Rep. Clayburn was just on CNN/Don Lemon and said that the root problem with...

[brush]

Last edited Wed Apr 14, 2021, 12:58 PM - Edit history (1)

policing is recruitment—with police departments unleashing onto the public who know who with badges, guns and the shield of qualified immunity, which the racists, and just sadistic cops, knows saves them from responsibility for their actions if they beat and/or kill someone.

He also noted that it's pretty well known that police forces around the nation have been infiltrated by elements like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois, Three Percenters and the like. He's onto something. He went on to cite the importance of passing HR-40, the policing bill being formulated in the House which will examine slavery and discrimination/policing in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.

Better training and all of that is of course important but I think the congressman is right. It's about intense scrutiny and vetting of recruits.

[SheltieLover]

1. Absolutely!

[Claire Oh Nette]

2. Education matters

Police Academy is 9 months.

not even an associates degree.

It's a profession. Officers need a four-year degree including criminal justice, ethics, psychology, sociology, CPR and basic life saving, community building, and grounding in actual law, not made up law based on Because I said...

Perhaps two years, and then a two year internship and residency, and continuing education units in things besides firearms, tasers, and use of force.

THe Pandemic has blown America open at it's seams.
We've been repeatedly traumatized as a nation the last four years, and forever for Black people. We will need relief from the pandemic financially, and reform, and restructuring, in order to achieve recovery.

It's almost like picking up the New Deal and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights eras where we left off--a reckoning for how far the Nativist GOP has fallen into fascism and undoing their obstruction and reversal of progress.

[soldierant]

8. Glenn Kirschner also cites recruiting

and points out that no amount of education will prevent abuses from someone whose motive to join the police is to acquire power to abuse.More than education and training is needed.

[DENVERPOPS]

14. I admire your idealism

Not so sure about the academies being nine months long.

There is a real problem recruiting individuals that meet the standards required. Many cities are even advertising in other major cities to attract their police officers to apply.

The former military soldiers that have spent one or more years, on the ground fighting the taliban or other groups get first preference.
That is scary enough. Add in that a large number of them are coming back with PTSD and really not all that stable.
They put on all the same battle gear they are used to wearing, but this time supplied by the Departments. That has to take them mentally back to their days in battle with the Military.......fighting terrorists that are coming at you, trying to kill you. All of them.
drop them into a group of normal citizens, and they are totally confused and experiencing a bunch of psychological confusion.

There was a time when sexist, racist, emotionally unbalanced cops were a real minority on the police forces. Today they have a shocking percentage of these people, with unbelievable power given to them, racist to the core. Their infiltration into police departments has become far too systemic to be able to correct it with ANY short term solution..........

[brush]

18. So what's your suggestion? We need more than identification of the problem.

[DENVERPOPS]

22. It would take a far greater

group, of much higher intelligent minds than mine, to correct this nightmare.

It would seem that Departmental and ranking officer's leadership would be the ultimate answer.

From what we have witnessed however, the upper ranks are just as infested with the same mentality as the officers
that are doing all this malicious crap.

Sorry for the comparison, but it is exactly like a cancer. It has been allowed to progress, un-checked for too long
and has taken over......

Katie Bar the Door........

I also fear that it has penetrated the military every bit as much, if not more......

[applegrove]

3. Is homeland security and the other 10 intelligence/policing agencies

sucking up all the talent? Plus i saw something a few times over the years that said police should only have a 104 IQ: that smarter police will not do the job for long. Salary too. If you pay bad wages people are going to become investment bankers instead if you can't get a house in a good neighbourhood out of your salary.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Many years ago the Newark Star-Ledger talked to a few NJ PD's and they all said...

they really didn't want exceptionally bright or educated cops. They get bored too easily.

I doubt Newark or Trenton had that problem, but the suburban cops sure did. I met a woman in Morristown who said she called the police when a possum was stuck in her pool. A cop showed up and fished it out. She said something like "You didn't have to do that. I thought you were going to find an animal guy to get it out."

He replied "No problem, we do this all the time." As though he didn't have enough actual cop work to do.

[applegrove]

5. I lived in a village/suburb that was sleepy until around 1988. Anyhow,

about then the local police who came from the province, not the city police, and used to have to have a police station there. They parked not the savyist police guy there once. It was a village that had been around for 100 years, settled before it became incorporated as a village. Someone was digging in their back yard. They found a human scull. They called the authorities. An forensic or medical expert came with the police. He looked at the scull and realized it was from the time in the early 1900s when 'learned' men would have a fake scull in their personal library. Since it was not a real person he felt okay holding it up and to the side and saying "Alas poor Yorick i knew him well". The policeman said incredulously: "How do you know who it is?" (I had to look up the quote myself to get it right... i've never read Hamlet either).

My grandmother hired a cook for a cocktail party once. She was giving directions when the woman said when she worked in the neighbourhood she just walked to the police station from the bus stop and they would drive her to where she needed to go.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Funny!

[Captain Zero]

9. That's hilarious about the cook...nt

[Mopar151]

7. Need a new category

Call X11, A reasonable person with a clipboard will be dispatched to resolve things, or call someone appropriate.
This might be a better path to a a law enforcement career than a stint in the MP's, which seems to be the fashion hereabouts.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. The other critical issue is accountability. They need to experience real consequences

when they fuck up. If lawsuit money came out of their pension funds, I'd bet we'd see a dramatic change in behavior, and see them policing each other.

[Duppers]

16. Yes! 👍

"lawsuit money came out of their pension funds"!

Excellent idea!

[Kablooie]

11. This would also mean many of the upper ranks who vet the candidates are racists too.

They would have come up through the ranks and would tend to see racism as a positive for new recruits.

It's going to be difficult to control.

[luckone]

15. Yes it's a culture and a cycle that's repeated . It will take a lot of effort to reform

[wnylib]

12. Vetting is probably the most important

thing in cleaning up and overhauling the current police problems. Decide what backgrounds are grounds for not hiring and what ones are most desireable. Then start with cops currently on the force.

Eliminate any cops with any kind of connection with any hate group. No exceptions. If it turns up in the vetting process, they are gone immediately. If they have any history of violence, e. g. domestic violence, assaults, excessive use of force on the job, etc., they are out.

Use the same vetting process on all new recruits. Start recruiting people with proven people skills from previous jobs, like customer service. Emphasize negotiating skills in hiring and training.

Education: Start recruiting peoplecwith 2 year (associate) degrees in Human Services, Sociology, Psychology, or Criminal justice. Make promotions contingent on additional coursework in areas of criminal law, sociology, psychology.

Stop recruiting and hiring people from the armed forces. Military experience is not equivalent to keeping civilian peace.

Have training include internships in social programs for troubled youth, recovering addicts, anger management programs, etc. If they have no experience with minorities, include that in their training internships.

Recruit and hire the right kinds of people and be sure they have some combination of education, training, and experience with the kinds of problems and people they will encounter on the job.

[brush]

19. Now that's what I'm talking about. Good post with good suggestions.

[wnylib]

24. Therefore, probably none of it will ever happen.

It's one thing to come up with ideas, quite another for them to become reality.

[brush]

25. From your post to Dem ears, hopefully. At least you make good suggestions...

Many just describe the problems and nothing more.

[SunSeeker]

13. K & R

[snowybirdie]

17. Used to be

Departments hired a candidate and subjected them to educational and psychological training and evaluation. Now people who want to be a police officer get and pay for their own training and then look around for a department to employ them. No psychological evaluation. There's great need to again do this.

[joetheman]

20. But where else could these miscreants be employed if not in street gangs with uniforms and badges?

[brush]

21. Unfortunately it actually seems that way in many cases.

Upgrading of educational requirements is needed...at least an associates degree, and psychological vetting.

[Generic Brad]

23. Hasn't that been so since the 1990's?

I recall hearing that white supremicist groups were planning to become the dominant group in police departments back during the Clinton administration. Sort of like when Christian fundamentalists vowed in the 1980’s to eventually become the dominant political force in the nation.

I distinctly remember those claims being considered laughable at the time because they were all so far out of the mainstream. No one is laughing now. These loons are dangerous.

[Wanderlust988]

26. Yes, David Duke talked about how they were going to infiltrate

the police departments back in the early 90's. His plan has come to fruition.