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OT: American Politics

Thing is, if you’re a “good cop” who stands idly by and doesn’t do anything about the “bad cops”, or even worse, you cover for their behaviour, you’re not actually a “good cop”.
Same could be said of protesters standing by watching looters. It's not so cut and dry. Good people get put into terrible positions when things are this nuts.
 
Doesn't help that you get officers who are assigned the job of training raw recruits (like Derek Chauvin with the past history he has). I'd guess most/all of these recruits started out with great intentions/motivations but were 'taught' how to do things by officers like Chauvin.
This is different than what I'm talking about. There's no excuse for what happened to Floyd. None. There was no mass gathering or massive protests and riots. It's inexcusable.

I'm referring to the people tasked to manage this insanity. Split second decisions etc. It's tough on them, on both sides.
 
He's scum. I can't believe he's going to get away with bringing Floyd's name up in regards to a 13.3 unemployment rate.
Those stats he's bragging about are people returning to work.
 
Same could be said of protesters standing by watching looters. It's not so cut and dry. Good people get put into terrible positions when things are this nuts.


I get what you're saying, but I have to wholly reject this comparison.

Joe Blow protester in the street not putting themselves in harm's way to physically stop violent protestors and/or looters is in no way equivalent to someone who's sworn & paid to uphold the law standing idly by while one of their fellow officers hurls a non-violent 75 year old to the ground & cracks his head open on the pavement. Same goes for every one of those officers who witnessed what happened, and didn't say "boo" when the official report was written up as "he stumbled and fell".

I appreciate that it'd be hard to go against the grain when it comes to your fellow officers, and even harder when it comes to your superiors. But that's a fundamental part of your job description. And there sure aren't a lot of jobs out there where you'd be employed for long if you declined to perform the basic reason for your employment because it's too hard.
 

This is what (can) happen to some good cops that try to do the "right" thing..
Looters should be found and charged.. so should the cops that take 10 people to taze (most) a protester on the ground.
Lots of charges should be happening.. Doesn't Excuse the Police acting as the THUGS they seem to believe the protesters are..
 
Thing is, if you’re a “good cop” who stands idly by and doesn’t do anything about the “bad cops”, or even worse, you cover for their behaviour, you’re not actually a “good cop”.
Yeah, that was what part of what I was getting at.
 
Same could be said of protesters standing by watching looters. It's not so cut and dry. Good people get put into terrible positions when things are this nuts.
Kind of. I've seen a bunch of footage of protesters trying to stop vandals/looters... but in general I'm not sure it's their duty to enforce the law. I can go out and peacefully protest, but I'm not risking my life to stop others from breaking the law.

Cops on the other hand, are committed to upholding the law. So when they see other cops breaking the law, they are obligated to step in.

That said, I don't disagree with your sentiment.
 
Yes I understand the onus is on the cops as they are paid to do this clearly. I'm referring to the good vs bad aspect of it as it's not so cut and dry when you have thousands in close proximity and agitated. Same goes for protesters, they may feel threatened and attack a cop out of fear. Shit happens so quickly, I just think this needs consideration.
 
The exact problem here is that cops are not trained, or just don't, act calmly and with reasonable force in these high stress situation. I mean that should be expected of untrained civilian protesters, but cops kind of have to make good calls, in difficult situations. Thats the job. If you can't hack it you shouldn't have the badge. Bad cop doesn't just mean bad person.

It seems like we are seeing way too many of them just can't handle these high pressure/high risk situations. They may be very nice people, but just not cut out for this work.
 
The exact problem here is that cops are not trained, or just don't, act calmly and with reasonable force in these high stress situation. I mean that should be expected of untrained civilian protesters, but cops kind of have to make good calls, in difficult situations. Thats the job. If you can't hack it you shouldn't have the badge. Bad cop doesn't just mean bad person.

It seems like we are seeing way too many of them just can't handle these high pressure/high risk situations. They may be very nice people, but just not cut out for this work.


If you're not able to run into a burning building, you shouldn't be a firefighter.

If you're not able or willing to face getting shot at or blown up, you shouldn't be a soldier.

If you're terrified of heights, you probably shouldn't be a roofer, high-rise steel worker or a sky-dive instructor.

And yeah, if you're not able or willing to avoid committing violent felonies when in high-stress situations, and/or if you're not willing to equally enforce the law with respect to your buddies/co-workers and members of the public, you shouldn't be a cop.

I don't really understand why we should be setting the bar so low for cops. There are plenty of high-stress jobs out there where lives are on the line and there's little-to-no-margin for error. Do your fucking job, or find another one.
 

Also this is beyond stupid. A cop needs to be EXPLICITLY told that stealing is illegal or else they can't be held liable.. and since you can't bring the case they can't be explicitly told...

Imagine ANYONE else in America trying the I didn't know it was wrong to take that X. Ignorance of the law (by cops) should NEVER be a valid excuse..
 
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