There are rules for dead traffic lights. If ( big if) your motorists know them then you don’t want traffic cops. They will not make things better.

  69. 69.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    @Jay: We should try that. The FBI doesn’t want military because they want their guys trained to their rules and customs. I wish US police did that, but they think military training is a shortcut to training. Also too, the last four generations all served, so they think it’s unpatriotic not to have done so.

  70. 70.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    @Soprano2:

    “Bullshit Stops” are a police/legal term for pulling someone over or making an arrest a 1/2 hour before your shift is over.

    that way the KKKop makes time and a half to double time, while the arrest/evidence/paperwork is processed

    That’s how a NYC Beat KKKop can pull in $450k to a clear half mil a year off a $110k salary and retire with million dollar benifits.

    @Ksmiami:

    we have bad cops here too, along with broken policing.

  71. 71.

    Dan B

    April 13, 2021 at 10:02 pm

    @sab: Bomb drills were theater.  I put my junior science mind on it and assuming Akron and Cleveland as prime targets because of their huge factories would get some large bombs.  The blast radius would level much of little Wadsworth and the fire radius would take the rest.  I didn’t put much effort into ducking or covering.

    I wonder if there are studies on the psychological impact of school shooting and drills on kids.

  72. 72.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 10:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: Good police departments have strict guidelines about who can train. In my little city, nobody with Chauvin’s actual record would be allowed to train. I also doubt he could have passed the psychological tests our guys need to be trainers.

  73. 73.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 10:04 pm

    @Dan B: We were training in central Florida. We used to come home from school talking about the training and my parents just laughed. “We’re in Florida. Nobody cares about us enough to bomb us.” My husband had the same training in Akron. His parents took it seriously.

  74. 74.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 10:08 pm

    @Feathers:

    RCMP who don’t make Staff Sgt, by 20 years in, get bumped up one rank, and retired with that ranks pay and benefits, indexed.

    to make Staff Sgt. or Officer, you need at least an applicable Masters. Then you can stay up to 40 years.

    That said, the RCMP has a shitload of problems.

  75. 75.

    Jay

    April 13, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    @Dan B:

    basically, it fucks them up,

    https://everytownresearch.org/report/the-impact-of-active-shooter-drills-in-schools/

  76. 76.

    Ksmiami

    April 13, 2021 at 10:18 pm

    @Feathers:  the pensions for policing need to be performance based gradations – bad cops don’t get them and incentivize the forces for community engagement not bullshit stops.

  77. 77.

    Dan B

    April 13, 2021 at 10:21 pm

    @Jay: Thanks for the link.  I bet it will put me an informed – and grouchy – mood.

  78. 78.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 10:26 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Talk to anyone (govt or accounting firm) involved in the Single Audit. If your sherriff gets Federal funds they will be dying to talk to you.

    Single Audit is a thing required by any local government agency getting Federal funds. A single federal audit instead of an audit required by every federal government funding agency.

    A lot of the people under a single audit hope their superiors will get caught doing known shenanigans. When that doesn’t happen, they want to talk elsewhere.

  79. 79.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 10:44 pm

    @NotMax: I mostly love your puns, but that was sad.

  80. 80.

    sab

    April 13, 2021 at 10:45 pm

    @Ksmiami: Yep.

  81. 81.

    Redshift

    April 13, 2021 at 10:46 pm

    @Dan B:

    I didn’t put much effort into ducking or covering. 

    I was across the river from Washington, DC, but they stopped doing duck and cover before I was old enough to put two and two together. And even if I had been, I also wasn’t enough of a smartass to say anything about how pointless it was.

  82. 82.

    Cathie from Canada

    April 14, 2021 at 1:08 am

    I recall reading recently about a sociology professor who had made a career out of studying his local police department.  He had concluded that most of a police officer’s work consisted of pulling over cars full of young men and finding something to charge them with.

    When the professor’s words were quoted in the local paper, the police department was outraged — to the surprise of the professor, who thought his police friends had already known what they were doing.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    April 14, 2021 at 1:15 am

    @Cathie from Canada:

    They knew what they were doing. They just didn’t want it widely known.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Ruckus on Repub Enablement Open Thread: The NYTimes Has *CONCERNS* (Apr 1, 2023 @ 4:41pm)
  • Baud on Interesting Read: How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor? (Apr 1, 2023 @ 4:40pm)
  • StringOnAStick on Interesting Read: How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor? (Apr 1, 2023 @ 4:39pm)
  • Jim, Foolish Literalist on Interesting Read: How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor? (Apr 1, 2023 @ 4:38pm)
  • WaterGirl on Interesting Read: How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor? (Apr 1, 2023 @ 4:37pm)

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Seattle Meetup coming up on April 4!

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!