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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConfessions of a Former Bastard Cop
https://medium.com/OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and Ive never felt confident enough to write it. Its a time in my life Im ashamed of. Its a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. Its a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined peoples lives but in so doing, made the public no safer so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.
But enough is enough.
The reforms arent working. Incrementalism isnt happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders.
American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities and if you dont believe it when the poor and the marginalized say it, if you dont believe it when you see cops across the country shooting journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe youll believe it when you hear it straight from the pigs mouth.
It's a long read and every paragraph is worth excerpting.
msfiddlestix
(7,281 posts)Response to msfiddlestix (Reply #1)
Doc Sportello This message was self-deleted by its author.
drray23
(7,627 posts)You can tell ftom his writing that he is smart which definitely is an impediment for a cop rather than an asset.
Doc Sportello
(7,513 posts)Wow, that is powerful. Not to mention informative, enlightening and it offers what few are able to: concrete long term solutions. All from someone who has seen it all firsthand.
Midnightwalk
(3,131 posts)sop
(10,165 posts)Over the years I've known a couple of guys who became cops. The job changed them, and not for the better. It's a sick system.
ms liberty
(8,573 posts)Diamond_Dog
(31,980 posts)Can this guy somehow work with the Biden administration to work with changing how we do policing in this country?
Stuart G
(38,420 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,282 posts)And I've known enough police to know what he says is true. But he doesn't just tell stories. He proposes real solutions that would work.
summer_in_TX
(2,735 posts)Makes me wonder what made him take the journey away from being a "bastard cop" to being one who owns up to the system's structural toxicity.
I'd like to read that story too.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,327 posts)burrowowl
(17,639 posts)phylny
(8,379 posts)MichaelSoE
(1,576 posts)Even though it was published in June of 2020.
I sent Thom Hartmann an email with the link. This needs to be sp(read). I did a duckduckgo searh and there are many article and reprints of the essay on the interweb. A few suggest that the author was not in law enforcement ... regardless, it is a powerful piece.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,327 posts)Arazi
(6,829 posts)He has LOTS to say on the current police actions in the news, and racial profiling of black men by police in general.
Big recommend
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,327 posts)Niagara
(7,599 posts)This is a must read.