It's easy to be angry with the police in a case like this, but the reality is that Minneapolis has the police force they deserve. Their politicians, police administrators (I won't call them "leaders"), and "community activists" have ensured that training is focused on recognizing a few dozen gender identities and embracing diversity instead of handling physical altercations. Officers have moved to surrounding suburbs or are trying to keep their heads down until they reach retirement. What's left is busy kneeling on necks.

It's been a while since I talked to a friend that worked for years in the city's 1st Precinct; it was sad to hear the track that officer recruitment and training was taking.

I have not seen any "news", but as I posted elsewhere, it is going to be a long, hot summer leading up to the election.

I said we're not discussing that. I don't want to hear a word about it. It's the same old shit. I can go the rest of my life without hearing about another pissing, cop-hating protester who is thrilled to have a new excuse to cause problems.

Para’s post was directed at me. I deleted my post. I don’t want to create confusion.

Like any group of people, there are good eggs and bad eggs. But when you even start to lose Kurt Schlichter, you have to start being concerned that the good eggs are putting up with too many bad eggs.

The bottom line here is bears repeating- most cops perform thousands upon thousands of good deeds during the course of their careers, but the only ones you will ever see in the MSM are the bad stories and mistakes. You can only rarely sensationalize run of the mill actions undertaken on a daily basis.

It's late at night and you've broken down in a questionable part of town- Who'd you rather see a cop or a thug?

When I went to jury duty I was amazed at the animosity towards the police and the whole justice system. I reflected and realized all in all they've treated me fairly even when there were times they probably shouldn't have.

Anger towards an individual but certainly not to the Police as a whole.

quote:

The bottom line here is bears repeating- most cops perform thousands upon thousands of good deeds during the course of their careers, but the only ones you will ever see in the MSM are the bad stories and mistakes.

But that's irrelevant to the public's general attitude. How about this example. The public walks around thousands upon thousands of times on a daily basis. But you hear about one serial killer roaming around, and a good chunk of the public will change their behavior. They'll no longer walk around at night, won't leave their windows open at night, won't go anywhere without a friend.

It doesn't matter what the statistics are in this case, what matters is the perception. All it takes is one negative interaction, and every future interaction will be biased based upon the first.

That's the same reason that car salesmen and lawyers get their bad rep.

Not really following the situation, but I just saw some news alerts, a number of people also have anger towards the police, they got new flatscreens and other electronics for free, but are still angry.

Police are people, they are not perfect, some suck at their jobs, some suck at being humans. The vast majority are just normal people who want to do their job, live their life, and not die at work. I also want to do those three things.

quote:

Police are people, they are not perfect, some suck at their jobs, some suck at being humans. The vast majority are just normal people who want to do their job, live their life, and not die at work. I also want to do those three things

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nobody likes the people who enforce the rules. The ever present camera has changed a lot of things.

One of my strongest memories of a police officer is the tough as nails motorcycle cop (that’s what he looked like to teenage me) comforting my grandmother after he told her that my grandfather had died.

On the other extreme, you see instances of corruption and unjustified behavior.

The problem is the mainstream media’s bias to sensational stories that focus on one message, without providing context.

quote:

Originally posted by Broadside:
As I have written multiple times on this forum, but nobody seems to understand, contact with law enforcement seldom ends with a positive outcome and is best avoided whenever and however possible.

Define "contact with law enforcement" and "positive outcome." I would submit that if "contact with law enforcement" means something greater than passing each other on a street, sidewalk, or in a business and at most exchanging a greeting and "positive outcome" means not being cited or arrested that the overwhelmingly vast majority of "contacts with law enforcement" do, in fact, result in a "positive outcome." I would further submit that the majority of "negative outcomes" for the populace at large, are traffic tickets.

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
What you don't see are the tens of thousands of good things they do...

THIS and you see all of the bad, because everyone has a video camera in their pocket now (cellphone).

I agree overall I think police are good. I'm sure this thread was started because the incident in Minneapolis and without following it too much it sure looks like that cop is one of the bad ones and needs to be charged criminally so the court system can do its jobs.

There are A LOT of police performing A LOT of daily calls and we hear about a couple bad apples a year, maybe? Again it doesn't excuse anybody for things they do, but I don't think overall cops are bad.

What I think is silly is people thinking because something like this happened it's ok to riot and go looting. Seems to be a common theme with all of these major police incidents over the years. Within a day or 2 after an incident stores are getting robbed and lighting cars on fire? WTF makes them think that's an acceptable response? I do believe anybody involved in this sort of nonsense should get some sort of punishment.

There are tens of thousands, if not hundreds, of contacts between officers and citizens every single day. I probably run 15 to 20.calls.for.service each day, ot counting the people I simply have a short conversation with at a gas station, restaurant, store or whatever...

Of those contacts an extreme tiny amount of them are bad, or are even accused of being bad.

There are some guys out there who should not do this job. There are situations that turn into.shit sandwiches. There are assholes who bait officers. There are mistreated, or.misguided officers who intend well but are wrong. There are situations with NO possible right answer. There are situations where it is impossible to please everyone. There are criminals who escalate the situation and play the victim. There are officers who screw up and are wrong. There are terrible people who try to kill officers. This job gets more nerve wracking every day.....

To judge the many by the actions of a few is wrong. I would.wager the true percentage of misconduct is incredibly small.

Chicago murders
Heyjackass.com

2020 Race of Victim/Assailant

Race Victim Assailant
Black 116 17
Hispanic 33 4
White/Other 8 2
Police - 3
Self Defense - 3
Unknown 3 131
As of 4/30/20

Where is the outrage? 116 black men killed by peers, none by police.

I make no excuse for the death in Minneapolis - let justice prevail... but where is the perspective?

Let them burn it all down. Loot and torch the stores. Just don't rebuild them.

Once again, please stick to the subject of this thread. Any further mention of the latest stupidity will get this thread locked.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Once again, please stick to the subject of this thread. Any further mention of the latest stupidity will get this thread locked.

Apologies

The very title of this thread disappoints me.
I feel no anger towards the police whatsoever. Any anger or frustration I have is isolated to individuals.
What concerns me the most is the anti-police undercurrent in our society that is growing in intensity. I’m thankful for the good people we have that decide to do this increasingly thankless job everyday. I cannot imagine working in the environment that so many officers have to wade through.
Keep on generalizing and adding fuel to this fire. See where it takes our society. It is nowhere good.