The Adventures in Policing Thread Part II

Several years ago, I heard a story on the news around Christmas that said the Postal Service was the largest federal agency that hired veterans (outside of the Defense Department and the VA). It didn't say how many vets were employed, but it did say that 30% of the veterans at USPS were disabled ones. It made me feel good about supporting the post office, since many veterans are discarded and forgotten by large swaths of the public once their military service is over. Besides, I like a lot of the stamps the postal service has available. I pay all my bills by mail and I still send out Christmas cards each December (yeah, I'm a bit of a throwback)!

 

The "Disabled Vets" category covered my dad, who got a 110 on his civil service exam.

 

As a counteranecdote, the really legendary cop around here., enlisted in the marines at 16. Their aptitude test took him out of line service, much to his displeasure, and put him on a shore patrol/MP track where he served twenty years; at the end of which he was fulsome in praise of the aptitude test, saying he was much better suited to that work than being a grunt.

Out of the marines he went home to Carlsbad where he was recruited to run for County Sherriff, and won. he was term limited to two terms, after which the State Police recruited him to come to Taos and open the new post here. 15 years at that then retired from that with a second pension; at which point he started a badly needed security firm, and signed on as the bailiff of the federal district court--,which he did until his fatal heart attack about twenty years later.

His retirement party from the Staties was attended by several hundred people from all walks-- including about thirty guys he had sent to the pen at one time or another. In fact, if you asked him about one malefactor or another, he could tell you pretty much where they were and what they were doing these days. If one were still incarcerated, he could tell you when he was due for release. His recidivism rate was staggeringly low, or so I'm told.

But more than that-- Stinebeck, in "Sweet Thursday" wrote a chapter on the things a good constable does for his community, and that he is defined less by his reaction to things that happen on his watch than by the number of things that do not.

When Sunshine-- his nickname-- was on security at the local honkytonk, he would come in half or three quarters of an hour before the music started, and wander around the room sitting first here and then there chatting with people for a minute or two. After watching and sometimes overhearing this for a year or so, I realized that it was not random; these were people he knew had stresses or angers building up on them, and it was much better to chat with them and ask about their wives and girlfriends and jobs and hopes and dreams and relieve a little of their tension than it was to wait for them to go off. Just the thought that somebody who could have been impersonal and authoritarian wanted to hear their troubles and might be able to pill a string or two and was willing to do so made a big difference to a lot of people. A whole lot of things that could have happened, didn't...

In a town of about 5500 people, his funeral/memorial was attended by a couple thousand plus, an astonishing number of whom had a story to tell.

 

Your anecdote is much better.

 

Former cop Adam Coy charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Black man Andre Hill in Columbus, Ohio.

 

This should be the appropriate thread.

L'ville Metro PD investigating a report of an officer seen at a Planned Parenthood clinic protesting....with his uniform on. And his car parked out front.

https://www.courier-journal.com/sto...icer-seen-abortion-clinic-protest/4524427001/

There is pictorial evidence a Police Officer was there. That will be hard to deny, so the only question now remains is - why were they there to begin with? My guess is this will be swept under the rug.

I am pretty sure this is the only PP clinic in Louisville, Ky. There are 3 or 4 in the state, overall.

 

She needs to be heard.

1382035457542881283 is not a valid tweet id

BREAKING: Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright resigns, local officials announce. https://t.co/Alt8dVEElY

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 13, 2021

 

#BREAKING: Brooklyn Center Officer who killed Daunte Wright to be charged with 2nd degree manslaughter.

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) April 14, 2021

 

In other "Cops shooting unarmed black people news":

Media Release pic.twitter.com/wdq5QaNNyk

— Kenosha Police Dept. (@KenoshaPolice) April 13, 2021

He acted "consistent with his training" and "within policy."
THAT is the problem with policing in America.

 

Says it all really.

 

This is ********ing unbelievable

A cop flipped over a pregnant woman's car because she didn't pull over quick enough.

Not only is what she did not wrong, it's what you're supposed to do: turning on hazards to indicate you're complying and pulling over at the next safe place to do so...

This man is still a cop. pic.twitter.com/kvNEeEmdf6

— Stephen Ford (@StephenSeanFord) June 9, 2021

note: there was a retaining wall to the right and a very narrow shoulder. She put on her flashers....and was obviously moving someplace that was actually safe.....for the ********ing officer....to exit his vehicle. I have literally gotten out of multiple speeding tickets for doing the exact same thing.

this cop shouldn’t just be fired....he should be charged with attempted vehicular homicide. Two counts...based on pro lifer logic

 

Well, I don't know about all, actually. I'd also want to see the same chart, except showing how many police that civilians kill.

 

Why stop there. How many cops die from donut overdose?

 

I hear what you’re saying. On some level, threat to officer should lead to higher police killings frequency. We have the officer death data. Sort of. The problem there is that officer deaths include guys dying of heart attacks in foot chases, high speed chase deaths, etc.

I wish I could find it, but there was a study done looking at both the relationship between police deaths (or more appropriately, killings) and violent crime rates on the frequency of civilian deaths at the hands of police. This was done on a law enforcement jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis across the US. The relationship was either weak or statistically insignificant. Over a decade, some departments do much better (Detroit) compared to other similar jurisdictions (like St Louis) or even much safer jurisdictions (like those in the Bay Area).

 

Seems the state is looking in to the activities of the Louisiana State Police

https://apnews.com/article/la-state...eene-arrests-4a47c5e0ef720019d15818cf32eb2a2a

 

If true, that would be not be supporting evidence for the Blue Lives Matter movement.

 

Police in Ocean City Maryland tasered a 17-year-old teenager after they accused him of vaping yesterday. https://t.co/PVzagAV5i1

— Rebecca Kavanagh (@DrRJKavanagh) June 13, 2021

We can all agree that vaping is bull and yes, even illegal for minors in some states. But getting tased (and probably arrested for it): is that good policing? You kidding me?

 

He did not shot the kid, is that progress?

I was having this argument with a conceal carry holder, he has gone to training and has seen self defense videos in those classes (and on youtube I am sure).

We both had totally different takes on that video.

His initial thinking was why would the kid make a movement that looks like reaching for a gun.

My initial thinking was the kid was just trying to remove his backpack.

I do wonder if all the videos that people watch in training, with people making sudden movements to reach for weapons, makes them more likely to see danger, compared to people that do not train to handle guns.

Same with police, their training makes then think "he is reaching for a gun" right away, while a non gun person would never think that way immediately.

 

If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

 

Wow - what f-ing babies

The entire Portland police unit assigned to protests has resigned from the team, a day after a grand jury indicted one of their own. https://t.co/uCPH7Btd3x

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) June 17, 2021

 

Rochester NY Police killed Daniel Prude last fall. They handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9yo Black girl in January. Now they repeatedly kicked a man during an arrest. This pattern of excessive force shows a clear and obvious need for reforms within the @RochesterNYPD! pic.twitter.com/xkzN2hrzNg

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) June 20, 2021

 

Pity he couldn't get the max sentence here...

Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for killing George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee led to reckoning on racial injustice.https://t.co/OSbPIPkc0S

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 25, 2021

 

For a murder that wasn't premeditated and was not committed in the commission of another crime...that strikes me as a serious sentence. IANAL.

It feels a bit like when a commissioner in a US sport suspends someone for 50% longer than he wants to, then reduces it to the "right" length when the player appeals.

 

If it takes 8 minutes to kill someone, that is something like "concurrent premeditation" isn't it? Took depraved indifference to not get off the guy before he died, however unplanned/spontaneous getting on his neck was?

And if you do it while on the clock, being paid to protect the public safety, that is kind of the moral equivalent of "during the commission of another crime" I think... YMMV...