15 Reasons America's Police Are So Brutal

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/15-reasons-americas-police-are-so-brutal



1. The Street Cops Are On Their Own: “We found that CDP officers too often use unnecessary and unreasonable force in violation of the Constitution. Supervisors tolerate this behavior and, in some cases, endorse it. Officers report that they receive little supervision, guidance, and support from the Division, essentially leaving them to determine for themselves how to perform their difficult and dangerous jobs.”

2. Excessive Force Is Expected And Covered Up: “These incidents of excessive force are rooted in common structural deficiencies. CDP’s pattern or practice of excessive force is both reflected by and stems from its failure to adequately review and investigate officers’ uses of force; fully and objectively investigate all allegations of misconduct; identify and respond to patterns of at-risk behavior; provide its officers with the support, training, supervision, and equipment needed to allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively; adopt and enforce appropriate policies; and implement effective community policing strategies at all levels of CDP.”

3. Using Maximum Force Has Become Routine: “For example, we found incidents of CDP officers firing their guns at people who do not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to officers or others and using guns in a careless and dangerous manner, including hitting people on the head with their guns, in circumstances where deadly force is not justified. Officers also use less lethal force that is significantly out of proportion to the resistance encountered and officers too often escalate incidents with citizens instead of using effective and accepted tactics to de-escalate tension.

4. Police Don’t Know How To De-escalate: Officers “too often fire their weapons in a manner and in circumstances that place innocent bystanders in danger; and accidentally fire them, sometimes fortuitously hitting nothing and other times shooting people and seriously injuring them. CDP officers too often use dangerous and poor tactics to try to gain control of suspects, which results in the application of additional force or places others in danger. Critically, officers do not make effective use of de-escalation techniques, too often instead escalating encounters and employing force when it may not be needed and could be avoided.”

[MrScorpio]

1. These cops are making the streets MORE dangerous, simply by being there nt

[ReRe]

2. 15 excuses for police brutality...

... actually 15 reasons to fire them!

[RKP5637]

3. IMO many of those same traits follow right up the line of command, hence, it's an

old boy's club with little supervision throughout the line of command, hence, the violence and brutality continues as the status quo unchecked.

[Feral Child]

4. K&R n/t

[countryjake]

5. kickety

[zipplewrath]

6. Watch what you attract

If you run a program for children, you should expect to attract the attention of pedophiles. You should have an active program to detect them and prevent them from getting involved.

If you run a business that involves handling large amounts of money, you should expect thieves to be attracted and should have an active program to detect and prevent them from stealing from you.

If you run an organization that utilizes violence to achieve a goal, you should expect to attract sadist and others who enjoy using violence against others. You should have an active program to identify them and prevent them from becoming involved, and removing those that develop after joining (whether you are a police force, a CIA rendition program, or the NFL).

[tblue37]

7. There are really two main reasons:

1. They enjoy assaulting people who cannot fight back.
2. They never need to worry about any consequences for their bad behavior.

This next point is relevant, but it wrongly assumes that they want to de-escalate, when in most cases what they want is to escalate, because then they will have a reason to use force, which is what they are itching to do most of the time:

Critically, officers do not make effective use of de-escalation techniques, too often instead escalating encounters and employing force when it may not be needed and could be avoided.

[tblue37]

8. From page 2 of the linked article:

From Point #3

“We reviewed incidents where officers used Tasers, oleoresin capsicum spray (“OC Spray”), or punched people who were already subdued, including people in handcuffs. Many of these people could have been controlled with a lesser application of force. At times, this force appears to have been applied as punishment for the person’s earlier verbal or physical resistance to an officer’s command, and is not based on a current threat posed by the person. This retaliatory use of force is not legally justified. Our review also revealed that officers use excessive force against individuals who are in mental health crisis or who may be unable to understand or comply with officers’ commands, including when the individual is not suspected of having committed any crime at all.”

Point #5

5. Top Cops Don’t Want To Hear About It: “Force incidents often are not properly reported, documented, investigated, or addressed with corrective measures. Supervisors throughout the chain of command endorse questionable and sometimes unlawful conduct by officers. We reviewed supervisory investigations of officers’ use of force that appear to be designed from the outset to justify the officers’ actions. Deeply troubling to us was that some of the specially-trained investigators who are charged with conducting unbiased reviews of officers’ use of deadly force admitted to us that they conduct their investigations with the goal of casting the accused officer in the most positive light <emphasis added>.”

[hifiguy]

9. Kick.

Fuck the police.