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[nenjin]

You cannot hold cops to the same standard as everyone else when they have the assumption of law, power and rightness as understood and cheerlead by many segments of the American public.

They have power and the presumption of correctness. Ergo, they are not and have never been “like everyone else.”

[TD1]

A lot of my university research revolves around constructed narratives, in particular the words people use as literary devices.

I feel like the way 'murder' is being used by many here is one of those devices. It holds a weight in the minds of those using it far exceeding its actual definition, and is weighed with symbolic (and more far-reaching) meaning.

I'm not sure a legal case can be made for it, though.

[Rolan7]

Sure, narratives are a thing.  We read about a young black man who was wounded while resisting arrest, and that's different than "Man shot in the back by police, dies on way to hospital".

People committing violent crimes here in the USA are charged with murder if "things go wrong" and someone dies.  If you kill someone during a robbery and "didn't think the gun was loaded", we still consider that murder.

Chauvin (previously "Officer Chauvin", another narrative) was criminally assaulting all those people he strangled with his knee, and this time it was lethal.  Technically, that's murder.  Morally, it's like he spent his days shooting at people with a 1-bullet revolver, then acted surprised when someone died.

I agree with his sentencing, though.  What's far more important is that it takes *this much evidence* to put a single murderer away, just because they happen to be an Officer of the Law.  Also that people are still defending the strangulation tactic as necessary.  When they aren't attacking the victim - sorry, the dead person involved in a law enforcement incident - as not being an angel.

I don't care about putting one murderer away, I demand that the criminal justice system hold law enforcement responsible for abusive of force in general.  At this point, Chauvin is only an exception that helps point out the greater problem.  Chauvin thought he could get away with this forever, and *statistically* he's right.  Officers are getting away with it all the time, off video or outside of the news cycle.  That's what needs to change, and slapping him with 100 years wouldn't accomplish that.  Arresting his conspirators would have, but we all know that never would have flied, because we all know police aren't accountable right now.

And until we believe in justice again, there will be no peace.  That's often misinterpreted as a threat, but it's a basic law of society.

[Vector]

I don't care about putting one murderer away, I demand that the criminal justice system hold law enforcement responsible for abusive of force in general.  At this point, Chauvin is only an exception that helps point out the greater problem.  Chauvin thought he could get away with this forever, and *statistically* he's right.  Officers are getting away with it all the time, off video or outside of the news cycle.  That's what needs to change, and slapping him with 100 years wouldn't accomplish that.  Arresting his conspirators would have, but we all know that never would have flied, because we all know police aren't accountable right now.

And until we believe in justice again, there will be no peace.  That's often misinterpreted as a threat, but it's a basic law of society.

I'd like to upvote this part of the post in particular.

[SOLDIER First]

A lot of my university research revolves around constructed narratives, in particular the words people use as literary devices.

I feel like the way 'murder' is being used by many here is one of those devices. It holds a weight in the minds of those using it far exceeding its actual definition, and is weighed with symbolic (and more far-reaching) meaning.

I'm not sure a legal case can be made for it, though.

That's probably because the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin does hold more weight and has a meaning that reaches further than "a guy got killed by another guy". We wouldn't be talking about this in the "Abusive Policing Thread" if it didn't hold more import than that.

[Iduno]

https://twitter.com/ncroal/status/1437960270752665602

Some good news, for once. The video of what happened is down in the comments (and not too far), if watching those is your thing.

[nenjin]

Literally just coming here to post that.

In case anyone with 2 braincells and a soul needs a reminder that, sorta like organized religion, organized law enforcement is interested in continuing to exist and will do some disgusting, immoral things to achieve that goal.

[Cthulhu]

Institutions are made of people and people want to make a steady paycheck doing as little as possible, and as a result all institutions are primarily interested in keeping their people gainfully employed, and they'll only perform their stated duties to the absolute minimum needed to keep the first thing going.

[Iduno]

I don't know, kidnapping a kid and lying about saving them seems like more than the minimum amount of effort.

[nenjin]

To be clear.....

The cops took that child away from the mother whose car they attacked.

The cops took photos of the incident.

But it was the police union, not the police themselves, that took that photo and used it for marketing purposes, completely misrepresenting the situation.

[Gentlefish]

To be clear.....

The cops took that child away from the mother whose car they attacked.

The cops took photos of the incident.

But it was the police union, not the police themselves, that took that photo and used it for marketing purposes, completely misrepresenting the situation.

Definitionally, the police union is the police themselves. The specific cops in the image may not have done the deed, but they're definitely part of the union.

Literally just coming here to post that.

In case anyone with 2 braincells and a soul needs a reminder that, sorta like organized religion, organized law enforcement is interested in continuing to exist and will do some disgusting, immoral things to achieve that goal.

Law enforcement itself isn't interested in continuing to exist. It's more so the state who wields the enforcement (read: monopoly of violence). It's a fine distinction but an important one.

[Cthulhu]

That's their stated purpose and they do it to some extent but they also rack up hundreds of hours of overtime just idling their cars, get themselves hurt so they can retire on pension and disability, various other non-activities designed to siphon money from the system without actually doing anything for it.

"law enforcement" is imaginary.  It's just a bunch of human beings.

[Dunamisdeos]

get themselves hurt so they can retire on pension and disability

Can you expound on this? Do we have a problem with cops blowing off their feet to collect pension checks? Is there like, a super low bar on what qualifies you to get pension/disability?

[nenjin]

Cops intentionally hurting themselves to get their pension early? I dunno if that's a systemic problem.

But pensions are big for cops. There's lots of money for individuals there, the pension fund itself is something the unions invest on and trade around, so yeah, the continued existence of the pension fund going on in perpetuity means something to all cops, beat cops, detectives, and guys that sit behind a desk.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Teenager forced to give birth in cell alone, has to bite through the umbilical cord, newborn dies by the next morning. Nobody shows up until other prisoners learn what's happening and alert the guards.

Prison responds by ordering counseling...for the pigs who were guarding her cell.

Further commentary on my part would violate forum rules.