
I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing - jrs235
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
======
LordKano
This officer watched another officer forcibly enter someone's home without
probable cause or reasonable suspicion, assault an infirmed bystander and lie
about it, then saw another officer arrest that same innocent citizen based
upon that lie and then assault him again. What did he do about it? He didn't
stop it. He's a part of that 70%.

I suspect that he feels guilty about it and that's why he wrote this piece.

This sort of thing happens EVERY DAY, all across the country. For generations,
this kind of abuse only happened to the black and the brown. Then, low income
whites were subjected to it. Now, middle income whites are being subjected to
this kind of treatment and because of that, it's entering the sphere of public
debate.

We need good officers to stand up and speak out when they see citizens being
abused. Otherwise, it'll never stop.

~~~
coldtea
> _This officer watched another officer forcibly enter someone 's home without
> probable cause or reasonable suspicion, assault an infirmed bystander and
> lie about it, then saw another officer arrest that same innocent citizen
> based upon that lie and then assault him again. What did he do about it? He
> didn't stop it. He's a part of that 70%._

Yeah, so?

It's not about what this officer is, it's about what happens out there.

~~~
LordKano
_Yeah, so?_

If you have to ask, I can't explain it to you.

~~~
erikpukinskis
If you can't explain you obviously haven't thought about your beliefs very
deeply.

~~~
LordKano
Fair point. I reworded my reply.

It's not that I can't explain it. It's that I don't believe he or should would
understand the explanation.

I couldn't explain the sound of a hiss to a person who was born deaf; not
because I don't know what a hiss sounds like but because that deaf person
doesn't have a frame of reference to understand my explanation.

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jrs235
[http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2015/05/a_word_on_guilt_p...](http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2015/05/a_word_on_guilt_police_brutality_the_squirt_gun_pedal_pub_assailants.php)

"Either you think it is OK or not OK that police follow a different set of
rules than everyone else does, even when they are off duty. Either you think
it is OK or not OK that mainstream media institutions are at best police
apologists (like the Star Tribune and WCCO) or at worst straight-up
mouthpieces for the police unions, like KSTP proved to be with the Pointergate
scandal."

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kelukelugames
Chris Rock wrote something a while ago. He says until very recently
"mainstream" didn't believe at all that police treated brown and black people
this way.

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SovietDissident
I'm become convinced, thanks a book by Radney Balko and articles such as this
one, that the drug war and the militarization of police departments (including
the proliferation of SWAT teams) has done the most amount of harm to the
Fourth Amendment and community policing. Without no-knock warrants and
military-style training, the rotten 15% mentioned in the article could only
get away with so much.
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873238488045786080...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904)

~~~
SovietDissident
*I've

------
Torgo
If you've lived in an almost all-white part of the United States in the past,
it's pretty obvious that this is a result of legal impunity and the drug war
and not "institutional racism". Somehow we weren't spared the harassing,
beating, and killing just because we were white. We grew up knowing which cops
to stay far, far away from, and to never let yourself get into police custody.
You just didn't hear about it then because people didn't have cameraphones and
the Internet.

A friend of a friend was pulled through a screen door and beaten until she
miscarried by her ex-boyfriend cop, he was moved to the nex town over. An
artist college student was shot dead by a cop who saw the building door open
and went inside and just executed him (he was literally on the phone when it
happened so we know it was unprovoked.) A person in my church was arrested for
domestic abuse, his family had a fire sale in the family business to get the
money to bail him out, and the police STOLE 10,000 dollars from them in a
civil forfeiture when they pulled over his brother on the way to the jail with
the cash, so he stayed in jail and their business went under. They were all
white.

This shit has been happening for DECADES and the irony of people whining that
this happens because nobody cares about blacks is that NOBODY IN THE MEDIA
GAVE A SHIT until recently when it could be framed as a racial issue.

~~~
erikpukinskis
You're right to bring up the other ways cops get "permission" to abuse people.
But just because there are other excuses for abuse doesn't mean race isn't one
of them.

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fweespeech
Yep. I don't know about the percentages but many, many people are easily
susceptible to mimicking the behavior of their top brass & peer group in any
employment situation. After all, if you fit in, they'll fire that guy over
there instead of you [maybe].

~~~
doragcoder
I think the percentages make a lot of sense. I think there could be a fair
amount of, "I think this is wrong, but nobody is really saying it's wrong, so,
maybe it's not as wrong as I think it is." And that police officer basically
does nothing or rough up a suspect with a colleague who's more aggressive
every now and then.

~~~
fweespeech
I think more than 15% of people are decent and less than 15% are abusive.

I think the problem is the vast majority just goes along with the culture and
a few bad apples at the top create an abuse prone culture.

------
Zigurd
We should not presume that current cops deserve their jobs. We need to rebuild
almost all big PDs from the good 15% on up. We need to identify that 15% and
increase their number fourfold or more, or cops will continue to perform very
poorly. Anyone not in the good 15% is bad for everyone and is not qualified to
be a cop.

~~~
fsk
That can be said of any organization.

Think of a typical corporation.

Some people are toxic (the 15% bad).

Some people will try to do the right thing no matter what (the 15% good). But
in a typical corporation, the toxic people will usually eliminate the people
who can see through them.

The vast majority will do whatever is rewarded. When the average person sees
that toxic behavior gets raises and promotions, that's what they'll emulate.

The problem with our society is that the bad 15% are in charge and the good
15% have no power. (Although I would estimate it closer to 5%/90%/5% instead
of 15%/70%/15%.)

It becomes an (unstable?) equilibrium, when all the leaders are toxic, and the
good people are locked out of making important decisions. This leads to myths
like "only toxic people make good leaders", because anyone non-toxic gets
weeded out by the toxic people.

~~~
Zigurd
Not all countries have PDs as bad as we have in the US. Maybe because some
police are not armed. Or maybe they have better hiring practices. But we're
certainly not doomed to have the cops we now have.

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markbnj
A very thought-provoking piece. Thanks for posting it.

------
known
Let black Police deal with black Culprits;

[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/t...](http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/)

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jdalgetty
The internet has really made me want to be a cop just to add one more to the
non-racist, non-corrupt good cops. It's too bad that writing something like
this post would probably be used against me and prevent me from even being
considered.

