Today on the Battle of the Lawyers on MSNBC, the attorney representing the cop charged with the lesser charges was about 200 steps in front of the DA who wasn’t making any sense. Civilian lawyer was smart and just said "He’s not testifying for the prosecution or for the defense. He will answer questions and tell the truth, not ‘for’ or ‘against’ anyone. "
Shame on them. Blue Wall of Silence is a huge reason we need changes in our law enforcement systems.
@GKUnion I’m tagging you because of your user name. But anyone can chime in.
When they talk about defunding the police are they talking about eliminating the police unions or is the defunding something else?
The call outs and non response has to do with keeping the strength of the union or am I missing the point?
Do police and law enforcement need due process in dismissal? I know that the knee jerk reaction is to fire the officer in question but is that what we really want for our law enforcement?
They won’t get fired, there is no one to replace them. Studies show that public officials who face personal liability are risk averse in their decision-making and will avoid potentially risky situations, as there is only downside potential for them and no upside. You may not like it, but that is normal.
@deb922 Let me first say that my username is independent of any union affiliation. I’ve never been a member of a union.
Secondly, I started a topic concerning defunding the police and it didn’t end well, so I’m not touching that here with a 1,000 foot pole.
As to call outs and non-responses to calls, I’m not a fan. I would assume those are more organic than union organized.
Yes, but no other advanced country has as many guns as the US. Probably not even a fraction. It is apples to oranges.
Thank you @GKUnion
I read that the Atlanta police were still responding to calls, that there were still enough on duty to respond.
Those calling out sick? Maybe they have a real fear for their lives, fear of being untrained for their jobs as no matter what they do they are criticized for it being wrong. Or maybe they’ve been working overtime for weeks?
Defunding the police was a poor choice of words. Most of the calls for reform are to use the money currently budgeted for police in some areas - mental health, youth programs, rehab programs- to hire professionals in those areas directly. In my city, there is a contract between public schools and the police to have resource officers in the high schools and middle schools. They are going to cancel those contracts and the schools will hire who they want in the schools. Police will still be called for crimes in the schools but they won’t be the same officers all the time.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-like-the-ideas-behind-defunding-the-police-more-than-the-slogan-itself/ describes the slogan “defund the police” and some of the actual ideas and proposals behind the slogan, and the public opinion surveys on each.
That kind of (apparently wildcat) labor action may backfire if the people in the area already have a low opinion of the Atlanta PD in general and/or Rolfe’s actions specifically. Basically, to someone who already has a low opinion of such, it looks like the police officers are saying that they need to choose between “bad police” versus “no police”, as if “good police” is not an option. But then that may cause people to feel that the only way to get to “good police” is to do a Camden-like action (throw out the old police department as unreformable and replace it with a new one built from scratch).
They said earlier that some officers were sitting in their personal vehicles and either not responding to calls or only to backup of a fellow officer. But morning traffic showed plenty of blue lights with accidents. Maybe not APD.
To be moderately paid, risk your life, deal with crap all day long and be reviled by the very people they are trying to protect. I think they are simply saying enough is enough. Would you do work under those conditions?
12mm police calls a year. A microscopic amount of really bad behavior.
Focus on better recruitment and pre hiring psychological testing.
State police have much better hiring processes than local police. The key is more training and funding. New technology. Not less. Certainly not knee jerk responses.
Get rid of bad police when identified through changes to union rules.
Prosecute to full extent of law when someone is found to be criminal behavior. Same as any other violent felon.
Lastly. If anyone has read up on the DA in Atlanta and his near term election contest it is clear why he reacted with such an overcharge here. The GBI was stunned with the announcement as they were mid investigation.
The DA also contended in a very recent case that the use of a taser is to be considered a deadly weapon in open court. That would be the first thing in my opening statement and if video admitted, in would play it over and over. If it was my case.
You need one or two people to see it your way at trial. I wouldn’t plea to any of it.
Aside of the criminal case, the officer involved should be fired and revoke the right to join another force. He needs to find a new career and probably a new identity.
The potential police in atlanta go through a thorough psychological evaluation, I think by this group https://stonemcelroy.com/our-team/. Guess some bad apples got through.
And yes the DA’s personal challenges/charges have been previously mentioned. https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2020/06/10/fani-willis-holds-the-lead-over-paul-howard-in-tight-race-for-fulton-da/?slreturn=20200520005538
I am surprised that police can have sickouts. Most public employees cannot. I think a lot of public employees think that they have very difficult jobs just as police, and are paid much less.
I agree. However, most don’t require you put on a bullet proof vest prior to leaving home.
The other lesser paid positions are respected by the general public and don’t have people planning ways to shoot you.
Most people are not spending their time planning ways to shoot police officers.
In my city, police officers make $35K/year. That’s before taxes and any kind of deduction, and for a job where your life is threatened and now every moment of your work day is filmed for arm chair quarterbacks to tell you what you are doing wrong and what a terrible person you are. I’m thankful anyone wants to do it, but I’m guessing that’s why we have such a hard time filling positions. Sure, there are bad apples that need to be weeded out and more training is definitely needed. But most cops I think are good people who want to do the right thing. It just might be a bit harder when someone’s punching you and stealing your weapons.
I’ve been a member of police departments and the psych testing is a joke- imo, of course. My brother is a member of a major police department (we no longer speak these days due to his position on recent news/situations) and he made it through the psych portion easily… despite having severe enough ptsd from his (recent to then) time in the military that he is considered 100% disabled by the VA- and he didn’t even have to fight for that rating. I also used to work as a probation officer. We went into peoples homes and sometimes into violent/scary situations. No weapons, yes vest… paid less than my brother and happy with the trade off of no weapon.
The psychology screenings vary significantly from location to location. Some may be superficial, and some very thorough. It probably depends in part on the budget a police department or other public safety department has for such evaluations. I have done pre-employment screenings for a security company. What I might have wanted to do vs what they asked for or were willing to pay for were sometimes quite different. These were screenings, not full evaluations. But one is looking for major psychopathology or other factors that may contraindicate a person from being in a position within public safety. They can have some other issues and still be qualified based on the screening criteria. And the person doing the screening only makes a recommendation, which might include recommending a more comprehensive evaluation. Hiring decisions are made by the potential employer.