Cops behaving badly ...

Shiftless2 said:
I'm not sure the money actually comes from the municipality. It's liable to come from their insurance company (have to say it's been some years since I was heavily involved in that section of the insurance market so I don't know how insurers are addressing that issue - I'm sure they're massively increasing their deductibles but have no idea beyond that - and I'm sure that for someplace like Memphis their deductible is already several million dollars - personally I'd probably retro rate the layer above that but no idea what companies are actually doing).
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Well done S2.
In computing we call it a dysfunctional feedback loop.
A $cash award to the bereaved is not merely compensation to them, but also a penalty to the criminals.
The penalty is an ineffective deterrent if it does not penalize those responsible, those with policy control over preventing recurrence.
 
I should point out that in most states it's illegal to insure punitive damages - that said, there is a work around that lets an entity buy insurance for them.
 

Tyre Nichols case shows officers still fail to intervene​

By The Associated Press

image

Protesters march on Saturday in Memphis, Tenn., over the death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police during a traffic stop.​

As five Memphis police officers attacked Tyre Nichols with their feet, fists and a baton, others milled around at the scene, even as the 29-year-old cried out in pain and then slumped limply against the side of a car.

Just like the attack on George Floyd in Minneapolis nearly three years ago, a simple intervention could have saved a life. Instead, Nichols is dead and the five officers are charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

More disciplinary action may be coming now that the harrowing video of Nichols treatment has been released. Memphis police relieved two other officers of duty Monday and say the department is still investigating what happened. The Memphis Fire Department also fired three emergency response workers who arrived on the scene for failing to assess Nichols' condition.


The Memphis and Minneapolis police departments are among many U.S. law enforcement agencies with “duty to intervene” policies. The Memphis protocol is clear: “Any member who directly observes another member engaged in dangerous or criminal conduct or abuse of a subject shall take reasonable action to intervene."

It's not just a policy, it's the law. The three Minneapolis officers who failed to step in and stop former Officer Derek Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd's neck as the Black man said he couldn't breathe were all convicted of federal civil rights violations.

Experts agree peer pressure, and in some cases fear of retribution, is on the minds of officers who fail to stop colleagues from bad actions.

“They’re afraid of being ostracized,” said George Kirkham, a criminology professor emeritus at Florida State University and former police officer. “You’ve got to depend on those guys. It’s the thin blue line. When you get out there and get in a jam, you’ve got nobody else to help you but other cops.”

Nichols was pulled over in a traffic stop the night of Jan. 7. Body camera video shows he was ....

www.newsday.com

Tyre Nichols case shows officers still fail to intervene

As five Memphis police officers attacked Tyre Nichols with their feet, fists and a baton, others milled around at the scene, even as the 29-year-old cried out in pain and then slumped limply against the side of a car.
www.newsday.com
 
“They’re afraid of being ostracized,” said George Kirkham, a criminology professor emeritus at Florida State University and former police officer. “You’ve got to depend on those guys. It’s the thin blue line. When you get out there and get in a jam, you’ve got nobody else to help you but other cops.” #43
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That does not excuse, but may help explain the failure of others to intervene *. It does not help clarify why these 5 thugs in police uniform beat this charming young man to death.

* It actually doesn't explain their failure to intervene.
All a sensible COP has to do is to thread his way through the maelstrom, grab the "suspect" by the collar, drag him to the police vehicle and toss him in the back while saying: "We can -take care- of this guy down at the station. There are too many witnesses here."

Professor Jonathan Turley attributes this fatality to poor police discipline / training. Worth noting, some police organizations have had to lower eligibility standards because they couldn't meet recruitment goals otherwise. I've wondered whether raising eligibility standards might be the better approach.
 
Might seem like satire. It's a little bit not.
In cases where "news" reports the latest on such matters as Trump's lies, or Memphis' police, it would help if they'd include in each report a running total, so that we news consumers can know if there's been a new round involved, or whether it's a repetition of news previously reported.
By my count Memphis is up to 7 policemen either fired or suspended. I'm not sure what % of a shift that is.

My impression is, in a police force where there are 10 policemen on duty per shift, that police force will need at least ~40 policemen minimum, assuming an 8 hr. shift. That's 30 policemen to serve the 24 hour duty day, plus extra for weekends, vacations, sick-leave, training, etc.

So:
7 down out of a shift of how many?

Sadly, it seems due to budget constraints, if these 7 are let go, it'll be:
- out with the bad, in with the worse.

Houston! ...
 
I still haven't figured out how to deal with The New York Times online. They want me to sign in, & perhaps $pay. I'm trying to figure out a sort of key-to-the-city approach to cyber-surfing news. $pay for membership in a group, thereby gaining "free access" (no additional charge) to Internet sites that are members of that group. Then get The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal etc join the group and share the $proceeds. I don't know enough about math or $bidness to drag that one across the finish line. BUT !! The 4th Estate is in long-term crisis. The attrition rate is alarming, and newsrooms have been cut to the bone. NBC's Richard Engel may be a living dinosaur.

PS:
invasive species:
24715d4563129e798606d519174ec8fb1097ad6.gif
 
Don’t call the cops if you need help. Jeremy Thompson was having a hearth attack but instead of taking him to the hospital, they took him to jail, placed him in a restraint chair and administered ketamine. He died.

www.al.com

Man having heart attack at Dollar General arrested and put in county jail later died, says lawsuit

According to the suit, Officers Rogers and Hendrix, who work for the City of Geneva, spotted Thompson outside the store after a customer called 911.
www.al.com www.al.com

and

www.wdhn.com

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Geneva authorities

GENEVA, Ala. (WDHN)—Two Geneva police officers are accused of ignoring the condition of a man in medical distress. That man died after the police arrested him. The family claims a trip to the hospi…
www.wdhn.com www.wdhn.com

Chief Pepper Mock described both cops as “good officers”.
 
S2 #49
Seems to me one of two plausible explanations apply. This was either:
- ignorance / incompetence, or
- deliberate murder.

Sweep this under the rug and the stack of corpses will only grow higher.
 
If it was "incompetence" the cops are guilty of criminal negligence - he should have been taken to a hospital and "medically cleared" before being taken to jail. Cops have no business making any sort of medical judgment when they pick up someone who is in distress (and they're not qualified to do so).
 
Shiftless2 said:
If it was "incompetence" the cops are guilty of criminal negligence -
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Given your professional experience I should defer to you on this. But in practical terms it's not clear to me what's to be gained by punishing the truly incompetent.
Incompetence and negligence may produce the same outcome, but they are not the same.

Seems to me if incompetence is the cause, the blame belongs further up the chain of command. AND !! If the police chief KNOWS his patrolmen are incompetent, and has been clamoring for years to get the funding to get them the training, but it's simply not in the budget, punish the police chief anyway?
I'm not making excuses for anybody. What I'm observing is, I don't have all the failure-analysis information.
Shiftless2 said:
- he should have been taken to a hospital and "medically cleared" before being taken to jail.
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Reminds me of a report of a person that did not comply with police commands, and was tackled and hand-cuffed. In that process his head struck pavement and permanent neurological injury resulted.
The reason the subject was non-compliant is he spoke no English.
Shiftless2 said:
Cops have no business making any sort of medical judgment when they pick up someone who is in distress (and they're not qualified to do so).
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I hope police command knows this. But knowing it is not enough. If the police department is so under-manned they can barely police their own precinct, how can they train?
On basis of simple arithmetic OT might seem to be a solution. But if tight budget is the cause of this problem, paying "$time & a $half" for training is probably not an option.

Point being:
we can easily wag our accusatory finger with righteous indignation. It doesn't solve the problem (though can be an important first step to solution: recognition).
 
titan said:
If the first responders are not adequately trained, are they to blame? The chief of police deserves some scrutiny for deploying a competent police force.
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True - but the fact is, if they see a prisoner in distress they common sense says they should clear him thru a hospital and it's safe to say that while their superiors should be enjoined in any lawsuit the officers in question should be named personally.
 
S2 #58
I might have hoped television might have helped usher in world peace, an end to war. One would have to be as self-deluded as Putin to wage War in the 1080HD era. - the whole world is watching -

Ironically, even a viable video didn't bring to justice the police thugs that severely beat Rodney King.

I would not defend police use of excessive force. But I am concerned that widely held public perception may be distorted to inaccuracy by highlighting what I hope to be rare exceptions, leading the public to think they're representative of police PR in general.
Would it not be anarchy without police?
It's a difficult job.

CERTAINLY whatever steps are necessary to reduce police excesses to tolerable minimums is important, if not essential. Does projecting a dominantly negative distorted impression of the police advance that goal?
 
Hate to say it but until settlements like this start to hit individual police officers (and their union) they won't have much of a deterrent effect. A few officers disciplined isn't going to have any real impact. And the only way that will happen is if qualified immunity is eliminated.

New York Will Pay Millions to Protesters Violently Corralled by Police​

The police boxed in racial justice demonstrators in 2020, an anti-protest practice known as “kettling,” then hit them with batons and pepper spray. Hundreds will receive $21,500 each.
Maria Cramer

New York City has agreed to pay $21,500 to each of hundreds of demonstrators who were penned in by the police in the Bronx during racial justice protests in 2020, then charged at or beaten with batons, according to a legal settlement.

If a judge approves the settlement filed in federal court late Tuesday, the amount would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a class action case of mass arrests, and could cost the city between $4 million and $6 million.

The case concerned roughly 300 people who were arrested on June 4, 2020, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx during protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers the week before. His death set off ...

www.nytimes.com

New York Will Pay Millions to Protesters Violently Corralled by Police

The police boxed in racial justice demonstrators in 2020, an anti-protest practice known as “kettling,” then hit them with batons and pepper spray. Hundreds will receive $21,500 each.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
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