Out-of-Control Cops - What the Police Force Actually Does : Mad Scribbler

It seems like a good Monday to piss off a few people, so we’re looking at a heady subject to dive into as we’re all logging into work. The actual purpose of police officers, constitutionally (as noted by the Supreme Court) will likely shock many. In the United States, we are struggling with out-of-control cops, and it’s notoriously difficult to pin the proverbial tail on the issue.

Somehow the police force discussion has been co-opted into one where lines are drawn resolutely in the sand, and you’re either ‘with us’ or ‘against us,’ with the idea of ‘us’ being a fleeting ideal that shifts constantly. This isn’t the first time where we’ve stumbled across these divisive lines that make no plausible sense: ‘The Fauci Email Leak,’ ‘Masturbation and Murder,’ and ‘Corporate Pride Month‘ are all a few that touch on these arbitrary battle lines generated by…someone.

The conundrum of out-of-control cops in the United States, however, affects all walks of life. This isn’t about race, creed, or protests, regardless of what talking heads spew whichever shit they’re told to. It appears to stem from undereducated individuals being offered weaponry with a free pass, encouraging increasingly wanton violence against a relatively peaceful populace. We have a rising problem with out-of-control cops, and there’s no simple solution.

To come up with such a damning statement, we would need to have damn good evidence. In typical fashion, we sure as hell do. Let’s start at the Supreme Court.

To Protect and Serve, Minus Protection and Service

Like a young couple who just found out that they’re pregnant, we’re going to start by reversing time – back to late 2018. Yet another school shooting 😠 occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. There was a bit of frustration as police stood idly by while a school shooter removed the upcoming generation because, and what a fucking surprise, they didn’t want to be shot.

At Least Make A Fucking Attempt At Originality

I think a monumental statement on how our schools are failing children is with how many school shooter copy-cats there are. Of course, it all started with two losers in Columbine and now everyone wants to be somehow immortalized in the most grotesque means humanly possible (ideally without others shooting back), but holy shit.

How derivative can these window-lickers get?

You’ve decided to throw everything away and go on a shooting spree. These fucking morons go to shoot-up schools, movie theaters, malls, and then are promptly forgotten (if the name is released at all). It’s counter-fucking productive, more so than the ‘dying in a hail of bullets’ typically would be.

Imagine you had a loaded weapon and reckless abandon of how you use it. You’re done with life, you’re expecting death in the end, and you’re curious how to use this…dead end. A few bullets could change the shape of a nation (if not the world), and these fucking morons are using it on kids and unsuspecting families.

There’s a heft of evil shit in this world, and you’re going after one of the few inherently ‘non-evil’ locales possible. A lack of critical thought is clearly going on in these bad-ass wannabes. Slave labor, genocide – shit, just look at the news for fifteen minutes and you’ll be presented with a plethora of horrendous acts that are protected.

At least try to make the world a better place, more so than the absence of yourself already would offer.

These humans want the accolades of being ‘heroic’ without needing to place themselves in the line of fire. A rhetoric that, frankly speaking, I personally found consistently repeated during my 7+ years in the military. Everyone wants to be heralded as a hero without doing heroic shit. Maybe that’s a digression.

So, fifteen students who survived the mass shooting rose a lawsuit over cops sitting there with their thumbs up their asses. It rose to the Supreme Court, where it was decided that police officers are under no legal obligation to protect anyone aside from those in custody. The New York Times interviewed law professor and associate dean Darren L. Hutchinson, of the University of Florida School of Law, for clarification:

“Neither the Constitution, nor state law, impose a general duty upon police officers or other governmental officials to protect individual persons from harm — even when they know the harm will occur. Police can watch someone attack you, refuse to intervene, and not violate the Constitution. Courts have rejected the argument that students are in custody of school officials while they are on campus. Custody is narrowly confined to situations where a person loses his or her freedom to move freely and seek assistance on their own — such as prisons, jails, or mental institutions.” ¹

While this absolutely does bring up the question of precisely what these out-of-control cops are actually doing, if not protecting civilians, perhaps we should take a look at the second segment of the oft-repeated yet never-adhered to mantra of ‘protect and serve.’ Who are the extremely brave police officers serving?

Where’s the Red Light (Camera) District?

Red light cameras can offer a bit of light as to whom the police force is adamant on serving, although it’s worth noting that this is a small part of policing. Red light cameras are set up at intersections for a ‘policing for profit’ movement that allows automated ticketing. These are placed in poorer areas (rarely, if ever, near wealthy neighborhoods 😠) and tend to be accompanied by the yellow-light cycle being shortened to increase revenue.

The Intersection Conundrum

As I was researching for this piece, I went deep into understanding where red light cameras were placed and why. Typically, there are investigations and lots of analysis done by nerds, and they propose where the cameras should be placed. These cameras, according to USPIRG, tend to cause far more accidents while they generate revenue⁵.

I posited that, perhaps, the intersections simply aren’t in wealthier areas because the rich people all obey the law to the letter. That’s a joke that damn near writes itself, but like one of the few men who can get an erection in a retirement home, I like to skip low-hanging fruit.

This is known as ‘The Poverty Argument’ for red light cameras, and why Rochester, New York ultimately put the brakes on the red-light camera movement. It egregiously only targeted those living near poverty lines, with little correlation to traffic incidents.⁶

This was found to be fact in 2016 for Fremont, California, where revenue was driven by intentionally shortening yellow lights to ensure more tickets could be sent out². In 2014, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel administration was caught red-handed shortening yellow-light cycles that drove over 77,000 tickets before finally moving signals back to standardized times³. After generating over $8 million in profits, of course⁴.

The United States Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) released a fascinating look at red light cameras, showing a concerning trend of privatized companies with little overhead promising revenues for police districts. This is helped by the marriage of our shit-tier politicians and their penchant for lobbyists, encouraging the expansion of private traffic law enforcement and automation⁵. The entirety of the report is worth the read, as long as you aren’t prone to depression.

It almost seems as though there is a lopsided police presence, presuming that the argument of red-light cameras holds true through other policing works. Bear with me, here – the amount of shit that police have their hands in is staggering, and I’m already going to field complaints from my editor about the length of this bitch, so we’ll assume it holds ‘true enough’ for us to move on. Work with me, here.

Oversight and Reach-Arounds

As such, we can safely say that police officers, legally, don’t protect citizens, and the service aspect seems equally suspect. So, what the fuck happens when a cop can manage to get out of his or her car? Easy, start shooting everything and everyone😠. This is because there are, historically, very few consequences for cops playing ‘Lone Texas Ranger.’

I Feared for my Life

Every time I hear a cop utter the magic bullshit line of ‘I feared for my life’ I pop another blood vessel in my skull. I deployed twice, dealt consistently with local nationals, and a very real presence of anti-coalition forces embedded within that populace.

There were so many damn steps we had to work through before we would pull a trigger to ensure that innocents wouldn’t lose their lives that it became annoying. We adhered to those standards, however, because we’re talking about the fucking life of another human. Popping flares, smokes, signs, flags, and horns would all be used before we even thought about firing a warning shot.

I don’t know how these sensitive snowflakes got into the police force (well, aside from the impressively low bar) and immediately shit their pants every time someone queefs in a drive-through. I just can’t fathom being that scared, every waking moment. I don’t know if I’m more impressed or disappointed.

Maybe it’s ‘overly sensitive out-of-control cops.’

Internal Affairs is typically a joke – little more than an HR department for the out-of-control cops. It’s asking themselves, the suspects (let’s call them ‘perps’ for the sheer joy of it) if they’re innocent, and holy shit they tend to find themselves innocent unless a massive movement is spawned that grinds productivity to a halt. Derek Chauvin (the cop who killed George Floyd) had eighteen complaints filed against him before the execution, only two of which were ‘closed with discipline.’⁷ Seven complaints lodged against the former officer were directly related to excessive force – none of those complaints went anywhere.

On the other hand, you have the prosecutors – another force that is to ensure the law is followed (let us know when you see a pattern). These prosecutors typically become very friendly with police officers, resulting in many killings being quickly dismissed as ‘justified’ with little casework in exchange for benefits in the future.⁸

Barely an Education

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, aside from my love of long-form copy and a knack for research, I’m one of the least educated dudes you will ever have the displeasure of knowing. But holy shit cops make me seem like I’m super-edumacated. These out-of-control cops are partly this way due to a massive lack of education.

Police officers in the United States have, on average, four months of training before they’re released into the wild like a new form of less-fun genital herpes, and the only requirement beyond that is a high school education. If we compare that to other first-world countries, it’s less surprising that the United States police has the highest murder rate in the world.⁹

In Germany, police recruits spend roughly two and a half years. Switzerland is just shy of a year. Finland has the highest time necessary before actual policing begins, at three whole years of education. Is there a remaining question as to how this nation has ended up with one of the most corrupt police forces the world has ever seen? It appears that the United States has little to blame for the out-of-control cops aside from ourselves.

Who Ya Gonna Call? Literally Anyone Else.

Now, empirical evidence absolutely will come into play.

‘I haven’t had negative interactions with the police.’

‘But I haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘This is all exaggerated.’

These are the very same thoughts that pass through the mind of someone before they’re killed by the police – citizens don’t know when they should expect out-of-control cops, or when they’ve recently sated their apparent bloodlust. Police have one of the highest rates of domestic violence of all professions, if not the highest, at 40%¹⁰ admitting to beating their spouse.

You’re damn near flipping a coin and hoping whichever cop arrives isn’t one who likes to talk things out with his fists, or his trusty gun. If that sounds like conflict resolution to you, feel free to call. Just let me get away from the impending firefight, first.

Sources

Hassan, A. (2018, December 18). Officers Had No Duty to Protect Students in Parkland Massacre, Judge Rules. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/parkland-shooting-lawsuit-ruling-police.html
Borba, A. (2017, February 23). Fremont Offers Refund For Red-Light Tickets Due To Shorter Yellow Time. CBS San Francisco. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/02/23/fremont-offers-refunds-for-red-light-tickets-due-to-shortened-yellow-time/.
Spielman, F. (2017, March 21). Red-light changes nowhere near enough, alderman says. Times. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/3/21/18333869/red-light-changes-nowhere-near-enough-alderman-says.
Hannon, E. (2014, October 16). Chicago Quietly Allows .1 Second Shorter Yellow Light Tickets, Makes $8 Million. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/10/chicago-shortens-yellow-lights-ticket-standard-makes-8-million-off-new-tickets.html.
United States Public Interest Research Group. (2011, October 27). Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead. Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead | U.S. PIRG. https://uspirg.org/reports/usp/trafficcamreport.
Grass, M. (2021, April 12). The Poverty Argument Against Red-Light Cameras. Route Fifty. https://www.route-fifty.com/management/2016/12/poverty-argument-against-red-light-cameras/133585/.
Corbett, E. (n.d.). The Officers Who Killed George Floyd Have Done This Before – Many Times. History Of Complaints Against Derek Chauvin & MN Police. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9846650/minneapolis-police-derek-chauvin-history-force.
Swaine, J., Laughland, O., Lartey, J., & McCarthy, C. (2015, December 31). Ties that bind: how the bond between police and prosecutors impedes justice. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/ties-that-bind-conflicts-of-interest-police-killings.
Horton, J. (2021, May 17). How US police training compares with the rest of the world. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56834733.
Burmon, A. (2021, June 24). Police Brutality at Home: Cops Abuse Wives and Kids at Staggering Rates. Fatherly. https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/police-brutality-and-domestic-violence/.

Image Credit – /u/LandooooXTrcls via Reddit | ‘Police Officer Threatening Me at a Protest in Las Vegas’

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