Listening carefully to police "allies" of the police reform movement

Someone on Facebook posted a link to a police officer talking about police violence, protests, and "rioters." He commented in linking to it, "When I hear people condemning cops in general it pisses me off. I personally know cops who are as fine a human being as you could hope to meet." The statement is question is from Dave Bissonnette on June 3. He serves as a police officer in Middleton, Rhode Island.

Bisonnette's statement is a good reminder that liberals need to stop with their few-bad-apples, most-cops-are-wonderful stock response to police crimes. There are systematic, nationwide, deep-seated problems in American policing. And those most definitely include systematic white racism, though Vice President Mike Pence thinks it naughty to say so. (Gabby Orr, ‘We ought to set aside this talk’: Pence’s take on systemic racism meets a new test Politico 06/09/2020)

Unfortunately, for most people in urban areas, an encounter with a cop is an encounter with a cop they don't know personally. So we all have to assume we're dealing with a "cop in general". And when we see case after case after case of cops committing murder and being supported in their actions by fellow officers, no one can be confident that the "cop in general" they are dealing with in the moment is a responsible human being.

It's nice to see this Officer Bissonnette say, "please know that no one hates a dirty, piece of shit cop more than a good cop who does this job with honor and pride." But what we see in Buffalo after those two cops were charged with shoving down a non-threatening, unarmed 75-year-old man and leaving him to bleed out on the pavement, is that the other 57 cops "resigned" from their unit because their two POS colleagues were disciplined and then charged with a crime. How many similar resignation of cops "with honor and pride" have resigned over the nationwide violent abuses we've seen seeing cops commit for the last two weeks?

And it's nice that Officer Bissonnette's statement says he would kneel and march peacefully with people who want to protest (if they reach out to him). But his final full paragraph is a rant against "rioters", "thugs and opportunists", "cowards" who "are destroying people’s lives" and continues: "your behavior will not be tolerated. People are going to get hurt. Please do not test our resolve when it comes to protecting our flock. Enough is enough." That part is indistinguishable from the highly-paid pundits ranting on FOX News. And just what does he mean by, "People are going to get hurt", so "do not test our resolve when it comes to protecting our flock." That sounds like a threat indistinguishable from so many other "cops in general". And just who does he consider his "flock"? The other cops? The public he's serving, which would be even more disturbing?

I wonder what the conduct record of the thousands of cops he says he's trained looks like.

In a separate news report by Daniel Keith, Police Academy instructor shares what future cops are taught about use of force in RI ABC6 Rhode Island News 06/04/2020), Bissonette pitches for more funding for the conventional training that is obviously failing badly in many places.

And this is the kind of comment that people who  want responsible police need to take with a critical attitude:

[Bisonnette] called Floyd’s death a tragedy and said other officers are upset.

“There’s not anyone more upset about what happened than other police officers,” he said. “We’re trying to regain our balance here as a profession.”

In the viral video, Chauvin is seen putting Floyd in a neck restraint with his knee on the concrete until Floyd fell unconscious.

Bissonnette said that technique has not been taught to Rhode Island officers for decades, even when he went to the academy in 2001.

“There are bones in the neck you can very easily break by putting a lot of weight on there,” Bissonnette said. “There are veins in there that restrict blood flow where if you put pressure on them, veins that will restrict blood flow to the brain, and knock somebody out cold.” ...

Bissonnette said he will be using the George Floyd video to teach future officers what not to do in the field when it comes to the use of force. [my emphasis]

So he's going to show them Floyd's murder to show what not to do ...? We should ask how often this is done in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink way of showing, here's how you get away with the particular violent crime.

"Better training" is the standard liberal response to reports to police violence. Because it's totally safe to say that, since even the more avid police-reform advocates focus on training problems. And you can always offer more money to local police departments "for training". Here's a tip, that I learned decades ago working on the city budget in San Jose, CA. If you get more federal money designated for police training, say $5 million, a city can easily and entirely legitimately show they budgeted that $5 million to police training. And that might mean they increase police training function by $5 million worth. Or they might reduce the amount allocated from other city funds to training by $5 million, leaving the training budget at the same level while spending an additional $5 million on "toys for boys" items like tanks and grenade launchers to further militarize their police department.

This is why the proposal for more federal funding for police training that Joe Biden just made is essentially irrelevant to addressing criminal violence and murder by police. (Ed Kilgore, Biden Supports Reforming, Not Defunding, Police New York 06/08/2020) More money for training is about as meaningful as "thoughts and prayers" has come to mean.

And as important as training is, good training won't stop killer cops until we have a system in which cops who break the law, especially in committing violent crime, are actually on a regular basis criminally tried, convicted, and banned from serving on other police or security forces.