They arrested the black journalist, saying they were doing it for not moving on when they were live on tv with him asking where he should move to, then didn't realise they were still live on air.
Again, it depends on what the 18 complaints were for and whether they were valid. There is a (valid IMO) line of thought that just by doing the job, a good cop is going to piss people off and incentivize them to complain. There is also a (valid IMO) line of thought that where there's smoke, there can be fire. https://apnews.com/a69682cfc7dd6f99260315b5a68fe6ec From the above article, Chauvin has shot two people. One was a person who had been stabbing civilians and then attacked police. He and other cops shot and killed him. The grand jury didn't indict. I don't know based on those limited facts any reason to think that he was not justified in shooting that person. In the other case, he shot someone he said was going for his gun.
I have always wondered: Do people say all teachers are bastards, or all corporate employees are bastards, all prosecutors/judges/lawyers are bastards, etc.? After all, those occupations have their share of systemic racism, corruption, incompetence, malice, etc. the same as the police do.
Not to say the ACAB, but it is easier to treat them all as such because a bastard teacher can’t kill you without consequences. With schools, businesses, etc. you generally have some sort of alternative option. You can’t just choose an alternative police force.
As I understand the logic of all cops are bastards, it is because the job inherently involves maintaining a problematic power structure and because even the best cops don't act to root out the bad oes. Well, the power structures involved in education, business, the justice system, etc. are just as problematic. Yes, cops can hurt and kill people unjustly, but with obvious exceptions, you can avoid interactions with cops for the most part. Most people can't afford to homeschool and no one can avoid interactions with all businesses.
The fuck you can. If a cop says he wants to talk to you and you don’t want to, sucks to be you. If you’re a person of color you’re more likely to be stopped by the police than a white person. And while there might be all kinds of things a lawyer could say in a given situation to convince the cop that it’s not legal or ethical to continue the interaction, non-lawyers don’t have that luxury. The cop tells them to wait while they re-run a person’s ID or ask them the same questions over and over again, they know their choice is to either put up with it and hope the cop gets tired of the game or go to jail.
There are obvious exceptions -- cops stop people who "fit the description" of someone and the like, for instance. There are douchebag cops and cops who are criminals. But the majority of cops don't mess with law-abiding citizens and if they do talk to them are going to be reasonable if the people they are dealing with are reasonable to them. Even if we are going to assume for argument's sake that many or most cops are bastards, I don't see why teachers, lawyers, businesspeople etc. don't get slammed for the many among them who are bastards.
Yes, when "the description" is strictly limited to skin color. Thank you, Captain Obvious. And the majority of postal workers didn't kill anybody in the 80s/90s, but the bad apples gave everybody the same rep. And I guess you don't know anything about the stop-and-frisk program NYC had going for years. People who were simply walking down the street were stopped and frisked because the police wanted to make sure that they weren't a terrorist. Any guesses as to the ethnicity of the people who had it happen to them the most? Any guesses as to how many of them had it happen to them multiple times in a single day? How many teachers do you know of that have killed someone and never even had to worry for a second that they might go to jail over it? How many business people do you know of that routinely take someone away from their families for weeks/months/years? As for lawyers, I don't know where you've been, but people have dissing on them since at least Shakespeare. "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2.
As others have stated, those other groups face consequences. They also don't have a license to kill. Of course we need to fix those things too, but there's a reason NWA didn't make a single called "Fuck The Teachers' Union."
Wonder how many people they have locked up without cause who didn't have the benefit of an international audience to their arrest.
Another CNN crew was told to move. They complied and weren’t hassled. Care to guess how the two crews differed?
have you any idea how many times they tell me I "fit a description" of some nefarious character simply for being scruffy? I mean, I'm pretty unique in appearance for a middle aged white guy... there's little chance of me being mistakable as someone else at 8am in an upscale neighbourhood (waiting for a ride to a job site with a deWalt tool bag in hand). Point that out and they'll just move on to the next selection of "just cause" excuses. Erratic driving maneuver, someone claims you did "___", you were seen at "___". then there's the nature of questioning once you've been stopped... so many questions there is no exonerating answer to, and they take random turns asking to keep you distracted.
I don't think there is any more evidence that bad teachers/businesspeople/lawyers/etc. are more likely to facce consequnces than bad cops for being incompetent, heartless, racist/sexist/homophobic, predators complicit in the bad acts of others, etc. Yes, cops have more direct and obvious power than those other groups. But does that change the dynamics/logic of why all teachers are bastards?
The main difference is that all too many police departments these days view themselves, explicitly or implicitly, as military forces. To the point of using phrases like "warrior training." Cops aren't warriors, they're public servants, and it's time they got back to the "protect and serve" mentality instead of the "what're you up to, perp?" one that they seem to operate under nowadays.
Yes, cops have more direct and obvious power than those other groups see, it's right there in your own words!!! those others can fuck up your day or your finances, cops can kill you and get the benefit of doubt.
The notion of "going postal" as slang for going out of control is sort of what I'm talking about. It is easy to generalize from relatively few incidents involving postal worker violence that "postal workers can snap" but no one would seriously think that all postal workers are barely suppressed serial killers or complicit with them. I can get the logic (though I disagree with it) that says enough police are racist/corrupt/incompetent and upholding a racist and unfair system that all police should be considered bad. I am simply asking why people who subscribe to that logic do not apply the same logic to the many other people/professions that are similarly situated. Teachers don't kill people in their line of work. But bad teachers molest kids, destroy their spirits, fail to educate them, perpetuate racist/sexist/homophobic power dynamics, dehumanize them, etc etc. They are a minority of overall teachers (I assume) but the majority of teachers let them slide. Bad business people are again guilty of their own sets of sins: exploiting workers, engaging in corruption, swindling customers, cheating competitors and suppliers, etc etc. People dis lawyers, yes. I happen to be one. But not in the way or for the reasons that are akin to all cops are bastards.
And, in a turn for the surreal... MSP mayor has asked rioters to wear masks and social distance. Because God forbid you catch the China virus while out there looting and burning buildings. I think even Heinlein would be shaking his head at this point. Crazy Years, indeed.
Again, teachers don't have the power to fuck with most people. Once you're out of school, not a whole helluvalot Ms. Pinchedface can do to you. As for bad business people, well, I guess you've missed all the folks talking about sticking billionaires in guillotines, but hey, you can at least try to avoid the worst companies out there. Cops? There's shit fuck all you can do if they want to hassle you. And even if they don't arrest you, the problems can be severe. You're minding your own business while you're on your way to work, and a cop stops you because you "fit the profile." So, you wind up late to your job. This can cause you to be penalized for being late, or at the very least, get you chewed out by your boss. Or maybe you get fired. What recourse do you have? None. You get stopped by a cop, for whatever reason, and your landlord happens to witness it. Suddenly your landlord starts nosing around in your business as he's concerned that you might be a criminal. Again, what recourse do you have? None. You probably can't afford to move, and you certainly can't afford to hire a lawyer. You sit in court, as I have done, and watch black guys go to jail for extended periods of time, while white guys who've done something worse than the black guys get only days, if that, in jail. A teacher can't bankrupt you, just because they talk to you. A teacher can't get you evicted, just because they talk to you. A teacher can't get you fired, just because they talk to you. A cop can. And not only that, but a cop will brag about it as he's doing it to you.
My business partner suggests that police departments are eagerly hiring ex-military types. Makes sense, they have the hard skills such as firearms training, but he also says he's not seeing nearly enough effort when it comes to teaching them the difference between being in the military (and being in combat) and policing. Mind you, this is a conservative/libertarian Mormon talking. He's also helped with some police training. I've said before that we can't go to the U.K. model, for any number of reasons, but we have to try to move toward the idea of protect and serve. When the people being policed are treated with suspicion, hostility and in too many cases brutality it's hard to expect good relations.
