police

[mellowtigger]

I've said before that there was once a time in the USA when everyone knew that the institution of policing was corrupt. That phrase "sending letters by rabbit" appeared on television when there was very little television to watch, as an insult to the nationwide corrupt police system that everybody knew about. I still don't really understand how we got from there to here, where police are sacrosanct.

By now, everyone's seen the news about our FBI investigating the torture warehouse that police themselves called the "brave cave". The USA constitution forbids the national government from creating a domestic army of its own, but police seem to be creating for themselves the position of independent authority... everywhere... and with military gear. Do you understand why people are protesting the creation of cop city?

A few weeks ago, I wrote as much when I submitted my comments to the Department Of Justice. I didn't attend the in-person events where they asked for community input, so I sent my response in August via their email address. Yes, I understand the terrible irony of me hearkening back to the days of Reagan and his union busting.

Read my letter to the DoJ...

I'm not sure if you're still collecting community input about the Minneapolis police. I hope my thoughts can be added to the consideration. Other people are better qualified to tackle the issues of systemic racism. As an old Minneapolis resident who has had police show up in an armored tank to point a rifle at my face, I do feel qualified to speak about their militarization and training.
https://mellowtigger.dreamwidth.org/439825.html (pictures of the event)

I think 2 main issues need to be addressed, and they could be related, with maybe a similar solution.

1) The police union is allowed to run the police department. In recent years, Mayor Jacob Frey told the police department to stop no-knock warrants. He told them not just once or twice, but at least three times, and maybe even four. They continued anyway after each prohibition from the mayor. Mayor Jacob Frey told the Minneapolis community that they were allowed to stand on their own property during the lockdown after the riots after George Floyd's murder. There is video online of police violently harassing people on their own private property instead. Mayor Jacob Frey told the police department to stop with the "warrior training" because it taught police to see community members as dangerous threats. The police union chief told police members to take the training anyway.
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/05/bob-kroll-minneapolis-warrior-police-training/

I'm old enough to remember when President Reagan broke the union for air traffic controllers. Laborers are supposed to have the right to unionize, but Reagan fired them and ordered a lifetime ban for rehiring any of the striking workers. Unions, apparently, don't get carte blanche when lives are potentially at stake. Police unions, on the other hand, continually train themselves as judge, jury, and executioner while government continues to let them pre-meditate their murder of citizens. It's long past time that somebody took power away from police unions. They need to operate under community standards of justice and enforcement, not their own warrior wannabe wishes.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/05/1025018833/looking-back-on-when-president-reagan-fired-air-traffic-controllers

You must control the police unions, or other changes will not take root.

2) When the police themselves murder, it ABSOLUTELY should NOT be police who are put in front of the community to maintain order. That's equivalent to telling an abused victim to obey their abuser. It is ethically reprehensible. Everyone knows it. It just adds fuel to the flame when government puts police in front of a group that is protesting because of police misconduct and murder. Don't do it.

Communities must have backup plans for replacing the police department (all of it) at a moment's notice during a crisis, just like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers.

I offer as a potential solution the idea that an unarmed government force could take over much of regular police duties. They could have the same badge but different color vehicles and uniforms. Being visibly separate with a non-violent history would train the community to respect them differently than whoever was responsible for yet another avoidable death. I've seen this method work before. Sometime around 1991 at the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, the university police separated from the "meter maids" who got different uniforms. A police investigator said the community response was "immediate". They quickly gained cooperation from people who previously despised them for their association with the group that most offended them (ticketing for parking). Try this solution, please.

Don't send letters by rabbit, and don't trust police to police themselves. Not ever.

Comments

[armiphlage]

"sending letters by rabbit"? Google isn't giving me any clues.

[mellowtigger]

It's from a black-and-white television show called "The Untouchables". The specific episode and context is described on that first link for "there once was a time". I had never heard that phrase before too.

[armiphlage]

oooh

[mellowtigger]

P.S. You're right. That explanation would be better available if hyperlinked when I use the phrase. I'll go move it now. :)

P.P.S. And I added a proper explanation of the phrase in this reply to that old post.

[shimmerwine]

I remember reading, somewhere along the line, that when tv moved from westerns to police shows, the LAPD was either asked, or asked TO, give input on all the procedures and how police did their job. And natch, they whitewashed everything. I think that was the turning point. Then, of course, we were force-fed tv and movies in which a cop being violent with a suspect because they "knew" the suspect was lying...and it's never stopped.