Matt Taibbi: The NYPD's 'Work Stoppage' Is Surreal [View all]
The NYPD's 'Work Stoppage' Is Surreal
In an alternate universe, the New York Police might have just solved the national community-policing controversy.
.........
The thing is, there are really two things going on here. One is an ongoing bitter argument about race and blame that won't be resolved in this country anytime soon, if ever. Dig a millimeter under the surface of the Garner case, Ferguson, the Liu-Ramos murders, and you'll find vicious race-soaked debates about who's to blame for urban poverty, black crime, police violence, immigration, overloaded prisons and a dozen other nightmare issues.
But the other thing is a highly specific debate over a very resolvable controversy not about police as people, but about how police are deployed. Most people, and police most of all, agree that the best use of police officers is police work. They shouldn't be collecting backdoor taxes because politicians are too cowardly to raise them, and they shouldn't be pre-emptively busting people in poor neighborhoods because voters don't have the patience to figure out some other way to deal with our dying cities.
This police protest, ironically, could have shined a light on all of that. Instead, it's just more fodder for our ongoing hate-a-thon. Happy New Year, America.
.....................
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-nypds-work-stoppage-is-surreal-20141231#ixzz3NWPwEeiH
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-nypds-work-stoppage-is-surreal-20141231?page=2
= new reply since forum marked as read