A Navy Veteran’s perspective on racism

[3855WIN]

Bad interactions between LEOs need to be fixed. Chicago spend $113 million in 2018 to settle lawsuits against their PD. Use some of that money in this way:

Body cam footage of every interaction. The 3rd time there is no footage, the officer is fired. Use artificial intelligence to tag bad interactions so they can be reviewed. Also, tag good interactions that handle tough situations. Give bonuses for good interactions.
I work air traffic. If we have a loss of standard separation, it shows up in DC. It is then investigated. If ATC can live with this scrutiny, surely LEOs can. Remember, the video can also protect the officer.

 

[406dn]

Bad interactions between LEOs need to be fixed. Chicago spend $113 million in 2018 to settle lawsuits against their PD. Use some of that money in this way:

Body cam footage of every interaction. The 3rd time there is no footage, the officer is fired. Use artificial intelligence to tag bad interactions so they can be reviewed. Also, tag good interactions that handle tough situations. Give bonuses for good interactions.
I work air traffic. If we have a loss of standard separation, it shows up in DC. It is then investigated. If ATC can live with this scrutiny, surely LEOs can. Remember, the video can also protect the officer.

The small city I live next to has also shelled out money for poor police work.

I would say while I agree with your body cam proposal,,, three strikes is one or two too many. It should be a condition of employment that their body cam is running,,,period. If they need a spare camera, to make that happen,,,that is cheaper than lawsuits or an unwarranted death.

 

[VikingsGuy]

FWIW - I still think the label "privilege" is unnecessarily antagonistic (as are "fragility" and "snowflake"), but the underlying concept of privilege is true and needs to be understood. Here is a good quick article to get past the label and into the content.

Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person

I, maybe more than most people, can completely understand why broke white folks get pissed when the word "privilege" is thrown around. As a child I was constantly discriminated against because of my poverty, and those wounds still run deep. But luckily my college education introduced me to a...

www.huffpost.com

 

[TwistedSage]

The average police academy is 9-13 weeks with some lasting up to 6 months. If we expect our police to act as social workers, mental health experts, de-escalation negotiators, they should be getting hell of a lot more formal training as each one of those roles on thier own require years of college. And if we are going expect that of the officers we owe it to them to make sure they can get it. Defunding I dont think is the right answer, reallocation for school, training I think is more on the right track. The bodycam is a bandaid for something that goes much deeper.

Going through propper schooling and training for what is now expected of our police will also likely weed out the knuckle heads as well.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

The average police academy is 9-13 weeks with some lasting up to 6 months. If we expect our police to act as social workers, mental health experts, de-escalation negotiators, they should be getting hell of a lot more formal training as each one of those roles on thier own require years of college. And if we are going expect that of the officers we owe it to them to make sure they can get it. Defunding I dont think is the right answer, reallocation for school, training I think is more on the right track. The bodycam is a bandaid for something that goes much deeper.

Going through propper schooling and training for what is now expected of our police will also likely weed out the knuckle heads as well.

Do voters and legislators have line item control over police budgets, or do they allocate funding and the department has spending discretion?
Can a city council say you get X dollars, you must spend Y dollars on uniforms and pistols, you can't spend any money on these items, and then this much money needs to be spent on this type of training?
It's my understanding that police are very unionized, what role do the unions play?

Do the answers to these questions vary by municipality county, town, state? For instance do all the police departments in Mass, or Michigan work the same way or does the Detroit PD operator in a completely different manner than the Ann Arbor PD?

What are the differences or similarities, with regard to the aforementioned questions between municipal PDs, sheriffs, and state troopers.

De-funding pops up a lot and I am regrettably woefully ignorant on bureaucratic structure of police forces.

 

[azelkhntr]

PD’s are funded out of your property taxes and the Chief or Sheriff should be the one submitting the annual budget. Public sector employees unions are a huge problem and abomination and they should all be abolished imo.

 

[TwistedSage]

Do voters and legislators have line item control over police budgets, or do they allocate funding and the department has spending discretion?
Can a city council say you get X dollars, you must spend Y dollars on uniforms and pistols, you can't spend any money on these items, and then this much money needs to be spent on this type of training?
It's my understanding that police are very unionized, what role do the unions play?

Do the answers to these questions vary by municipality county, town, state? For instance do all the police departments in Mass, or Michigan work the same way or does the Detroit PD operator in a completely different manner than the Ann Arbor PD?

What are the differences or similarities, with regard to the aforementioned questions between municipal PDs, sheriffs, and state troopers.

De-funding pops up a lot and I am regrettably woefully ignorant on bureaucratic structure of police forces.

All excellent questions. I have no damn clue. I should be more vigilant about where my tax dollars go and government at all levels should make it very accessible and transparent.

 

[Irrelevant]

FWIW - I still think the label "privilege" is unnecessarily antagonistic (as are "fragility" and "snowflake"), but the underlying concept of privilege is true and needs to be understood. Here is a good quick article to get past the label and into the content.

Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person

I, maybe more than most people, can completely understand why broke white folks get pissed when the word "privilege" is thrown around. As a child I was constantly discriminated against because of my poverty, and those wounds still run deep. But luckily my college education introduced me to a...

www.huffpost.com

Thanks for sharing that one. I really liked it and could definitely relate. She was also talking about one side of my family.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

My wife is struggling with the current racial unrest in our country to a greater degree than I am. On Tuesday I forwarded a link to this thread to her as I saw it as helpful and constructive. Not sure I would do the same today.

 

[Zach]

The small city I live next to has also shelled out money for poor police work.

I would say while I agree with your body cam proposal,,, three strikes is one or two too many. It should be a condition of employment that their body cam is running,,,period. If they need a spare camera, to make that happen,,,that is cheaper than lawsuits or an unwarranted death.

Who is paying for all that data storage? Asking for a friend...

 

[FI460]

Who is paying for all that data storage? Asking for a friend...

Probably end up being the same people that pay for all the money shelled out in settlements, us.

I'd prefer to fund accountability.

 

[Zach]

Probably end up being the same people that pay for all the money shelled out in settlements, us.

I'd prefer to fund accountability.

Front site is a little low if we're starting with the PD's...

 

[Bigjay73]

FWIW - I still think the label "privilege" is unnecessarily antagonistic (as are "fragility" and "snowflake"), but the underlying concept of privilege is true and needs to be understood. Here is a good quick article to get past the label and into the content.

Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person

I, maybe more than most people, can completely understand why broke white folks get pissed when the word "privilege" is thrown around. As a child I was constantly discriminated against because of my poverty, and those wounds still run deep. But luckily my college education introduced me to a...

www.huffpost.com

Very good article

 

[VikingsGuy]

Front site is a little low if we're starting with the PD's...

Never read a story about the fire department, ambulance service, municipal water and sewage, local road and bridge crews or similar municipal services having these issues so seems right on target to me.

 

[406dn]

Who is paying for all that data storage? Asking for a friend...

Certainly your friend can ask a better question than that.

A couple of six figure payouts buys a lot of storage. So how much storage could be purchased if all of the civil unrest had not happened recently??

As always tax payers will pay for the cost.

 

[3855WIN]

The police unions are there. Why not use them to help improve things? Let them know that the union won’t exist unless major changes are made. Use the power of the unions to bring about nationwide changes.

 

[VikingsGuy]

The police unions are there. Why not use them to help improve things? Let them know that the union won’t exist unless major changes are made. Use the power of the unions to bring about nationwide changes.

You should google Lt Kroll in Minneapolis and see if he is the kind of man who is looking to reduce the threat level of his police officers. There is a reason that multiple police chiefs have failed to reduce the annual complaint numbers of this department.

 

[azelkhntr]

This privilege shaming nonsense is just an attempt to belittle your success’ in life. Racial politics and class warfare is what it is. Tactics of the progs. I reject it out of hand. Am I privileged? Yes I am. I worked hard for that and it didn’t come at anyone else’s expense. Because I can live better than 95% of the population doesn’t mean I took that from someone. In fact just the opposite. Everything I own provided the creators an opportunity to make a paycheck and get ahead in this world. Seems like something to celebrate and be proud of eh.

 

[VikingsGuy]

This privilege shaming nonsense is just an attempt to belittle your success’ in life. Racial politics and class warfare is what it is. Tactics of the progs. I reject it out of hand. Am I privileged? Yes I am. I worked hard for that and it didn’t come at anyone else’s expense. Because I can live better than 95% of the population doesn’t mean I took that from someone. In fact just the opposite. Everything I own provided the creators an opportunity to make a paycheck and get ahead in this world. Seems like something to celebrate and be proud of eh.

You are not understanding it. It has absolutely nothing to do with your hard work. You are either willfully, or ignorantly, refusing to get past an unfortunate label in order to appreciate the underlying message - and yes, that is on you hard work or not.

 

[TwistedSage]

This privilege shaming nonsense is just an attempt to belittle your success’ in life. Racial politics and class warfare is what it is. Tactics of the progs. I reject it out of hand. Am I privileged? Yes I am. I worked hard for that and it didn’t come at anyone else’s expense. Because I can live better than 95% of the population doesn’t mean I took that from someone. In fact just the opposite. Everything I own provided the creators an opportunity to make a paycheck and get ahead in this world. Seems like something to celebrate and be proud of eh.

I don't buy into any of the shaming and privilege does seem to be sort of a loaded word. I think it's just important to acknowledge that there are a lot of people out there that aren't as fortunate no matter the circumstances.