Robert Goodman wrote, in response to a posting on LPNY's list:> "Bonnie"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> kindly forwarded to LPNY_discuss a message> including:> > >
From: norgesen> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007
1:10 PM> > > An epidemic of violence is sweeping the country. Police are being
trained> that the general public are the enemy> > I'd be interested in evidence
that that attitude -- which has been long> associated with authoritarian
cultures -- is being inculcated here now MORE> THAN previously. That is, is it
a trend, or is it just an unfortunate> byproduct of policing?
I think the original poster is caught in a time warp. What she (?) wrote was
true in the 1960s and '70s, but is not true in the vast majority of the country
today. Maybe there are isolated exceptions.> > > and that they can engage in
outright brutality without recourse.> > ...which would be a strange sentiment,
considering that official recourse> these days is more widely available than
ever before.
Not to mention that unofficial recourse - bringing the videos to YouTube or TV
- is easier than ever.> > > Taser deaths are skyrocketing because the police
have been ordered to use> "pain compliance", otherwise known as torture, to
subdue and oppress the> citizenry. It is time for police to remember that their
duty is to protect> the general public from criminals and not act as enforcers
for a tyrannical> police state.
I'd like to see the figures on Taser deaths to see if the evidence supports the
assertion. If Taser deaths are increasing, it may be due to greater
availability of Tasers; since their spread through police forces is relatively
recent and still very much incomplete, it stands to reason that if more cops
have Tasers there will be more usage and thus injuries or deaths.> > "It is
time for police to remember" won't cut it. If this is an> institutional
problem, an institutional remedy is needed, and if existing> institutional
remedies are failing, it's time to find out why. I've seen or> heard, for
instance, that television has been to blame for making dramatic> police
procedures seem routine, so that police then come to MAKE THEM> routine.
I also think TV makes it seem as though incidents are more common than they
really are. For example, from watching TV news and watching crime shows one
would think sexual abuse of children by strangers is at an all-time high
whereas most estimates show it as decreasing, unsurprisingly in an era of
helicopter parents.> > One possible remedy would be term limits. If over time
(rather than being> so trained at the beginning) police come to alienate
themselves from the> gen'l population, then it might help to limit that time.
Of course limiting> the duration of time one could be a policeman would carry
such drawbacks as> reducing their avg. experience, and make it more difficult
to hire by> excluding career seekers. It might help if we had a study
correlating> police misconduct with duration on the job.
What studies I've seen actually suggest the reverse; higher rates of misconduct
among less experienced cops. Maybe because with experience they learn other
methods, maybe because the bad apples get weeded out early in their careers and
never become "lifers."
Doug
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