Dispatch from Police Headquarters

[Dari]

According to people I know, not all is well at 1 Police Plaza. Perhaps recent events can lead police to reflect on their militaristic behavior when dealing with civilians. This isn't Baghdad.

1. Tensions are high

2. Morale is low

3. Police are feeling the disconnect with those they're supposed to serve

4. Police are fearful of their own safety and those of their family

5. A police bulletin was put out that, due to recent vandalism of police officers' personal vehicles, personnel should refrain from putting PBA badges/stickers on their personal vehicles

 

[Corn]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[fskimospy]

Honestly, is there any group in America that is less able to take criticism?

How the police fall into a swoon immediately upon anyone mentioning the fact that large portions of the communities they ostensibly serve are afraid of being beaten and killed by them is pathetic.

They should take the criticism as a chance to reflect on what might have brought them to this point, not to wallow in self pity about how picked on they are.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Honestly, is there any group in America that is less able to take criticism?

Liberals

How the police fall into a swoon immediately upon anyone mentioning the fact that large portions of the communities they ostensibly serve are afraid of being beaten and killed by them is pathetic.

They should take the criticism as a chance to reflect on what might have brought them to this point, not to wallow in self pity about how picked on they are.

oh shut the hell up. There is no self pity - what they are talking about is REAL. This isn't about being "picked on", it's about being targeted by factions that have no sense of reality.

 

[JEDIYoda]

oh shut the hell up. There is no self pity - what they are talking about is REAL. This isn't about being "picked on", it's about being targeted by factions that have no sense of reality.

Which the police if they were smart and intelligent would use this time as a chance to reflect on what might have brought them to this point, not to wallow in self pity about how picked on they are.

 

[davmat787]

Seems like a good start would be for the Police leadership to engage with their communities they serve with town meetings or whatever. I think citizens voicing their concerns and stories directly to them and the Police returning with a plan to address the problems would help reduce tensions, for now.

I've said this many times, but police departments should not have so much power over the policing of themselves, we've seen way too many examples of them sweeping things under the rug.

 

[boomerang]

Seems like a good start would be for the Police leadership to engage with their communities they serve with town meetings or whatever. I think citizens voicing their concerns and stories directly to them and the Police returning with a plan to address the problems would help reduce tensions, for now.

I've said this many times, but police departments should not have so much power over the policing of themselves, we've seen way too many examples of them sweeping things under the rug.

If town meetings were being held, would you feel it out of line to search attendee's for weapons?

It wouldn't matter who was policing the police departments because one decision that went the way the masses didn't like and the process would be declared a sham. These are people that don't trust not just "the man" but the white man.

We have a President and an Attorney General that see value in stirring up race relations. Does that trouble you at all? Do you think it serves a useful purpose? Do you think that Sharpton is a wise choice for an adviser? Why do you think that Obama chose Sharpton?

Assuming it would have an advantage to one of the two major political parties, and I for one absolutely believe it does, which party do you feel would be best served by keeping the races divided and at each others throats?

 

[Dari]

If town meetings were being held, would you feel it out of line to search attendee's for weapons?

It wouldn't matter who was policing the police departments because one decision that went the way the masses didn't like and the process would be declared a sham. These are people that don't trust not just "the man" but the white man.

We have a President and an Attorney General that see value in stirring up race relations. Does that trouble you at all? Do you think it serves a useful purpose? Do you think that Sharpton is a wise choice for an adviser? Why do you think that Obama chose Sharpton?

Assuming it would have an advantage to one of the two major political parties, and I for one absolutely believe it does, which party do you feel would be best served by keeping the races divided and at each others throats?

This is less about race than you think. It's about police militarism; police shooting first and asking questions later; and police aggression. We've had this discussion about the militarization of police over the past several years. With the recent killings, whether they're blacks or non-blacks, I think things have come to a head. Washington D.C. has already responded by scaling back their gifting military kits to various police departments. The FBI will retrain certain departments on how to better community relations. If police do not like being dictated to, they need to take the initiative and interact with these communities on a more balanced level, instead of only coming there when there's trouble. Having good relations with the community can go a long way in making it easier to solve crimes and even lower crimes. Again, police are not soldiers and they should not behave that way.

 

[TheFamilyMan]

Which the police if they were smart and intelligent would use this time as a chance to reflect on what might have brought them to this point, not to wallow in self pity about how picked on they are.

Please, for the love of God, just shut the hell up per the previous poster. You and eskimospy go have a circle-jerk in the corner and giggle about the cops being gunned down.

How about looking at reality with regards to what brought police/community relations to this point. I won't ask because I know it would be too hard for you to take your head out of your ass to do so.

Police are policing certain communities the way they have to in order to get a foothold on the crime. Lower-income white and black communities cry racism and classism when police have to use deadly force but, in reality, what other option is left when the people of the community feel it is their RIGHT to ignore police and social law?

I grew up with poor folks from many walks of life from white, black, yellow...hell, even a couple American Indian families were in the trailer park where I lived. I went to school with a mixed bag of races, classes, social-statuses, etc. What I saw was that those us that WANTED out of the poverty and depression worked our asses off and got out. We worked at it and made successes of ourselves; black, white, Indian, etc. Others that wanted to wallow in it and blame everybody and everything continued to wallow in it and are now just like most of what you see on television...still in the same communities crying about some stupid criminal who was confronted by police and felt they didn't have to do anything other than take what was someone else's or simply ignore social laws and do as they please.

A huge percentage of these communities could have great relations with police and other civil servant offices IF THEY SO CHOOSE. They don't want to...police get berated, heckled, and abused when they make solid arrests in these communities and get berated, heckled, and abused when they don't make solid arrests. It's a no-win situation in many of these communities. People in these communities say out of one side of their mouth they want the police to "clean up the streets" and when the police try to do it, the communities decry out of the other side of their mouth, "Oh don't arrest him or engage him because he's *insert race/class here*."

I say let some of these communities sink. Police should pull out of them altogether and let the "sweet, baby-faced angels" roam the streets and have their way. I give it 6 months before so-called community leaders are begging the police to step back in and "clean up the streets".

 

[Dari]

Please, for the love of God, just shut the hell up per the previous poster. You and eskimospy go have a circle-jerk in the corner and giggle about the cops being gunned down.

How about looking at reality with regards to what brought police/community relations to this point. I won't ask because I know it would be too hard for you to take your head out of your ass to do so.

Police are policing certain communities the way they have to in order to get a foothold on the crime. Lower-income white and black communities cry racism and classism when police have to use deadly force but, in reality, what other option is left when the people of the community feel it is their RIGHT to ignore police and social law?

I grew up with poor folks from many walks of life from white, black, yellow...hell, even a couple American Indian families were in the trailer park where I lived. I went to school with a mixed bag of races, classes, social-statuses, etc. What I saw was that those us that WANTED out of the poverty and depression worked our asses off and got out. We worked at it and made successes of ourselves; black, white, Indian, etc. Others that wanted to wallow in it and blame everybody and everything continued to wallow in it and are now just like most of what you see on television...still in the same communities crying about some stupid criminal who was confronted by police and felt they didn't have to do anything other than take what was someone else's or simply ignore social laws and do as they please.

A huge percentage of these communities could have great relations with police and other civil servant offices IF THEY SO CHOOSE. They don't want to...police get berated, heckled, and abused when they make solid arrests in these communities and get berated, heckled, and abused when they don't make solid arrests. It's a no-win situation in many of these communities. People in these communities say out of one side of their mouth they want the police to "clean up the streets" and when the police try to do it, the communities decry out of the other side of their mouth, "Oh don't arrest him or engage him because he's *insert race/class here*."

I say let some of these communities sink. Police should pull out of them altogether and let the "sweet, baby-faced angels" roam the streets and have their way. I give it 6 months before so-called community leaders are begging the police to step back in and "clean up the streets".

Maybe you need to take your head out of your ass and reflect on all that has happened recently. First, as you say, not every person in those community is bad. Many want to get out. And many are good, hard working people trying to live their life. The problem for police is that they come into these communities and treat all these people as the same. They are hostile. This is what happened to Akai Gurley. The cops shot him because the lights were out in the stairwell and they feared for their safety. He was just taking the stairs and they killed him. They killed someone out of fear, as if everyone in that building was an imminent threat. That is not how you police. This may be an extreme example but it is indicative of the problem between the police and people in communities like that. There is zero trust between them. Police abuse their power in those communities, they even get away with murder.

 

[TreVader]

The cops need to shut up because this country is a few more dead black kids from gutting every police force in the nation. And rightfully so, the police have shown themselves to be a community bent on avoiding responsibility at all costs.


I would love it if they took this time to reflect and maybe just maybe fire some of the murderers they protect. I'm not holding my breath.

Nobody is pitying you. We hate you.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Please, for the love of God, just shut the hell up per the previous poster. You and eskimospy go have a circle-jerk in the corner and giggle about the cops being gunned down.<--umm no...nobody is giggling about the cops being killed!! But with that said -- It was bound to happen sooner or later! After all you can only kill so many people unjustly and hide behind the words I feared for my life....


How about looking at reality with regards to what brought police/community relations to this point. I won't ask because I know it would be too hard for you to take your head out of your ass to do so. <-- the reality is that what brought community and police relations to this point was the militarization of Police forces across the nation!! In stead of serving the public the Police openly harass the public....

Police are policing certain communities the way they have to in order to get a foothold on the crime. Lower-income white and black communities cry racism and classism when police have to use deadly force but, in reality, what other option is left when the people of the community feel it is their RIGHT to ignore police and social law? <-- the option is for the Police to serve the community instead of treating everybody as if they are bad guy.....there is no excuse for the Police violating the laws that they are sworn to uphold!!

I grew up with poor folks from many walks of life from white, black, yellow...hell, even a couple American Indian families were in the trailer park where I lived. I went to school with a mixed bag of races, classes, social-statuses, etc. What I saw was that those us that WANTED out of the poverty and depression worked our asses off and got out. We worked at it and made successes of ourselves; black, white, Indian, etc. Others that wanted to wallow in it and blame everybody and everything continued to wallow in it and are now just like most of what you see on television...still in the same communities crying about some stupid criminal who was confronted by police and felt they didn't have to do anything other than take what was someone else's or simply ignore social laws and do as they please. <-- so it is OK for the Police to kill people who don`t make it out of the community??

A huge percentage of these communities could have great relations with police and other civil servant offices IF THEY SO CHOOSE. They don't want to...police get berated, heckled, and abused when they make solid arrests in these communities and get berated, heckled, and abused when they don't make solid arrests. It's a no-win situation in many of these communities. People in these communities say out of one side of their mouth they want the police to "clean up the streets" and when the police try to do it, the communities decry out of the other side of their mouth, "Oh don't arrest him or engage him because he's *insert race/class here*."<-- you are living in a dream world!! The reality of the matter is the police created this us against them scenario and now they are coming to realize that more civilians have guns and weapons than they do and are crying because they cant get away with the military style of Policing that they choose to do....

I say let some of these communities sink. Police should pull out of them altogether and let the "sweet, baby-faced angels" roam the streets and have their way. I give it 6 months before so-called community leaders are begging the police to step back in and "clean up the streets". <-- I have heard that bogus argument before! The facts are the Police should just answer 911 calls and concentrate on Community issues!! Instead the Police actively go out looking for issues and they actively create issues......such as pulling up behind you at night with their high beams on checking to see if you have a seatbelt on and then when you speed up because the police have their high beams on they nail you for speeding...you don`t dare brake check a cop.....

Bottom line -- the Police need to solve this problem or more and more regular citizens will feel the need to carry weapons and perhaps even use them on the Police. Especially the officers who instigate crapola.....
Nice dream world you are living in!!

 

[Fern]

This isn't an image problem. IMO, this won't be solved by any town meetings.

Police procedures need to be reviewed. E.g., don't show up with a SWAT team to collect for overdue traffic tickets. Make sure policies don't morph into 'shoot first ask questions later' as they are interpreted and put into force by police in the field. A policy can look good on paper, but the reality of it is how it's actually employed when the shizz is on the line.

Fern

 

[positivedoppler]

its the war on drugs. How do you expect police to scale back when hollywood paints all drug dealers as criminals with limitless capacity for violence at the same time police can so lucratively benefit for drug related seizures

 

[positivedoppler]

This isn't an image problem. IMO, this won't be solved by any town meetings.

Police procedures need to be reviewed. E.g., don't show up with a SWAT team to collect for overdue traffic tickets. Make sure policies don't morph into 'shoot first ask questions later'

Fern

Problem is there is so little incentive for them to not shoot first and ask questions later. If the officer can justify even the slightest that he felt his life is in danger, then he's off as following standard procedure.

 

[fskimospy]

Liberals
oh shut the hell up. There is no self pity - what they are talking about is REAL. This isn't about being "picked on", it's about being targeted by factions that have no sense of reality.

Hahaha. Accusing liberals followed up with shrieking about how terribly awfully picked on the police in NYC are said by someone who doesn't even live there.

Talk about a clueless ignoramus.

 

[Moonbeam]

Seems like a good start would be for the Police leadership to engage with their communities they serve with town meetings or whatever. I think citizens voicing their concerns and stories directly to them and the Police returning with a plan to address the problems would help reduce tensions, for now.

I've said this many times, but police departments should not have so much power over the policing of themselves, we've seen way too many examples of them sweeping things under the rug.

In thread after thread, in my opinion, you show a capacity to think wisely. It's good to see in folk who lean conservative.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

LMAO!!!!!!! A friend of a friend of a friend said!!

 

[Darwin333]

Police are policing certain communities the way they have to in order to get a foothold on the crime. Lower-income white and black communities cry racism and classism when police have to use deadly force but, in reality, what other option is left when the people of the community feel it is their RIGHT to ignore police and social law?

I grew up with poor folks from many walks of life from white, black, yellow...hell, even a couple American Indian families were in the trailer park where I lived. I went to school with a mixed bag of races, classes, social-statuses, etc. What I saw was that those us that WANTED out of the poverty and depression worked our asses off and got out. We worked at it and made successes of ourselves; black, white, Indian, etc. Others that wanted to wallow in it and blame everybody and everything continued to wallow in it and are now just like most of what you see on television...still in the same communities crying about some stupid criminal who was confronted by police and felt they didn't have to do anything other than take what was someone else's or simply ignore social laws and do as they please.

A huge percentage of these communities could have great relations with police and other civil servant offices IF THEY SO CHOOSE.

Tell you what, take out your life savings in straight cash and take a little road trip. Commit some very minor traffic violation to purposely get yourself pulled over, I'll even cover the cost of the ticket, tell the nice officer how much cash you have on you, shouldn't be a problem for you since it is perfectly legal. I am very curious if your attitude would change after you got quite literally robbed at gunpoint of your life savings and if you're lucky they won't even charge you with a crime. If you're kind of a dick about them stealing your money they'll definitely come up with something to charge you with though so just remember, say thank you and be polite as they steal your stuff.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Or you could be polite/respectful towards the officer and get a verbal and/or written warning. This has been my experiece 7 times over the last 30 years. Other posters have stated such in here as well.

 

[bradley]

This isn't an image problem. IMO, this won't be solved by any town meetings.

Police procedures need to be reviewed. E.g., don't show up with a SWAT team to collect for overdue traffic tickets. Make sure policies don't morph into 'shoot first ask questions later' as they are interpreted and put into force by police in the field. A policy can look good on paper, but the reality of it is how it's actually employed when the shizz is on the line.

Fern

I don't blame grunt officers for escalating the above mandates and procedures of an overmiliterized police state. Although college educations should be mandatory for all officers.

Will you be calling a suicide hotline today? Expect nothing less than death by SWAT. And lazy investigative journalists will never demand any follow-ups or answers in our plagiaristic pop-culture society.

Utah Man Shot and Killed by SWAT Team After Calling Suicide Hotline
http://gawker.com/utah-man-shot-and-killed-by-swat-team-after-calling-sui-1650268826

 

[JEDIYoda]

Or you could be polite/respectful towards the officer and get a verbal and/or written warning. This has been my experiece 7 times over the last 30 years. Other posters have stated such in here as well.

hahahaaaaaa...yeah right...rofl...OMG....

 

[Londo_Jowo]

hahahaaaaaa...yeah right...rofl...OMG....

Yuck it up. Here's the same advice I was given by a Virginia state trooper who lived next door when I was stationed in Norfolk. Sure as hell has worked for me over the years.

http://www.texasdrivesafe.com/how-to-get-a-warning-instead-of-a-ticket/

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Honestly, is there any group in America that is less able to take criticism?

How the police fall into a swoon immediately upon anyone mentioning the fact that large portions of the communities they ostensibly serve are afraid of being beaten and killed by them is pathetic.

They should take the criticism as a chance to reflect on what might have brought them to this point, not to wallow in self pity about how picked on they are.

Perhaps they should burn protest and loot like the crybabies in Ferguson? Maybe blacks should see being shot as criticism for their violence and learn to control it? I can often see your point although we often disagree but Mr."hey see what I do next" was not being constructively critical. Personal property being destroyed isn't self pity. You've grouped people in the "bad guy" category. OK as a group blacks shoot more people. Maybe Obama shouldn't look at the lady who was nervous in the elevator as a sign of racism but about how his group created this feeling and not wallow in self pity about how picked on blacks are?

Blue the new Black?

 

[OverVolt]

Nothing has changed about how the police behave legally. In terms of what is a justified self defense and what is not. The only thing that changed is the media race baiting.