The Police Brutality Thread

[Eddie]

yikes. i'm very much pro-police. in these internets i tend to defend them when folks i usually agree with on most issues are ripping them, but man, they make it hard sometimes.

pay them more and give them better training. they will never be perfect, but some of these mistakes shouldn't be happening.

I defend them more often than not myself. But there are times when they do things that are indefensible. Again - it isn't most of them. But there are some real idiots among their ranks.

[Jarid in Cedar]

I defend them more often than not myself. But there are times when they do things that are indefensible. Again - it isn't most of them. But there are some real idiots among their ranks.

And a primary problem is that, too often, those who act inappropriately are protected by the brotherhood and the unions.

[SeattleUte]

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/...oll-finds.html

This was bound to happen. And this has never really been about Black lives. There are many privileged whites involved in the mayhem. Latte liberals, to quote the esteemed Al Sharpton. Oregon and Washington have about as many Blacks per capita as Utah.

[Omaha 680]

On a lighter note, things continue to deteriorate in Gotham.

Embedded Tweet

Do you think that guy has ever been to South Bronx other than maybe walking the half block between the 161st street station and Yankees stadium? The urban hellscape narrative from the far right is overblown but unless the stats are completely fabricated, nyc is indeed experiencing a signigicant crime wave (along with many other cities). It may be temporary but it is not fake no matter how many videos of upper class white people filming their secure neighborhoods are posted online.

[Uncle Ted]

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/...oll-finds.html

This was bound to happen. And this has never really been about Black lives. There are many privileged whites involved in the mayhem. Latte liberals, to quote the esteemed Al Sharpton. Oregon and Washington have about as many Blacks per capita as Utah.

Yeah, Malcolm tried to warn us about these privileged latte liberals... They are the worst.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Do you think that guy has ever been to South Bronx other than maybe walking the half block between the 161st street station and Yankees stadium? The urban hellscape narrative from the far right is overblown but unless the stats are completely fabricated, nyc is indeed experiencing a signigicant crime wave (along with many other cities). It may be temporary but it is not fake no matter how many videos of upper class white people filming their secure neighborhoods are posted online.

Hey stranger.

[Northwestcoug]

The 20 cities with the largest police departments have paid out more than 2 BILLION to settle misconduct claims....

Oh, did I mention that it's 2 billion since 2015?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/police-...ms-11603368002

[falafel]

The 20 cities with the largest police departments have paid out more than 2 BILLION to settle misconduct claims....

Oh, did I mention that it's 2 billion since 2015?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/police-...ms-11603368002

That's roughly 100M per city, over 5 years, which equals roughly $20M per city per year. Larger for larger cities, smaller for smaller cities, of course. By contrast, New York's 2021 budget is $88.2 billion. The NYPD budget for 2020 was 6 billion. $20M represents 0.003% of the NYPD's budget. Even if New York paid $100M in settlements in one year, that would still represent only 0.016% of the PD's budget, and only 0.001% of the City's overall budget.

Maybe those numbers aren't all that concerning.

[Northwestcoug]

That's roughly 100M per city, over 5 years, which equals roughly $20M per city per year. Larger for larger cities, smaller for smaller cities, of course. By contrast, New York's 2021 budget is $88.2 billion. The NYPD budget for 2020 was 6 billion. $20M represents 0.003% of the NYPD's budget. Even if New York paid $100M in settlements in one year, that would still represent only 0.016% of the PD's budget, and only 0.001% of the City's overall budget.

Maybe those numbers aren't all that concerning.

NYC represented 1.1 billion of that 2 billion figure. So for 5 years and by your numbers, 4 percent of their budget amount went to misconduct claims. That's significant, IMO.

[falafel]

NYC represented 1.1 billion of that 2 billion figure. So for 5 years and by your numbers, 4 percent of their budget amount went to misconduct claims. That's significant, IMO.

So maybe NYC has a problem, but no so much the other 19 largest cities.

[Northwestcoug]

So maybe NYC has a problem, but no so much the other 19 largest cities.

LA and Chicago each paid out around a quarter billion. I don't know what their city or police budgets are, so maybe the relative number isn't as eye-opening. But a quarter billion over 5 years is a lot of money that could go to funding other budget constraints.

[falafel]

LA and Chicago each paid out around a quarter billion. I don't know what their city or police budgets are, so maybe the absolute number isn't as eye-opening. But a quarter billion over 5 years is a lot of money that could go to funding other budget constraints.

Maybe all those people should stop antagonizing the police then!

[Northwestcoug]

Maybe all those people should stop antagonizing the police then!

That line would work wonders at City Hall: we'd be able to properly fund education if only you ingrates would learn how to get arrested properly!

[swampfrog]

LA and Chicago each paid out around a quarter billion. I don't know what their city or police budgets are, so maybe the relative number isn't as eye-opening. But a quarter billion over 5 years is a lot of money that could go to funding other budget constraints.

Hospitals could offer a lot more services if they didn't have so many malpractice settlements. Hard to know what a level of acceptable/reasonable is with regard to policing. Overstepping or the perception of overstepping which is convincing enough to warrant a civil suit--some of which are paid just to make it go away. For these numbers to be useful they would have to be viewed against a reasonable standard. It could be they are way out of line and represent something that needs further investigation, or could just be the unfortunate cost of imperfect people doing a difficult job.

[old_gregg]

Hospitals could offer a lot more services if they didn't have so many malpractice settlements. Hard to know what a level of acceptable/reasonable is with regard to policing. Overstepping or the perception of overstepping which is convincing enough to warrant a civil suit--some of which are paid just to make it go away. For these numbers to be useful they would have to be viewed against a reasonable standard. It could be they are way out of line and represent something that needs further investigation, or could just be the unfortunate cost of imperfect people doing a difficult job.

so it could be bad or not bad. good insight.