Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't read 120 posts in this thread but I find the hole premise of the thread hilarious because it begs the question that any police force anywhere has ever hired "quality candidates." Might the recruits get even worse? Perhaps. But they were never "quality."

What's your expertise that informs that opinion?

Reality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't read 120 posts in this thread but I find the hole premise of the thread hilarious because it begs the question that any police force anywhere has ever hired "quality candidates." Might the recruits get even worse? Perhaps. But they were never "quality."

What's your expertise that informs that opinion?

Anonymous wrote:I can't read 120 posts in this thread but I find the hole premise of the thread hilarious because it begs the question that any police force anywhere has ever hired "quality candidates." Might the recruits get even worse? Perhaps. But they were never "quality."

Anonymous wrote:I can't read 120 posts in this thread but I find the hole premise of the thread hilarious because it begs the question that any police force anywhere has ever hired "quality candidates." Might the recruits get even worse? Perhaps. But they were never "quality."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was already a recruitment issue. I was at Hagerstown getting my vaccine and drove past a billboard recruiting people to join the MoCo police. They wouldn't need to do that if they had enough recruits in MoCo itself.

I think being a police officer is a tough job. You have to make split-second life-threatening decisions on a daily basis. Is the suspect reaching for his gun or a cellphone? Do you shoot or not? If you get it wrong, you can end up in prison.

Not many jobs out there, especially at that pay level, where a mistake during routine everyday work tasks can end up with you in prison.

Or dead...

Right. Maybe they are hoping Hagerstown folks haven't heard how much Montgomery County hates police. No high quality candidate in their right mind would choose MoCo right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was already a recruitment issue. I was at Hagerstown getting my vaccine and drove past a billboard recruiting people to join the MoCo police. They wouldn't need to do that if they had enough recruits in MoCo itself.

I think being a police officer is a tough job. You have to make split-second life-threatening decisions on a daily basis. Is the suspect reaching for his gun or a cellphone? Do you shoot or not? If you get it wrong, you can end up in prison.

Not many jobs out there, especially at that pay level, where a mistake during routine everyday work tasks can end up with you in prison.

Or dead...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is to radically reduce police interactions with the public by radically reducing the number of laws on the books.

Traffic laws can be enforced by mailing tickets, and ultimately, putting a lien on the vehicle.

Drug laws should be repealed.

Individual safety is best handled by robust self-defense. Bullies don't mess with people who can kill them.

You start off strong. Duante Wright was pulled over for an air freshner. An obvious pretext.

But where you get weak is when you try to tell us that safety is only for the strong. GTFO here with that.

He should not have been shot, but to clarify I believe he also had an expired tag.

I've driven with expired tags (forgot to put the new sticker on). Nobody has ever pulled me over for it.

-white lady in the suburbs

Anonymous wrote:There was already a recruitment issue. I was at Hagerstown getting my vaccine and drove past a billboard recruiting people to join the MoCo police. They wouldn't need to do that if they had enough recruits in MoCo itself.

I think being a police officer is a tough job. You have to make split-second life-threatening decisions on a daily basis. Is the suspect reaching for his gun or a cellphone? Do you shoot or not? If you get it wrong, you can end up in prison.

Not many jobs out there, especially at that pay level, where a mistake during routine everyday work tasks can end up with you in prison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

He was pulled over for expired tags, not an air freshener. Many laws can be used as a pretext. For example, I pull you over for going 2 MPH over the speed limit. And nobody wants a bunch of speed cameras anyway.

Plenty of people want a bunch of speed cameras. They're very effective in getting people to reduce driving speeds and in reducing the number of crashes. If you don't want to get a ticket from a speed camera, all you have to do is not drive 12 mph or more over the speed limit.

Also, pretextual stops should be illegal.

There is no way to prove whether a stop is pretextual.

Nope. But you can have a departmental policy put in place that says an officer can ONLY issue a citation for whatever the stop was for, and nothing else.

So if I pull you over for a tail light out and see a pound of weed or a dead hooker in your backseat, I can only give you a repair order for the tail light.

Fine with me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

He was pulled over for expired tags, not an air freshener. Many laws can be used as a pretext. For example, I pull you over for going 2 MPH over the speed limit. And nobody wants a bunch of speed cameras anyway.

Plenty of people want a bunch of speed cameras. They're very effective in getting people to reduce driving speeds and in reducing the number of crashes. If you don't want to get a ticket from a speed camera, all you have to do is not drive 12 mph or more over the speed limit.

Also, pretextual stops should be illegal.

There is no way to prove whether a stop is pretextual.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

He was pulled over for expired tags, not an air freshener. Many laws can be used as a pretext. For example, I pull you over for going 2 MPH over the speed limit. And nobody wants a bunch of speed cameras anyway.

Plenty of people want a bunch of speed cameras. They're very effective in getting people to reduce driving speeds and in reducing the number of crashes. If you don't want to get a ticket from a speed camera, all you have to do is not drive 12 mph or more over the speed limit.

Also, pretextual stops should be illegal.

There is no way to prove whether a stop is pretextual.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

He was pulled over for expired tags, not an air freshener. Many laws can be used as a pretext. For example, I pull you over for going 2 MPH over the speed limit. And nobody wants a bunch of speed cameras anyway.

Plenty of people want a bunch of speed cameras. They're very effective in getting people to reduce driving speeds and in reducing the number of crashes. If you don't want to get a ticket from a speed camera, all you have to do is not drive 12 mph or more over the speed limit.

Also, pretextual stops should be illegal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Hopefully it will be a deterrent to the bad ones.

Very interesting to read posts stating that incarceration and other consequences are not deterrents for other criminals but think them to be a deterrent for policemen who commit crimes.

If it doesn't work, then we should do to cops as we did to everyone else and just up the enforcement. More budget to investigate, arrest and prosecute bad cops. Stiffer penalties. Mandatory minimums. Etc.

Lets do that for a couple generation and see if we can toss enough bad cops in jail so that other cops will be deterred from breaking the law. If not, then we can consider alternatives. But we cannot know unless we try this for 40 years first.

Anonymous wrote:

He was pulled over for expired tags, not an air freshener. Many laws can be used as a pretext. For example, I pull you over for going 2 MPH over the speed limit. And nobody wants a bunch of speed cameras anyway.