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FBI Chief Links Video Scrutiny of Police To Rise In Violent Crime (nytimes.com)
HughPickens.com writes: This year, murders have spiked in major cities across America. According to FBI director James B. Comey the additional scrutiny and criticism of police officers that has come in the wake of highly publicized incidents of police brutality may be the main reason for the recent increase in violent crime. "I don't know whether that explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind that has blown through American law enforcement over the last year," says Comey. He says he's been told by many police leaders that officers who normally would stop to question suspicious people are opting to stay in their patrol cars for fear of having their encounters recorded and become video sensations.
That hesitancy has led to missed opportunities to apprehend suspects and has decreased the police presence on the streets of the country's most violent cities. Officers tell Comey that youths surround police when they get out of their vehicles, taunting them and making videos of the spectacle with their cell phones. "In today's YouTube world, there are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime," says Comey. "Our officers are answering 911 calls, but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around, especially with guns."
That hesitancy has led to missed opportunities to apprehend suspects and has decreased the police presence on the streets of the country's most violent cities. Officers tell Comey that youths surround police when they get out of their vehicles, taunting them and making videos of the spectacle with their cell phones. "In today's YouTube world, there are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime," says Comey. "Our officers are answering 911 calls, but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around, especially with guns."
But he acknowledged that there is so far no data to back up his assertion
Now there's a surprise.
It's odd that this sort of situation seems to happen so much more often in the US than most places, though. It's hard to get an accurate picture from outside based on just what the TV reports, because that will naturally highlight the big wins and big failures but probably most police work fits somewhere in between. Still, the picture of US law enforcement that is shown to the outside world is often not a positive one, and makes me wonder how much of any cultural problems with law enforcement in the US were caused by the past behaviour of the law enforcement organisations themselves. Perhaps borrowing more of the community-based neighbourhood policing that is used in a lot of other places and accepting the greater degree of scrutiny they now operate under will help, at least in the long term.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
A neighboring town had a pumpkin festival last year, and the police had snipers out during the event.
Yup. Most police today look and act like extras straight out of RoboCop, and many of them behave as if they're about to be killed at any moment. They overreact at the slightest thing and rarely use their discretion any more. It's just gone fucking nuts.
Most cops carry 2 guns, a knife, a baton, a Taser, and pepper spray. They wear a bullet-resistant vest, steel-toed boots, and have a radio to call for backup with...and yet they're terrified of a guy in shorts and a t-shirt. WTF?
When I was young the police (most police) were actually friendly and you could count on them for help. Most people liked and respected police officers. Now they mostly seem to be dicks itching for any excuse to make an arrest over the smallest thing. I avoid them at all costs.
The problem is that most cops these days can't tell the difference between a felony and just fucking around.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I've been dragged out of a car at gunpoint for 'stopping at the side of the road while sounding a bit foreign.' Think I have much respect for the US police after that? I'm lucky they weren't 'acting recklessly' that day, or I'd be six feet under.
I read an interesting article a while back by a US soldier who'd become a cop after he left the army. He said that Americans were scared of ex-military police, because they assumed they'd been trained to airstrike first and ask questions later, but he saw the civilian police do things every day that would have got him courtmartialled when he was in Iraq or Afghanistan. The rules of engagement there, where most people really did want to kill him, were much tougher and much more strictly enforced than on the streets of American cities.
Now, maybe he's making it up to make himself look better, but I can certainly believe that.
By sane standards, the US is now a police state. A key indicator is that the law does not get applied to police members anymore. (There is still some residual rule-of-law that keeps them under some control, but this seems to be become less and less.) A police-state is one of the more benign forms of totalitarian state, but it usually devolves to full fascism over time.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The problem is that most cops these days can't tell the difference between a felony and just fucking around.
To be fair, the bigger problem is that many things that were 'just fucking around' when we were kids are now felonies. If you demand that the police 'enforce the law', they're far more likely to arrest kids who are 'just fucking around' than gang members who are likely to shoot them.
Maybe we could just take them all off the street and let everyone wear a gun and handle their own justice? Wonder how that would work out? I know already anytime I have to take a trip to Atlanta to visit Emory University Hospital Midtown that I pack heat. It's gotten to the point that it's not paranoia anymore, they really are out to get you. It's not the fucking police I'm worried about either. They're the lightweights.