WSJ--The Myth of Systemic Police Racism

[CF DolFan]

Maga .. amirite?

https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1268716877355810818

the official report was that he tripped and fell .. 2 hours later the cops were suspended without pay ..
I bet a trillion dollars that had there not been video this would have gone down as "he tripped"

This is why body cams should be mandatory.

I swear the first time I saw it I thought it was a soccer play. It did't appear the officer barely touched him but he went flying like Ray Lewis hit him. It really does suck he got hurt (for both him and the officer) but if he would have been complying with officers it wouldn't have happened. My dad would have told me to quit crying ... serves you right for not listening.

[CF DolFan]

Update ...All 57 officers on the Buffalo Police resigned from Buffalo Department's Emergency Response Team in 'disgust' over the 'treatment' of two cops who were suspended for pushing a peace activist, 75.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8390857/Two-Buffalo-police-officers-suspended-video-shows-shoving-elderly-man-ground.html

Dozens of police walked out on the Mayor of Louisville as well. We are getting ready to be a police-less country where only 2A supporters will be able to defend themselves if they keep getting trashed and abused.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Any officer of the peace that believes he has the right to use unfettered violence against civilians is encouraged to resign.   

[CF DolFan]

Any officer of the peace that believes he has the right to use unfettered violence against civilians is encouraged to resign.   

Spoken like a person who has never had conflict in their life. You may live to regret feeling that way once you don't feel so safe any longer. How about citizens go back to respecting police instead of seeing just how far they can go?

[Spider-Dan]

CF, you're embarrassing yourself.

This 75-year-old man presented no threat whatsoever.  They pushed him and he fell down.  He's laying on the ground unconscious and bleeding and they stepped around him like a piece of trash.  Then they proceeded to lie about their interaction and claim that he just "tripped and fell."  The fact that you would make excuses for that kind of behavior is frankly terrifying.

You should also finishing reading the article you linked:

"The 57 officers have not resigned from the Buffalo Police Department - only the Emergency Response Team they were serving on."

None of them are giving up their paychecks.  They simply "resigned" from extra duty on the Emergency Response Team.

[Spider-Dan]

This is why body cams should be mandatory.

I'd say this is actually why body cams don't work.

Press was literally right there filming.  Not only do the officers know it's on camera, they know that the footage of the incident directly led to the suspension of two officers.  They don't care.  57 officers still faux-resigned in protest of that suspension.

Mandatory body cams may make the public more aware of police misconduct, but without accountability for the police it's nothing more than brutality porn.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I'd say this is actually why body cams don't work.

Body cams aren’t a total solution.  But they are a useful tool to document what happened. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I swear the first time I saw it I thought it was a soccer play. It did't appear the officer barely touched him but he went flying like Ray Lewis hit him. It really does suck he got hurt (for both him and the officer) but if he would have been complying with officers it wouldn't have happened. My dad would have told me to quit crying ... serves you right for not listening.

Regardless of your stance on whether it was excessive force or not....will you at least  agree that any officer who in an official sworn statement claimed the victim fell on his own failing to mention that he was pushed ought be fired and face criminal perjury charges. 

[Fau Teixeira]

Spoken like a person who has never had conflict in their life. You may live to regret feeling that way once you don't feel so safe any longer. How about citizens go back to respecting police instead of seeing just how far they can go?

How many people currently peaceful or not feel safe around police? It must be nice living in june cleaver land. How about police go back to not being wanna be soldiers.

[Downunder Dolphan]

A bit from the peaceful Black Lives Matter marches in parts of Australia (including proudly my home city of Adelaide):

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-06/black-lives-matter-rallies-held-across-australia/12325442

[Dolphster]

Regardless of your stance on whether it was excessive force or not....will you at least  agree that any officer who in an official sworn statement claimed the victim fell on his own failing to mention that he was pushed ought be fired and face criminal perjury charges. 

And that is the part that I have a problem with.  In a stressful and dynamic situation and as a cop you tell someone repeatedly to get out of the way and they fail to comply, you can't stop and have a lengthy discussion about why  you are asking them to move.  The guy was clearly trying to agitate them.  So they were well within their bounds to push him.  But when they lied on their report, then I stop having any empathy for them.  As a law enforcement officer, you can't be doing that shit. 

[Spider-Dan]

I don't think the push itself was egregious; it's more force than is necessary for a senior citizen, but if he walks away from it, I don't even think twice about this.

It's the complete and total disregard after he falls as a direct result of the push and is CLEARLY seriously injured.  Basic human decency has been trained out of these police officers.  The lying on the report (and the faux-resignation in response to the suspensions) are the perfect finishing touches on this shining example of why these protests are needed.

[Spider-Dan]

Seems like at least part of the problem is not the officers themselves, but their union leaders:

Two Buffalo Police ERT members say resignation was not in solidarity with suspended officers

The officers we spoke with said the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association’s statement asserting all 57 officers resigned from ERT in a "show of support” with the two officers that were suspended without pay is not true.

“I don’t understand why the union said it’s a thing of solidarity. I think it sends the wrong message that ‘we’re backing our own’ and that’s not the case,” said one officer with whom we spoke.

“We quit because our union said [they] aren’t legally backing us anymore. So why would we stand on a line for the City with no legal backing if something [were to] happen? Has nothing to do with us supporting,” said another.

A representative from the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association told 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Hannah Buehler the officers resigned in “disgust” with how the two officers were treated.

---

So the police union will normally provide legal representions to any officer accused of police brutality, but in this case, they seem to have strongarmed their membership into this faux-resignation by threatening to withhold legal services (so the union can present it as "solidarity").

You all know that, as an unhinged radical leftist determined to replace Freedom with Socialism, I am extremely pro-union.  But police unions are a big problem.  We do not allow soldiers to form unions, and the danger of allowing these union leaders to effectively become gang bosses of people who are authorized to use lethal violence against the public on behalf of the state is proving to be too dangerous to sustain.

For years, police unions have had special exemption from the same kind of anti-union clawbacks that have been happening around the country.  Police union leaders are de facto warlords who answer neither to police chiefs nor to mayors.  They repeatedly threaten elected leaders with retaliation and wield denial of service to the public as a weapon with which to extract concessions.

Now, I'm generally fine with strikes.  But setting aside the fact that public safety employees - including police, air traffic controllers, and many others - are legally not allowed to strike, what the police are doing isn't even striking.  It's a protection racket.  If air traffic controllers said, "Well, we'll stay on the job, but let's just see how long it takes us to give planes clearance to take off," they would be fired (and possibly arrested) quicker than you can blink.

Police unions must be abolished.

[fyo]

Plenty of European countries have unionized troops according to a quick google search: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

I think part of the problem is the way unions sometimes work when they become very powerful. History doesn't seem to have a lot of good, consistent examples on how to "gently" walk back union power once it gets into the "excessive" territory.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Plenty of European countries have unionized troops according to a quick google search: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

I think part of the problem is the way unions sometimes work when they become very powerful. History doesn't seem to have a lot of good, consistent examples on how to "gently" walk back union power once it gets into the "excessive" territory.

We don’t need to get rid of unions, just there power to block the firing of officers for misconduct.