US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4269

On July 13 2016 08:47 GGTeMpLaR wrote:


I would say police brutality is a problem that we can very directly address by making police more accountable. Citizens ought not be having their rights deprived or being treated aggressively by cops, let alone being shot in cases where the use of deadly force is unnecessary, regardless of skin color.

I would say the cause of a disproportion of how blacks and whites are treated by cops is a symptom of a much greater societal problem, just like the disproportion in how blacks and whites treat cops.

Hypothetical question, 200 years in the future assume that the rate of blacks/whites committing crimes and being jailed comes to be proportional to each other in terms of their total population size and the oldest generation that did not grow up in a country where this wasn't the case has finished dying off.. Do you think cops will still be treating blacks disproportionately to whites or will stereotypes still persist in spite of the facts?

Follow-up question, same scenario where whites/blacks both are treated by police equally in proportion to one another in terms of their population but the asian population is still treated disproportionately better by police and continues to have lower crime rates than whites/blacks. What would you prescribe to this society? Is it still a problem if it's a minority having access to this privilege?

On July 13 2016 08:56 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
Should police forces be ethnically proportional to the areas in which they police?

On July 13 2016 09:12 zeo wrote:
Man 'Sellout Sanders' has stuck really fast as Bernies new nickname.

On July 13 2016 09:11 OuchyDathurts wrote:


I don't think they necessarily need to be ethnically proportional but they do need to be representative. Whether the cop is white or black or mexican isn't as important as the fact that they came from that community. If the cop is white, but he grew up in that exact same ghetto he's policing now he's got skin in the game. He knows what it's like, he knows the people. We need WAYYYYYY stronger community policing. The cop that knows your mom and will tell her to slap the shit out of you when you get home. The cop who's son plays with your son on the basketball team. The cop you see at the farmer's market, or barber shop. That's the way to get stronger better policing without having to get so violent. That cop can be more reasonable and you can be more reasonable to him. It's harder for him to shoot you, it's harder for someone to shoot him. People are more willing to be forthcoming with evidence or tips, there's more accountability. They absolutely need to have skin in the game. Generally speaking more black cops will come out of a black area, but IMO it's less about their color than them being active members of the community.

On July 13 2016 09:14 Gorsameth wrote:

It is also a cop who will overlook crimes commit by his old schoolyard buddies if he can get away with it.

Sorry but I don't think a police officer should be patrolling the neighborhood he grew up in. It effects his ability to make unbiased judgements.

On July 13 2016 09:25 Plansix wrote:
Police normally live in the towns they work in anyways, its not really a huge deal.

On average, among the 75 U.S. cities with the largest police forces, 60 percent of police officers reside outside the city limits. (These figures exclude Honolulu, for which detailed data on residency was not available.) But the share varies radically from city to city. In Chicago, 88 percent of police officers live within the city boundaries — and in Philadelphia, 84 percent do. But only 23 percent do so in Los Angeles. Just 12 percent of Washington police live in the District — and only 7 percent of officers in Miami live within city limits.

These differences reflect a combination of three major factors: a city’s racial composition, whether it has a residency requirement for police and its geography.

On average among the 75 cities, 49 percent of black police officers and 47 percent of Hispanic officers live within the city limits. But just 35 percent of white police officers do. The disparity is starkest in cities with largely black populations. In Detroit, for example, 57 percent of black police officers live in the city but just 8 percent of white ones do. Memphis, Tennessee; Baltimore; Birmingham, Alabama; and Jackson, Mississippi — also majority black — likewise have large racial gaps in where their police officers live.

On July 13 2016 09:14 Gorsameth wrote:

It is also a cop who will overlook crimes commit by his old schoolyard buddies if he can get away with it.

Sorry but I don't think a police officer should be patrolling the neighborhood he grew up in. It effects his ability to make unbiased judgements.

On July 13 2016 09:26 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
In a perfect world I think it would naturally be inclined to be representative if not completely proportional to the local populace, aside from random statistical variations.

However, we don't live in a perfect world. It seems like a given that a police force more closely proportional to it's population in racial make-up would be more effective than one which is less so (if this is disputable please let me know)

I don't know if this points to a permanent flaw in the human condition or not, that even in a relatively egalitarian future where racism has subsided completely, it seems like it would still be beneficial for the proportions to match one another. Should this even be a rule-of-thumb in a world where skin color doesn't matter? It being the case seems to imply that on some level skin color will always matter to people.

That leads to the question of what happens when it is naturally disproportionate in a hypothetical scenario, for whatever reason, let's just say statistical anomaly. We want our police force to be racially representative of the population it polices, but it clearly isn't in this scenario. How do you go about increasing its effectiveness by making it more racially proportionate?

I have no clue what we do in actuality to combat this issue, if anything. It seems like any direct solution to promote proportionality between the police force and local population would require discrimination in hiring based on skin color, which is something inherently racist and problematic in-of-itself.

On July 13 2016 09:51 pmh wrote:



No cop overlooks crimes on purpose,
Maybe let a traffic violation slip but if you commit a serious crime he will get you no matter if he knows you from his childhood. Its great when police officers patrol the nabourhood they grew up in, they know the people and their back ground a bit better. Sometimes a warning or a conversation is just as effective,if not more,then a fine or jail time.
It creates goodwill, much better then a cop who writes a fine at every opportunity he can.
That's social fabric,something that is lacking on the other side of the ocean.
Maybe now americans can understand a bit better why Europeans don't see usa as the promised land.

On July 13 2016 08:56 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
Should police forces be ethnically proportional to the areas in which they police?

On July 13 2016 10:22 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
He just really wants me banned

Unfortunately for him Trump is going to win

Just remember I wanted it to be Bill not Kwark or Godwrath

I will take no pleasure in seeing my former Eve CEO get banned in November