The Morale of the Baltimore Police Force is lower than a snakes belly do the way they've been treated during the recent riots and or demonstrations many have stated they won't make any arrests unless there's a media crew on hand . :-?
Having spoken with a few guys I know from or still living in Baltimore, the police are considered more or less the status qou holders.
You have minority communities more or less pressed into living in and staying put inside neighbor hoods with no serious development or economic investment in decades left to decay from a local job market that has been dried up for 20 years.
No real social services exists here, and the only ways to make a decent living is the drug trade or prostitution or burglary.
In many places you have 60 year old two lane streets as the only entry or access to these areas and the "nice" part of town. It's almost social engineering, keep the poor brown people in poor brown people town and have the cops keep em there. And sadly enough this is the status qou that we have quietly engineered since reconstruction, whether on purpose or not in inner cities all across America.
Just every time it comes to light either the message we all need to look for gets buried in looting, and over hype of said looting to boost ratings by the media.
Now a days any protest is nothing more than late night entrainment, "oh I wonder what business they will burn next?" And that garbage flashes on the news every night for weeks.
This all will drop off the public mindset until the next city has it's scheduled ethnic riots in 5 to 10 years. Just like it always has.
I see that there was a protest march in London recently. What the hell has London got to do with the actions of police in the US?
Because the problem is a world wide one and while the UK police are not shooting people they are still seen as enforcing the status-quo which I believe is the crux of the matter.
They have shot people as it happens.
The case that sticks in my mind is the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes who was shot on the London Underground just after the 7/7 bombings. Witnesses including a serving police officer stated that the shooting was an execution.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched two investigations. Stockwell 1, the findings of which were initially kept secret, concluded that none of the officers would face disciplinary charges. Stockwell 2 strongly criticized the police command structure and communications to the public, bringing pressure on the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign. In July 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any of the officers, although a corporate criminal prosecution of the Metropolitan Police was brought under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This alleged that the police service had failed in its duty of care to Menezes. The service was found guilty and fined. On 12 December 2008 an inquest returned an open verdict.
At that inquest the jury were told they had two choices
(1) The shooting was lawful
(2) Open verdict.
The verdict of "Unlawful shooting" was taken off the table by the Judge, basically tying the hands behind the backs of the jury. The jury didn't find the shooting lawful.
After this shooting I don't remember riots or protest marches in the US.
I would defend police actions in the Jean Charles de Menezes case as I think it was more a mistake made due to the circumstances at the time and I think both parties are at fault in this.
Don't get me wrong it should never have happened but I think had it been any other day it would not have happened, you don't pick the day of a major terrorist attack to try and outrun armed police.
News just in... research shows that if police forces act responsibly the public wont rise up against them.
I think it is time for a good debate on what the role of a police force is, is it:
A) To do nothing but eat donuts and drink coffee.
B) Enforce laws and protect the public interest at large.
C) Defend the status-quo against the public at large.
My guess is that many people now see the police as how businesses and the wealthy get their way over the masses which they did not like but could tolerate until the police started killing people and getting off scott free in the process of doing this.
Personally I think the protests in Baltimore and Ferguson are good things as it shows people have had enough and will stand up at least for the right not to get killed by a public official for shits and giggles, had their been genuine, independant and credible investigations of these acts I doubt you would have seen trouble on the scale you now have it but as with most police investigations they are a foregone conclusion with the usual "justifications" trotted out and the case closed.
I was once told by an old boss I hated that right and wrong are irrelevant as perception will always dictate action so whether these police actions were right or wrong is irrelevant as it is the public's perception of those actions which are now driving the protests.
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/...eaths-in-maryland-finds-mostly-black-victims/ Note: over 4 years: 31, far from "greater than one per day"..
You can not have a police force shooting its own citizens at a rate of greater than 1 a day and think people (especially the groups that are being shot) are not going to get pissed.
.
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/...eaths-in-maryland-finds-mostly-black-victims/ Note: over 4 years: 31, far from "greater than one per day".
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma...-md-ci-batts-fired-20150708-story.html#page=1
Having spoken with a few guys I know from or still living in Baltimore, the police are considered more or less the status qou holders.
You have minority communities more or less pressed into living in and staying put inside neighbor hoods with no serious development or economic investment in decades left to decay from a local job market that has been dried up for 20 years.
No real social services exists
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