Posted on 06/03/2020 7:51:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
No one wants to watch an innocent man suffocate under the knee of a cop while bystanders plead for his life. Yet millions now have that haunting image seared into their memory.
The question to ask in response is simple: what could have been done to prevent this? While I’m in quarantine and can’t see my students, I imagine their predominantly minority faces and wonder how can I keep them from a similar fate?
Policy recommendations to prevent another tragedy like the one that befell George Floyd have ranged from defunding the police to ending qualified immunity and military surplus transfers to departments. But if peaceful protests—of which there have been many—are to achieve any meaningful change, they need a goal.
In the particular case of George Floyd, there is an obvious answer: at least two cops should have lost their jobs long before the event even occurred. George Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, had previously received 20 complaints filed against him, resulting in two letters of reprimand. His partner, Tou Thao, was sued in 2017 for stopping a man without cause and beating him in the street. In both cases, their contracts protected them.
Unfortunately, this is more common than not. Even after the most egregious conduct, many cops keep their jobs. As previously reported in The Atlantic, there is a long history of precincts still employing cops that would have been fired were it not for police unions keeping them on the force. One off-duty cop pulled his gun on a supposed criminal while intoxicated, misfired, killed the man who was later deemed innocent, and then returned to work.
There are numerous stories of on-duty boozing, theft, and abuse. In each case, the police union fought to reinstate these officers despite their inappropriate conduct.
Unfortunately, our priors often blind us when it comes to any talk of reforming police unions. On the left, any contention against unions is untenable. An author for Slate acknowledged the tension between social justice and police unions but couldn’t bring herself to renounce support for any organized labor. On the right, there’s a strong wariness against being perceived as anti-cop or weak on crime.
In reality, reforming police unions should be a bipartisan issue. The right has a history of undercutting the power of public-sector unions and, in this case, doing so would help promote a greater degree of racial justice in our country. In response to the critics, a weakening of their powers need not imply a complete abolition of unions. Studies blame collective bargaining and other roadblocks to thoroughly investigating cops, not the existence of unions per se.
Yet as with all unions, so too do police unions protect mediocrity, if not incompetence, in a profession trusted with upholding law, order, justice, and safety.
Studies confirm this position. Rob Gillezeau, professor at the University of Victoria, posted about his upcoming research into police violence and unionization. His team found that collective bargaining leads to “a substantial increase in police killings of civilians.” The protections that their contracts allowed shifted the incentives such that, when there was a swift decision to shoot or not, those protections pushed the decision to fire.
Furthermore, Gillezeau’s research found that “collective bargaining rights are being used to protect the ability of officers to discriminate in the disproportionate use of force against the non-white population.” Similar studies conducted by Oxford University as well as the University of Chicago Law School came to the same conclusion: strong unions, and in particular collective bargaining rights, lead directly to an increase in the use of excessive force.
A related negative effect of unions is their tendency to retard or stifle any meaningful reform. After the Ferguson riots in 2014, body-cameras on police officers developed bipartisan support. Then, a union in Miami blocked the initiative.
When my governor Scott Walker sought to limit bargaining rights, police unions got an exemption. Aggressive union contention blocks any structural reform that isn’t merely an increase in funding. But funding is easy. Real, structural reform requires accountability and work.
What could this mean for other proposed reforms? Perhaps ending qualified immunity or the demilitarization of the police isn’t the answer. But if unions are left in such positions of control, such proposals won’t even get discussed.
I’m sympathetic to the crusades against racial profiling and excessive force. But, like many, I’ve spent too much time these past few days watching videos of rioters looting businesses and burning down police stations. Wanton hooliganism will not result in the change we need in America’s police forces.
A man died because a union protected two bad cops. For the sake of the innocent and for the cause of protecting all the good cops out there, the time to reform police unions is now.
It’s going to happen again, just a matter of time, and if it doesn’t, they will pretend it did whenever it suits them best.
I’ll see your teachers unions, and call with the police unions.
Show or fold
At a minimum, any financial judgment against a police department should come straight out of the Union pension fund. Hurt every cop associated with the department.
“””””No one wants to watch an innocent man suffocate under the knee of a cop”””””””””””””””””””
I think he meant to say...No one wants to watch a career criminal die of a heart attack and heroin overdose.
fix.
How about do away with.
yeeppppppp
Except other bad cops.
And the bad lawyers which cover for them.
And the police unions.
NO...NO...NO.. while the unions are part of the problem, the problem lies at the ballot box.... mayors appoint chief of police, who in turn not only allow but encourage this type of behavior in the department...... vote in a tyrant, get a tyrannical police department...
“I imagine their predominantly minority faces and wonder how can I keep them from a similar fate?”
You could tell them not to serve 5 years for a home invasion, don’t work as a porn actor, don’t do a mix of fentanyl and meth, don’t steal while you are high, and don’t resist cops when the catch you.
That might help.
And a teacher...warning us about police unions. That’s rich...
It will, but before it happens again to a black man, it will happen twice to a white, according to statistics. We’ll never hear of it, tho.
“”And the bad lawyers which cover for them.”””””
BAD lawyers?????
So people accused of wrongdoing should not defend themselves?
I’ve been on a few juries and I am on the roster for jury duty in Federal Court in Minneapolis this summer if they ever go back to work.
Believe it or not, there are two sides to every story.
If you only want to see and believe in one side then just believe everything the media tells you. It’s easier that way since you don’t have to think for yourself.
I meant to say: it will happen to two whites.
Given that horrible unrest happens even if a white policeman was justified in killing a black thug, it is impossible to fix the problem without addressing the systematic pathology of the black community and the Democrat Party.
No doubt about it. If it doesn’t advance the narrative, it never happened.
I disagree. Mayor Guiliani proved the police union thesis is false. Therefore, all protests should be focused on calling for the resignation of the Mayor of Minneapolis and the Governor of the state. Anything less than this is embracing the bigotry of systematic racism of the leadership in Minnesota for the last 40 years. Either the Mayor or the Governor could have already fired the police chief and charged every investigator who ever held a paper with these officer’s names on them. The Mayor and Governors’ refusal to end this cycle of violence through leadership so has proven the racism to which they are blind...
These people understand this language and get white-hot when it is turned on them. The Gov of Minnesota needs to resign.
“Even after the most egregious conduct, many cops keep their jobs.”
Me and my family got to see this sort of thing in action at a very personal level with the teacher’s union back in the early ‘90s (one of the things that helped to convert me into a conservative, do not wish to discuss publicly).
Or......get rid of police and return to putting LE squarely in the hands of an elected official.....the SHERIFF.
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