Pssh, I've hating on cops for at least 20 years. But being a resident of or closely around Baltimore the past 30+ years, it's not a terribly controversial opinion. Our cops are like the gold standard for corruption and have been for decades. It's not just violence though, it's also just acting aggressively stupid and escalating situations whenever possible. I probably have stories for days around this.
I remember the first time I realized the police were completely full of shit though. I was about 12 or 13 and my friend and I had tickets to see Rage Against The Machine at the Baltimore arena. Some small number of days before the concert the police had the bright idea to boycott working anywhere near the concert because the RATM fellas said some things publicly about Mumia Abu Jamal the police didn't take kindly to. My mom, not terribly happy about this turn of events, told me "sorry Ryan, your dad's gonna have to go with you guys now." Which, side note, actually led to one of my favorite dad stories because my dad, who had no interest whatsoever in this music and a background of 1000s of hours in the air while in the Air Force, took us in to our seats asked if we "were good" and then promptly put in his heavy duty ear plugs and hilariously took an undisturbed nap through the entire sets of Gangstar and RATM. But back to the point, what kind of thin skinned public servants just up and stop going to their job because some musicians said some shit they didn't like. Honestly. I do not recall any kind of issues without the police there, by the way. Literally no one gave a shit that we weren't graced by the presence of the BCPD.
When I was 16, myself and 3 friends were walking back from the convenience store with snacks. We were very baffled when 5 cop cars screeched to a half in front of us and charged out of their cars (blocking traffic btw) and started screaming at us about god knows what. I will always remember this experience because I had my hands in my hoodie (~45 degrees out) and the cop at the top of his lungs yells at me "get your fucking hands out of your pockets RIGHT NOW!" and then put the hand down on the gun in the holster like he was going to pull it. The gun didn't come out after all but the intent to instill fear seemed pretty fucking clear to me, so how much does it even matter? Anyway, the absolute best part of this story is what they told us when we asked what was going on. I swear to god's honest truth they said "we had some reports of people walking around with sticks and bats." Stick and bats. Funny, I thought, I don't actually remember being transported back into a 1950's musical. There were no reports. There were no sticks and bats. That doesn't even sound vaguely plausible. There was just unchecked assholes doing whatever gave them kicks. My friends and I still 20 years later joke regularly about that experience. Of course, we are white and if we hadn't been I may not even be here to write this post.
My wife's experience getting beaten at the 2002 WTO / Iraq War protests is fucking brutal though. It's still difficult for her to cross paths with cops without feeling like having a panic attack.
Do our elected officials just plain fear the cops now? The usual line is that they need their support to get re-elected, but I wonder if, deep down, de Blasio understands that this hyper-militarized, jacked up NYPD could very easily overthrow the city government if they wanted to. Even if the National Guard were called in to restore order in that scenario, it's not like they would start shooting the cops -- those soldiers might even stand down in solidarity. It could partially explain his firm reluctance to hold them accountable for anything, after he initially ran on a platform of progressive police reform. When the NYPD began turning their backs to him in public early in his first term, it could have spooked him beyond the usual concerns about optics. Maybe he's simply a craven opportunist, but it's never made a ton of sense to me how he went from police reformer to bootlicker so rapidly.
Cy Vance literally took bribes from Don Jr. and Ivanka to look the other way on obvious crimes committed on behalf of the Trump foundation, before any of these assholes were in power.
He ran for re-election as a Resistance Democrat and won handily.
Also business as usual: Cuomo and the Establishment Democratic machine hand-selecting Tish James for this role in 2018 and then soliciting PAC donations from Stephen Fucking Ross to defeat Zephyr Teachout.
Pssh, I've hating on cops for at least 20 years. But being a resident of or closely around Baltimore the past 30+ years, it's not a terribly controversial opinion. Our cops are like the gold standard for corruption and have been for decades. It's not just violence though, it's also just acting aggressively stupid and escalating situations whenever possible. I probably have stories for days around this.
I remember the first time I realized the police were completely full of shit though. I was about 12 or 13 and my friend and I had tickets to see Rage Against The Machine at the Baltimore arena. Some small number of days before the concert the police had the bright idea to boycott working anywhere near the concert because the RATM fellas said some things publicly about Mumia Abu Jamal the police didn't take kindly to. My mom, not terribly happy about this turn of events, told me "sorry Ryan, your dad's gonna have to go with you guys now." Which, side note, actually led to one of my favorite dad stories because my dad, who had no interest whatsoever in this music and a background of 1000s of hours in the air while in the Air Force, took us in to our seats asked if we "were good" and then promptly put in his heavy duty ear plugs and hilariously took an undisturbed nap through the entire sets of Gangstar and RATM. But back to the point, what kind of thin skinned public servants just up and stop going to their job because some musicians said some shit they didn't like. Honestly. I do not recall any kind of issues without the police there, by the way. Literally no one gave a shit that we weren't graced by the presence of the BCPD.
When I was 16, myself and 3 friends were walking back from the convenience store with snacks. We were very baffled when 5 cop cars screeched to a half in front of us and charged out of their cars (blocking traffic btw) and started screaming at us about god knows what. I will always remember this experience because I had my hands in my hoodie (~45 degrees out) and the cop at the top of his lungs yells at me "get your fucking hands out of your pockets RIGHT NOW!" and then put the hand down on the gun in the holster like he was going to pull it. The gun didn't come out after all but the intent to instill fear seemed pretty fucking clear to me, so how much does it even matter? Anyway, the absolute best part of this story is what they told us when we asked what was going on. I swear to god's honest truth they said "we had some reports of people walking around with sticks and bats." Stick and bats. Funny, I thought, I don't actually remember being transported back into a 1950's musical. There were no reports. There were no sticks and bats. That doesn't even sound vaguely plausible. There was just unchecked assholes doing whatever gave them kicks. My friends and I still 20 years later joke regularly about that experience. Of course, we are white and if we hadn't been I may not even be here to write this post.
My wife's experience getting beaten at the 2002 WTO / Iraq War protests is fucking brutal though. It's still difficult for her to cross paths with cops without feeling like having a panic attack.
Do our elected officials just plain fear the cops now? The usual line is that they need their support to get re-elected, but I wonder if, deep down, de Blasio understands that this hyper-militarized, jacked up NYPD could very easily overthrow the city government if they wanted to. Even if the National Guard were called in to restore order in that scenario, it's not like they would start shooting the cops -- those soldiers might even stand down in solidarity. It could partially explain his firm reluctance to hold them accountable for anything, after he initially ran on a platform of progressive police reform. When the NYPD began turning their backs to him in public early in his first term, it could have spooked him beyond the usual concerns about optics. Maybe he's simply a craven opportunist, but it's never made a ton of sense to me how he went from police reformer to bootlicker so rapidly.
Cy Vance literally took bribes from Don Jr. and Ivanka to look the other way on obvious crimes committed on behalf of the Trump foundation, before any of these assholes were in power.
He ran for re-election as a Resistance Democrat and won handily.
I love to protect and serve by repeatedly pepper spraying a person who I have already beat up and thrown against the ground.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever will be
I'm gonna have to watch some more Alone after reading this...excuse me while I find my Tums.
Also business as usual: Cuomo and the Establishment Democratic machine hand-selecting Tish James for this role in 2018 and then soliciting PAC donations from Stephen Fucking Ross to defeat Zephyr Teachout.