There are DOJ investigations into departments like Chicago and Baltimore that found routine civil rights violations. These departments had major issues for years and years but the police omerta blocked any efforts to self correct. Things came to a head and now the scales have tipped the other way and the police are on their back foot with people questioning every single move they make, no matter how reasonable.
What's the lesson? The lesson is that credible oversight over state power is needed. That's not some wackadoo liberal agenda, it's a fundamental requirement for just government. If you don't have that oversight abuses *will* happen and there *will* be a backlash that goes too far.
You're also seeing innovation in cities like Newark moving back towards community policing. We're seeing that cracking down hard on crime isn't always the right thing to do - not because it hurts people's feelings but because it doesn't actually work. That urban departments are losing officers that are amenable to reform is probably the most concerning thing in this story because that is the reasonable solution to the actual issue we're having, rather than some political football everyone likes to toss around.
There is also the issue that the power of the police is given to them by the citizens they police. If the community isn't OK with killing someone for selling loosies, then the police can't kill someone for selling loosies. There is no "right" for the police to just do whatever they want.
10 or 15 years ago it was easy to find conservatives concerned about no knock warrants and other questionable police tactics. Now that the left has taken on this cause (ironic since it is liberal cities which have the biggest problems with police abuse) all the conservatives have decided that the police are paragons of virtue, beyond reproach, and that anything they do is in the best interest of society. It is no more or less idiotic than the left questioning obviously legitimate uses of force.
Like every issue the truth is in the middle. Most officers are great people. Some of them are not. Where you have people abusing their power that needs to be corrected. When you have police legitimately using force in the face of wild and dangerous criminals crucifying them is not productive. Policing strategies which are not having the desired effect need to be reexamined.
It's all common sense, but America doesn't care about common sense anymore. They care about being right and creating well defined enemies.
As a former law enforcement officer (I left to further pursue my education), I can confirm that moral is very, very low in the LE community right now. No one feels like anybody has their back, anyone who can retire is retiring, and there are so few new hires that those staying within the profession are being overworked while still being underpaid.
My dad used to say that if someone is in trouble with the police, they probably did something to deserve the police’s attention. In other words, don’t break the law and you have nothing to worry about.
I called this years ago. BLM extorts money, funds it’s executives, and is NOWHERE in the inner cites. It is just a long line of business cashing in on the white progressive guilt complex while promoting policies that actually make black and brown neighborhoods less safe. My son in-law dreamed of being a police officer He is young and wanted to have a career in law enforcement. He served was hired as a sheriffs deputy around 2018. After only 3 years he quit and left law enforcement due to many of the same policies cited in this article. He stated to me “ I can’t risk going to prison for doing my job. It’s just not worth it.” And he’s right. As anyone with a modicum of common sense predicted, Defund the Police was a massive failure. I find it infuriating that mostly white progressives, as well as some black progressives who have sold out their communities, continue to drive policy that puts black and brown communities at higher risk. Politics today sickens me. There are far too many people in power who play with the lives of others like toys all for their own personal agendas.
Yep, the RACE-GRIFTER-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX is big business. Christian Parenti, PhD, science historian (an old school socialist that hates identity-politics and "race essentialism"), estimated that the "diversity" grifter business is worth about $1 billion.
Fair to conclude that within the universe of 10 million arrests a year, you will find much that goes the way it should and times when things go really badly... The benefit of being a spectator looking over things from hindsight. We are quite fond of twisting ourselves into a Gordian knot as a matter of a public debate. Gnashing our teeth and emotional wailing day after day while the situation continues to deteriorate because a bunch of agenda-driven "reformers" are anchored to the idea that the entire system of policing is morally bankrupt and irredeemable. Maybe we reach the "enough is enough" and calmer voices prevail but something inside of me says "this time it's different." I'm trying to imagine what person would willingly decide to be a sacrificial lamb for the sake of those loud mouths whose agenda is "defund the police" and who are supported by corporate media parrots and virtue signaling suburbanites eager to metaphorically "stand with" the ones on the receiving end of the violence because "they care so much... hugs everyone."
As much as want to agree with the article 100% I cannot. How the narrative of split-second decision explains shooting the man which passed out being tazed 7 times or shooting in the back of the man sitting on his back. How this narrative explains the 2 years long review of the 15 sec incident (Chicago). How this narrative explains that body cameras were suddenly not working or even not worn? We know-every profession attracts certain types of people. We realize the police is as it should attract certain type, more aggressive than average. But more aggressive does not mean more violent or dismissive. I witnessed officer hitting man in the face broking his nose because officer in the traffic directing event showed him the exit, which would take him on the 30 minutes loop and man sked his permission to go to another exit (NY). The problem with police is not that they make mistakes, but they provide cover for wrongdoing and hence the public reaction to their questionable actions. The ideology involvement, which is reprehensible, uses the loss of public trust to advance ideologists personal interests. Some courages and honest police officers admitted this much: excesses and cover up
I do not know what to attribute your response to: insufficient comprehension, bias, demagogical twisting of the meaning I expressed in my comment or regular left/right narcissistic habit of dismissive attitude? yea left and right are the same i this posturing.
In Philadelphia the gand of about 10 detectives and street cops was robbing small shops, arresting people on the false accusations and fabricated evidence for years until they run into the son of Illinois senator, which triggered the real investigation. Will you tell me this was bad a small percentage of time? Do you believe that district officers, which were honest people and good cops in their own capacity did not suspect or even new about this? Did not hear store owners complaining? It is absolutely impossible. But, as many honest cops and some others, which quite because could not condone this code and live with it themselves confirmed the existence of the code which permeated police force-blue cover for blue.
It should go without saying that we need a professional police force that operates as a dispassionate agent of our just (as much as possible) court, to enforce our laws.
Rabbi Chanina, deputy of the High Priests (1st Century, Galilee, Israel), said: Pray for the welfare of the kingdom, for were it not for the fear of it [the government and its agents], a man would swallow his fellow alive. (Perkei Avos 3:2)
While civil order depends up on just courts and competent agents of the court, such as police and municipal authorities, the most foundation civilizing prerequisite rests with citizens themselves -- we valid, truthful witnesses in court.
I'll assume here that you are talking about someone on television. I can't watch. It makes me feel like I've spent all weekend feeding my brain a combination of cocaine, vodka, mdma and just smoked two joints and bong so I can sleep. I only read.
Question: What are the rates of private firearms ownership, for personal and home defense, in the areas mentioned in this article? Another question: What are the numbers of dgu (defensive gun usage) in these areas? In general, another: Do these areas' representatives, up to the state level, trust their constituents to rightfully defend themselves?
I'm a tenth grade drop out with more ability to recognize patterns, notice inconsistencies, determine if arguments makes logical sense and put forward intellectually consistent arguments than most folks who do journalism these days. I did spend half a decade in production management at a huge newspaper company. Fortunately I didn't catch whatever the people in the newsroom are infected with.
This is such a great article. As a former cop, now military, I started writing on this topic last year and it's great to see how people with larger reach are starting to tackle this and talk about it with data. I wrote this article in early December, and it amazes me how not only is the data on who is being impacted by the crime wave so disturbing, but also the lack of knowledge of the tools police have to try to stop it. If you're interested from a former cop's point of view, backed with data, please take a look. I am working on another on why so many shootings are occurring in certain areas as well.
Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems is a 1971 paper by Jay Wright Forrester.
excerpt:
...
Forrester characterizes normal debate and discussion as being dominated by inexact mental models ...
The paper summarizes the results of a previous study on the system dynamics governing economic dynamics in urban centers, which showed "how industry, housing, and people interact with each other as a city grows and decays." The study's findings, presented more fully in Forrester's 1969 book Urban Dynamics, suggest that the root cause of depressed economic conditions is a significant shortage of job opportunities relative to the population level, and that the most popular solutions proposed at the time (e.g. an increase in the amount of low-income housing available, or a reduction in real estate taxes) counter-intuitively serve to make the situation worse by increasing the population but not the availability of jobs, so that the relative shortage increases. The paper further suggests that measures to reduce the shortage -- such as the conversion of land use from housing to industry, or an increase in real estate taxes to spur redevelopment of property -- would counter-intuitively create the result desired when enacting the failed policies.
When relevant, the media also doesn’t talk about the number of victims of police shootings who are NOT black and how these incidents actually outnumber the others, it’s not “newsworthy.” More importantly, it doesn’t support the national “racism” narrative that many people, groups, institutions, the government (?) feed on to further victimize the communities that actually do need policing.
Tell a police officer you appreciate their service when you see one, I mean, only if you feel that way. I’ve seen some faces truly light up.
So grateful I live in VA and not NY or CA or Oregon or Washington etc.
I feel for all those poor black families. BLM really screwed them.
What is funny is I remember back in the day when black activists were fighting to get cops into their neighborhoods and fighting to increase incarceration for drug and violent offenders. They had to fight tooth and nail to get those resources and commitments.
Well, eventually the crime will spread and it will start permeating the upper middle class, liberal bubbles. Violent crime will start hurting the very people that have been pushing for vilifying cops and no bail etc. When that happens, they will first blame the remaining cops. Then, when the cops keep leaving and the crime keeps happening and they no longer feel safe, they will start screaming for more enforcement and more police resources because they are now afraid. Then, it will take decades to rebuild what they destroyed in just a couple of years.
Hence the reason, that even though I live in a relatively small town with a good police department that responds pretty quickly, I keep a gun by my bed and two more in the closet.
Never wanted to carry a pistol, just seemed uncomfortable and largely unnecessary and risky. Now? I am applying for my permit and looking for a carry gun. Thank GOD I live in a "shall issue" state.
wherever progressives pollute an area with their idiotic and unproven 'progress', woe is sure to follow. that is 100% accurate in the united states.
There are DOJ investigations into departments like Chicago and Baltimore that found routine civil rights violations. These departments had major issues for years and years but the police omerta blocked any efforts to self correct. Things came to a head and now the scales have tipped the other way and the police are on their back foot with people questioning every single move they make, no matter how reasonable.
What's the lesson? The lesson is that credible oversight over state power is needed. That's not some wackadoo liberal agenda, it's a fundamental requirement for just government. If you don't have that oversight abuses *will* happen and there *will* be a backlash that goes too far.
You're also seeing innovation in cities like Newark moving back towards community policing. We're seeing that cracking down hard on crime isn't always the right thing to do - not because it hurts people's feelings but because it doesn't actually work. That urban departments are losing officers that are amenable to reform is probably the most concerning thing in this story because that is the reasonable solution to the actual issue we're having, rather than some political football everyone likes to toss around.
There is also the issue that the power of the police is given to them by the citizens they police. If the community isn't OK with killing someone for selling loosies, then the police can't kill someone for selling loosies. There is no "right" for the police to just do whatever they want.
10 or 15 years ago it was easy to find conservatives concerned about no knock warrants and other questionable police tactics. Now that the left has taken on this cause (ironic since it is liberal cities which have the biggest problems with police abuse) all the conservatives have decided that the police are paragons of virtue, beyond reproach, and that anything they do is in the best interest of society. It is no more or less idiotic than the left questioning obviously legitimate uses of force.
Like every issue the truth is in the middle. Most officers are great people. Some of them are not. Where you have people abusing their power that needs to be corrected. When you have police legitimately using force in the face of wild and dangerous criminals crucifying them is not productive. Policing strategies which are not having the desired effect need to be reexamined.
It's all common sense, but America doesn't care about common sense anymore. They care about being right and creating well defined enemies.
As a former law enforcement officer (I left to further pursue my education), I can confirm that moral is very, very low in the LE community right now. No one feels like anybody has their back, anyone who can retire is retiring, and there are so few new hires that those staying within the profession are being overworked while still being underpaid.
My dad used to say that if someone is in trouble with the police, they probably did something to deserve the police’s attention. In other words, don’t break the law and you have nothing to worry about.
I called this years ago. BLM extorts money, funds it’s executives, and is NOWHERE in the inner cites. It is just a long line of business cashing in on the white progressive guilt complex while promoting policies that actually make black and brown neighborhoods less safe. My son in-law dreamed of being a police officer He is young and wanted to have a career in law enforcement. He served was hired as a sheriffs deputy around 2018. After only 3 years he quit and left law enforcement due to many of the same policies cited in this article. He stated to me “ I can’t risk going to prison for doing my job. It’s just not worth it.” And he’s right. As anyone with a modicum of common sense predicted, Defund the Police was a massive failure. I find it infuriating that mostly white progressives, as well as some black progressives who have sold out their communities, continue to drive policy that puts black and brown communities at higher risk. Politics today sickens me. There are far too many people in power who play with the lives of others like toys all for their own personal agendas.
Yep, the RACE-GRIFTER-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX is big business. Christian Parenti, PhD, science historian (an old school socialist that hates identity-politics and "race essentialism"), estimated that the "diversity" grifter business is worth about $1 billion.
Fair to conclude that within the universe of 10 million arrests a year, you will find much that goes the way it should and times when things go really badly... The benefit of being a spectator looking over things from hindsight. We are quite fond of twisting ourselves into a Gordian knot as a matter of a public debate. Gnashing our teeth and emotional wailing day after day while the situation continues to deteriorate because a bunch of agenda-driven "reformers" are anchored to the idea that the entire system of policing is morally bankrupt and irredeemable. Maybe we reach the "enough is enough" and calmer voices prevail but something inside of me says "this time it's different." I'm trying to imagine what person would willingly decide to be a sacrificial lamb for the sake of those loud mouths whose agenda is "defund the police" and who are supported by corporate media parrots and virtue signaling suburbanites eager to metaphorically "stand with" the ones on the receiving end of the violence because "they care so much... hugs everyone."
As much as want to agree with the article 100% I cannot. How the narrative of split-second decision explains shooting the man which passed out being tazed 7 times or shooting in the back of the man sitting on his back. How this narrative explains the 2 years long review of the 15 sec incident (Chicago). How this narrative explains that body cameras were suddenly not working or even not worn? We know-every profession attracts certain types of people. We realize the police is as it should attract certain type, more aggressive than average. But more aggressive does not mean more violent or dismissive. I witnessed officer hitting man in the face broking his nose because officer in the traffic directing event showed him the exit, which would take him on the 30 minutes loop and man sked his permission to go to another exit (NY). The problem with police is not that they make mistakes, but they provide cover for wrongdoing and hence the public reaction to their questionable actions. The ideology involvement, which is reprehensible, uses the loss of public trust to advance ideologists personal interests. Some courages and honest police officers admitted this much: excesses and cover up
So, your assertion is that police professionals can never be bad a small percentage of the time?
Get rid of the cops and let crime explode?
Do you want to ban airlines because a few planes crash due to pilot error every once in a while???
I do not know what to attribute your response to: insufficient comprehension, bias, demagogical twisting of the meaning I expressed in my comment or regular left/right narcissistic habit of dismissive attitude? yea left and right are the same i this posturing.
In Philadelphia the gand of about 10 detectives and street cops was robbing small shops, arresting people on the false accusations and fabricated evidence for years until they run into the son of Illinois senator, which triggered the real investigation. Will you tell me this was bad a small percentage of time? Do you believe that district officers, which were honest people and good cops in their own capacity did not suspect or even new about this? Did not hear store owners complaining? It is absolutely impossible. But, as many honest cops and some others, which quite because could not condone this code and live with it themselves confirmed the existence of the code which permeated police force-blue cover for blue.
what you "expressed" was mental sewage. incoherent blather.
do you get drunk before posting comments on social media?
It should go without saying that we need a professional police force that operates as a dispassionate agent of our just (as much as possible) court, to enforce our laws.
Rabbi Chanina, deputy of the High Priests (1st Century, Galilee, Israel), said: Pray for the welfare of the kingdom, for were it not for the fear of it [the government and its agents], a man would swallow his fellow alive. (Perkei Avos 3:2)
While civil order depends up on just courts and competent agents of the court, such as police and municipal authorities, the most foundation civilizing prerequisite rests with citizens themselves -- we valid, truthful witnesses in court.
I'll assume here that you are talking about someone on television. I can't watch. It makes me feel like I've spent all weekend feeding my brain a combination of cocaine, vodka, mdma and just smoked two joints and bong so I can sleep. I only read.
Question: What are the rates of private firearms ownership, for personal and home defense, in the areas mentioned in this article? Another question: What are the numbers of dgu (defensive gun usage) in these areas? In general, another: Do these areas' representatives, up to the state level, trust their constituents to rightfully defend themselves?
Thank you for this thoughtful reflection, The FP.
I'm a tenth grade drop out with more ability to recognize patterns, notice inconsistencies, determine if arguments makes logical sense and put forward intellectually consistent arguments than most folks who do journalism these days. I did spend half a decade in production management at a huge newspaper company. Fortunately I didn't catch whatever the people in the newsroom are infected with.
Please send Officer Lande to North Carolina!
This is such a great article. As a former cop, now military, I started writing on this topic last year and it's great to see how people with larger reach are starting to tackle this and talk about it with data. I wrote this article in early December, and it amazes me how not only is the data on who is being impacted by the crime wave so disturbing, but also the lack of knowledge of the tools police have to try to stop it. If you're interested from a former cop's point of view, backed with data, please take a look. I am working on another on why so many shootings are occurring in certain areas as well.
https://longtermtraining.substack.com/p/violent-crime-is-still-rising-why
If you don't already know about it, you might find this interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester#Counterintuitive_Behavior_of_Social_Systems
Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems is a 1971 paper by Jay Wright Forrester.
excerpt:
...
Forrester characterizes normal debate and discussion as being dominated by inexact mental models ...
The paper summarizes the results of a previous study on the system dynamics governing economic dynamics in urban centers, which showed "how industry, housing, and people interact with each other as a city grows and decays." The study's findings, presented more fully in Forrester's 1969 book Urban Dynamics, suggest that the root cause of depressed economic conditions is a significant shortage of job opportunities relative to the population level, and that the most popular solutions proposed at the time (e.g. an increase in the amount of low-income housing available, or a reduction in real estate taxes) counter-intuitively serve to make the situation worse by increasing the population but not the availability of jobs, so that the relative shortage increases. The paper further suggests that measures to reduce the shortage -- such as the conversion of land use from housing to industry, or an increase in real estate taxes to spur redevelopment of property -- would counter-intuitively create the result desired when enacting the failed policies.
...
I did not know about this and thank you. Looks very interesting.
Weird. Cops who worry they'll get jammed up on a criminal charge for doing their jobs are leaving the force in droves.
Biggest loser; low end of the economic spectrum neighborhoods.
We get the government we deserve.
When relevant, the media also doesn’t talk about the number of victims of police shootings who are NOT black and how these incidents actually outnumber the others, it’s not “newsworthy.” More importantly, it doesn’t support the national “racism” narrative that many people, groups, institutions, the government (?) feed on to further victimize the communities that actually do need policing.
Tell a police officer you appreciate their service when you see one, I mean, only if you feel that way. I’ve seen some faces truly light up.
So grateful I live in VA and not NY or CA or Oregon or Washington etc.
I feel for all those poor black families. BLM really screwed them.
What is funny is I remember back in the day when black activists were fighting to get cops into their neighborhoods and fighting to increase incarceration for drug and violent offenders. They had to fight tooth and nail to get those resources and commitments.
Well, eventually the crime will spread and it will start permeating the upper middle class, liberal bubbles. Violent crime will start hurting the very people that have been pushing for vilifying cops and no bail etc. When that happens, they will first blame the remaining cops. Then, when the cops keep leaving and the crime keeps happening and they no longer feel safe, they will start screaming for more enforcement and more police resources because they are now afraid. Then, it will take decades to rebuild what they destroyed in just a couple of years.
Hence the reason, that even though I live in a relatively small town with a good police department that responds pretty quickly, I keep a gun by my bed and two more in the closet.
Never wanted to carry a pistol, just seemed uncomfortable and largely unnecessary and risky. Now? I am applying for my permit and looking for a carry gun. Thank GOD I live in a "shall issue" state.