The US police misconduct thread

[Incandenza]

I'm not saying that Black officers can't be violent asshole cops, I'm just saying that our justice system seems a LOT quicker to charge Black officers with murder than when the officer(s) are white. When they're white, it was "justified" because the "perp" threatened them (or whatever). It's almost like the system relishes the opportunity to say, "see, it's not a racial thing". Very convenient for them, but I call bullshit. The entire system is racist regardless of which side of it you're on.

See the officer in Minneapolis that shot the white woman.

Police departments across the country are saying that they expect there to be protests in response and are warning of crowd violence...whenever they say things like this, it kind of makes me think they want it to happen. Different LAPD divisions contacted their local community councils saying they expect trouble, some raising the specter of ANTIFA

https://twitter.com/JonnyPeltz/status/1618780616769818627

[Femme Folle]

Incandenza I’m sure they get all pumped up and look forward to using their riot gear. They would be disappointed if protests didn’t happen.

[caja-dglh]

So - now it is out, this is why it needs to be public.

It was a fucking traffic stop, and the five cops on one guy got like this.

you have 800 cops in the UK under investigation for their behavior.

what is the police force you think you have?

[Incandenza]

LA Sheriff’s deputies have killed four people so far this month.

https://twitter.com/lacosheriff/status/1619148139306573829?s=46&t=9_Mta8UJML52AyrBZfk2Wg

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/DyjuanTatro/status/1619334110023127040?s=20&t=GNGOsCfP2x6LZc8QIS3bMQ

[Tactical Genius]

https://twitter.com/DyjuanTatro/status/1619334110023127040?s=20&t=GNGOsCfP2x6LZc8QIS3bMQ

Excellent point made.

I will comment in a few days when I have the time to properly engage and respond but I will leave you with one of my common sayings with regards to the police officers involved.

The only thing worse than a white Supremacist is a wannabe white supremacist. They will always go the extra mile to prove themselves (shout out Kamala, Pritti, Suella).

[Flynnie]

I grew up in a largely black neighbourhood in San Francisco, and all my black friends from back then will say the only people they’re more scared of than white cops are black cops.

[Hot Pepsi]

https://twitter.com/DyjuanTatro/status/1619334110023127040?s=20&t=GNGOsCfP2x6LZc8QIS3bMQ

The problem with that is blaming “the system” doesn’t seem to help very much. Especially in the US, nobody or bodies in particular is in charge of The System.

[steveeeeeeeee]

I watched the BBC's edited version of the video. What it really reminds me of is a bored gang of teenage boys roaming the streets to find a lone male to beat up. I'd be happy to see the ex-officer who shouts "let me baton the f*ck out of him" on death row. A psychopath c*nt who killed a man because he was black and didn't drive quite right.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The problem with that is blaming “the system” doesn’t seem to help very much. Especially in the US, nobody or bodies in particular is in charge of The System.

yeah, this is a very good point. You need to be extremely specific about what you are protesting about, otherwise it's definitely going to end up as noise and heat, and not really get anywhere.

[Hot Pepsi]

There are lots of specific proposals to make police more accountable to the communities they police, but they are usually implemented one municipality at a time, and the places more open to that kind of thing are not really the places that need them the most, I guess.

[Sean of the Shed]

Spectacular racist fail.
Screenshot_20230129_084141_Twitter.jpg

[Nefertiti2]

Cold blooded assassination of an activist opposing a new cop training facility

https://twitter.com/peoplesmedianyc/status/1619502795815796737?s=20&t=dqizIDvsAUSmkKcS_-pCVw

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/mikesington/status/1620463087504723969?s=61&t=nxb1twbyN3fC1rQjDuSGpQ

[Hot Pepsi]

Spectacular racist fail.
Screenshot_20230129_084141_Twitter.jpg

This goes the the fundamental lie in conservatism. They want us to think that everything is about individuals making completely disconnected individual decisions about how to treat other individuals. "There is no society."

There is no room in their brains for the possibilities of complicated systems, or interconnected networks of group identities or people responding to socially constructed incentives. Or people behaving based on more than one impulse or idea at a time. So unless a white person actually says the N word before they kill somebody, they can't see how race had anything to do with it. (Or maybe they can, but don't want to do anything about it so they pretend that they can't).

On the other hand, left-wing people - especially academics it seems - can sometimes get a bit too lost in the sauce, as they say, with abstractions like "culture" or "social constructions" such that they can't really articulate any specific policies or talk much about how all of these complicated systems of incentives and what not manifest in a particular human mind in a particular moment. So they mean well, but can't always explain it well.

And I've also noticed that well-meaning activists can sometimes get trapped in the right-wing game of trying to show how the cop who murdered somebody had simple racial motivations or prejudices when that's not really the issue (although sometimes it's part of it). The issue is how police see their jobs and how the people who are hiring (or as the case may be, not firing) those police see their role and what they're willing to tolerate in the name of "safety," etc.

[Sean of the Shed]

To be honest the reason I posted this tweet (as a screenshot because she late deleted it) was that whilst she posted this in an attempt to accuse the person she quoted of making the issue about race, she then managed to tag a completely different person of colour into the tweet.

[ursus arctos]

Completely different ethnic backgrounds and body types

Different football teams

Both Londoners, I guess

https://twitter.com/davidlammy/status/1390327237199663107?s=61&t=f8EKIzaifSFfWmbEvcP9Xw

[Balderdasha]

To my shame, I have been known to muddle up Sadiq Khan and Sajid Javid because both their names start with "Sa". But Sadiq Khan and David Lammy?!? How?

[ad hoc]

To my shame, I have been known to muddle up Sadiq Khan and Sajid Javid because both their names start with "Sa". But Sadiq Khan and David Lammy?!? How?

There is only one possible explanation isn't there

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/Gohahwei1/status/1620692662432169986?s=20&t=sW9IaEykjMZeEzt34AI2kA

[Incandenza]

I mentioned this earlier:

I noticed this in the NY Times article about the arrests:

Last week, the Police Department said the five officers had been fired after a “thorough review of the circumstances surrounding this incident,” which found that they had violated department policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid.

The Memphis Fire Department has said that two of its employees who responded to the scene have also been “relieved of duty” while it conducts its own internal investigation.


Apparently they were supposed to be involved in offering medical care at the scene, but them being removed from work really makes me fear for the worst.

The EMTs had their licenses revoked by the state after they were shown to have been on the scene and waited 19 minutes before offering any medical attention.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/lee_hedgepeth/status/1625267017119936514?s=61&t=7Gf63F5AyvDAITFQ6hCEBw

[S. aureus]

Good effing Lord that story's horrific.

[Hot Pepsi]

I mentioned this earlier:



The EMTs had their licenses revoked by the state after they were shown to have been on the scene and waited 19 minutes before offering any medical attention.

Public Enemy had some notes on EMTs too, as I recall.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/gidmk/status/1643049511743528960?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow