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[SalmonGod]

Copscore allows you to look up crowdsourced information about individual police officers.

And it looks like there may be some unrest against the LAPD soon.

[Twi]

I dunno about that, SG. "Guy got shot after getting into a brawl with police' is a lot less clear/terrible than 'Kid gunned down without warning', yeah?

Then again, graphic video. Those are pretty provocative.

[SalmonGod]

Yeah, it's not the event or the video that makes me think there might be a public reaction.  Because there are stories like that almost every day, and most don't result in anything.

But for whatever reason, this one seems to have gone quickly viral, and I was seeing many calls for action as soon as the news broke.  And you've also got memetic iconography going on, with the unknown victim being labeled "Africa" and such.  People latch on to things like that.  That's what you need to look for.  The incidents that get noticed, and trigger that action button in people.  And no, it doesn't really make sense why some do and others don't.

Like in Ferguson... that story didn't get widespread attention at first, but I saw a little bit of buzz immediately after it happened.  And the handful of news articles published within hours of the event all described how citizens immediately poured out of surrounding buildings and formed an angry mob.  When I read this, I could see that this incident wasn't going to be allowed to pass quietly.  I posted on Bay12 that day "there's going to be a riot here tomorrow".  And there was.  And THEN the story got national attention.  Why did it happen like this, when we've learned since that this was a community that had been quietly enduring oppression by a corrupt and violent police force for many years?  Who knows? 

This LAPD incident may not result in anything.  Response seems to be hot, but not blazing like Ferguson was.  We'll see.

[nenjin]

While it seems plausible a guy fighting with the cops tried to grab an officer's gun, and resulted in him getting executed on the pavement...it's the kind of thing that happens in seconds and the video will likely never clear up. Then again, one would think a cop's gun would need to be in the suspect's hands before they shot him....like 4 times at point blank range.

[UXLZ]

"I feared for my life" constable McOfficer said, in defense of having shot a man (being pinned down by several fellow police officers and tased) four times at point blank range, "What else was I meant to do?"

"Very well then." proclaimed the police investigator investigating the police, "Cleared of all charges."

[nenjin]

It's official: cops have as much stomach for danger as flighty soccer moms.

[nenjin]

As people I'd expect them to not knee jerk blow someone away because their unofficial departmental training says so. Kinda like that campus cop that wouldn't taser that college kid while several other officers were also tasing him.

[nenjin]

As people I'd expect them to not knee jerk blow someone away because their unofficial departmental training says so. Kinda like that campus cop that wouldn't taser that college kid while several other officers were also tasing him.

Well, it's one thing to be told that once. It's another when that surrounds you the entire time you're there. Ironically, all of this violence against the police in response to their poor decision-making is probably only reinforcing this mindset.

Yeah, that's been one of the most frustrating parts of this. Every dead cop just further reinforces the bunker mentality of the rest, and every dead civilian just creates more people looking for revenge.

[Zangi]

As people I'd expect them to not knee jerk blow someone away because their unofficial departmental training says so. Kinda like that campus cop that wouldn't taser that college kid while several other officers were also tasing him.

Well, it's one thing to be told that once. It's another when that surrounds you the entire time you're there. Ironically, all of this violence against the police in response to their poor decision-making is probably only reinforcing this mindset.

Yeah, that's been one of the most frustrating parts of this. Every dead cop just further reinforces the bunker mentality of the rest, and every dead civilian just creates more people looking for revenge.

Maybe not revenge, but it will definitely erode trust and promote caution when dealing with cops.  In some cases, choosing to not deal with them at all, despite cases where cops intervening would be a positive thing... in hindsight.

[SalmonGod]

I think there's a lot of factors, but most of it is self-fulfilling prophecy.

It doesn't help that police have been forced to do increasingly unpopular things over the last few decades (onset and escalation of drug war/criminalization of poor through a period of heightening inequality/surveillance and silencing of political dissent), so it's natural that there would be resentment and they would expect it.  That is basically the inescapable nature of being a police officer, and it's the foundation of the problem.

But then there's the slide towards hyper-paranoid military authoritarianism that's taken place since 9/11, which has had the government trying to convince us that terrorism lurks around every corner for the past 14 years and the whole world is now a battlefield.

Plus the personality profile that is naturally drawn towards law enforcement (SJ), which is known for its ability to see danger in everything anyway.

It's all a very strong recipe for bad relations spiraling out of control, with no end in sight.

[scriver]

You need a Police Jesus. Polisus.

[SquatchHammer]

The problem with police is the same with other groups. The few ruin it for the rest of them. There are plenty of good policemen but the few that have actions that rile up the general population.

[scriver]

There's also the problem that the ones who do nothing wrong still protect those who do, though. Which I guess mean they do do something wrong.

[UXLZ]

Do the other groups get punished for murder via payed vacation?

[penguinofhonor]

.