Texas City Police Officer practices sunk cost fallacy and continues arrest | Hacker News Reader

Texas City Police Officer practices sunk cost fallacy and continues arrest

click2houston.com

23 points_9za910 comments

Here's the police chief's statement:

https://www.facebook.com/Texascitypd/posts/pfbid0hYERpcvXS26...

Here's the GoFundMe campaign for the guy's civil rights case:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/lawsuit-expense-fund-for-civil-ri...

The popular YouTube channel Audit the Audit did a legal analysis of this case a couple of weeks ago, where it pointed out all the ways the officer violated the law and the constitution during this interaction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhU7PbvOKaI

The sad thing is that if the officer had not made a few key missteps (like explicitly indicating that he was retaliating against the man because he thought he might submit a complaint) he might have covered his bases well enough to avoid consequences.

Even so, he may be protected by Qualified Immunity, the legal principle that protects officers from being personally sued except under the most egregious circumstances.

The sunk cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that occurs when someone makes a decision based on previously invested time, effort, or money.

If you're an American police officer, you probably don't continue arresting a person because you previously invested so much time and effort in beating the shit out of him.

You continue arresting him to teach him a lesson, or because you think he's a dirtbag, or to fabricate a crime to deter him from filing a complaint against you.

You continue arresting him because you hope to cover up your own crimes. This is not an example of the sunk cost fallacy.

Police in America exist universally in a position where using their authority is basically unchecked and assumed by default to be "the right thing". They have incredibly dangerous powers, and by and large the response to them wielding those powers is, "if you did nothing wrong, then the police won't harass you."

This dynamic invites bad behavior, and no cop operates outside of this environment.

Add onto this the fact that cops take courses like "killology" that teach them that they are warriors, not servants, and it's a recipe for abuse after abuse.

And the actions of a police officer can send someone to an underfunded justice department, causing an innocent person to be sent to jail to await trial, and then lose their job or relationship or community.

So, when I say, "All Cops Are Bastards", I'm not saying cops are rude or mean, I'm saying, all cops exist in a system that is set up to encourage exactly the sort of behavior this article shows. It's not a judgement on whether I think an individual cop is polite or friendly, it's a condemnation of the systemic issues that exist.

There are ways we could fix this, there are ways we could get to community led policing that would make me change my tune. They are probably expensive and would take time to get right before they got cheap again. But until then, ACAB.

I think the professions of policing and teaching has gotten so bad that good people are no longer becoming police and teachers. It is only the worst in society getting hired for these professions because no one else will. Perhaps the same could be said for politicians.

Do you have data supporting that it’s valid to suggest that only the worst people in society are still interested in being teachers?

I’m no saint; I work in tech for real money.

But the teachers I know -and I know many, of varying ages and tenures- overwhelmingly got into it because they wanted to make a difference in kids’ lives.

Do I know a few who were mainly into having summers off? Sure.

But even that doesn’t make that small subset ‘the worst in society’. Show me some actual data supporting it and I’ll consider your perspective, but in the absence of that I feel like it’s just plain despicable to shit on teachers like that.

Interesting to lump in teaching with policing. Even if you are correct, and the folks are the same caliber, the criticisms of both highlight the issues with the institutions. (The main thrust if the critique for police)

At any rate,this comparison is ridiculous and a false equivalencecy that could swap out nurses for teachers and hold your analogy.

Outrageously offensive to paint teachers with the same brush.

Teachers are among the worst treated working people in the country while police enjoy unbelievable benefits not afforded to anyone else.

Police working conditions can be very difficult. Imagine you are moderating 4chan, but in person with public safety on the line. Sometimes teaching conditions can be like that too.

A major difference is that police often evade consequences for very bad decisions, and teachers often don't and for much more benign things.

Every working person‘s job can be very difficult.

There are virtually no jobs in this country where you cannot be fired for being rude. Just being rude! I don’t mean violating someone’s rights, just being rude.

Every single retail job matches your description of moderating 4chan at times. Every single customer-facing service worker is required to have higher emotional intelligence than this cop in order to keep their job.

Police can do virtually anything to you without consequence.

It seems obvious the officer was offended that the driver zipped through the parking lot right next to his cruiser.

On the one hand, the officer is right. You really shouldn't be cutting across parking lots like that, and not that quickly at any rate. It's a good way to cause an accident.

On the other hand, I doubt the officer has any authority to even write a ticket for that.

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