Why they protest
Here's an interesting news story from the Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein. It shows you what happens when a Portland police officer is so bad that he has to quit his job.
Robert Bruders had resigned from the Police Bureau in 2016, two years after a jury awarded more than $500,000 [$562,000] to a man who Bruders repeatedly punched in the face. But he was rehired immediately as a non-sworn employee to do background checks on new police recruits.
Rehired immediately. Because it's us against them.
It gets worse – now the violent ex-cop is accused of sexual harassment – but that's the Portland police epitomized. And this sort of thing goes on without mention, all throughout the police department, all the time. Until people start marching and throwing things.
It's the accountability issue again. That's the problem behind police brutality. Now to be fair, you could get these officers in front of a jury and the jury could still negate justice by reflecting the racism in our society. For example, the Rodney King riots were after the acquittal, right? But too often the local DA doesn't even charge a police officer when it's obvious a crime has taken place. We could do a lot better in that area.
ReplyDeleteAnd just think of who we're attracting to these jobs by taking out the accountability? If you're a roided up psycho who loves beating up people and occasionally shooting one of them...if you're a racist who wants to act out on your hatred.... then signing up to be a police officer is not a bad career choice for you. By not having accountability we're attracting more of the wrong element in society. And we're not doing the police officers who sign up for the right reasons any favors either. After all, they're the ones who have to try and work with these psychos.
Remember the news story on KGW a year or so ago talking about how well over a thousand applicants applied to be Portland police officers and they all washed out except for I think it was 34 or something close to that. I asked the question at the time what were the main reasons, but never got a response. They obviously need to figure that out as well. On the surface it would seem to be a good thing, but in reality I have a feeling it feeds into the problems.
DeleteMy comment is as follows: What. The. FUCK? As an employment lawyer I can say that any private employer would be writing a check as fast as they could based on what I just read.
ReplyDeleteAn employment lawyer? I wish you'd look into the workmen's comp situation at Providence. We have healthcare workers getting the virus and then being denied workman's comp. From WWeek: "state data shows that most workers' compensation claims filed for COVID-19 are approved. As of July 10, workers' comp insurers had approved 74% of the 557 claims filed.
ReplyDeleteProvidence was the outlier, according to the state statistics, rejecting 41 of 44 claims at that time, denying 93 percent. (SAIF's denial rate was 13 percent.)" These are our heroes in the frontlines of the pandemic and their corporation cuts them loose when they get the virus? It's mind-blowing.