I think this is an enormously useful and helpful explanation of why cops do what they do. A very simple test, that seems to explain many observed behaviors. Applying it to coerced confessions suddenly made it unnecessary to infer evil intent--it is so obviously easier to nail someone you have in custody than to be sure they are the right person to nail. And all the incentives reward conviction, not correctness. Why work harder? It makes perfect sense.
Thinking of how medicine, as a profession, has been respected or even revered pretty much forever, even in times and places where it was worse than useless. In Europe, at least, I think that getting medical treatment in the days before the invention of antiseptic would significantly lower your chance of survival, even if you weren't being bled by Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber.
Since we're calling people assholes (or not actually calling people assholes, but saying that "some journalists are assholes" without having the vanishingly small amount of courage to say which journalists you think are assholes) I feel liberated to to say that you seem like a congenitally dishonest person if this is the best you can do.
Could any of us have subdued an 18-year-old who shot a cop, without killing that 18-year-old? Who can say? I know, with rock solid certainty, that if I had encountered Tamir Rice, or Philando Castille, or John Crawford, I would not have killed them. These people didn't do anything wrong, nor did they pose a threat to the police or anyone else.
"As a homeless rights advocate and survivor of homelessness, I've seen cops save lives. Yes, some cops are assholes, but so are some homeless people."
You sound like a shitty homeless rights advocate, because you don't know or don't care that homeless people are not empowered by the law and the courts to mete out deadly violence. I've encountered homeless people who behave like assholes. I can walk away from them. They can't arrest me. A cop that behaves like an asshole - up to and including brutalizing or killing someone - will probably face no consequences for that violence, and will probably be walking the beat after a month or so of paid vacations.
What makes your response so risible and absurd is that cops are visibly avoiding bravery. The cops in Uvalde brutalized parents who wanted to go into the school, who were desperate to do something, anything, that might bring their kids out, alive, after it became clear the cops weren't going to do anything. The cops at Parkland School declined to go in while the bullets were flying, too. Maybe you'll say that this is just two stories, but your story is just one story.
Cops (and lickspittles like you) are the ones that shout down anyone who criticizes cops, and the best anecdote you could come up with is cops doing exactly what they're supposed to do, as their job. If cops don't like being criticized for being fuckups, they should quit.
In that vein, you should probably take a hiatus from advocating for homeless people, I doubt that homeless people getting their belonging thrown in a dumpster by the cops benefit from you cheering the cops on from the sidelines.
I think this is an enormously useful and helpful explanation of why cops do what they do. A very simple test, that seems to explain many observed behaviors. Applying it to coerced confessions suddenly made it unnecessary to infer evil intent--it is so obviously easier to nail someone you have in custody than to be sure they are the right person to nail. And all the incentives reward conviction, not correctness. Why work harder? It makes perfect sense.
Thinking of how medicine, as a profession, has been respected or even revered pretty much forever, even in times and places where it was worse than useless. In Europe, at least, I think that getting medical treatment in the days before the invention of antiseptic would significantly lower your chance of survival, even if you weren't being bled by Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber.
Since we're calling people assholes (or not actually calling people assholes, but saying that "some journalists are assholes" without having the vanishingly small amount of courage to say which journalists you think are assholes) I feel liberated to to say that you seem like a congenitally dishonest person if this is the best you can do.
Could any of us have subdued an 18-year-old who shot a cop, without killing that 18-year-old? Who can say? I know, with rock solid certainty, that if I had encountered Tamir Rice, or Philando Castille, or John Crawford, I would not have killed them. These people didn't do anything wrong, nor did they pose a threat to the police or anyone else.
"As a homeless rights advocate and survivor of homelessness, I've seen cops save lives. Yes, some cops are assholes, but so are some homeless people."
You sound like a shitty homeless rights advocate, because you don't know or don't care that homeless people are not empowered by the law and the courts to mete out deadly violence. I've encountered homeless people who behave like assholes. I can walk away from them. They can't arrest me. A cop that behaves like an asshole - up to and including brutalizing or killing someone - will probably face no consequences for that violence, and will probably be walking the beat after a month or so of paid vacations.
What makes your response so risible and absurd is that cops are visibly avoiding bravery. The cops in Uvalde brutalized parents who wanted to go into the school, who were desperate to do something, anything, that might bring their kids out, alive, after it became clear the cops weren't going to do anything. The cops at Parkland School declined to go in while the bullets were flying, too. Maybe you'll say that this is just two stories, but your story is just one story.
Cops (and lickspittles like you) are the ones that shout down anyone who criticizes cops, and the best anecdote you could come up with is cops doing exactly what they're supposed to do, as their job. If cops don't like being criticized for being fuckups, they should quit.
In that vein, you should probably take a hiatus from advocating for homeless people, I doubt that homeless people getting their belonging thrown in a dumpster by the cops benefit from you cheering the cops on from the sidelines.