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An Early Warning That Policing May Be in Decline | Police departments across the country are solving far fewer crimes than they did before 2020.
(www.nytimes.com)
While headlines tend to focus on falling clearance rates in large liberal cities, the decline occurred nationwide in both red and blue cities, counties and states. The violent crime clearance rate, for example, fell considerably between 2019 to 2022 in big cities, which tend to be led by Democrats, as well as in small cities and suburban and rural counties, which tend to be led by Republicans.
They don't even do that...
At most they'll do the paperwork to get any video footage from private business, but for the most part unless that randomly happens to see you breaking the law you'll never get caught.
They tried a "slowdown strike" a couple years ago, and realized they really could just not do anything and still get paid. Even better, higher crime rates means more overtime. Not just from the force, but businesses afraid of being robbed.
Cops can get paid 100/hr to sit outside of a liquor store in a cop car and burn gas all night their department pays for.
Very few people are dumb enough to rob that store while the cop is there, so there's 0% risk. Cops just sit on their phones the whole time.
They have every incentive in the world for crime to bad as possible.
That's racist! As a white person I have also been harassed by the police. They are indiscriminate with their discrimination. How dare you make assumptions.
I'm white and have been illegally searched and detained by the police and had property damaged in the process.
Let's not pretend that's a remotely normative experience for white people compared to people of color. My parents never had to sit down and have the talk with me about the police.
Yes, but that's not a normative discussion for most white families. It is for most black families.
I had an outlier experience as have you, but that doesn't change the role racism and bias play in policing.
You and I have the option of "cleaning up nice" and avoiding that kind of harassment. The richest black people in the United States do not have that privilege. Literally.
It was just a joke.
You and your parents are class ignorant if you think the role of police in American society has anything to do with skin color. It is to protect Ruling Class property interests first and foremost rejecting that reality makes you a fool at best, and a class enemy at worse.
OK - you're right that the entire role of the police is to protect the propertied interests of this world.
However, that is accomplished through the systemic abuse of race as well as class. The people who choose to become police are filtered by a determination to enforce policies which are at their core racist. Even the police who are themselves non-white are often the most violent against other non-white citizens.
That's the purpose of the institution "police". You're ignoring that every institution is made up of individuals, and the sorts of individuals that like joining the monopoly on violence tend to be of a very specific sort.
Okay dude, chill. It was meant as a joke.
It was a joke because you put light to it and they didn't like the shadow it cast. Had there been no shadow, no light, there would be no remorse.
What? I absolutely was joking. You should really take people at their word until they prove otherwise dude.
Don't even fucking try... even in Brazil, where racism is a bit less rampant than the US, I've had police officers calmly ask me to not walk on the same walkway as the people they were about to search - I'm white, they weren't.
I once had a video of someone committing a felony and I wanted to press charges. He got arrested a couple days later on unrelated charges. I called the cops and told them that they have someone in jail who I have on video committing a felony and I want to press charges. Their answer was pretty much "tough shit". They're definitely no Columbo!
I believe you would need to contact the district attorney for that.
Well... that is kind of their job. They can only find the pieces and it is up to the judicial system to establish guilt.
Unless you want to live in the world of Judge Dredd.
Your question makes very little sense. How do you think prosecutors work, exactly?
The order of operations for going to prison is:
Cop wants to arrest you. If the cop has no genuine excuse to do so, this arrest won't go anywhere (they can still lock you up for up to 24 hours at will). If you've just committed a crime in front of the cop, well, that's easy, the cop just puts you away; skip to step 3. If this is an investigation, the cop goes to step 2.
Cop gets permission from a judge to arrest you. This is called an arrest warrant.
Cop arrests you and puts you in jail. At this point you should lawyer up, but as that is not compulsory, it is not a distinct step in this list.
Cop gives evidence to prosecutor. Because there is a time delay between 3 and 4, the cop may do additional investigating before this step.
Prosecutor decides to prosecute (they may choose to dismiss instead).
You go to court. Judge asks you how you plead. You plead not guilty. The media pretends this is notable, even though no-one pleads guilty ar this step (it is called arraignment).
The evidence against you is shown to you. The judge again asks you how you plead. This time you have a genuine choice in your answer.
Optional: if you pled not guilty, go to trial. Jury convicts you.
Judge sentences you to prison.
That's the basic pipeline.
Note that cops don't have to do their jobs at all, which is most likely why, as the article discusses, they don't. Why get paid to work when you can get paid to not work?