Mr Puggsly said:
sundin13 said:
You say that I'm "preaching to the choir", yet you seem to be advocating blind trust in state sanctioned violence... Anyways, the issue isn't just some police officers committing misconduct. The way that the police system is set up through the current police union system creates a power imbalance between the police and the communities they serve. Communities have virtually no recourse to respond to police misconduct, both because the police typically investigate and protect their own, and because unions shield officers from consequences in all but the most severe instances of misconduct. The primary way to maintain trust in a system is through accountability. Most people understand that in every system there will be some degree of abuse, they simply expect the abuse to be met with accountability. Instead, what we repeatedly see is that the police are more interested in protecting other police than they are in accountability. We need to even this power imbalance between the police and the communities they serve in order to restore trust in these institutions, and in large part, what we are seeing from police is a backlash to any hint of accountability. The police have tremendous power to both fix their policing system, to repair trust in policing and to respond to community concerns, but they don't want to. This isn't evidence that the communities have gone mad, it is evidence that the police don't want to fix their system because they see it as beneficial to themselves. The police are more interested in protecting themselves from accountability than they are in serving their communities, and if that is the case, then it is hard to justify further expenditures for policing until they recognize their role in fixing it. |
"you seem to be advocating blind trust in state sanctioned violence..." Am I? If so I wouldn't want the cameras. "unions shield officers from consequences in all but the most severe instances of misconduct." I would hope cameras help prevent this. I didn't say I blindly side with police. I just notice when cities try to come up with solutions they sometimes make crime worse, especially if its a left leaning city where excuses are made for criminal behavior. Ultimately, the cities with the biggest crime problems get what they deserve. |
Someone who trusts those who commit misdeeds in plain view is even more foolish that someone who trusts those who commits misdeeds in secret. You are encouraging trust, but I simply ask for the police to show that they deserve it. Until then, it is not the cities who deserve their problems, it is the police who deserve theirs.
