Up to half of the Americans killed by police have a disability

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I’ve seen police take down folks who were struggling with mental issues with tasers.

I felt very strange about the entire thing. Bad. I knew the guy. He was a harmless old veteran of the navy. But he also kept calling this Senator about some thing he had to do to save his son… so he wasn’t too in touch with reality.

I asked why they didn’t just grab him. Its about communicable diseases now, apparently. Bodily fluids kill.

So… yes. Tasers are used by cops to torture people, and not for policing… But I’d rather they be doing that than shooting and killing people.

Another advantage? Not missing your targets and killing innocent bystanders.

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So terrified the wrong cop in the wrong place is going to hurt my little brother one day. He’s already been picked up by the cops several times while having an episode, but so far they’ve always decided to bring him to the hospital.

I’m sure it helped that at least one or two of those times the call was made by someone who was concerned for him more than afraid of him.

His diagnosis is schizoaffective bipolar. He’s going through an incredibly bad patch right now.

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I believe that is the same study I heard about.

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I can recollect a few cases where the police started off tasering someone who was mentally ill, then shot them.

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Do you think that represents all of them?

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Guns don’t kill people, bodily fluids do.

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Oh, good, something else police are pants-wettingly frightened of. Where’s that list?

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Just like gun-violence statistics, that information would somehow endanger our freedoms

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Edited for technical correctness.

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Yep. It also places people of low means in a class of untouchables. You look weird. I bet you have hep.

pew pew 'Murica.

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sharks, stairs…

but mostly… a populist uprising.

There are 50 cops per 10,000 civilians is the ratio of police to population in the most policed American Cities. 700,000 total law enforcement personnel, vs 7,000,000 people incarcerated or on parole.

They fear the day they lose control, get overwhelmed. They see that blue line as very thin… however they define it. Its why cops are cops… most are to be the good guys. Some of them realize there’s no justice… just us, once they’ve been in for awhile and go rogue, more or less… Some are there for power, and thrive in a permissive environment. Where they can murder people and get away with it.

ALL of them know that they will lose in a 10:1 fight… and all of them know that there’s 0 hope of suppressing even the most benign and peaceful civil disobedience if there’s 2000 disobedient people to every officer.

That’s when the military gets called in. And then… the military leave. And all the angry people who just got hammered… they’re looking at the police now.

This is actually quite shocking… but the view from inside the Police forces are VERY different than the ones we have. They don’t have a voice, and never have. They aren’t allowed to speak to the population about their experiences. They are the people who get called when the WORST things happen in our society, and clean it up.

Jaded doesn’t begin to cover it. I spoke to many during the second gulf war protests. Police from many different areas. They will… eventually open up. It takes a while. They get the 1000 yard stare… tell you about people stomping their kids to death, and they have to show up. Telling you about the domestic murders and misery… and how very shitty and ethically compromising it is to be a cop. They live their lives in a very fucked up lawless grey zone.

Oh… and they’re afraid of having to kill someone some day. Many realize how deeply their humanity is at stake.

I think its because it dawns on them all they are there to protect property from people. Not to protect people.

And… I worked for a former officer. He had a plaque on his wall from running into a burning building and saving a few kids. The firemen wouldn’t go in. It was unsafe.

They couldn’t decide if they were going to reward or punish him for going against procedure. The news caught wind of it. He was made a public hero, and not a private cautionary tale.

Those are the other cop stories…

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No, really, we have a <a href=“https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/list-of-things-that-frighten-police/75690/10"target=”_blank">list.

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There’s a middle ground between it representing all cases and it representing just one. Much of that range is called “Far too many of them”.

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I estimate 75% of police are competent, follow the spirit and letter of the law, and are an asset to their communities overall.

25% are bad enough to belong off the force or in prison. That’s plenty to fucking hate cops for!

But it’s short-sighted. Hating cops means not finding opportunities to make them better.

I know there’s a wedge issue in there. And I want to not just pour endless scorn on cops… But shame them into being better, and have a plan for how. And give the hypothetical good police the tools to join the fight against bad police.

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Well, this may be an interesting development:

I posted this link on Facebook, and it started a discussion. I’m a neurologist, and I’ve had two patients end up in jail following seizures with post-ictal disorientation and no recall of their events. Both reportedly got pretty banged up in the midst of their seizure, though I’ve wondered how much of the “banged up” could’ve been at the hands of the arresting officers. (One was arrested after a woman saw him walking around, disoriented, confused, and called police saying he looked like he was “high on meth.”)

I’ve considered routinely suggesting to families that they might introduce their disabled loved ones to the members of the local police force, in the hopes of defusing those uncontrolled situations when a confluence of factors causes normal safeguards to fail. Any time an officer approaches a new and unknown situation, the possibility of drunk abusive asshole, druggie high and out of control, or extremist wanting to kill a cop, etc, has to be somewhere on their differential. Hopefully, familiarity can move that possibility further down the list, so instead of “approaching the potential suspect,” the officer is “checking in to make sure Darrel is doing okay.”

Well, the discussion was forwarded to a local sheriff with the proposal that I make a presentation to the police department, start a discussion, etc.

Could yield some interesting results. I’ll let you know what I find.

(Or maybe I’ll get shot. In which case it’s been nice knowing you.)

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Start putting pressure on your municipal government to negotiate for CBA’s that don’t actively fuck the citizens.

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Nice. Excellent point.

Hmm…

We have the power to make ballot measures here in my state.
I wonder if we could craft one that would limit the powers of CBAs. What was on the table. What is not.
And pass it state wide so there’s no competition between local PDs.

I think even the existence of a ballot measure waiting for the right political climate to get the signatures would have a chilling effect on bad policing…

Any more ideas?

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You’ll have a very difficult time limiting existing contracts, the focus has to be on new ones, possibly some reforms could be enacted on a state level, but might be found unconstitutional. As for state level ballots, I suggest reforming qualified immunity to make it easier to prosecute obvious criminal behavior.

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What’s CBA?

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Collective Bargaining Agreement.

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