Took a walk to the store. No looting where I am (eastern edge of West Loop). Exit ramps from 90/94 in downtown were closed. Grocery store was only letting in a few shoppers at a time - long line. So I went across the street to walgreens. No wait. On the way back, at Halsted /Madison a u-haul pick-up truck had crossed the center line and smashed into a large concrete planter on the other side of the road. Looked like it happened a while ago. A squad car was guarding it.
I have always loved Mohammed Ali. No matter what anybody thought about Mr Ali he was a man of principle. He did not run nor did he hide like so many other primarily white upper middle class COs, He stood up to be counted knowing full well he would pay a huge price for it. He will always be one of my heroes for his courage and bravery. Hie was a great man.
One explanation I saw was that the term came from Atlanta, where Unit 12 is a reference to the narcotics enforcement unit within the Atlanta police.
I know several here don’t care for him, but he’s been good at amplifying examples of bad cops and identifying them 1267455112215179266 is not a valid tweet id
We heard some big booms last night. I just learned a little while ago that a restaurant a few blocks away that a friend started with his savings got looted last night.
The funny thing is that over the last several weeks, the right has been banging on about Biden being too chickenshit to leave his basement. Now, while Biden is out amidst mass protests, riots and general upheaval in the streets all across the country, it is the president of the United States running into bunkers, refusing to be photographed and turning out the White House lights in fear. Silence on the right about THAT has become deafening.
Because they are seeing if they can get away with sacrificing 1 cop, instead of 4. Part of the problem, in my observation of the worsening of overall issues with police between my interactions with them as a dumbass teenager to adult hood is relatively low pay / low education requirements, particularly as you go into smaller & smaller jurisdictions. I mean, who would WANT to be a cop over the last 20 years. You either have a calling to do good and belief that you can, or you want some level of respect / authority you feel you were denied at some point in your vacuous existence, because the pay damned sure isn't there. The enticements, are lieu of low pay: No Professional Accountability - You get to step into a job that has been increasingly deified since 1990 - that police are infallible or are in such constant fear of those they are they are hired to protect, that when they make a mistake - no reasonable person could or would have reacted differently. Low to Zero Risk of Unemployment - You get a job where as an emergency services, even though the pay has not kept pace with the risks / workload and as an emergency services employee, you don't get to strike, but you're practically impossible to terminate without being convicted of a felony in the commission of your duty. The good side of this, like other government jobs - when a new city manager or police chief is hired or a new mayor is elected, they should have no ability to replace currently employed public employees with political supporters (patronage) The bad side of this is that Thin Blue Line mantra (protecting the public from literally armed lawless gangs 24/7) combined with the unwillingness to hold their own to basic legal standards of not occasionally killing people they were hired to protect or the inability to do so without fear of reprisals or a loss in trust from your fellow officers. Even with the mini wave of movie / TV portrayals & real life examples of corrupt / criminal police officers - both the police themselves and those that have oversight of them have failed to root out corruption, which while tiring, must be just more an occasional clean sweep - it has to be an eternal vigilance issue. Increasing Use of Cool Toys - Following the first Gulf War & intermixed with the War on Drugs - the US has been flooded with both domestic sourced & foreign sourced semi-automatic weapons, particularly long guns (AK / AR Variants), concealable semi-auto sub-machine gun clones (Uzi / Mac 10 / Tech-9 semi-auto clones) all with higher capacity magazines and semi-auto pistols, again with higher & higher capacity magazines - Glocks in particular. You can blame mid-80's foreign terrorism on TV (Marine Barracks / Achille Lauro / Conflict with Iran) for fueling the Chuck Norris & other flicks going that direction, same for the Rambo Franchise after going from disaffected Vietnam Vet to rescuing MIA Left Behind in Vietnam / Blunting the Russians in Afghanistan. Some measure of "guilt" for losing Vietnam - mostly from Chickenhawks that didn't go, but were going to fix those Muslims for the Iranian Hostages / Marine Barracks - not to mention for some lingering self-loathing for not taking Jews in during WWII manifesting as blind support for Israel against the Palestinians Initially - police departments could be easily overwhelmed with drug fueled gang violence or heavily armed individuals like white supremacists, banks robbers (some live TV bank robbery in California was the peak of this) and there was media (public / religious / entertainment) generated fear that the domestic firearms industry (NRA Heel Turn) both encouraged and exploited to sell more guns as well as plenty of cheap arms from post Soviet countries & China selling legally or otherwise Post 9/11 - Our police forces have had access to not just surplus military equipment - but now are directly marketed to by companies selling milspec equipment / vehicles, fueled by fear of literally everything (terrorists, gang violence, people being not-white, urban violence), not to mention revenue from civil forfeiture and the politics of fear give them the budgets to buy this stuff. A Place to Be Accepted (Gang Mentality) - If you found yourself disillusioned after serving in the post 9/11 military, otherwise without much of a job prospect because the industry that employed your community for decades is now off in India or China and Fox News whispering all day long that it's due to minorities being prioritized over "real Americans", Dems giving rights to LGBTQ? entitlements going to those who don't work (Welfare Queens), welp Buddy - we down here at the Podunk Police / Sheriff Department have a place for you to belong and we'll cover you with all the guns, unearned respect / glory, etc that your fragile ego needs to keep believing you've got a society to protect... Quite frankly, the police as professionals those with oversight of them have been so frantic at maintaining the ranks of the thin blue line, that they have not just tolerated the bad apple actors, but they have cultivated the trees that bear those bad apples and shined them up so they could put them in the barrels to keep them full
Cop salaries “01. California California has one of the highest paid police departments. An officer of the law earns an average salary of $93,550 (52.7% higher than the national average). In Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose, police officers earn $114,520 per year. It’s worth mentioning that the cost of living in California doesn’t come cheap. Some of the highest paying police jobs in California can reach up to $138,970.” https://outsidethebadge.com/top-10-best-paying-states-for-police-officers/
Fleet played a season in my home town in Illinois. I learned this in Cooperstown, decades after having left my town. Dude should have a plaque near the main ball yard there, IMO.
Whitmer is taking the gloved off. From @GovWhitmer: "The president repeatedly and viciously attacked governors, who are doing everything they can to keep the peace while fighting a once-in-a-generation global pandemic. "— Kathy Gray (@michpoligal) June 1, 2020 More from @GovWhitmer :The president’s dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans, because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which I fear will only lead to more violence and destruction.— Kathy Gray (@michpoligal) June 1, 2020 Gov Pritzker exchange with Trump today on the call. 1267498548486123522 is not a valid tweet id
If they pay so much they need to de emphasize security/military experience in hiring. There's much more to being a cop than knowing how to shoot guns, fighting and physical ability. Hire people with backgrounds in education, psychology, medicine, social work etc. Cops these days are expected to do way more than just provide security. These days we basically use them as our national mental health response (thanks to defunding actual mental health services). We use cops as domestic conflict mediators. We use cops as child care workers when they interract with unaccompanied minors. We use them as homeless service administrators. We use them as first aid providers, natural disaster responders etc. So why not hire people in those fields? Hire more women. There's no reason why a society that is 50/50 man-woman is policed by 90% men. If the concern is that people without military/security experience aren't capable of handling the dangers of the street we should partner cops who specialize in security with a cop who specializes in social services. I would argue that a cop with limited social/mental health skills is also a threat to himself and the community. If we're paying so much, make the police academy a 2 yr program and include more academic preparation for these social and mental health challenges. Maybe even 4 year program options for people who want to specialize. Corrections officers should go by the same elevated standards and salaries. Germany has a 3 year police academy so we're not talking about anything unprecedented
We need mayors with balls. Screaming "vote" into a vacuum is pointless. Most of the cop-civilian friction is in cities where Democrats already rule. Mayors need to govern their police. Right now they're paralyzed by fear of police unions. Cops and cop families vote. I get it. But until mayors fear the policed more than police unions, nothing will change. Oh, and we need to get rid of prosecutorial discretion. There has to be a way to make prosecutors accountable to voters while at the same time insulating them from political pressure. I know that's an oxymoron, but therein lies the challenge. A decision to prosecute should be a purely legal decision with zero political consideration.
Strange. Sherman Circle is about 5 miles to the NNE close to the MD line but it has no statue in the middle. I bet there is a story behind that.