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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

I’d have more sympathy for this view if police officers denounced other cops who broke the law. But they never do: the “Blue Wall” effect where they close ranks around dirty cops is well-known. And if that’s how they want to operate, fine, but it means it’s perfectly valid for us to consider them all guilty.

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"But they never do". Except when they do. Again, you are saying that every single cop ignores misbehavior from other cops, or keeps silent about it. Evaluate your statement for accuracy. Do ALL cops keep silent, a majority, a slim majority, or a minority? Is that universal from city to city, region to region?

Replace "cops" with Muslims and incidents of police brutality with Islamic terrorism incidents and you guys sound like my bigoted in-laws. Your behavior and bigotry worsens the problem you are complaining about.

By the way, I've been falsely arrested before, and in the process got thrown down on the pavement face-first with cuffs behind my back. I was 18, and was in a not so good neighborhood in Norfolk, VA. I'm not naive, but I'm also not dumb enough to lump in every cop with the bad ones. When Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world" he meant that you can't wait for the other side to behave in a humanistic fashion. You have to start it yourself, or the cycle of mistrust continues.

That Ghandi quote is also a two way street. Why must it be the public who is the first to bend?

I don't care much for your anecdote either. There is no way to verify it and you could be lying about it simply in order to make it seem like you understand the other side. If you genuinely had a point, you wouldn't need to drop to such a blatant appeal to emotion.

There are more instances of cops shooting unarmed civilians than there are of cops reporting each other for misconduct. Cops with reports of misconduct from the public are often found in new districts or precincts. They protect their own with far more fervor than they protect the public.

My anecdote is real. I was walking back from a party to my girlfriend's house at 2AM, and a vehicle approached me head on and came to an abrupt stop. I was blinded by the headlights and a large man with gray hair jumped out of it carrying a baseball bat and charged me with it. He held it horizontally with both hands and rammed me in the chest, knocking me to the ground. He had already called the police, and lived a few blocks away. Neighbors woke up, and he asked them to update his location.

3 cars showed up. I was happily waiting for the police because the man was threatening to hit me in the head, and I knew I was innocent. The neighbors were all away, watching from their porches. The cops showed up, didn't believe me at all, and 100% believed the man who had just fucked me up with a bat. It wasn't a fun night.

Keep in mind, I was already hurting from the bat when I got cuffed and tossed down.

You are constructing a straw man here, by acting as if I'm against cops doing the same thing. Of course I'm not. I'm simply observing that individuals should first change their own behavior before expecting changes from others. This goes for the cops too. They should respect people even if they are being disrespected and called pigs or whatever.

I'm against all forms of abuse of power, and I take huge issue with police unions and departments sheltering bad actors. It's deeply frightening to me to think about abusive people being given a license to commit violence with impunity.

The point is that it tells us nothing. Once again, just because you provided more details to the story does absolutely nothing to verify those details. We have only your word.

You're more paying lip service to the idea that you take "huge issue" with police unions and departments sheltering bad actors. You say the words. But you're also here defending them with the whole "they're not all bad" shtick.

And pulling the whole "replace X with Y, well aren't you a racist" card.

There's far more instances of them protecting each other than there are of them protecting us from "the bad actors".

If it were "deeply frightening" to you to think about abusive people being given license to commit violence with impunity, then I don't see how you so readily leap to the defense of law enforcement officers.

> When Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world" he meant that you can't wait for the other side to behave in a humanistic fashion. You have to start it yourself, or the cycle of mistrust continues.

Is speaking out against financial supporting a group seriously considering not "humanistic"? They're not advocating for violence against cops or something, I'd say they are taking the high road as Ghandi suggested.

Calling out cops for their bad behavior is inhumane? Saying that I won't support cops financially is inhumane?

Next time I catch a beat down for no reason I'll be sure to tell the cops that I love them. Next time I'm offered a bogus ticket in exchange for not being improperly arrested I'll be sure to tell the cops I love them.

Like I said, when my experience changes so will my opinion.

You aren't calling out individual cops for bad behavior. You are collectively blaming an entire group for individual misdeeds. This fits the very definition of dehumanization. If I am making judgments on the morality or individuals without knowing them personally, or even knowing their ideology, I am dehumanizing them. Collective guilt is the pinnacle of every horrifying genocide ever perpetrated. "The Jewish man didn't let me into art school, they are all evil." "The 19 Muslim men blew up the buildings, they are all evil."

It sounds like you are being victimized by a shitty police department. That's a problem, but it doesn't mean that a police department in my state would give you the same problems. You know this, but don't want to believe it, because then you'd have to recognize your own prejudice and correct it. And that would be uncomfortable, so just carry on.

Depending on how long ago that was that could be any neighborhood in Norfolk :(

^ This!

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