NYPD... Wow!

https://abc7ny.com/nypd-officer-suspended-jaes-kobel-equal-employement-opportunity-division-modified-assignment/7679612/

"NEW YORK (WABC) -- The head of the NYPD's workplace discrimination office has been relieved of his command amid an investigation into allegations he made prejudice, sexist and intolerant comments in an online chat room where officers air grievances anonymously.

Deputy Inspector James Kobel, assigned to the Equal Employment Opportunity Division, has been placed on modified assignment pending the outcome of the internal investigation.

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Oversight and Investigations Committee Chair Ritchie Torres described the chat room as a "vitriolic public online message board known as 'Law Enforcement Rant.'"

Kobel is accused of penning attacks on Black and Jewish people, women, members of the LGBTQ community and others for more than a year using the pseudonym "Clouseau," a reference to the bumbling French detective in the "Pink Panther" films."

What are the odds that this fine upstanding officer of the law will keep his job in some form or other, if he is found guilty? What are the odds that the union will fight for him no matter what?

Those are rhetorical questions, btw... I know the answer.

This is the problem in our nation... the deep secret we try to believe isn't really at the core.

Sad.

This kind of shit is why people hate cops. And it isn't always fair to all cops. But then you see videos like the one yesterday in Florida where they were serving a warrant and were acting like hired thugs, and not paid officers of peace.


It's a shitty situation. "Abolish the police" is dumb. But there has to be a way to make the police better. Cause this shit isn't working out right.

There is a way.

Outlaw Police Unions, or at the very least curtail their power and influence.

That will just cause a mass exodus of police. And as you can see my Minnesota, not a lot of good would come from that.

Not a lot of good is coming from protecting bad cops.

Something has to change.

Mass exodus is temporary, and only happens because the cops can go someplace else. If police unions had less power, and citizens had more power of review and oversight things could and would change.

I am not asking for police to have no voice. I am asking for there to be an equal voice for all parties.

Citizens pay the bills. Citizens should have an equal voice.

In my humble opinion.

I agree that something has to give. But what?

Its all about accountability. Criminals need to be held accountable for their crimes, regardless if you have a badge or not. If anything, cops should be held to a higher standard of the law, not a lesser.

But again, once police are held truly accountable for their actions, things will change. And our justice system is moving that way as we speak. Sucks it took so many lives lost for a change to happen.. but its haplening

Unsurprising from a police department that pays almost a quarter billion in settlements every year. I would love to see the those chatlogs. It makes you wonder what about policing is so good at attracting all of these racists. To be fair, giving a bunch of cops an anonymous chatroom is just asking for someone to go on a racist rant. Pretty ironic that he worked in the equal employment division though.

this for sure...same in Canada

and that is the problem.

- Unsurprising from a police department that pays almost a quarter billion in settlements every year

the oversight committees and all those who police the police are clearly failing to be an effective safety valve for the public. its those in power, as ive said all along, the create policies and allow missteps to continue.

blaming the police as a whole instead of the individuals doing these things or those who oversee them and are supposed to hold them accountable is a joke.

there is a reason they've directed your animosity towards the officers, because its shields those truly responsible from scrutiny. it allows them to continue to create this kind of environment as time goes on. wont matter how many officers are fired if those choosing their replacements are the problem.

I absolutely agree. It's obvious that the issues in policing are systemic, not individual. Because police exist to protect the interests of the ruling class, we cant fix the police without fixing the larger issue. Police unions are in bed with the majority of politicians in both parties, and unless we can break the corporate stranglehold on Washington, nothing is going to change. The next time a cop kills someone and gets away with it, the Democrats will issue strongly worded condemnations and the Republicans will give their thoughts and prayers, but neither party wants to prevent further tragedies from happening because of just how much they can make from their annual NAPO check.

"Because police exist to protect the interests of the ruling class"

I have to take exception to this bit... police/polis exist to protect the people from other people who have decided to live outside the laws that society has constructed to prevent anarchy and chaos. In a sense you are correct, police protect the interests of the ruling class, but in the USA and most other western democracies, the ruling class is the people.

That is an idealistic take I know, but it is the way things are supposed to be, which is why we need to eliminate the middleman unions, and have those sworn to protect and serve be accountable to the people who pay their wages and benefits.

Maybe I misinterpreted your meaning with regards to "ruling class", and you also mean the people?

except the people who actually pay and employee them arent "the people" where it really matters. sure its our money but we arent who makes those decisions and not who the police ultimately answer to when it comes to their paychecks.

thats where theory and practice diverge.

I'll add a little bit on context to my claim. The ruling class is made up of the political and economic elite. My political power is infinitesimal to someone like Charles Koch just because of his pure lobbying power. The state and capitalists protect each others interests. Politicians rely on the financial support of wealthy business owners and in turn provide those business owners with tax cuts, deregulation and the weakening of unions.
Now, to stay on the topic of unions, the police have historically been used to crush strikes and stop the formation of labor organizations. Why do the police side with the factory owners in a strike instead of siding with the other members of the working class? The Fisher Plant Strike is a great example of this where cops were used to directly defeat the striking UAW. Do you remember when in Wisconsin in 2011 a bill was proposed to limit collective bargaining, the Wisconsin AG said that police should use live ammunition on the pro-union activists? Police do not serve the interests of those in the working class.
Now to prove the harder argument, that police directly protect capital. Because laws are a product of how a society functions, in enforcing the laws, the police protect the status quo. Now, you might be thinking, "well don't I benefit from keeping the status quo"? While you would be correct in asserting that the effects of the industrial revolution increased your standard of living and your economic mobility, you would be incorrect to believe that we now live in a society that gives increased power to the working class. Ever since the US industrialized, the owning class have been decreasing as a percentage of the population, and yet increasing in the political and economic power they hold. By stopping protests, enforcing discriminatory drug laws, cracking down on unions, carrying out evictions, and over policing minority neighborhoods, the police protect the status quo and carry out the will of the ruling class.
We know that the government carries out the will of the wealthy and we also know that the goals of the owners and the goals of the workers are incompatible. Because the police enforce the will of the government, and because the government enforces the will of the ultra-wealthy, the police stand in direct opposition to the goals of the working class.
Hope this helps clear in up to you. Sorry if its a bit long, but these issues are complex and they need nuanced arguments.

You literally have the same political opinions as Amazon Google and Walmart

Such as? If you believe it when corporations virtue signal you're just as dumb as the liberals who do. I've never heard an executive at Amazon, Google or Walmart talk about how they use political lobbying to control politicians or how the police force acts to protect the rule of capital in the US. All three of those companies are anti union, anti climate change and anti regulation. I'm not even entirely sure what beliefs you're referring too, but if they genuinely support it, it's probably against the best interests of the working class. I'm going to need more specificity to really respond completely as I don't want to misrepresent your argument.

amazon is anti-climate change and regulation?
Amazon's climate pledge...

Just because a company says they believe something, its doesn't mean they do. They know they can make more money by saying climate change is real than by denying it. These decisions were not made by people who will be effected by it. All of the Amazon execs will just leave their mansions in Florida and go somewhere else. Actions speak louder than words.
This is why I dont believe them

I don't disagree with anything you wrote, but as you said, the issue is nuanced.

As I have suggested, in my view we need to reshuffle the hierarchy by eliminating or at least curtailing unions, so that the hoi polloi have as much say in things as "the ruling class". Perhaps we the people should form a union. A 300 million strong union that has on retainer our own legal team to look after our interests.

I would pony up dues for such.

I think we agree in principle. Perhaps we disagree on the solution, but at least we have found the common ground I think.

The issue is "cop culture". A cop from the NYPD is no different from a cop in rural Anywheresville. The idea that police will back each other up no matter what happens, with a District Attorney (who is essentially a cop with a law degree) and a Judge (a cop with a robe) and you can see why the whole system is trash. It's so hard to hold police accountable, which is why nothing has changed.

When people say "Defund the police" they mean exactly that. Take money out of the over militarized, over zealous police departments and put it where it's needed most. It doesn't mean "abolish" the police as in totally get rid of them. It means when someone with mental health issues is having problems a cop doesn't show up and shoot/taser/arrest/assault them into submission. It means someone who is qualified to handle those types of situations will respond. Balitmore is not a good city by any stretch of the imagination, but the cops do more harm than good. Not by being cops, but by sucking up a HUGE portion of the city budget, with damn near no results other than overcrowded prisons, and people with criminal records who now cannot get hired anywhere or find gainful employment. That means because they were arrested, no one will one to hire them (regardless of the crime) and now they have to resort to government funding to meet their basic human needs.

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