Posted on 08/22/2015 5:21:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last Saturday I made a first-ever visit to the down town Dallas Police Department to fill out a report. I had never been to a police department before. My only image of one was the police station I had seen on the television series Hill Street Blues.
Unlike the television show, the building I approached was thoroughly modern -- constructed of glass and steel. I was impressed.
Also unlike the television show, the building was locked. Locked? Yes locked. The police take off on weekends? Apparently. From what I remember, people walked in and out of the Hill Street Blues police station at any time night or day. It was part of the community. Not in Dallas.
That Saturday morning there was someone behind the locked front door. But he would only talk to me over an intercom. “Come back Monday morning after 8:00,” he ordered. When I did, I observed the interior of the building was as impressive as its exterior. But the mood and demeanor of the personnel was not much different than what I had experienced at the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security administration office or almost any other government agency.
Conservatives have a long tradition of being suspicious about the power of government. But they have tended to make an exception for the police in particular and the criminal justice system in general. It was not that long ago that “support your local police” bumper stickers were popular in some parts of the country.
It’s time to reset.
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. was just the first in a disturbing string of widely publicized deaths of black citizens who were stopped by the police or in their custody. Most of what I’ve read about this lately has been written by liberals. But try to put that thought aside and objectively consider what New York Times columnist Charles Blow has to say:
Many local municipalities experience budgetary pressure. Rather than raise taxes or cut services in response, things that are often politically unpalatable, they turn to law enforcement and courts to make up the difference in tickets and fines. Some can also increase the number of finable offenses and stiffen the penalties.
Officers, already disproportionately deployed and arrayed in so-called “high-crime” neighborhoods — invariably poor and minority neighborhoods — are then charged with doing the dirty work. The increase in sheer numbers of interactions creates friction with targeted populations and ups the odds that individual biases will be introduced.
Blow isn’t saying the police are racists. They are probably no more racist than anyone else. The problem is that pressure from City Hall creates a situation that disproportionally affects blacks. As Blow writes:
There is blood on everyone’s hands, including the hands still clutching the tax revenue that those cities needed but refused to solicit, instead shifting the mission of entire police departments “from ‘protect and serve’ to ‘punish and profit,’ ” as Mother Jones magazine recently put it in a fascinating article on this subject.
Is it a coincidence that many of the recent cases involving black people killed by the police began with stops for minor offenses?
And that’s just the first step people encounter when they interact with the criminal justice system. If they are charged with a crime, it gets worse. Writing in the New York Times Magazine, Nick Pinto says that:
[A]t any given time, close to 450,000 people are in pretrial detention in the United States — a figure that includes both those denied bail and those unable to pay the bail that has been set... In New York City, where courts use bail far less than in many jurisdictions, roughly 45,000 people are jailed each year simply because they can’t pay their court-assigned bail. And while the city’s courts set bail much lower than the national average, only one in 10 defendants is able to pay it at arraignment. To put a finer point on it: Even when bail is set comparatively low -- at $500 or less, as it is in one-third of nonfelony cases -- only 15 percent of defendants are able to come up with the money to avoid jail.
In a post at Slate, Andrew Kahn and Chris Kirk note that:
· Black and Hispanic drivers are far more likely than whites to be stopped and searched by the police.
· Black Americans are more likely to be jailed while awaiting trial.
· Blacks are more likely to be offered a plea deal that avoids trial.
· Blacks are more likely to serve longer sentences for the same offense.
· Blacks are more likely to be disenfranchised because of a felony conviction.
· Blacks are more likely to have their probation revoked.
· Blacks are more likely to be excluded from jury pools.
· Blacks are more likely to have their probation revoked.
None of this means that racism is involved, although it may be.
Conservatives are prone to point out that there is more criminality in the black community. Writing in USA Today, criminology expert James Alan Fox notes that:
"[T]he police were not the greatest threat to black citizens and the tranquility of their neighborhoods during the late-80s crime wave. At that time, blacks were only 12% of the U.S. population, yet constituted nearly half of the nation’s homicide victims. Moreover, well over 90% of these black homicide victims were slain by members of their own race. Black lives do indeed matter, but not just when they are taken by officers in blue."
Fair enough. But that can’t excuse a lot of current practices.
Conservatives who become outraged when city governments overstep their powers of imminent domain and seize private property should be even more outraged when the criminal justice system abuses rights instead of protecting them.
“The police take off on weekends? Apparently. From what I remember, people walked in and out of the Hill Street Blues police station at any time night or day. It was part of the community. Not in Dallas.”
He can’t be that stupid. A station has a standard reception and office staff, and yes, they are gone on the weekend and probably after 6.
That misty eyed BS about Hill Street Blues stuff forgets that it was portraying an east coast department. They were open 24 hours BACK THEN because communications were piss poor. And the unions LOVED hiring floods of people. What you need? Staff 24/7 to sit at a desk in a fully crewed station? SURE, Be happy to!
Go to those east coast cities where you see groups of 5 or 6 cops walking along together.
That’s what this dweeb is misty eyed about.
Sorry, but this article is about a goober. He lives in Dallas freakin Texas, and needs a report about something, so he avoids all modern life and communications, and goes to the station. No using the online site where he could have probably obtained his report. NO looking on the webpage to see the services and hours at the station. NO understanding that office staff is paid much less to provide administrative services.
No,,, he comes doddering in and wants the sergeant from Hill Street Blues to commiserate with him!
Why stop there, if I were him id drive on out to Mayberry and maybe Andy would grab a couple of cane poles and they could spend the afternoon talking about those darn kids next door who toilet papered his house.
Go away geezer. Oh, and none of his article is a reason I should care about the nuts in Ferguson burning their homes again.
“The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. was just the first in a disturbing string of widely publicized deaths of black citizens who were stopped by the police or in their custody.”
Defending St Michael Brown. Insane
Officers, already disproportionately deployed and arrayed in so-called “high-crime” neighborhoods — invariably poor and minority neighborhoods — are then charged with doing the dirty work. The increase in sheer numbers of interactions creates friction with targeted populations and ups the odds that individual biases will be introduced.
Okay, here is the problem and I speak from some experience. You say disproportionally deployed, based on what? If an area or section of a city has more crime then the next how would YOU deploy your police? If you as a Chief of Mayor whatever does snot provide enough police to the high crime area you will be raked across the coals for “not helping the poor people and ignoring their needs”. You send enough police into the area and you get the more interactions and the more potential incidents. Then you get blamed for that. Its a no win situation.
Whenever the government wants more tax dollars, they always say it is for roads and bridges, or education, or police. But, all they ever do is take money from people who earned it and give it to people who didn’t.
First, I do care and know we have a problem with officially protected (unions) police brutality and corruption in some police departments. It happens to whites and blacks. I hate it. I want it stopped. I want corrupt cops prosecuted.
I am never accepting of crime stats claiming blacks are statistically victims of racist police and courts because I know, statistically in quotas, Blacks are involved in more crime than the statistical quota of whites. This guy got his bleeding heart stats from ultra-liberal SLATE. He’s whining about a case in Ferguson that was proven not to be police brutality! “Hands up don’t shoot” was proven to be total b.s. Was he born yesterday?
You are 110% correct about using Michael Brown as a "victim". He got what he deserved.
But I don't think the author was solely focusing on Brown. MB was just an overly publicized example that everyone knew about.
Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.
Game. Set. Match.
You summed it up in one sentence.
Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.
I believe the problem was, for the most part, caused by LBJ’s “Great Society”. NEVER give people something for nothing, other than for a very temporary thing. e.g. The good Samaritan.
I think your post sums up what I’ve been telling my friends. And Capitalism is not a good thing in a humanist society. That is why liberals hate it. They are humanist.
Charles Blow? Blow? That white-hating asshat? You're gonna quote Charles "Nat Turner" Blow to us?
Lyndon Johnson did us damage for the sake of his own ego, that the Boomers' great-grandchildren will continue to suffer from 75 years from now.
Not to mention questioning why the Police Station doors were locked in Dallas, when about a month ago some nutjob tried to lob pipebombs through their door, and shot the place up pretty well.
If I was the police, I’d keep my doors locked as well.
What everyone should know about Ferguson; it’s not just a city, it’s an actual plumbing company/toilet.
Al Bundy made Ferguson a household name before some black thief did.
Do you know why blacks get stopped more, searched more, and arrested more?
Because they made poor choices in life, like blowing school off, having kids too early and almost always out of wedlock, and when they find those poor choices bring no financial reward, they start having to make choices like, do I license my car or pay the rent?
Traffic laws are generally suggestions for them and thus they get stopped more. Court is blown off so they get warrants. A lot of warrants, some of which are put on their license plates. They then drive like idiots again and get stopped. Oops, got warrants, go to jail, car gets searched and the cycle starts all over.
They are also extremely fond of smoking weed in their car which gives officer probable cause to search. They have not figured this out after decades of the same, smoke, stop, search, jail.
Sympathy is found in the dictionary between Shiite and syphilis.
Ferguson morons make veiled threat against cops with PIG’S HEAD IN A NOOSE
Posted by soopermexican on Aug 22, 2015
http://therightscoop.com/ferguson-morons-make-veiled-threat-against-cops-with-pigs-head-in-a-nose/
While people whine about racism, over in Ferguson they’re showing how ignorant they can be by making this veiled threat against law enforcement by putting the head of a pinata pig in a noose:
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