You gotta fight for your right to party Affiliate. Actually babyfan I’m don’t vote and have no reason to. But I can tell you from my 56 years on this rock that Trump is the best president in my lifetime. I have never seen the economy work this good even during Reagan years. I was raised a bleeding heart liberal by my parents and won five grand betting my dad Trump would win the election in 2016. I’m not racist, I have a Jamaican wife and two boys that are mixed race. Trump has done more for blacks than any other president since Abraham Lincoln, by the way, he was republican too.
From what I can determine, the vast majority of incidents involving excessive force by law enforcement involved officers who have had prior reports/complaints from ordinary citizens that range anywhere from racial profiling to use of excessive force. And, in virtually every case, the report/complaint was investigated by the "Internal Affairs" section of the respective police department and typically resulted in brief suspensions with or without pay. IMHO, clearly - police departments do a lousy job of policing themselves. Perhaps a step in the right direction would be to disband not an entire police department but simply replace the Internal Affairs section with an independent group of citizens who do not report to the Chief of Police (typically an appointed position). Maybe have this review board be chaired by the local District Attorney (typically an elected position) in order to provide the legal input that would no doubt be required.
Yes he was in party name only. I love how Republicans love clinging to this without understanding how their platforms had flipped in the early 20th century.
Some cities have civilian task forces reviewing police conduct complaints already. Otherwise what you've explained here, especially pertaining to former officer Chauvin having complaints is correct. He was the bad apple and is the textbook definition of what needs weeding out. I'm pretty sure all sane people agree. Now, what about the other 3 officers with far less complaints who were supposed to be the "good cops" standing there watching while Chauvin executed Floyd? Its not hard to see that the "thin blue line" for what it is, a systemic problem that the police don't police themselves. You cant cross it/tell on your own team without facing vilification or worse from the institution. Meaningful change doesn't happen without dismantling this "thin blue line" and starting over. A hard reset of American Policing in 2020 is no longer out of the question. Waiting for the "good apples" to do the right thing is how we got in this mess to begin with, so now the police need to be de-militarized and reshaped as community outreach they were intended to be. I also can't stress enough how much they also need taken off their plates. America has defunded mental health, educational/after school/social programs so much we've made them deal with it. Mix that with a guy/girl with a chip on their shoulder from being picked on in high school being trained to shoot to kill. Its funny because what they don't tell us is that guns are legal in tons of countries, but they have a much lower rate per capita of police involved killings of citizens. Because if you look how officers are trained in other first world countries (something we're say we are), they de-escalate situations, not show up guns blazing with youtube footage of the bodycam shooting shortly thereafter. If they can do that, why cant we? Its not unreasonable to stop funding unnecessary items, like the militarization of cops, maybe stop loading them to the teeth with equipment they dont need and put that money towards solving things, taking the mental health people, homeless, and a few others off their plate. At the federal level, maybe cut back on spending on military contracts, something our bloated federal budget is hemorrhaging into and put that money somewhere? Do we really need to outspend the next seven countries on the planet COMBINED on our military? And don't jump to the polarized opposite/scare tactic, as I'm sure some conservative dicksnot talking head saying "if we spend less on police that must mean gangs will take over" and those too lazy to examine data for themselves will eat it up unquestionably. Or is suggesting swallowing our national pride for a second to take a look in the mirror while not putting profit margins and the stock market first too much to ask? Because the only other option I see is doing what Camden NJ did with their department, which is fire everybody and make every cop re-apply for their jobs entirely retrained to de-escalate. Its not perfect, but violent crimes in Camden went from a rate of 77 per 1000 in 2013 to 44 per 1000 as of 2020. Only a 42% drop in 7 years. Oh, it also improved police-community relations... https://www.wfsb.com/camden-new-jer...cle_c9832726-6854-5999-a2b4-f4963d4c54ef.html
Haven’t read every post in this thread but I’ll share my thoughts on the last two weeks cuz I’m bored: George Floyd was murdered by one police officer while 3 others were complicit in his murder. The police are rarely held accountable for their crimes. Black people are racially profiled by police. Fully support anyone’s right to protest peacefully. Rioters and looters should be arrested and thrown in jail. Corporations and sports leagues are virtue signaling to a sickening degree with their statements full of platitudes in support of black lives. All black lives matter, including the thousands who are murdered every year in this country by other black people, not just those few murdered by police. Defund the police means stop funding the police, any other explanation of the slogan is gaslighting. Defunding the police is the dumbest fucking platform to hold and will certainly lead to 4 more years of Trump if it’s fully embraced by Democrats. Either Covid19 was the most overblown scare in centuries or this country is about to get slammed with a devastating outbreak. Media reporting on Covid and the protests has destroyed any remaining credibility the media had. Joe Biden is basically Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s. As of now I’m voting third party, write in for Andrew Yang.
It is my understanding for 2 of the cops it was their first week off of their trial period which began in 2019, but Chauvin was the lead officer training them. The argument how complicit are they is for the courts to decide, but why on God's green earth was a guy with a stack of complaints against him doing the training?
Was there really a fucking post made on this thread that said Trump wasn’t in it for the money? The guy that publicly pushed an untested medication as treatment for covid and it turned out he had a financial interest in the company that makes it? Are you fucking kidding me? I have more to say on this thread but just saw that....I’ll check back in tomorrow.
I think that was the drinking bleach and shining a UV flashlight up your butt to kill the Covid virus.......or at least that's the closest the GOP has come to presenting any alternative plan.......ever.......since their repeal and replace efforts began with the ACA.
