‘You won’t need to abolish us – we won’t be around for it’: Why many police officers like me are quitting the force

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[–]Drewski 31 insightful - 4 fun31 insightful - 3 fun32 insightful - 4 fun -  (3 children)

He's unwilling to address the issues in the US police force, including qualified immunity, lack of accountability, us vs. them mentality, covering for bad officers, inadequate training and escalating instead of deescalating situations, militarized police forces, among many others. The whole thing reads like a martyr complex.

"We used to be able to testify in court and we were believed. Now, unless there is video from three different angles, no one cares what you have to say."

Give me a break, juries, judges, and other public servants side with cops 90% of the time and refuse to convict in the face of strong evidence of police misconduct. I know there are good officers on the force, I know a few of them myself and I feel for them because this is undoubtedly a difficult time to be serving on the force. Most of them also acknowledge that there are a lot of inherent problems within the police department, and would welcome changes that make them more honest, accountable, and actually serve the people instead of acting like a gang that covers for its bad apples.

I have much less sympathy for people like this who refuse to see the problems in their own institution and instead blame everyone else.

[–]KennyLogins 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

What is your solution for qualified immunity?

[–]FediNetizen 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I'm not him, but I can tell you that qualified immunity is just a series of Supreme Court rulings based on their reading of existing legislation, and that what qualified immunity actually does is prevents the officers or their departments for being sued unless it can be shown that they knowingly violated "clearly established law" (a lot of great info on the whole situation here).

Fixing the civil issues is a step in the right direction, but there are other promising reform proposals, such as making officers carry malpractice insurance similar to how doctors do, and so the ones that repeatedly screw up end up with unmanageable premiums and get priced out of the profession.

[–]DrStrangelove 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I've supported the idea of malpractice insurance for police since at least Occupy in 2011. Made a sign and everything! It's a market based approach that should garner support from the fiscally responsible right, the ACAB left, and the insurance industry lobby, but any time I bring it up peoples eyes just glaze over. I guess insurance is just that boring.