Don’t be pedantic.
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So this is Trump’s version of “law and order”, eh? Perhaps someone could find out who actually gave the order for the vandalism and be brought to account.
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" This tow truck driver has been here all day. He later told me four @CNN vehicles had their tires slashed here as well."
But I’m willing to bet that no FOX or OAN vehicles suffered the same fate.
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It’s worth noting that the bill democrats are pushing to “end” qualified immunity would not apply to federal agents, so members of the national guard would face no consequences for this action.
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double plus good.
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Well, yes, of course. In probably 90+% of occurrences whatever the police are doing will be ignored completely or they will be exonerated later. At worst they will receive a very minor slap on the wrist. Unless they are union members then they will likely get off completely because the pols are so intimidated. Having video and audio and a dozen witnesses really doesn’t help either because cops+pols.
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Dumb question. Driving around on flat tires sounds bad for your car. Is having it towed any better at that point?
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A Minneapolis police officer
was also were photgraphed with a rifle-mounted suppressor. Why would they ever want to use that in a civil disorder situation? Only if they intended to quietly stop/kill protestors like the secret police did in the Ukraine revolution. In a SWAT response to hostage situation maybe, but in this type of deployment it is evil.(Photo: John Minchillo -AP)
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By the logic of the Minneapolis police, and by the very actions they demonstrate, if the tires on THEIR vehicles are flattened, aren’t lives being saved down the line?
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Yeah, I’ve been worrying about this. When they start getting fired in big numbers, what will they do? Isn’t that one of the reasons things went so wrong, so fast in Irak?
Maybe put them in protective custody?
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The car will be pulled onto the tow vehicle and then moved without any further damage to the wheels.
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could have let the air out of the tire valve for the same result with no property damage using the same knife to press the valve.
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Or they could have cut the valve stems off without totally destroying the tires if they were in a hurry and still have accomplished the alleged purpose. Clearly, this was punitive and had nothing to do with preventing rioting.
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It is possible to replace/re-institure an existing police organization with a better one. And it seems like it has been done here in the U.S. fairly recently.
NPR Former Chief Of Reformed Camden, N.J., Force: Police Need ‘Consent Of The People’
This is what I am advocating for with my local elected officials.
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Last year I was taking the kiddo to school and ran over a large pile of rocks dumped on the highway, blowing out two tires. It suuuucckkkkkeeddd. It was an expensive ordeal and a couple years before I wouldn’t have even had the extra money to cover their replacement. Cops may have just destroyed some person’s livelihood for no reason. It is unconscionable.
PS… if the rational cars might be used as weapons, and we have seen cops use their cars to drive into protestors, is turn about fair play? (ETA, by that I mean slashing their tires to prevent them from using them as weapons.)
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Later they will come back and ticket these abandoned and vandalized vehicles who are parked too long on private property.
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This is an easy war to carry back to MPD.
Sure, the police would leave dangerous items in cars if it were inconvenient for them. It’s sort of like the TSA confiscating dangerous items from people but still allowing the same people to board an airplane.
Of course, the difference between the police and the TSA is that the TSA is all talk, while the police will in fact torture and murder you for the fun of it.
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But stabbing the tires is so much more cathartic, and that is what mattered here. Those cops wanted to stab people but they knew they couldn’t get away with it. This is childish cowardly chickenshit revenge that has nothing to do with policing.
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That is only partly true. The liability can apply to both, and generally would. It is just that the police department (and the taxpayers) are the ones who can afford to foot most of the bill. And police departments don’t generally sue their current or former officers to try to recover a fair share of the liability. A real problem is that judgements against the department in the end come from the city’s general fund, and blunt the effect on the police. That means they lave less incentive to take steps to prevent the suits. That’s one reason we have to get defund the police into the conversation – make it clear that a police department that doesn’t take adequate measures to reduce civil liability for violating peoples rights will simply not be funded or supported.
[quote] Plus you cannot just remove qualified immunity as to the police but would have to extend it to all civil servants. Civil suits are an extraordinarily blunt instrument for enacting social change
[/quote]
I don’t know that it would be a problem to revoke qualified immunity from everyone but there is no reason you couldn’t do it only for the police if you wanted – all you have to do is pass a law that says it. But why shouldn’t a county recorder who won’t issue legal marriage licenses be held accountable as well? I would be fine also if there is a reasonable distinction to be made about what kind of lawsuits qualified immunity could apply, but anything assault flavored should definitely be out.
In terms of it being a blunt instrument remember that the primary purpose of civil suits is to compensate the victim for the harms done not to punish the offending party. So it may be a blunt instrument for social change, but it is a good instrument for helping get (some) justice for the people specifically wronged.
Also good. But you have to fix the lack of accountability. I’d rather have cops with tanks who know that if they misuse it they get in trouble than cops who know they can beat people to death with their billyclubs without repercussions. Qualified immunity is only part of the problem since it only applies to civil lawsuits. We need to be fixing the problems that prevent criminal charges against police as well. There are a lot of things you can imagine might help: mandatory review of all use-of-force or injury cases, separate prosecutors that have fewer conflicts of interest with the police, better transparency and publication of results of internal investigations and the independent reviews. But those are all just as prone to failure and becoming rubber stamps on police misconduct unless we change the perception and expectations.
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