Plague Diary, In Which My City Is On Fucking Fire

[lydy]

I live in Minneapolis. The most recent murder by a cop happened 10 blocks from my house. The Target and Cub that have been set on fire were the places I most often bought Target-like objects and groceries. I've watched a fair bit of the live-streaming from Unicorn Riot. This didn't have to happen. This is what happens when cops are left unchecked.

I sent email to my city council person and my mayor, as follows:

I am terrified and heart-sick.  At every point, the police have escalated.  I stand firmly with the protestors, and against the police.  Further militarizing the situation is going to make things more violent, not less.  

I ask you to work to having the officers who killed Floyd arrested.  I ask you to stop the deployment of additional force, such as the National Guard.  I ask you to force the police to stand down, to call the Chief of Police to account for the actions of the officers.  I ask for an investigation to determine how this escalation happened.

I ask you to stand up for the people who are enraged and despairing, and not for the men who terrorize and abuse my neighbors.

I thank you for your time.  I apologize for my lack of eloquence or coherence.

I am tired and angry and frightened.  And it may be, again, a long, hot summer.  This has happened before.  It should not have happened again, and yet, here we are.  

Comments

[graydon]

Institutional armed force is properly a monopoly of the state. (whether US-state or nation-state, at least that far up the chain of authority. In Canada, I say "of the Crown", which is this complex legal concept involving Parliament, the idea of a monarch, and the construction of legitimacy.)

Anyway -- police unions are alternative power structures and are intended to be alternative power structures. They're armed, and they do not obey civil authority. That's why they're the one non-busted kind of union and why they're so very Confederate in outlook. On those terms, police unions should not exist.

Either everyone is an essential civil servant without any right to strike and without collective bargaining as such (collective arbitration, yes) or they're not armed. But they can't both be armed and not subject to civil authority. That way lies some non-democratic power structure which is, in observed present practice, the point.

[lydy]

There are two things I wish I could force police departments to do. The first is: if you use your sidearm (gun or taser), you work a desk job for two years. This applies if its a good shoot. If it was determined to be an illegitimate use of force, other disciplinary action. But I want to dampen down the cycle of violence, and forcing officers who are willing to use force to take a time out I think might help with that. At very least, it might make them slower to take out their guns in the first place.

I would also refuse to employ, and instantly fire, anyone who has any affiliation with a White Supremest organization. This would also extend to anyone who has tattoos of white supremest and Nazi iconography. And, of course, all tattoos must be registered. (The FBI does the tattoo thing.)

But disbanding the police unions is probably something even more important to do, for all the things you cite above.

[haertstitch]

yes the tattoes are agiveaway
and their social media they used for
the calling in of the rioters.

;(

[womzilla]

I think you know this, but it's something I feel people need reminding of. Dallas was well-known among those who study law enforcement for taking police reform seriously in the early part of the last decade. Even so, when 5 cops were killed in an ambush, it turned out one of them had obvious white supremacist tattoos.

That's 20%, in a *good* force.

(Yes, I know it's generalizing from a small sample. But come the fuck on: an Iron Cross tattoo isn't subtle.)