Cops in other countries do their jobs without shooting people

[eridani]

[valerief]

1. We've got the world's soldiers. I wonder if most UPS of A police come from the military. nt

[UglyGreed]

17. Spot on

IMO many are ex military or military wannabes.

[valerief]

22. If that's the case, the military is doing something wrong to manufacture these

trigger-happy cops.

[Iggo]

2. Their cops aren't afraid of their own shadows.

[cyberswede]

3. I think it's a byproduct of our gun culture. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

4. That could have a lot to do with it

Here in Japan, where handgun ownership is strictly prohibited, the police usually don't have to worry that a suspect is carrying a gun.

[moondust]

5. It is.

Any country/population with 310 million guns in circulation is going to have all kinds of problems with their misuse and abuse: murder, mayhem, suicides, stray bullets, bad cops, road rage, gang warfare, militias, hunting accidents, child accidents, armed robberies, on and on without end.

[Hoyt]

6. Yep.. And the folks that support the Wilsons and Zmen are usually gunners.

[raccoon]

18. Right on. In the USA everybody and their mamma has a gun.

This makes the cops nervous.

[Odin2005]

7. European countries and Japan do not have a legacy of...

...a violently enforced racial caste system.

The violence of our police has it's origins first in controlling slaves and finding and brutally punishing fugitive slaves, and then after the Civil War keeping Blacks terrorized and "in their places".

[HereSince1628]

19. I am not sure that's really true, although the legacies may differ...

Legacies can be positive or negative...

Poor Irish were victims of pretty brutal caste system that saw them evicted and dispossessed. The legacy of brutal treatment of the underclasss at the hands of the constabulary in northern Ireland certainly has endured into my lifetime.

Seems to me the general abuse of serfs and the working poor under European feudal system, which in some regions of Europe extended into the 20th century has created legacies that variously include both an expectation that authoritarian treatment of the populace is part of governance as well as rejection/rebellion and revolution against such brutal treatment.

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Cops in other countries do their jobs without killing people

BUT, THE U.S. IS "EXCEPTIONAL." THE 1% KEEP TELLING US, ANYWAY...

[99th_Monkey]

11. Exeptionally remiss in curbing murderous excesses of our police,

oh and we lock up WAY more people, by any measure, than ANY other
nation.

Those kinds of "exceptional" I could do without.

[KitSileya]

9. I am reading this morning's paper here in Norway

About a cop who was shot at close range when they tried to arrest a guy that had tried to hit his doctor. The doctor had managed to get to safety, and had called the police. The man fled the office, and so the cops drove around the neighborhood to find him, before they went to his apartment. There, the man came out with a rifle*, and the cops turned and ran for cover. The man shot the cop at close range, 3-5 yards away. The cop was saved by his bullet-proof vest.

In Norway, the police has just (as in the last week) started to have guns while on ordinary shifts, yet they managed to apprehend the man without shooting back. They called for specially trained back-up forces, while they tried to get in contact with the man by phone and by megaphone over a period of some hours. The man didn't answer, so eventually, they stormed his house and arrested him. No shots were fired in the storming of the house. When the police was asked why it took so long before they did anything, the police chief said that as long as the suspect was surrounded in a house without hostages, the police didn't need to do anything hasty.

The rifle the man had was unregistered, as he had been forced to hand in his registered guns some time before because he had been deemed unfit to possess weapons. There will now be an investigation, and a major part of it will be to find out who supplied him with the weapon.

The man is now in custody, and he will see a doctor first thing, to see whether he is of sound enough mind to be arraigned. If he isn't, he will be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

*Not being well-versed in guns, that may not be the right name for the weapon he used - but it was a hunting weapon of some sort.

[99th_Monkey]

10. Damn straight.

I am so grieved for my country, and embarrassed, that we go out of our way to
publicly enable and support killer-cops to keep murdering citizens ... it is a disgrace.

If Obama doesn't do anything else during his last 2 years, I wish he'd tackle this
with passion and roll back this Zimmerman/Wilson "it's ok for cops & cop wannabes
to murder black children in our streets.

[pa28]

12. If you want to kill people with impunity become a cop. Preferrably in Albuquerque.

Since 2010 cops in Albuquerque have killed 24 people which is about the same number killed by police TOTAL in the UK going back to 1920.

Some say that gun culture is the root of the problem but it seems to me that's just excusing a culture of violence in U.S. police departments.

Just a few days ago KRQE broke a story about a seminar called "killology" being promoted by members of the Albuquerque police department. It promotes the idea of warrior policemen engaged in battle with the public they are supposed to be serving.



APD lieutenant advertises ‘killology’ instructor’s class
http://krqe.com/2014/11/19/apd-lieutenant-advertises-killology-instructors-class/

[world wide wally]

13. The home of the brave?

I wish

[SheilaT]

14. How strange.

You'd think that wasn't possible at all, but it is.

I often point out, when the death penalty is being vigorously supported, that almost every other country on this planet somehow manages without a death penalty. How can that be?

[gerogie2]

15. What do expect in a country with more guns then people?

We are a country where any tom, dick or Jane can easily obtain a gun and threaten a cop with it. People complain about the so-called militarization of the police however they are dealing with people that have AK-47 type weapons and other assault rifles. Frankly I think any one that wants to be a cop in America should have their head examined. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Skittles]

16. they don't have to deal with paranoid gun humping cowards

[woo me with science]

20. Huge K&R That's the difference between a police departments

Last edited Thu Nov 27, 2014, 11:30 AM - Edit history (1)

and a police state.


Other countries don't do this, either:


Militarization of our police departments is a *bipartisan* effort of corporatists in both parties, right along with mass surveillance, the assaults on journalism, and the persecution of whistleblowers. The programs and legislation that are turning our police departments into paramilitary forces come through Homeland Security and the Pentagon, and are being used to suppress and intimidate dissent, exploit communities, and fill lucrative private prisons with slave labor as the nation is corporatized and Americans are made into a nation of low-paid wage slaves.

Both parties are complicit in this outrage. See the links below. Real change requires pushback against corporate politicians who are enabling this militarization, and that includes both corporate Democrats and Republicans.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The entire Democratic leadership opposed Grayson amendment to stop arming cops with DOD weapons
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025390424

WOW... Went Looking For Connections Between Ferguson And ALEC... Found This Piece Of The Puzzle...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025413841

The exploitation of Ferguson I: In 2013 the town issued over 24,000 arrest warrants..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025404667

The exploitation of Ferguson II: The Seamy Underbelly Of Ferguson Starts To Appear
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025416747

The exploitation of Ferguson III: Ferguson Feeds Off the Poor: Three Warrants a Year Per Household
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025428157

Police Militarization (including the Obama administration's role)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/aclu-police-militarization-swat_n_2813334.html

It's almost certain that if the police agencies cooperate, the ACLU will find that the militarization trend has accelerated since Kraska's studies more than a decade ago. All of the policies, incentives and funding mechanisms that were driving the trend then are still in effect now. And most of them have grown in size and scope.

The George W. Bush administration actually began scaling down the Byrne and COPS programs in the early 2000s, part of a general strategy of leaving law enforcement to states and localities. But the Obama administration has since resurrected both programs. The Byrne program got a $2 billion surge in funding as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, by far the largest budget in the program's 25-year history. Obama also gave the COPS program $1.55 billion that same year, a 250 percent increase over its 2008 budget, and again the largest budget in the program's history. Vice President Joe Biden had championed both programs during his time in the Senate.

The Pentagon's 1033 program has also exploded under Obama. In the program's monthly newsletter (Motto: "From Warfighter to Crimefighter&quot , its director announced in October 2011 that his office had given away a record $500 million in military gear in fiscal year 2011, which he noted, "passes the previous mark by several hundred million dollars." He added, "I believe we can exceed that in FY 12.”

Then there are the Department of Homeland Security's anti-terrorism grants. The Center for Investigative Reporting found in a 2011 investigation that since 2001, DHS has given out more than $34 billion in grants to police departments across the country, many of which have been used to purchase military-grade guns, tanks, armor, and armored personnel carriers. The grants have gone to such unlikely terrorism targets as Fargo, N.D.; Canyon County, Idaho; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The final ACLU report on militarization of police in America
https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police-report

"Operation Urban Shield"...Training our Police, Fire, First Responders..in Military Tactics
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025412909

[99Forever]

21. American cops are cowards and bullies. n/t