119
He might have to move two, three counties over.
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
119 points (96.9% liked)
THE POLICE PROBLEM
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The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.
99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.
When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.
When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."
When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.
Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.
The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.
All this is a path to a police state.
In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.
Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.
That's the solution.
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Ouch
Matthew McCulloch flashed his badge at a school event with hundreds of children before discharging his firearm into the air. Name and shame this psycho!
In my country, a police(wo)man just drawing his or her gun needs to file a report explaining the reason for it. Imagine what would happen if he or she drew a gun a) without being in a dangerous situation and b) in the presence of children. And here this would mean not working for the police anymore, anywhere.
St. Louis cop who shot up a kids' trick-or-treating event is no longer employed
At least not in that police department. But I'm sure he will find another one soon.
Could we not keep a running online record/database of cops names, faces and reasons they were fired? Similar to what we do with convicted sex offenders. It’s all in public record anyway
How long before some other department hires him? 2 months? 3?
Misleading title. The article headline isn't much better. They shot into the air, the title makes it sound like they went on a killing spree.
They did tell everyone they were going to die before emptying their gun into the air. They'd clearly lost their damn mind and this probably traumatized a bunch of kids. Throw the book at them by all means.
The title is bullshit though.
Not to mention that a bullet shot in the air can absolutely kill someone when it comes down.
Someone at a kids' event shoots a gun "at least a dozen times" — that's not shooting up the event?
Luckily no one was hurt. I know people who were at the event.
This dude is screwed even with his political connections. He will never be a cop again.
Also he wasn’t a St. Louis cop. He was a St. Louis county cop. It’s a weird St. Louis thing.
No. It's shooting within the event and/or near it but not at it or any of the participants. The phrase "shot up" infers that the subject was the target.
But I get the sentiment of wanting to phrase it in a way that conveys the most amount of danger and insanity.
You smell like bacon.
It's okay to hate both cops and garbage journalism
A little game I like to play: replace the words and think of what the outcome would be.
St. Louis anybody else who shot up a kid's trick-or-treating event is held in custody on multiple charges
He is in jail. It's in the article.