Justin Freeman in Slate well answers this question. The short answer: “Because they have different priorities than you do.” Note this a related but different question than “Why are cops such assholes?” No doubt soon this psychoanalysis of negative police traits will be done.
This is a question I’ve been asked a surprising number of times (Once by a national TV host during a commercial break). Usually the tone is joking (ie: completely serious). A certain lazy and rude copin Chicago got me thinking about it. My answer: “Because they can.” As a non-asshole (in my humble opinion) former…
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Because (some) cops enforce non-existent laws and treat them like sh*t. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about a recent encounter with police on the streets of Chicago: Catercorner to the volunteers of Safe Passage, two cops sat in an SUV, snug and warm. Our video team was shooting the conversation between our host and the kid. One…
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Fifty years ago today on the streets of downtown Cleveland, Detective Martin McFadden, plain-clothed and without a walkie-talkie (two-way radios didn’t become standard for another decade) stopped and arrested John Terry and two other guys after observing them casing a storefront for United Airlines. This arrest lead to the landmark 1968 Supreme Court Case of…
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The PBAis the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. One of the two police unions (I was FOP, which for some reason I still think is slightly better in actually caring about public safety). A representative of the PBA recently came to roll calls in New York City and told police officers to stop stopping anybody. If crime…
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It’s worth highlighting this excellent comment to a previous post, from a anonymous police officer. You can file this under “if you don’t work, you can’t get in trouble.” What I’ve learned over my career, and what has frustrated me as a life-long progressively inclined citizen, is that despite all common sense and evidence to…
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So reports the Times. I would not have voted for this because it’s perceived as anti-police, but once again, I say that Ray Kelly get what they had coming. You do work for the city, and you’ve shown nothing but scorn for those who try and make the NYPD better. The chickens coming home to…
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The feds are really going after people who tell how and why lie detector tests are flawed?! Does anybody know what the actual crime these people are being charged with? I always tell my students that anybody who ever has to take a polygraph test buy and read Doug Williams’s manual on why the test…
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People are always tickled to see the police boat representing at the annual Amsterdam gay pride boat parade. What’s unusual about this photo isn’t that hundreds of thousands (including every straight family I know) turn out for the gay pride parade in Amsterdam, it’s that there’s a blue sky. No city is as beautiful as…
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If you care about the militarization of police, and Radley Balko makes a strong case you should, read his “fascinating and sometimes terrifying” Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. That quote is mine. And you can find them in the July/August issue of Pacific Standard, a great new (to me)…
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