Authorities have released shocking video that shows a white police officer in Illinois shooting a Black woman – who called police in fear of a home intruder – in the face, killing her.

  • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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    4 months ago

    It doesn’t really matter if some cops bend over backwards to help people when they turn around and circle the wagons every time one of them harms an innocent person, violates someone’s rights, beats their spouses, murders someone, robs someone via asset forfeiture, or commits a slough of other crimes.

    The issue is the lack of accountability from their departments and the laws that make them immune from being held liable for their actions. The expression goes “a few bad apples spoil the bunch” and those apples have been rotting for decades. Imagine going into your job, shooting someone in the face because something like an acorn falling startled you, and all your boss does is send you on a two week paid vacation. How fucking insane is that?

    Here’s some channels to check out:
    https://www.youtube.com/@thecivilrightslawyer

    https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbEPXqDvej-3mciZxwYmdew

    https://www.youtube.com/c/wethepeopleuniversity

    Portland and Seattle consent decrees: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/27/us-justice-department-portland-police-use-of-force-settlement/

    https://seattlepolicemonitor.org/overview

    I don’t think much has changed in the last 4 years. It seems people just dug their heels in about things. I will say there has been progress but it’s very slow.and incremental and only the most egregious cases like this are prosecuted when previously they would have been swept under the rug.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      3 months ago

      It doesn’t really matter if some cops bend over backwards to help people when they turn around and circle the wagons every time one of them harms an innocent person, violates someone’s rights, beats their spouses, murders someone, robs someone via asset forfeiture, or commits a slough of other crimes.

      Dude

      About 90% of stories I see in the modern day, with the OP article as a good example, involve the cops involved being brought up on charges

      This is exactly what I’m saying: The culture has reformed significantly, and instead of saying “oh cool let’s move on to the next thing which is an actual problem, of which there is no shortage”, the reaction every time some cop does something wrong and is brought up on charges is “CONSEQUENCES wtf everyone knows cops are bullshit I bet they get off with” etc etc

      Portland and Seattle consent decrees:

      https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/27/us-justice-department-portland-police-use-of-force-settlement/

      https://seattlepolicemonitor.org/overview

      Sounds like Portland PD is a bunch of shit. I may revise my assessment of the bullshit PDs across the country to include them (along with NYPD and LAPD yes) instead of just talking about the Deep South.

      The Seattle one is a lot harder to make sense of; the links are broken. For example I was real into reading the article “Don’t defund Seattle police without building the right bridges” but I cannot. I actually think I probably will agree with its assessment and that what it’s saying is probably a perfect example of what I am talking about.

      I’ve heard from people who are involved in some of these “replace the police with mental health professionals” programs, and they say it’s working well. The people get better help, the mental health professionals get to intervene before it’s a big violent crisis, and the cops aren’t thrust into situations they’re not trained for. The cops go along with the call when violence or weapons are involved, but the mental health people lead, and literally everyone wins.

      That makes sense to me. It’s progress. What doesn’t make sense is DEFUND THE POLICE FUCK THE PIGS WE DON’T NEED YOU SHOOTING THIS GUY OH MY GAWD NOW HE STABBED ME HELP HELP HELP. And also starving the department of resources and making it a real shit-on-the-person unpopular job, so now they have trouble hiring people and have to kind of take what they can get in terms of hiring some not-ideal people.

      Like you don’t need to make somebody into an enemy if they’re not. Police are there for a reason. You can’t hire them to fulfill a needed societal function and then just shit on them all the time regardless of what they do because of some stereotype based on a big news story about the worst thing that any single policeman anywhere in the country did, back in 2020.

      I know in your world every single cop is some dog-shooting civil forfeiture person, but that is not reality. I don’t know how to explain it (especially if in your part of the country the PD actually is shitty, which it sounds like maybe is the case in the Northwest), but that’s how I see it.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        3 months ago

        About 90% of stories I see in the modern day, with the OP article as a good example, involve the cops involved being brought up on charges

        These are the egregious cases I talked about right here:

        I will say there has been progress but it’s very slow.and incremental and only the most egregious cases like this are prosecuted

        But police abuse happens all the time. It’s just not salacious enough for the national media to pick up the story for you to see.

        The Seattle one is a lot harder to make sense of; the links are broken.

        You can easily Google “Seattle police consent decree” if you’re interested in learning more. You brought up LAPD which us another perfect example as it has been reported that they have actual bonafide gangs operating within the department.