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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 03 2017, @08:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Camden, New Jersey is a very low income neighborhood. According to this NY Times article, until recently it had typical low income policing--heavy on corruption and violence and low on compassion.

But now they have a new chief and things have changed --

"Handing a $250 ticket to someone who is making $13,000 a year" — around the per capita income in the city — "can be life altering," Chief Thomson said in an interview last year, noting that it can make car insurance unaffordable or result in the loss of a driver's license. "Taxing a poor community is not going to make it stronger."

Handling more vehicle stops with a warning, rather than a ticket, is one element of Chief Thomson's new approach, which, for lack of another name, might be called the Hippocratic ethos of policing: Minimize harm, and try to save lives.

Officers are trained to hold their fire when possible, especially when confronting people wielding knives and showing signs of mental illness, and to engage them in conversation when commands of "drop the knife" don't work. This sometimes requires backing up to a safer distance. Or relying on patience rather than anything on an officer's gun belt.

While not out of the woods yet, it sounds like there is hope for Camden and maybe it won't just continue to be written off as a war zone.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:59PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:59PM (#488406)

    What planet are you from?

    That said, running from the cops means you welcome getting shot.

    Running at someone pointing a gun suggests that you want to get shot. Running away from someone pointing a gun suggests that you don't want to be shot.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:07AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:07AM (#488447)

    Any response other than freezing in place and obeying orders: yes, you are willing to get shot.

    Running toward the cop is obvious. You're trying to kill him. You need to die ASAP.

    Running away means that you prefer to be out on the streets committing crimes. Jail would limit you to hurting cellmates and the occasional distracted guard, so you run from the cop. Your decision is to evade justice so that you can keep hurting people. You need to die ASAP.

    Either way, you are making a decision. You'd rather be shot than be peacefully arrested. As long as the cop fairly dishes it out, your death is a benefit to society.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Justin Case on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:15AM (3 children)

      by Justin Case (4239) on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:15AM (#488452) Journal

      Running away [from a cop] means ... You need to die ASAP.

      Only in a mythical world where cops are always good guys.

      As long as the cop fairly dishes it out

      And that's a hell of a stretch for your high-and-mighty life-or-death pronouncements.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:51AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:51AM (#488460)

        Yes indeed, there are bad cops. There are really bad ones and regular bad ones.

        Still, you need to freeze and then obey orders. Anything else is incredibly stupid. This is your life, not a video game. You have a choice...

        Fight or run: You will likely get hurt very badly, if not killed.

        Surrender: Minor bruises would be unsurprising. Death is extremely rare. Many people are totally unhurt. Sometimes you even get to go free.

        • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @01:47AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @01:47AM (#488482)

          Still, you need to freeze and then obey orders.

          If you're black, as a bonus, you get shot anyway.

          Last year a guy who sits by me got oddly bent out of shape about one person who was doing just that, but the cops gunned down him down anyway.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:27AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:27AM (#488545)