Reply to We need DC police to walk beats again - get out of cars and talk to people

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't get it. I've had a couple of bad/youthful experiences with police...never in DC though. They are possibly the most mellow DC force in the world, basically inclined to urge you to move along. Where did the animosity towards our police come from? The defund movement may have wanted money for other things==social workers etc--but I don't see why we can't fund both. DC police aren't "known" for their atrocities. There aren't a succession of famous cases. If anything, they have shown heroism on multiple occasions.. like 1/6. Yes, people scream every time demonstrators are arrested (newsflash--get a permit!) and anytime they try to do proactive police work like task forces there is some kind of lawsuit because equity. It stinks that our police force got sucked up in the 2020 social justice maelstron by a bunch of SF liberal types, likely transplants, hellbent on experimenting with and destroying our town.[/quote]

I think DC has a lot of good cops, but there are some that I do think are a problem - like the one who was secretly feeding internal intel to Proud Boys https://apnews.com/article/biden-proud-boys-washington-law-enforcement-capitol-siege-07b606c578399a4e24cc382a17f6f470, like the one who was photographed grinning, chomping on his cigar and fist bumping Proud Boys when they came to town and so on.  Their sympathies aren't about fighting crime.  Fact of the matter is that every time their Proud Boys buddies came into town, they engaged in a huge amount of violence.  J6 was one such incident - but even the BLM protests typically only saw a big increase in violence and destruction when Proud Boys came into town.  They randomly assaulted people on the streets minding their own business.  They vandalized two historic black churches.  And for that, we got fist bumps and collusion from some on the MPD force - what a disgrace.  I want MPD to do their jobs, but I do think they need more oversight and accountability - but that's exactly the kind of thing their union soundly rejects.  Ultimately the irony is that it's the police union that is driving a big uptick in violence and crime.[/quote]

Mmmmm, I'm glad we agree that not all DC police are "bad".  Your bad actor police examples are of course worthy of condemnation, but also "one ofs", even in your own words. And it isn't clear to me that it was exclusively proud boys smashing up downtown and looting small and big box businesses across the city while police pretty much stood by due to the pressures of the social justice narrative of those months. The flashmob theft continues to this day - is that proud boys?[/quote]

I have worked in downtown DC right near the White House for almost 20 years.  I walked past the BLM gatherings on a daily basis all throughout the whole George Floyd period.  It was 99.9% peaceful.  Seems to me the only times it ever got violent were when a.) Proud Boys came into town, b.) when there were outside, unaffiliated agitators in the crowd (I personally witnessed when a guy smashed a business's window - the BLM protesters surrounded the guy, tackled him and dragged him over to police and handed him over to be arrested) and c.) when police escalated with excessive, over-the-top violence - tear gas and so on, when they wanted to clear Lafayette Park for Trump's "bible" photo op at St. John's.  Even journalists got pepperballed and tear gassed.  Inexcuable.  And dangerously chasing people down city streets with a helicopter flying mere feet away from city buildings?  That was sheer government insanity.[/quote]

No one is attacking BLM protestors. You do understand that while those protests were happening there was massive looting of stores and to this day cvs, Lululemon etc is getting hit up. Does BLM had some suggestions for how we can support peaceful commercial districts?[/quote]

Yes, some bad actors used BLM as cover.  In some cases it was planned, with organized crews, for example in Chicago there were accounts of teams of 20 guys with multiple U-hauls that were systematically hitting CVS stores.  But that doesn't somehow make BLM culpable or responsible for coming up with solutions and in fact in instance after instance, BLM organizers denounced the looting and vandalism.  And again, despite all the "Defund the Police" rhetoric none of it was ever seriously acted on in DC - ultimately MPD only got a 2.8% cut, which does not even remotely account for the massive, almost 50% drop in arrests, which only further emboldened and encouraged criminals.  That big of a decline in arrests is in no way justifiable.  And for all of the blame of progressive members of council and so on, can anyone show me specific examples of where any DC officials and politicians invoked legal mechanisms and proclaimed "NO!  MPD is absolutely not to interfere with armed carjackings or Lululemon thefts and it's fine if it drives them to pack up and leave."[/quote]

I disagree with you there. It was obvious that the tone and rhetoric of BLM influenced the politicians / police standing by . No one wanted to come in heavy (or AT ALL)  in 2020,  laws were changed ,sentencing was changed. and the looting has continued to this day. BLM should be offering ideas and solutions, given their status as advocates. [/quote]

But again, none of the politicians gave orders saying "don't police anymore."  It's the police themselves who decided to stop policing.  Even when it's other problems, like the prosecutors not pursuing the cases, it's still on you to do your job regardless.  Make it clear that the prosecutor failed, rather than also becoming part of the problem yourselves.   You can't just stop doing your job, the one that you swore an oath to uphold, the one that you still collect a taxpayer funded paycheck to do, just because some rando said some mean words.

And, there WERE many ideas and solutions offered by advocates, like changing some tactics and having better training, like how to de-escalate, like having police actually get out to know the communities and work with them to reduce crime, rather than working against them and sowing distrust, like how to more appropriately handle situations like someone who has alzheimers or is autistic or has other issues, like not throwing the little old lady with dementia to the ground breaking her arm or not shooting the deaf kid because he didn't respond and so on.   Like doing a little more critical thinking and having a little more discretion and judgement.  Like not being unnecessarily abusive or violent when you don't need to be.  Everyone has a phone with a camera these days yet a lot of cops continue to become "internet famous" every single day for dumb behaviors and there's a lot to be learned right there.  There's literally hundreds and hundreds of videos out there of what NOT to do, maybe a 5 minute clip should be required at the beginning of every police shift.  There's also a ton of stuff out there on what to do instead.  But instead of making any positive changes, some in the rank and file and in the unions push back, attack anyone who dares to question them, cling to known bad and toxic behaviors, and go out of their way to shield and protect many of the bad cops from accountability and the handful of bad cops ends up giving all cops a bad reputation.[/quote]

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