(06-04-2020, 10:59 PM)p_rushing Wrote:

(06-04-2020, 09:34 PM)JagJohn Wrote: And one final point about the "few bad apples" argument. George Floyd died because one officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 47 seconds. He was surrounded by 3 other officers, who did nothing to stop him killing this man. Multiple onlookers repeatedly said that he was dying, it was obvious. The officer continued to kneel on his neck for almost 3 minutes after his body had gone limp and lifeless, still none of the other 3 officers stopped him. That makes 4 "bad apples". What a terribly tragic coincidence that all 4 officers at the scene that day happened to be from this tiny tiny minority of "bad apple" cops. Or maybe the problem is more widespread than you are making out?

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that all 4 of these cops were dispicable racist thugs who set out that day to take a black man's life. I am saying that this incident shows how their are clear and obvious problems with how the police operate. Too often these situations are made worse by the actions of police; this needs to be the basis of police reform.

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How do you reform something when the problem is individual people? People may not present as problems immediately, it is usually an issue that builds over time after having to constantly deal with criminals. If there are reports, you can hopefully intervene, but how can you truly trust reports from people being arrested? Sure patterns form, so hopefully you catch them, but you can't catch everyone.

Police already have many steps in place to stop this, but guess what, another democratic platform police union stops them from getting rid of the bad cops unless something like this happens.

The system leads to the bad elements because it protects and supports them. George Floyd was murdered while he begged for his life and three officers stood by and did nothing even as other bystanders were yelling at them to intervene or for the officer to stop kneeling on his neck. The whole incident was captured in excruciating footage. Even with all that it took massive protests for the officers to be fired and charged with a crime. The officer who murdered Floyd had 17 incidents on his file including two with excessive violence, his badge should have been taken away years ago.

Bad elements happen within every organization, it's a fact of humanity. But a good organization has mechanisms in place to remove those elements, doctors have boards where their actions are reviewed if there is any belief they were negligent or contributed to a patient's death or injury, the bar association can and does strip lawyers of their license for a whole range of infractions, same with registered accountants. Soldiers face military tribunal if they violate the UCMJ and can even end up in The Hague on charges of war crimes.

On the opposite side; police unions will shield officers for any repercussions and Qualified Immunity means it's virtually impossible to hold them accountable in a civil court. Police brutality is the result of zero accountability and zero transparency and until the system is reformed this whole sequence of events will keep happening.

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