Administered by:
The fact that:
1. This election is between a black female cop and a 34-time convicted white male felon
2. Almost every police union supports the felon
Should tell you everything you need to know about who the police really serve.
@Lana And how unions *can* go bad. It's also telling that just one key union can make the idea of unionization turn sour in the public's mind.
No for real, it's white dudes and their attachment to their automatic weapons, and that they want, so, so bad, to think they're smart.
Police unions are the one kind of union, historically, not busted by the cops.
@RnDanger @dalias @bmalsuj Some do, but they're not *supposed* to. If we get it in our craw that they are supposed to be working for us, and taking the steps to make that so, they may eventually get it in their scared little heads that defense of wealth, a.k.a. their paychecks/benefits, isn't the service they need to believe they were hired to do.
We are their context. We can use that.
@janisf @dalias @bmalsuj
I don't know about your area but in America police are often trained to be fearful of every encounter with the public, to the point that they are trained to shoot people before they can determine what's happening. I'm all for being their context, but i think just saying that we are may be glossing over a lot.
@RnDanger @dalias @bmalsuj Depends on which way you flip it. From180°, it's sliding a new foundation underneath, taking on the load of fundamental change.
Although I totally agree, big-picture thinking is one step away from throwing a penny in a wishing well. I think we know we want policing to change, but we need to be realistic, it's not going away. The question is what to do next.
@janisf @RnDanger @dalias @bmalsuj right, AND $$ flowing from the MIC to keep this kind of policing intact is substantial, and often invisible to the public.
SCIENCE has shown for DECADES that community based policing works much better than adversarial policing, AND it also doesn't need near as many guns, riot gear, tanks, or kevlar vests.
But arms dealers profiting from *surveillance tech and weapons* truly see their cash cows drying up if there's a switch to community based policing.
@dalias @bmalsuj It's an interesting take, and while I get the accuracy of it, I'm not sure it's pure entirely because it depends on how "crime" is defined. Threre are very separate, and likely more than a couple, definitions. I've long purported that belief drives action.
It's a function of the patriarchy, IMO, that tells cops and their policy makers they can do no wrong in uniform. Plus, we know how good men who love fancy guns are at introspection.
@mansr @Lana It may be the people themselves are bad, but I've found it utterly counterproductive to buy into that. It renders change impossible just by believing it. There are some rally shitty patriarchal ideas that I think *can* change, and can infiltrate the US policing culture if the right folks recognize the need and act on it.
Not bad, just crazy in a bad way. I'm banking on mental health initiatives, that encourage cognitive self-questioning AND humane treatment of citizens.
@mansr @Lana It definitely is Circular accountabilty is a hard thing to set up, and equally hard to maintain. I'm convinced, though, that's what democracy is supposed to be about. We'lll never get there, though, if no one's willing to work collaboratively toward that goal, and we've got a "no, you go first" belligerence that pervades not just cop culture.
IMO, real science-based mental health and self-reflection contain the tiny steps that will get us there.
