LogFAQs > #924322425

s0nicfan posted...

berlyman101 posted...

but it's one thing to be upset and another to act like they have no idea why this would happen and blame everyone else for their deservedly shit reputation.

But this is ultimately the issue. If you look at the actual crime statistics, the vast vast vast majority of police encounters are constructive. There's an extremely small number of cases in a country of 350 million people that get broadcast every single time and it's created this illusion that there's a bigger problem than there actually is. If you look at the number of people killed by police that weren't themselves either holding a gun or actively fighting back, it's a few hundred people a year. Not great, but again in a country of 350 million you're talking essentially a zero percent chance of being shot.

Now explain to me how that zero becomes a "deservedly shit reputation".

I'm not saying there are no precincts that need reforming, and there is definitely a problem with police in those four hundred or so cases not being put through proper due process, but the idea that any arbitrary police officer in any arbitrary District should expect to be treated like shit based on a small number of cases is insane. The numbers just aren't there. It's an illusion.

On a general level, the serve and protect line is an appeal to sentiment that's based on nothing but the same PR b.s. that any other shitty organization might hold. It's a lot harder to avoid the police in a given situation than a company like Starbucks. I don't particularly like Starbucks, but it's my choice to go there or not and the worst thing that they can do to me is I lose five bucks on some liquid sugar. It's a little different than, say, Comcast or ATT back in the day where you don't have a lot of options. A more relevant comparison to the police might be airlines where they don't need to give a damn about any given individual or their perception because the flights are the flights.

The most an airline can do is ruin your trip and give you and your family an awful experience, lose your shit. I bring all this into it because the statement they provided compares themselves to such services. The police can kill you and do so more than any organized group of people save maybe gangs. The police will usually get away with it, though, and they're associated with the government. So it's hard to argue that people might feel uncomfortable and voice their concern. Their activity in many places has been ganglike and the particular area in question especially so. The numbers the AZ police put up in comparison to places like Chicago and LA should be shocking. This is the key here - it's fucking bananas to me that police in Arizona are consistently egregious as they are. Numbers back it up, video backs it up. The brazen nature of it makes it all the worse.

That's where I, a message board poster who doesn't frequent that area but pays attention to the news, find it completely understandable that someone who wants to pay to chill with some coffee in the oppressive Arizona summer might get the nerve to get these cops to fuck off. And then find it embarrassing when the station releases some garbage like they did. That's why even though it *might* have been some petty, paranoid shit and these cops did nothing wrong, I have no sympathy for them, and we don't even know that's the case. Look in the mirror.
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