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posted by martyb on Friday November 06 2015, @12:21PM   Printer-friendly

The Washington Post follows up on the death of a police officer in September who had radioed that he was in pursuit of three men and was later found shot. People called him a hero, and the nation made note of his death as further evidence of police being under attack.

On Wednesday morning, however, officials are expected to shatter that image of Gliniewicz as a heroic officer cut down in the line of duty. Instead, they will announce that the veteran cop killed himself in an elaborately staged suicide, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported, quoting police individuals.

The story also mentions the case of an Arkansas police officer, David Houser, who has been fired for lying about being shot at during a traffic stop.

Sgt. David Houser, 50, of the England Police Department was charged with filing a false police report, according to KTHV-TV. Houser had claimed that he was shot in his bulletproof vest during an Oct. 24 traffic stop.

"Houser told local and state law enforcement officers that while on patrol that he had exchanged gunfire with a suspect who fled from him driving a sport utility vehicle south of England along state Highway 15," Arkansas State Police said in a press release obtained by the local TV station. "Houser also reported he had been shot by the suspect."

As with the Illinois case, this report lead to a massive hunt for (imaginary) suspects.

The article cites FBI data, which says "[...] assaults on police officers dropped sharply in 2014 and are at their lowest point since 1996."


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday November 06 2015, @01:25PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday November 06 2015, @01:25PM (#259415)

    The point was that in both cases, these officers' deaths were used to discredit completely legitimate efforts to criticize the police for their heavy-handedness. There were various talking heads saying "Look at what happened to the cop in Fox Lake, that's all the fault of Black Lives Matter!"

    The thing is, their argument in a nutshell is extremely authoritarian. They're basically saying that if the police are allowed to be questioned or held responsible in any way for their official actions, then crime will go up. That is completely unproven at best - for example, the stop-and-frisk abuses going on in New York City did not lower crime in New York City any more than cities that did not implement stop-and-frisk. And at worst, abusive policing causes more crime, because it convinces law-abiding citizens not to treat police as legitimate authority to go to for redress of grievances, but (correctly) as just another a criminal gang with a uniform and a budget.

    And I don't consider it a coincidence that in most of these cases, it comes down to white people being scared of black people and responding with deadly force.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @02:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @02:24PM (#259442)

    That is completely unproven at best

    It's completely irrelevant at best. If unjust policies and laws that violate our freedoms and our constitution increase safety, we should still reject them; freedom is more important than security.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by M. Baranczak on Friday November 06 2015, @02:34PM

    by M. Baranczak (1673) on Friday November 06 2015, @02:34PM (#259448)

    Another related bit of data:

    Cops often talk about how dangerous their job is, implying that this gives them the right to act like assholes. This is not just logically unsound, it's based on a false premise. The truth is, their job might be more dangerous than web development or dentistry, but in the big picture it's not all that dangerous. There's a report from the BLS here, [bls.gov] showing the rate of on-the-job deaths grouped by occupation. For police officers, it's 10.6 (per 100,000 full-time workers). Which is just behind grounds maintenance workers (13.1) and taxi drivers (17.8), and not even close to the top job, loggers (91.3).

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday November 06 2015, @03:07PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday November 06 2015, @03:07PM (#259475)

      Last I checked the numbers, it wasn't even the profession most likely to be murdered on the job: Cabbies and convenience store clerks both took on more risk than cops.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:17PM (#259510)

      The truth is, their job might be more dangerous than web development or dentistry, but in the big picture it's not all that dangerous. There's a report from the BLS here, showing the rate of on-the-job deaths grouped by occupation. For police officers, it's 10.6 (per 100,000 full-time workers). Which is just behind grounds maintenance workers (13.1) and taxi drivers (17.8), and not even close to the top job, loggers (91.3).

      To play devil's advocate, maybe the death rate is so low because police officers are given free rein to shoot people.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 06 2015, @06:30PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday November 06 2015, @06:30PM (#259573) Journal

      Cops often talk about how dangerous their job is, implying that this gives them the right to act like assholes
       
      Meanwhile, they actively threaten anyone who dares use the rights they are supposed to be protecting:
       
        Largest police union has a 'surprise' planned for Quentin Tarantino [ew.com]

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday November 06 2015, @03:21PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 06 2015, @03:21PM (#259480) Journal

    And the thing that gets me is there's a lot of real debate to be had on the subject of necessary force.

    But rather than discussing the situations that pressure cops to be heavy handed in America where they might not be as much in other countries, and what we can do to mitigate that need for them, the "pro cop" "side" seems mostly intent on protecting "good guys" from "bad guys". It's a hard environment to have a dialog in.

    And I know I'm setting myself up for a "There are unrepentant extremists on your side too!" argument, but as far as I can tell, all the pushback we're seeing is from authoritarians like you describe.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday November 06 2015, @04:13PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday November 06 2015, @04:13PM (#259507)

      But rather than discussing the situations that pressure cops to be heavy handed in America where they might not be as much in other countries, and what we can do to mitigate that need for them, the "pro cop" "side" seems mostly intent on protecting "good guys" from "bad guys".

      Here's the real problem: The decision by some cops to be heavy-handed has little to nothing to do with the risks of the situation they're in or the level of criminality involved.

      Some well known examples that show the contrast:
      * Cliven Bundy is still a free man despite owing millions in fines, turning guns on government agents and police, and actively encouraging others to join him in rebelling against the lawful government of the United States. Threat presented: A large armed group prepared to use deadly force. Crimes committed: Failure to appear in court, the aforementioned millions of dollars in fines for unpaid grazing fees, aggravated assault on a peace officer, and possibly treason for his efforts to lead a group of people in armed rebellion.

      * Sandra Bland was beaten on the roadside because she expressed being a bit upset about being ticketed for failing to use a turn signal when pulling over to let a cop by, and then mysteriously ended up dead in jail. Threat presented: None. Crimes committed: a very questionable moving violation.

      I don't think most people are against the police being heavy-handed against truly dangerous people. What they are against is the police being heavy-handed against people who are completely harmless.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday November 06 2015, @05:24PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 06 2015, @05:24PM (#259548) Journal

        Right, so... the thing is those causes I'm alleging don't have to do with the particular situations. But the fact that guns(!) are so prevalent in this nation that cops in general are on edge most of the time. Yeah, I know that's not a discussion the right-wing wants to have either, but there are places on this planet where cops don't need to carry guns unless they're SWAT.

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Friday November 06 2015, @08:24PM

          by hemocyanin (186) on Friday November 06 2015, @08:24PM (#259634) Journal

          That's a red herring. Cops in America aren't assholes because of guns, if anything the Clive reference above proves the opposite, they are assholes because the job attracts assholes.