Current Affairs George Floyd and Minneapolis Unrest

[Harryflashman]

As far as I can tell, it takes about 2 months to complete police academy.
So, get your high school diploma, do a two month course and they give you a gun and a badge.
Lots of these cops have no life experience. They're in a unionized job that they cant be fired from and they dont do anything to rock their boat.
How about requiring every cop to complete a two year certificate in civics or public health or law from a local community college.
This education would be paid for by the town/department/school.
Police training runs concurrently part time over the two years.
Maybe theres an option to transfer credits and complete a degree course (still fully funded).
You could incentivize this with a higher starting wage.
I hate to say it but they need to find a way to get the brighter kids to join the force.

do you need educationally brighter or just better ? I mean you’d certainly filter out a number of people but some of them might well be people who are from the local area or have life skills that mean that they can connect to communities.

I’d agree that you need to look at recruitment and training and your ideas may have merit but I’d also suggest maybe you need to look at the actually processes that you use to select recruits and once selected look at ways to stop them feeling like an occupying army and start feeling like they police by consent .

 

[JimmyJeffers]

As far as I can tell, it takes about 2 months to complete police academy.

Took about 90 mins if I recall correctly.Helps if you are able to make helicopter noises, be really big and love weapons.

 

[Ruairi77]

Took about 90 mins if I recall correctly.Helps if you are able to make helicopter noises, be really big and love weapons.

or really small cause the really big guy will stick up for you!

 

[Ruairi77]

do you need educationally brighter or just better ? I mean you’d certainly filter out a number of people but some of them might well be people who are from the local area or have life skills that mean that they can connect to communities.

I’d agree that you need to look at recruitment and training and your ideas may have merit but I’d also suggest maybe you need to look at the actually processes that you use to select recruits and once selected look at ways to stop them feeling like an occupying army and start feeling like they police by consent .

yea, 100%.
I don't just mean 'educationally smarter'.
It's a thorny one but there's definitely a 'cops seems like a decent job for not too much effort' attitude around here.
Doesn't strike me as a good reason to go in to law enforcement.

Also, take those kids who aren't at the top of the academic pile but are local and have clear community skills. If there arent courses that hone these skills and develop them, there should be, and they should be completed before they start work. (continuing ed is also important).
If you want to be a nurse, an RN say, you need a lot of education, you need to be licensed, you may even need liability insurance (not sure) all before you start, then you need to be continually educated in order to maintain that license.
To be a cop, you do a 6 week course.

 

[RAFUH]

id imagine that factored in to the original decision not to charge them .

I’ve mixed feelings in that. They were involved in the crime. I think I’d like to see judge and jury deciding on mitigating circumstances.
Seems the police dept also needs to add a section in the training curriculum on “illegal orders”

 

[mill]

I’ve mixed feelings in that. They were involved in the crime. I think I’d like to see judge and jury deciding on mitigating circumstances.
Seems the police dept also needs to add a section in the training curriculum on “illegal orders”

For me, it’s either they get prosecuted as any other officer would, or it’s the police force admitted that they put people out in the field that were not fully prepared to handle this kind of situation.

It’s an admission of guilt in the latter respect.

 

[Ruairi77]

An increase of pay would help. They get paid near nothing for a very tough job. It will make the field more competitive and they would have a better pick to choose from.

Not sure what the story in Louisiana is but the cops in Mass get paid pretty well.
I'm not sure there are much better paying jobs straight out of school with no college/apprenticeship education.
Mind you, the police union here is wicked strong.
If you want to fill a pot hole you need to get two cops to stand there and make sure no one falls in to the pothole.
Drives me mad on my way to work the amount of cops I pay for who are standing around doing nothing.
And don't get me started on cops in schools. That needs to end straight away.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

As far as I can tell, it takes about 2 months to complete police academy.
So, get your high school diploma, do a two month course and they give you a gun and a badge.
Lots of these cops have no life experience. They're in a unionized job that they cant be fired from and they dont do anything to rock their boat.
How about requiring every cop to complete a two year certificate in civics or public health or law from a local community college.
This education would be paid for by the town/department/school.
Police training runs concurrently part time over the two years.
Maybe theres an option to transfer credits and complete a degree course (still fully funded).
You could incentivize this with a higher starting wage.
I hate to say it but they need to find a way to get the brighter kids to join the force.

I’m not so sure it’s about brightness as much as these guys need to be trained/monitored socially. They need to be able to balance authority with conduct and I feel that is where most of them fail.

All of the local politicians and sheriffs need to be questioned as to why some police programs are so drastically different from each other. I’ve seen some organizations get very involved in the community and build relationships with the people. There are others that look for any reason to assert their authority and don’t get involved with the community at all. It’s a case by case basis.

 

[Grinch]

Not sure what the story in Louisiana is but the cops in Mass get paid pretty well.
I'm not sure there are much better paying jobs straight out of school with no college/apprenticeship education.
Mind you, the police union here is wicked strong.
If you want to fill a pot hole you need to get two cops to stand there and make sure no one falls in to the pothole.
Drives me mad on my way to work the amount of cops I pay for who are standing around doing nothing.
And don't get me started on cops in schools. That needs to end straight away.

Most cops are around 30ish k here and obviously work there way up the ranks. We love our cops here and its honestly a shortage due to the danger in New Orleans and Baton Rouge with crime, gang, drugs. Have to respect the risk they are willing to take. And a note on cops in school.. Our high school cop did an incredible job of de-escalating situations from going nuclear. I went to an inner city school and that cop was respected more than teachers themselves. Then again, its how you present and carry yourself. Im not sure a fix is able to be brought up besides people just being decent human beings and respecting each other.

 

[LinekersLegs]

I thought De Balsio’s coronavirus response was awful, his handling of this situation is even worse.

 

[Ruairi77]

I’m not so sure it’s about brightness as much as these guys need to be trained/monitored socially. They need to be able to balance authority with conduct and I feel that is where most of them fail.

All of the local politicians and sheriffs need to be questioned as to why some police programs are so drastically different from each other. I’ve seen some organizations get very involved in the community and build relationships with the people. There are others that look for any reason to assert their authority and don’t get involved with the community at all. It’s a case by case basis.

Right, yea, brightness was the wrong choice of word and detracts from the rest of my point.
I don't think cops are dumb, not at all. I just think the education process is woefully inefficient.
The only other system I have knowledge of and can compare to is Irelands.
Here's a snippet of Irelands training system

"The Trainee Garda/Probationer training programme is delivered over 104 weeks leading to a BA in Applied Policing. The initial period of 34 weeks which includes two weeks leave comprises a block period at the Garda College."

In the US, it takes 8 weeks to reach the same level and you get a gun!

 

[BlueTX]

Most cops are around 30ish k here and obviously work there way up the ranks. We love our cops here and its honestly a shortage due to the danger in New Orleans and Baton Rouge with crime, gang, drugs. Have to respect the risk they are willing to take. And a note on cops in school.. Our high school cop did an incredible job of de-escalating situations from going nuclear. I went to an inner city school and that cop was respected more than teachers themselves. Then again, its how you present and carry yourself. Im not sure a fix is able to be brought up besides people just being decent human beings and respecting each other.

Not sure where you are getting your figures from. My friend's son applied to be a NOLA police officer and starting pay is low $40k rising to almost $60K after one year of service if the officer has a bachelor's degree (mid-50s with no degree).

In context, a rookie cop makes more money than the median family income in NOLA.

 

[Grinch]

Not sure where you are getting your figures from. My friend's son applied to be a NOLA police officer and starting pay is low $40k rising to almost $60K after one year of service if the officer has a bachelor's degree (mid-50s with no degree).

In context, a rookie cop makes more money than the median family income in NOLA.

Of course NOLA may offer more because not a single person wants to work there. Average cop in Louisiana starts off at 30k.

 

[Kenshin]

I see the buzz word being used online is anti-racist. It's not enough to not be racist , we have to be anti-racist.

My question of the day is why do people have to use some trendy hashtag word all the time?

If people stop being racist, then there is no racism. By being anti racist as it's out, you continue to talk about racism even if in a positive sort of way. As Morgan Freeman said , how to get rid of racism, stop talking about racism. So by doing the opposite and being this new anti-racist, surely that is then going to keep the whole thing alive?

I'm also curious to know how long that has actually been a word. The furthest back I can see is 10 months ago, was it even a word before that? Probably never know that but that's here nor there.

 

[Harryflashman]

I’ve mixed feelings in that. They were involved in the crime. I think I’d like to see judge and jury deciding on mitigating circumstances.
Seems the police dept also needs to add a section in the training curriculum on “illegal orders”

For me, it’s either they get prosecuted as any other officer would, or it’s the police force admitted that they put people out in the field that were not fully prepared to handle this kind of situation.

It’s an admission of guilt in the latter respect.

Having watched the whole video, but only once , I’d say it’s hard rather impossible to excuse anything but being young in service they’re going to say they were told various things by a more experienced officer and they might even say they made suggestions but were rejected on grounds on inexperience. I think their lack of service will aid them greatly through the court system , I’m not saying that’s right but I think it will .

For some people in high pressure situations it’s easy to revert to following the lead or peer pressure , I’m not excusing it just saying how it might play .