Read on Twitter
“My client was assaulted and attacked, and what he did was excusable and reasonable under the law,” the lawyer said, describing firing ten times in a crowded store, killing a man twenty feet from him while sitting down, and leaving bystanders wounded or in a coma. https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1180513774043721728
Time to lose some followers:
There is no such thing as a good cop. I'll grant some work hard to make things better, sure. But so long as:
A) There are unjust laws
B) Cops swear to enforce all laws
Then
C) Cops swear to enforce unjust laws
Good people don't uphold injustice.
There is no such thing as a good cop. I'll grant some work hard to make things better, sure. But so long as:
A) There are unjust laws
B) Cops swear to enforce all laws
Then
C) Cops swear to enforce unjust laws
Good people don't uphold injustice.
"But who will you call if violence happens to you? CHECKMATE!"
A) I don't have a community here in Denver yet, but back in NC, it would have been friends.
B) The fact that the police are often the only option in a situation is not an argument that they are good.
A) I don't have a community here in Denver yet, but back in NC, it would have been friends.
B) The fact that the police are often the only option in a situation is not an argument that they are good.
C) I'm sorry to tell you this, but...
Remember the cop who fled and kept other cops back at Parkland? His defense is because he was acting as a cop, he had no obligation to those kids.
The supreme court agrees. Regularly. https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1108728462263513091
Remember the cop who fled and kept other cops back at Parkland? His defense is because he was acting as a cop, he had no obligation to those kids.
The supreme court agrees. Regularly. https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1108728462263513091
Copied the wrong thread! How embarassing. That one is about how being a cop makes you somewhere between 2-4 times as likely to engage in domestic violence in your own family.
THIS is the thread about how they don't have to do anything to protect you: https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1136134696734142464
THIS is the thread about how they don't have to do anything to protect you: https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1136134696734142464
The Myth around policing is that they are A) Risking their lives B) To protect and serve you C) Which makes our communities safer.
Police rank behind groundskeepers, farmhands, and pretty much every other kind of manual labor in workplace deaths: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/08/most-dangerous-jobs-us-where-fatal-injuries-happen-most-often/38832907/
Police rank behind groundskeepers, farmhands, and pretty much every other kind of manual labor in workplace deaths: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/08/most-dangerous-jobs-us-where-fatal-injuries-happen-most-often/38832907/
"Thanklessly risking their lives in service to society" is fishermen. You're thinking of Fishermen.
So that's A done.
B) Do they protect you?
They have exactly as much duty to intervene to protect you as literally any other person on the street: the weight of their conscience. No obligation. No mandate. They can watch you be shot, bleed out, and die. https://mises.org/power-market/police-have-no-duty-protect-you-federal-court-affirms-yet-again
B) Do they protect you?
They have exactly as much duty to intervene to protect you as literally any other person on the street: the weight of their conscience. No obligation. No mandate. They can watch you be shot, bleed out, and die. https://mises.org/power-market/police-have-no-duty-protect-you-federal-court-affirms-yet-again
“Neither the Constitution, nor state law, impose a general duty upon police officers [...] to protect individual persons from harm — even when they know the harm will occur. Police can watch someone attack you, refuse to intervene and not violate the Constitution.”
Literally the only people they have a duty to protect are the people in their custody.
This does not, interestingly, include people like the students at the schools where they are resource officers. Despite being minors, unable to defend themselves, and obligated to be there.
This does not, interestingly, include people like the students at the schools where they are resource officers. Despite being minors, unable to defend themselves, and obligated to be there.
Teachers do, by the way.
I was trained as a teacher, almost did it. Teachers act In Loco Parentis - in the place of the parents. They have a legal obligation to the health and well-being of students in their care.
Cops don't.
I was trained as a teacher, almost did it. Teachers act In Loco Parentis - in the place of the parents. They have a legal obligation to the health and well-being of students in their care.
Cops don't.
And even then - how are the cops doing taking care of the people in their custody.
NOT GREAT, IT TURNS OUT. THEY WON'T SAY. https://www.apnews.com/de404fd6795d4a61bc72c7df188eb9cd
NOT GREAT, IT TURNS OUT. THEY WON'T SAY. https://www.apnews.com/de404fd6795d4a61bc72c7df188eb9cd
So that's B out of the way.
So then we're just left with C) They make our communities safer.
Well... maybe if you're relatively affluent, and white. See, there's this problem with how police departments are funded, and it ties in to racism.
YES YES I KNOW BUT STAY WITH ME.
So then we're just left with C) They make our communities safer.
Well... maybe if you're relatively affluent, and white. See, there's this problem with how police departments are funded, and it ties in to racism.
YES YES I KNOW BUT STAY WITH ME.
Police in high income areas make their budgets from taxes. There is a decent tax base to support them. In these areas, they're mostly concerned for safety - they have a lot of leeway to look the other way on, say, a teenager smoking weed. They can just bring him back to mom.
In areas without high income - or where the people with high incomes have pressured the city to lower taxes - the budgets for policing are made up from fines and fees.
And suddenly, the population you're protecting is to be milked for your budget.
https://www.governing.com/columns/public-money/gov-court-fees-fines-debt.html
And suddenly, the population you're protecting is to be milked for your budget.
https://www.governing.com/columns/public-money/gov-court-fees-fines-debt.html
This is why, despite repeated attempts to stop it, quota-based policing still occurs. Regularly. Particularly in low-income areas.
Ever been stopped while speeding 4 over and given a ticket on a holiday weekend?
It's because you're a sheep to be shorn. https://www.npr.org/2015/04/04/395061810/despite-laws-and-lawsuits-quota-based-policing-lingers
Ever been stopped while speeding 4 over and given a ticket on a holiday weekend?
It's because you're a sheep to be shorn. https://www.npr.org/2015/04/04/395061810/despite-laws-and-lawsuits-quota-based-policing-lingers
That would be bad enough, if it were just that poor people were suffering.
BUT WAIT.
For some reason (cough literally centuries of policy removing ladders out of poverty and ensuring debasement) poor people are more likely to be people of color. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/two-american-experiences-racial-divide-poverty
BUT WAIT.
For some reason (cough literally centuries of policy removing ladders out of poverty and ensuring debasement) poor people are more likely to be people of color. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/two-american-experiences-racial-divide-poverty
Me, briefly mentioning the racial history of gerrymandering and redlining that has at every level of government done its damnedest to subjugate Black and Brown folx:
Trust me, it's a whole thing. I can get you some books if you'd like.
The long and the short of it is, in poor or black communities, a necessary survival function of police is to catch anyone fucking up and bleed money from them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/theres-a-lot-of-history-in-the-distrust-between-african-americans-and-the-police/2019/01/29/d21bf6e8-23e7-11e9-ad53-824486280311_story.html
The long and the short of it is, in poor or black communities, a necessary survival function of police is to catch anyone fucking up and bleed money from them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/theres-a-lot-of-history-in-the-distrust-between-african-americans-and-the-police/2019/01/29/d21bf6e8-23e7-11e9-ad53-824486280311_story.html
So. Policing in America is a deeply broken institution, that because of centuries of policies disproportionately target poor and black people as a matter of organizational survival. It breaks the people who do it, or it attracts people who are already broken. Neither is okay.
Now, given the post that kicked this off, let's add to that that they're not equipped to deal with mental illness.
Just... just read this headline. And accept that we live in this timeline. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.html
Just... just read this headline. And accept that we live in this timeline. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.html
It takes 840 hours of training to be a cop - 21 weeks.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/slleta13_sum.pdf
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/slleta13_sum.pdf
On average, that is. Across 600 different departments.
That is only marginally longer than the most rigorous programs required to become a nail technician.
https://www.beautyschoolsdirectory.com/programs/nail-school
That is only marginally longer than the most rigorous programs required to become a nail technician.
https://www.beautyschoolsdirectory.com/programs/nail-school
By comparison, nurses who specialize (in... let's say anesthetics, to support a surgery) are required to take 800 hours of clinical training in that one specific task,
AFTER FIRST GETTING A GODDAMN MASTERS DEGREE IN NURSING.
https://www.healthecareers.com/article/career/how-long-does-nurse-training-take
AFTER FIRST GETTING A GODDAMN MASTERS DEGREE IN NURSING.
https://www.healthecareers.com/article/career/how-long-does-nurse-training-take
Now. Because we don't have any system of mental health care in this country unless you've got VERY good insurance, or you are relatively affluent...
... the largest system of mental health care we have is in prisons. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/americas-largest-mental-hospital-is-a-jail/395012/
... the largest system of mental health care we have is in prisons. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/americas-largest-mental-hospital-is-a-jail/395012/
This means that the mentally ill from poor communities - the ones with the least access to care - are the ones being actively targeted by police (for fines and fees).
A full quarter of police shootings in 2017 involved a mentally ill person in crisis. https://www.psycom.net/police-mental-health-training
A full quarter of police shootings in 2017 involved a mentally ill person in crisis. https://www.psycom.net/police-mental-health-training
And neither de-escalation training, nor training for coping with mentally ill people (whether or not they may be a threat to others), is mandatory for cops.
That's why EMTs have to publish guides to handling cops who are putting your patients in danger. https://www.ems1.com/legal/articles/5-ways-to-manage-conflicts-with-cops-in-a-medical-emergency-tBRyX6Qd4d1kfEBv/
That's why EMTs have to publish guides to handling cops who are putting your patients in danger. https://www.ems1.com/legal/articles/5-ways-to-manage-conflicts-with-cops-in-a-medical-emergency-tBRyX6Qd4d1kfEBv/
To review, class:
A person with little training, prone to violence in their personal life, armed, with no obligation to others, & a predisposition to asserting their will with force, fired into a crowd 10 times, killing a disabled man & critically injuring bystanders.
A person with little training, prone to violence in their personal life, armed, with no obligation to others, & a predisposition to asserting their will with force, fired into a crowd 10 times, killing a disabled man & critically injuring bystanders.
And he acted in line with the law.
I submit to you:
Maybe it's a fucking stupid law. Maybe we need new ones.
That's the thread. Follow @CZEdwards if you want to know more. I'm out.
/Thread
I submit to you:
Maybe it's a fucking stupid law. Maybe we need new ones.
That's the thread. Follow @CZEdwards if you want to know more. I'm out.
/Thread
PS: Reminder, based on the ruling in the death of Emantic F. Bradford Jr. (good guy with a gun), that having a gun out during a shooting is legal cause for a cop to kill you with no warning, on a gut feeling, shooting you twice in the back on Thanksgiving. https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1163915535014232064
Hey look what's relevant and came across my timeline.
https://twitter.com/RealArmi/status/1180584050769055746
https://twitter.com/RealArmi/status/1180584050769055746
