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Comment by brandonmenc | Hacker News Reader

Quote from Cathy Lanier, the police chief whose ridiculous uniform resembles that of a four star general.

fwiw my friend's dad was our chief of police for years, and he only ever wore a shirt and tie.

For what it's worth -- and here I have to wonder how much it's worth to criticize someone's point of view based on a photograph of them -- that's a dress uniform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_uniform

Dress uniform for police? That's not quite as bad as the paramilitary BDUs, but, really?

Police do have official events to attend. In my state capital there is a yearly event to honor fallen officers where representatives from every police force in the state show up in their dress uniforms for a mass memorial service.

They could wear suits. That might remind them they are of the people, and their first priority is to serve the people. They might also consider attending the memorial service for Mike Brown. In suits.

They'd have to only attend if off-duty then wouldn't they? One point of police uniform is to identify a person as being a warranted police officer on duty (then there's the appearance of officialdom and the sense of inferiority it breeds in others, the camaraderie, ...). You'd probably need to change the law if you want to allow regular warranted officers to be on duty in civilian clothing, jurisdiction dependent of course.

I don't really understand why you don't want to be able to identify your police officers though - even the UPS drivers wear uniform.

Thank you for making this point. The very last thing we need is to have police disguise themselves as regular folks. It creates a number of dangerous conditions for both the police and the public.

"Who is this random person yelling and waving a gun?" Should I pull over for this random person with flashing lights in their grille?"

It's already bad enough having some traffic enforcement types in unmarked cars or in cars with "ghost" decals.

OTOH, her uniform is very "Aladeen" and while fussing about her uniform is a mostly trivial distraction, having a uniform that is a bit less "Aladeen" would probably short-circuit such criticism. If there weren't more important problems with this person, I would fully support mocking her ridiculous uniform.

The ones who work at NSA/CIA wear shorts and suits. I don't think they are reminded of who they are and what their priorities are, by it.

Sometimes a photo tells you all you need to know about a person: e.g., http://i.imgur.com/4CIFpFe.jpg . Modern American law enforcement: a gang of wannabe tinpot dictators with weapons they have no business with, and that they probably have no idea how to use.

Finger off the trigger, Sheriff.

"Instead of criticizing one person based on a picture, I criticize thousands of people based on a picture! That'll show him!"

Yeah, stereotypically speaking, it's the 90% of bad cops that give the 10% a bad name. Funny, though, the "good" 10% don't seem to have a problem with that.

I understand where you're coming from. I have an uncle that feels the exact same way about black people and Muslims. Wait, what?

To the extent police work is someone's religion, I'd submit that these are exactly the police I'm talking about.

So you're a bigot against Police _and_ Muslims.

Got it. At least you're consistent.

Yes, my simplistic worldview often gets me into trouble. But this will come as no surprise to you, I'm sure.

The ratios are nothing like 90 bad:10 good. That kind of hyperbole is uninformed at best, and disingenuous at worst.

Not only is his finger on the trigger but the weapon is cocked.

Don't worry dude it's probably not loaded.

cue cries of "every gun is always loaded"

I don't know why you're getting down voted, maybe people don't know the first rule of gun safety: Always treat the firearm as if it is loaded. (which on the internet is "the gun is always loaded" shorthand.)

That's an M1911. They're designed to be carried in condition one, which means that the hammer is cocked and the manual safety is engaged, otherwise known as "cocked and locked."

His trigger discipline is still inexcusable.

And a law enforcement "professional" shouldn't be carrying a gun that is "cocked and locked" SA firearms are not safe for everyone involved.

You do realize that's Joe Arapio, right? He's the poster child for law enforcement that's so egregiously overreaching it's become self-parody.

Of course he's holding a cocked firearm with his finger on the trigger. He pretty much doesn't have any other state.

I agree that her uniform is largely irrelevant to the discussion. She also likely has no choice in it.

I'm trigger happy pointing out police militarization, which manifests in overt ("tanks") and subtle ways (military dress).

Perhaps it's a stretch, but I believe that militarization doesn't ease the tendency of the police to desire and acquire powers they shouldn't have.

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