What is the job of the police force?

[Prometheus]

"To protect and serve," is probably the glib response from most Americans, but what does that mean?

How are they supposed to protect everyone? They can't. They aren't bodyguards. Are they supposed to stop wrongdoers before anything happens? That's just for Tom Cruise and some psychics in a fish bowl. What the police do is track down people who already victimized at least one person in the hopes that the perpetrator will not be able to victimize someone else later. Sadly, that means that there need to be victims before the police can protect anyone else.

The closest a cop comes to protecting anyone ahead of time is when they pull over someone for a moving violation in the hopes that that driver will do a better job in the future. Unfortunately, we all know that the person who just got the warning or the ticket is most likely going to get out of view of the police and go right back to driving like an asshole again.

So, while the "protect" part is somewhat... kinda... partially true... it's just a bunch of bullshit.

"And serve"

This is where the police have their opportunity to shine... and usually fuck it up because so many of them are morons and bullies who just can't wait to be involved in a "high-speed pursuit" or chase a "thug" down an alley or show off their physical prowess by body-slamming a "perp" or by "blowing away" a "bad guy."

The post-crime "protection" of potential, future victims is certainly part of the "serving," but is that all that the "served" want?

Nope.

What I think many people want is to feel safe from the criminals and feel safe FROM the protectors. They want to know that the police can actually distinguish wrong from right AND the degrees of harm being done by wrong actions and respond appropriately. Some girl drinking on the beach is wrong. The drunk girl getting mouthy is wrong. Even if she does something really wrong like taking a drunken swing at a cop, is the right response to have a couple cops hold her down while another punches her in the face?

I don't know that I ever needed protection from her in the first place, but I'm starting to worry about what might happen to me if I forget to pay for a can of tuna. I don't feel "served" by these "protectors" and I'm not alone.

Don't get me wrong. I think police officers have a hard job and I think that many (if not most) of them do their jobs well and very professionally, but... apples and barrels.

And that brings me to the real problem: how do so many of these bad apples end up on police forces across the country?

It seems that our requirements are pretty low and vetting process is very lenient. Applicants need a high school diploma or GED, which - based on the overall condition of of education system - means they can read and do math to a 5th or 6th grade level... which is waaaaay lower than what other countries consider 5th or 6th grade level. Our kids are barely working out fractions and percentages while 6th graders in other countries are already working on basic algebra and trigonometry.

Our police candidates are supposed to have a clean record... but we routinely overlook "youthful indiscretions" when the candidate's dad knows someone in the force and/or "favors" are owed.

Our candidates are supposed to have a mental health check. This is usually a series of questions that a third-grader could lie about convincingly because they're not that deep or probing.

Physical fitness is important... at least in order to get into the police academy and pass. After that, it's pretty hit or miss with the cops who spend the most time in the gym also very often the same ones with the most complaints against them.

So who gets to go to the police academy? Not our best and brightest, that's for sure.

Some countries require that even the lowliest "beat cop" have a college degree at the time of application and the mental health check is actually conducted by trained professionals not some guy with a clipboard and a checklist.

Let's talk about their training. Most cops in the US get between 18 to 26 weeks of training. This includes learning the law, learning how to drive, learning how to fight, and learning how to handle firearms. Wanna guess which of those topics gets the least amount of attention? If you said, "Learning the law," you'd be right. It seems our cops spend more time learning how to fire weapons and beat people up than learning whether or not a law is actually being broken or how serious it actually is.

No wonder drunk chicks on the beach get beaten up and some other folks end up getting choked to death.

Cops in many other countries spend more hours in the classroom learning the law than ours spend in the academy total. Oddly enough, in those countries, complaints of police violence are low and public opinion of the police is high. Whoda thunk it.

Cops in other countries are taught how to use their words to defuse a situation and ours seem to think yelling and shouting conflicting orders at people is the best way to get compliance... or at least offer a reason to beat someone up or just shoot them.

Cops have a tough job. They spend their entire life dealing with people having (possibly) the worst day of their lives, and that has to be taxing on the officers. The officers just might find themselves acting a bit unprofessionally once the stress builds up. That cop needs to be pulled from the field and get some counseling... and getting counseling shouldn't be viewed with any stigma attached. If it keeps happening though, the cop needs to be mature enough to quit - not very easy when you're talking about someone with the intellectual capacity of a 5th grader - or they need to be fired.

Also, cops need to feel free to be able to report the bad behavior of their coworkers. That probably wouldn't seem so hard to do if our police forces were peopled with mature adults and not fifth grade bullies, but that's what we have, so....

Once we have some intelligent, articulate, and mentally stable officers on the force, it would probably be a good time to do more community policing: get the cops out of their cars and talking to the residents of the neighborhoods they "protect and serve;" build relationships with the shop-owners, the folks on their front stoops, the kids in the playground,....

You ever see those videos with the cops dancing with the kids or skateboarding with the kids or shooting hoops with the kids? Aren't they great? Of course they are. If those cops are doing stuff like that as often as possible then I'll bet those cops are getting leads on who the real bad guys are and being praised when they take down those bad guys even if a couple punches get thrown. Nobody cares if you bust the nose of the guy selling drugs down by the school. They DO get upset when you kill a guy for passing a bad 20.

If we aren't going to "defund" the police by taking away unnecessary duties, then we need to fund the police to make sure that they are hiring the best and brightest and training them to be integral parts of the communities they "protect and serve."

/Tuesday Afternoon Rant

[abbey1227]

May 10, 2022 6:04:54 GMT Prometheus said:

"To protect and serve," is probably the glib response from most Americans, but what does that mean?

How are they supposed to protect everyone? They can't. They aren't bodyguards. Are they supposed to stop wrongdoers before anything happens? That's just for Tom Cruise and some psychics in a fish bowl. What the police do is track down people who already victimized at least one person in the hopes that the perpetrator will not be able to victimize someone else later. Sadly, that means that there need to be victims before the police can protect anyone else.

The closest a cop comes to protecting anyone ahead of time is when they pull over someone for a moving violation in the hopes that that driver will do a better job in the future. Unfortunately, we all know that the person who just got the warning or the ticket is most likely going to get out of view of the police and go right back to driving like an asshole again.

So, while the "protect" part is somewhat... kinda... partially true... it's just a bunch of bullshit.

"And serve"

This is where the police have their opportunity to shine... and usually fuck it up because so many of them are morons and bullies who just can't wait to be involved in a "high-speed pursuit" or chase a "thug" down an alley or show off their physical prowess by body-slamming a "perp" or by "blowing away" a "bad guy."

The post-crime "protection" of potential, future victims is certainly part of the "serving," but is that all that the "served" want?

Nope.

What I think many people want is to feel safe from the criminals and feel safe FROM the protectors. They want to know that the police can actually distinguish wrong from right AND the degrees of harm being done by wrong actions and respond appropriately. Some girl drinking on the beach is wrong. The drunk girl getting mouthy is wrong. Even if she does something really wrong like taking a drunken swing at a cop, is the right response to have a couple cops hold her down while another punches her in the face?

I don't know that I ever needed protection from her in the first place, but I'm starting to worry about what might happen to me if I forget to pay for a can of tuna. I don't feel "served" by these "protectors" and I'm not alone.

Don't get me wrong. I think police officers have a hard job and I think that many (if not most) of them do their jobs well and very professionally, but... apples and barrels.

And that brings me to the real problem: how do so many of these bad apples end up on police forces across the country?

It seems that our requirements are pretty low and vetting process is very lenient. Applicants need a high school diploma or GED, which - based on the overall condition of of education system - means they can read and do math to a 5th or 6th grade level... which is waaaaay lower than what other countries consider 5th or 6th grade level. Our kids are barely working out fractions and percentages while 6th graders in other countries are already working on basic algebra and trigonometry.

Our police candidates are supposed to have a clean record... but we routinely overlook "youthful indiscretions" when the candidate's dad knows someone in the force and/or "favors" are owed.

Our candidates are supposed to have a mental health check. This is usually a series of questions that a third-grader could lie about convincingly because they're not that deep or probing.

Physical fitness is important... at least in order to get into the police academy and pass. After that, it's pretty hit or miss with the cops who spend the most time in the gym also very often the same ones with the most complaints against them.

So who gets to go to the police academy? Not our best and brightest, that's for sure.

Some countries require that even the lowliest "beat cop" have a college degree at the time of application and the mental health check is actually conducted by trained professionals not some guy with a clipboard and a checklist.

Let's talk about their training. Most cops in the US get between 18 to 26 weeks of training. This includes learning the law, learning how to drive, learning how to fight, and learning how to handle firearms. Wanna guess which of those topics gets the least amount of attention? If you said, "Learning the law," you'd be right. It seems our cops spend more time learning how to fire weapons and beat people up than learning whether or not a law is actually being broken or how serious it actually is.

No wonder drunk chicks on the beach get beaten up and some other folks end up getting choked to death.

Cops in many other countries spend more hours in the classroom learning the law than ours spend in the academy total. Oddly enough, in those countries, complaints of police violence are low and public opinion of the police is high. Whoda thunk it.

Cops in other countries are taught how to use their words to defuse a situation and ours seem to think yelling and shouting conflicting orders at people is the best way to get compliance... or at least offer a reason to beat someone up or just shoot them.

Cops have a tough job. They spend their entire life dealing with people having (possibly) the worst day of their lives, and that has to be taxing on the officers. The officers just might find themselves acting a bit unprofessionally once the stress builds up. That cop needs to be pulled from the field and get some counseling... and getting counseling shouldn't be viewed with any stigma attached. If it keeps happening though, the cop needs to be mature enough to quit - not very easy when you're talking about someone with the intellectual capacity of a 5th grader - or they need to be fired.

Also, cops need to feel free to be able to report the bad behavior of their coworkers. That probably wouldn't seem so hard to do if our police forces were peopled with mature adults and not fifth grade bullies, but that's what we have, so....

Once we have some intelligent, articulate, and mentally stable officers on the force, it would probably be a good time to do more community policing: get the cops out of their cars and talking to the residents of the neighborhoods they "protect and serve;" build relationships with the shop-owners, the folks on their front stoops, the kids in the playground,....

You ever see those videos with the cops dancing with the kids or skateboarding with the kids or shooting hoops with the kids? Aren't they great? Of course they are. If those cops are doing stuff like that as often as possible then I'll bet those cops are getting leads on who the real bad guys are and being praised when they take down those bad guys even if a couple punches get thrown. Nobody cares if you bust the nose of the guy selling drugs down by the school. They DO get upset when you kill a guy for passing a bad 20.

If we aren't going to "defund" the police by taking away unnecessary duties, then we need to fund the police to make sure that they are hiring the best and brightest and training them to be integral parts of the communities they "protect and serve."

/Tuesday Afternoon Rant

tldr

I keed