Cops 4: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Kepler]

Oh, and in case you missed it at 2:11 into the video, the officer's partner is black!

The f-ck does that matter? You really don't get that systemic racism affects everybody? Did you really never even hear of black citizens' fear of black cops because they can be even more gung-ho just to show they're on the ahem "right" side?

But, no. I'm sure you're right and this is all everybody's imagination. Must be hard to be so misunderstood.

[St. Clown]

The f-ck does that matter? You really don't get that systemic racism affects everybody? Did you really never even hear of black citizens' fear of black cops because they can be even more gung-ho just to show they're on the ahem "right" side?

But, no. I'm sure you're right and this is all everybody's imagination. Must be hard to be so misunderstood.

I hate to make the comparison, but it's the stories of the black cabbies admitting to skipping black people on the streets because they fear for their safety or losing out on a fare. It's tough to say if that happens only after having been burned a few times on the fares, or if it's ingrained in them because of society. Regardless, stuff like this happens.

[jerphisch]

Is this seriously real? I can't think of a worse policy than expecting a cop under fire to take careful aim at a moving ankle bone before defending himself. It just seems bizarre. Can you imagine how many more dead cops we'd have in the U.S. if we tried this?
Is this another of those "but Finland has a homogeneous population so it works" things? I don't see how.
okay, what I learned in my five minutes of research about socialist countries that don't have all those pesky "constitutional rights" is that most of the cops just carry tasers since the people aren't allowed to have guns. So I guess that explains that: "You'll feel safer here in this little padded box and we'll feed you twice a day..."

To your first question, ummmm 10?

To your last point, you need to do 5 minutes of research on prison there too, many prisoners only spend the nights in their "box" and do things like go to work during the day. You know, they are treated like people instead of animals.

[FreshFish]

I hate to make the comparison, but it's the stories of the black cabbies admitting to skipping black people on the streets because they fear for their safety or losing out on a fare. It's tough to say if that happens only after having been burned a few times on the fares, or if it's ingrained in them because of society. Regardless, stuff like this happens.

Years ago, Jesse Jackson (Sr.) admitted in an interview that when he was walking down the street and saw a group of black teenagers ahead of him, he'd cross to the other side rather than walk past them. Of course, that was Chicago....

[FreshFish]

You [some people] can try to keep the cops as guard dogs for the rich -- that's your [their] bag and hey you [they] seem to be winning. But many on my side will actually try to improve things and bring a little sanity to the process. And likely help the cops, too, who under your [their] regime are just an occupying army.

Will you ever get the distinction that merely making an observation about how things are is not at all a statement in support of how things are?

[burd]

Years ago, Jesse Jackson (Sr.) admitted in an interview that when he was walking down the street and saw a group of black teenagers ahead of him, he'd cross to the other side rather than walk past them. Of course, that was Chicago....

In MLK's last years, he was the target of a lot of anger from blacks who were fed up with his policy of nonviolence, which they thought was completely ineffective. I realize that is completely different from the examples that are being given here, but Jesse J may have been subject to some of that anger as well.

[unofan]

the officer's partner is black!

You've never seen any of the studies that even black cops tend to be racist towards black suspects?

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop

[joecct]

@nbcwashington: Ammunition inside a police cruiser exploded Friday morning after flames from a burning home spread to the cruiser. http://nbc4dc.com/NqSXbFd

[Kepler]

It's called proactive policing.

[FreshFish]

Purely empirical question here.....

Sometimes at work, when we are unsure of an answer to a question about numbers or data, one person will "set a line" and everyone else gets to pick the "over" or the "under." It forestalls arguments and incentivizes finding an answer.

I know the answer to the following for New York City, I'm curious to see who'd like to "set the line" for a national "over/under" and / or research it.

Which number is greater, and by about how much, over the past 3 years: the number of minority police officers killed while on duty, or the number of minorities killed in police shootings?

[jerphisch]

Purely empirical question here.....

Sometimes at work, when we are unsure of an answer to a question about numbers or data, one person will "set a line" and everyone else gets to pick the "over" or the "under." It forestalls arguments and incentivizes finding an answer.

I know the answer to the following for New York City, I'm curious to see who'd like to "set the line" for a national "over/under" and / or research it.

Which number is greater, and by about how much, over the past 3 years: the number of minority police officers killed while on duty, or the number of minorities killed in police shootings?

First, why only minorities, why not just go with cops killed vs killed by cops? Second question is how are you defining killed while on duty? To get a decent comparison I'd say you'd have to exclude things like accidentally hit by car during a traffic stop, car crashes (unless intentionally rammed by suspect), heart attacks etc. which all makes finding good numbers a bit difficult. If we go straight cops intentionally killed by civilians vs. civilians killed by cops over the last 3 yrs, I'd say 650 is the over/under for more civilians killed by cops. If you want to limit it to minorities I'll bump it down to 350.

[jerphisch]

And without doing any examination of the data on these two sites:

http://killedbypolice.net/
https://www.odmp.org/search/year

2017 is 652-69 (counting ALL officer deaths for any reason while on duty). So maybe I was being VERY optimistic.

[WeAreNDHockey]

First, why only minorities, why not just go with cops killed vs killed by cops? Second question is how are you defining killed while on duty? To get a decent comparison I'd say you'd have to exclude things like accidentally hit by car during a traffic stop, car crashes (unless intentionally rammed by suspect), heart attacks etc. which all makes finding good numbers a bit difficult. If we go straight cops intentionally killed by civilians vs. civilians killed by cops over the last 3 yrs, I'd say 650 is the over/under for more civilians killed by cops. If you want to limit it to minorities I'll bump it down to 350.

The truth about the dangers of police work are often vastly overstated. They don't list among the 10 jobs with the most fatalities per worker and there are also plenty of occupations with more injuries on the job, including firefighters, EMTs/Paramedics and nursing aids. And the most common way cops are injured or killed remains traffic accidents with no underlying criminal act (which doesn't even include the many ill-advised pursuits that result in a police cruiser crashing). The job is also getting safer and safer with each passing decade. (please, don't trot out one year spikes, statistics don't work that way, even the Cubs or Phillies can win a world series every 40 or 100 years)

As for the original question, the numbers would look completely skewed anyway since communities with majority minority populations still have police departments that are majority white anyway. No matter how you slice it, far, far more people of any color are killed (or injured) by the police every year than who kill or injure police officers.

[unofan]

Minneapolis cops shoot and kill an Australian yoga instructor in her pajamas after she had called them about a disturbance in her alley.

[ScoobyDoo]

Minneapolis cops shoot and kill an Australian yoga instructor in her pajamas after she had called them about a disturbance in her alley.

That's not all. The Cop that shot her is Somali and they have body cameras but they were off at the time of this incident.

[Kepler]

Minneapolis cops shoot and kill an Australian yoga instructor in her pajamas after she had called them about a disturbance in her alley.

Was she white? Want to find out whether this is important.

[dxmnkd316]

Was she white? Want to find out whether this is important.

White and attractive.

http://www.startribune.com/woman-kil...s/434782213/#1

Three sources with knowledge of the incident said Sunday that two officers in one squad car, responding to the 911 call, pulled into the alley. Damond, in her pajamas, went to the driver’s side door and was talking to the driver. The officer in the passenger seat pulled his gun and shot Damond through the driver’s side door, sources said. No weapon was found at the scene.

I mean, holy ****. That bolded section.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

White and attractive.

http://www.startribune.com/woman-kil...s/434782213/#1



I mean, holy ****. That bolded section.

This was five blocks from my house. Quite an affluent neighborhood- houses on the block are twice the size of my block. Needless to say we usually have nothing but burglaries

[dxmnkd316]

This was five blocks from my house.

Jeebus. That's scary. I know there's another USCHO member who has family there as well. This is a fairly nice part of town.

This was the final paragraph from the Strib article:

Hannah said there’s no way Damond would have had a gun. She often talked about how much better it was in Australia, where people aren’t allowed to have guns, Hannah said.