QPP 28: Cops Killed, New Technologies, Starbucks, Handsome Cops, Citizen-Idiots, Racists
This was a busy couple of weeks – Nick mentioned the seeming high-volume blip in police officers killed and wounded this year, and Peter mentioned that this blip is statistically not extraordinary. Peter and Nick discuss fatalistic acceptance by younger officers of attacks on officers this year.
Peter discussed sympathetic firing, prompted by the release publicly of new video from the Las Vegas shooting, and Nick and Peter discuss the phenomenon of sympathetic firing. This brought them back to the man shot for holding lighter fluid in Oklahoma, and Nick mentioned that Sheriff Ed Gonzalez fired the officer who shot a man whose pants were around his ankles.
Peter discussed the man in Miami who had kicked a handcuffed man, and the officer will probably fired.
To go to cops to didn’t do anything wrong, Nick and Peter talk Starbucks in Philadelphia. Both agreed that the police really did nothing wrong and in fact comported themselves quite well (as did the men being arrested for trespass after a stupid Starbucks manager called the cops because two men “wouldn’t leave”), and the manager of the Starbucks was an idiot and likely a racist, and unconscious bias training is stupid.
The two discussed police response to minor crimes and how this turns into protests when cops arrive and are aggressive, mainly because people don’t understand the potential for violence at minor incidents. This reminded them of the shoplifting incident in Dallas in which two officers were shot, killing one, and the incident in New York City in which private security held down a shoplifter who died, and the shoplifter’s family is suing the store.
Peter raised Tenafly, NJ, where an official for a government agency had challenged cops who had ticketed her daughter, and was subsequently fired after the video showing her appallingly entitled behavior went public.
Another conversation ensured about the Baltimore civilian oversight task force member who refused to move his double-parked car or identify himself when asked by the cop literally sixty times (according to Kevin Rector in the Baltimore Sun), and after the man used his connections it is possible that the ticket itself was quashed due to the man’s connection.
Police not being able to police – the Golden State Killer suspect and how police used DNA evidence to locate and identify him. This led to complaints from police-watchers that the police over-extended their authority. Peter believes that discussions should occur when new technologies are used in policing, but that basically the police have a responsibility to use new technology in policing as it becomes available.
Nick mentioned recent court papers the idea that a license plate location is now analogous to an individual’s location. The two discussed retention periods and applications of technology.
The two finish up with a conversation about Chuck Schumer’s marijuana decriminalization bill, and generally the idea of decriminalizing and regulating marijuana use.
