Trust, Corruption, The Work Ethic, and the Police State

[jbird4049]

This is a long, long opening I know. I am trying to bring some connections together.

During the thread on who the lack of work effects the the culture, during the part that dealt with the destruction of our social contract, I almost mention Wells Fargo latest massive fraud. GrumpyCat did mentioned our evolving police state.

After that I listened to a Pro Publica's podcast on the use of the $2 field drug test by the police to arrest, charge, and convict tens of thousand of innocent people of drug charges. Tests that the Department of Justice said should not be used, especially as evidence in trial. It reminds me of just the police's word is often used in asset forfeiture take cars, homes, businesses, money, everything from people. I guess to be more depressed, I read an article in Radley Balko's The Watch column. Among its usual list of horror, it mentioned a guns for freedom practice by the Chicago police. Once arrested, they would set you free, if you brought them guns in a certain period of time. Guilt, innocence, whatever, bring them guns, or else jail for you. The concluding paragraph:

Whether it’s Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson and St. Louis County, or now Chicago, we’ve consistently seen that the cities in which violent crime remains aberrantly high are also served by police departments with long histories of institutional abuse, bigotry and/or corruption, and where transparency and real accountability are close to nonexistent. In all four of those particular examples, the problems extend well beyond the police department and into other branches of city government. There are of course countless variables that contribute to a city’s crime rate. This isn’t the only one. But it’s one that’s chronically overlooked. Instead of putting all the blame on the “culture” of communities that continue to suffer from abnormally high violence, perhaps it’s time to also scrutinize the culture of their police departments, and the institutions and politicians who are supposed to keep those departments in line.

There is also Congress members whose investments are unusually profitable. The evidence is not conclusive, just very, very, suggestive.

The study found some significant difference based on party membership and seniority, with the Democratic sample beating the market by nearly 9% annually, versus only about 2% annually for the Republican sample.

And representatives with the least seniority considerably outperformed those with more seniority.

I could go on for days on this adding more examples at all levels of government, and business. However, it's too in the day for beer, which I would need to continue. Almost the only thing that gives me hope is that the Gilded Age was, if anything, more corrupted, and generally just more awful.

But I have some questions for you.

• Just how far is our society from imploding?
  
  Is there a way to reverse this?
  
  Does anyone have any ideas, comments, or suggestions in general?

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=1533

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/busi ... -2005.html

https://www.propublica.org/podcast/item ... -drug-test

https://www.propublica.org/article/comm ... -positives

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... 6e502ff776

https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925846/download

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democrac ... nvestments

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/2 ... 66387.html

[Penner]

So, is this going to be a catch all thread for police abuse? If so, I just heard this about Chicago PD and their brand spanking new DOJ report:

In perhaps the most damning, sweeping critique ever of the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded Friday that the city's police officers are poorly trained and quick to turn to excessive and even deadly force, most often against blacks and Latino residents, without facing consequences.

The 164-page report, the product of more than a year of investigation, paints the picture of a department flawed from top to bottom, although many of the problems it cites have, for decades, been the subject of complaints from citizens, lawsuits by attorneys and investigations by news organizations.

As such, the report is an indictment of sorts of city officials who, the report said, have paid lip service to the community's complaints as well as the need for reform of the Police Department and the various city agencies responsible for its oversight.

Taken together, the Chicago Police Department's flaws have "helped create a culture in which officers expect to use force and not be questioned about the need for or propriety of that use," the Justice Department said in its report, made public Friday by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

[Penner]

Here is a link to the DOJ's report:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925846/download

[jbird4049]

So, is this going to be a catch all thread for police abuse? If so, I just heard this about Chicago PD and their brand spanking new DOJ report:

In perhaps the most damning, sweeping critique ever of the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded Friday that the city's police officers are poorly trained and quick to turn to excessive and even deadly force, most often against blacks and Latino residents, without facing consequences.

The 164-page report, the product of more than a year of investigation, paints the picture of a department flawed from top to bottom, although many of the problems it cites have, for decades, been the subject of complaints from citizens, lawsuits by attorneys and investigations by news organizations.

As such, the report is an indictment of sorts of city officials who, the report said, have paid lip service to the community's complaints as well as the need for reform of the Police Department and the various city agencies responsible for its oversight.

Taken together, the Chicago Police Department's flaws have "helped create a culture in which officers expect to use force and not be questioned about the need for or propriety of that use," the Justice Department said in its report, made public Friday by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Perhaps. I was trying to make this a more general thread on our whole society, on politics, and business too, not just the police. It's just so damn easy to find evidence on the police.

[Penner]

So, is this going to be a catch all thread for police abuse? If so, I just heard this about Chicago PD and their brand spanking new DOJ report:

In perhaps the most damning, sweeping critique ever of the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded Friday that the city's police officers are poorly trained and quick to turn to excessive and even deadly force, most often against blacks and Latino residents, without facing consequences.

The 164-page report, the product of more than a year of investigation, paints the picture of a department flawed from top to bottom, although many of the problems it cites have, for decades, been the subject of complaints from citizens, lawsuits by attorneys and investigations by news organizations.

As such, the report is an indictment of sorts of city officials who, the report said, have paid lip service to the community's complaints as well as the need for reform of the Police Department and the various city agencies responsible for its oversight.

Taken together, the Chicago Police Department's flaws have "helped create a culture in which officers expect to use force and not be questioned about the need for or propriety of that use," the Justice Department said in its report, made public Friday by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Perhaps. I was trying to make this a more general thread on our whole society, on politics, and business too, not just the police. It's just so damn easy to find evidence on the police.

Oh, no with the rise of camera phones, it has gotten really easy to film them and catch everything in the process but it's more about actually having the balls to have them go to trial and be convicted. I mean we literally had a video of a police officer shooting someone in the back, and he got off on a mistrial, because of one jury refused to convict.

[TheReal_ND]

Nah the $3 field test is good. Plenty of riff raft hanging around that need to be locked up. Oh no reason to lock them up? Take this field test. Off to jail with you.

[jbird4049]

Nah the $3 field test is good. Plenty of riff raft hanging around that need to be locked up. Oh no reason to lock them up? Take this field test. Off to jail with you.

I think you're being sarcastic, but really you're not far off. One of Pro Publica reporters (paraphrasing here) said one of the cities' governments said, when asked about all the innocents being wrongly convicted, that they would take whatever they could get.

I should get a transcript of the interview to find the exact quote and the city. I don't want to listen again. I might puke.

[TheReal_ND]

Not being sarcastic. I'm assuming they were arresting street trash and not John Doe on the way to work.

[jbird4049]

So, is this going to be a catch all thread for police abuse? If so, I just heard this about Chicago PD and their brand spanking new DOJ report:



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-justice-department-report-20170113-story.html

Perhaps. I was trying to make this a more general thread on our whole society, on politics, and business too, not just the police. It's just so damn easy to find evidence on the police.

Oh, no with the rise of camera phones, it has gotten really easy to film them and catch everything in the process but it's more about actually having the balls to have them go to trial and be convicted. I mean we literally had a video of a police officer shooting someone in the back, and he got off on a mistrial, because of one jury refused to convict.

They have to be investigated first. From Balko's article.

Any remaining confidence in police is obliterated when about these incidents go unheard. The Justice Department report found that of the 30,000 complaints filed against CPD officers, less than 2 percent were sustained. The common counter to such statistics is that a low level of sustained complaints merely confirms that most cops are good cops and that most complaints against cops are frivolous. Perhaps, but the report also found that more than half of those 30,000 complaints weren’t even investigated. Even when they were, the investigations were hardly impartial.

[jbird4049]

Not being sarcastic. I'm assuming they were arresting street trash and not John Doe on the way to work.

Even street trash should be just hauled off, but Not so. Anyone on the way to anywhere, often by car, sometimes with few, or no priors. The common story seems to be letting the police search, and test, your car because you have no drugs in, on, or around you . Just cooperate to get Mr. Policeman to leave.

What makes me angry is that many seem to have already known. The DOJ stated flatly that the tests should not be used to convict. But Convictions!, so it's all good.