Y'know, this morning I parked in front of my office and encountered a woman who was obviously in the middle of a PTSD-related mental health crisis. Stood there talking to her for about 10 minutes while another bystander walked to the police station a couple of doors down and told them what was going on. The female cop who showed up first, who had obviously talked with the woman a few times already, was calm and reasonable as she tried to talk the woman into letting her call an ambulance. The male cop who showed up a few minutes later as backup mostly just stayed quiet and stood back at a respectful distance. Which is all to say that it is perfectly possible to do your job as a cop without turning into a roided-up, Rambo-wannabe rage machine, so I don't know what the hell these assholes' excuse is.
Where the fuck were these police during the jan 6th insurrection? Where were these tough guy cops when the Uvalde shooting was happening? Oh my they are tough guys when it is unarmed BLM and women protesting because the government is taking away their healthcare. They are all prepared with their pepper balls, batons, shields, and guns to deal with left wing protestors, but where the fuck arew these assholes when terrorists are threatening death to some kids and a drag queen in a library for reading books with their parents present? A6 first I thought defund the police was a stupid motto that we did not need to do, but now we need to defund and completely replace the police. It may be hard to deal with things for the transition, but we need to fire every fucking cop and make all of them re-apply for a new police department. If you cannot protect our federal government, little kids in schools, or even a public library from white wing terrorists then we take your badges and guns and you can go flip burgers. ACAB.
It's not that I think all cops are bad. I do believe most people are good people. I also believe A) people who choose to enter the police force, do so specifically so they can have authority over other people - to force others to comply - sometimes because they want to force criminals to comply with the law, but mostly because they want others to comply with what they say. And B) organizations like the police and the military are breeding grounds for group-think and mob rule. Having experienced it personally, I know how easy it is to fall in line.
and 3) How much does a Police Officer at Toronto Police Service make? The typical Toronto Police Service Police Officer salary is $110,241 per year. Police Officer salaries at Toronto Police Service can range from $61,798 - $122,116 per year. This estimate is based upon 17 Toronto Police Service Police Officer salary report(s) provided by employees or estimated based upon statistical methods. When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Police Officer at Toronto Police Service can expect to make an average total pay of $110,241 per year. also worth noting they make about 25K + expenses during training...
Police Department Used Images of Black Men Holding Guns as Target Practice Boy Scouts discovered the targets, some of them pierced with bullet holes, while touring a police department headquarters just outside Detroit.
It's long past time we recognized that something is badly fucked up with how we hire and retain police officers. In the Old South it's understandable that the long history of being uniformed goons whose job was to enforce Jim Crow makes their culture of thugishness toward people of color (and "queers") understandable, if still unforgiveable. But what about the "liberal" big cities? Why are they just as bad, if not worse in some cases?
The nature of the work will continue to attract bullies -- people who crave unchecked power over others -- until their power is no longer unchecked.
it goes to my earlier post about the average cop in my city making about double what the average citizen earns-and over 10x what those on some form of assistance are given. the police simply do not serve anyone who couldn't be considered "bourgeoisie" because they are part of that socio-economic strata. Toronto spends 1.1 billion on policing annually, nearly 90% of that is salaries for 5000 employees.
THIS IS THE TRIAL PENALTY. Jagger Freeman was offered 10 years before trial and is now sentenced to 30-life. Why? Felony murder rule. He was a lookout in a robbery with a fake gun where responding officers fired off 42 rounds and killed a fellow cop. https://twitter.com/elizaorlins/status/1545342354554605570?s=21&t=1HatwYbX22N9c6e4J-kk6A