Minneapolis PD Suspect Dies On Video While Handcuffed. FBI Investigating.

[DDTSGM]

I guess I meant 'embody the principles.'

As manny have mentioned, there are a lot of pressures on officers today. Not to get the whole firefighter - police officer thing started, but at least in my area we still staff fire departments like Mrs. O'Leary's cow is still kicking over lanterns, despite advances in alarm technology, building codes, etc. Meanwhile, it seems police departments have been given more to do, without significant increases in manpower.

As a result, in most medium to large-sized departments officers essentially go from call-to-call. They have little time for 'beat management' the process of getting to know folks other than offenders and their victims and developing relationships with residents, businessmen and clerks, in order to better serve them, and the community.

[Baldanders]

I’ve never seen such a bad time to be a cop.

Also the worst time to be a teacher.

Also the worst time to be a medical care worker.

Also the worst time to own a truly small business

Not great unless you have mass cash reserves to buy up undervalued real estate and other assets, further increasing the elite's share of the pie so rent can go up on all the tenants.

That's going great!

[Half Moon]

Also the worst time to be a teacher.

Also the worst time to be a medical care worker.

Also the worst time to own a truly small business

Not great unless you have mass cash reserves to buy up undervalued real estate and other assets, further increasing the elite's share of the pie so rent can go up on all the tenants.

That's going great!

Having read a fair amount of history that's not an uncommon refrain at any time. Yesterday often looks better. A little makeup and some soft focus lens does wonders for that hag. Somewhat related take by Kipling:

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poe...ling/king.html

[Baldanders]

Having read a fair amount of history that's not an uncommon refrain at any time. Yesterday often looks better. A little makeup and some soft focus lens does wonders for that hag. Somewhat related take by Kipling:

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poe...ling/king.html

I'm being very narrow in that statement. (Right now, compared to the rest of my life)

And sometimes sir, it's 1917 in Russia.

[Baldanders]

Never have so few owned such a percentage of our economy.

The ever-increasing percentage of the country owned by the elite is a fry cry from "it ain't like it used to be."

Unchecked, it is a trend leads to "radical solutions."

Clinging to Kipling in the Singularity may not work out well.

[Joe in PNG]

I'm being very narrow in that statement. (Right now, compared to the rest of my life)

And sometimes sir, it's 1917 in Russia.

One thing is that cultures, ways of doing things, and political systems tend to pack a lot of inertia. The Roman Senate met for centuries after the fall of Rome, and the last man with the title of Caesar was removed from power a little over a century ago (Kaiser and Czar are from the same roots). It takes a lot of force to stop that inertia- many years of total war, tons of hard sacrifice, and hundreds of thousands of deaths were needed for the people to lose confidence in the Russian, Ottoman, Austrian, and German Empires enough to look for an alternative.
Which they then jettisoned for something more akin to what they had before.

[Half Moon]

Never have so few owned such a percentage of our economy.

The ever-increasing percentage of the country owned by the elite is a fry cry from "it ain't like it used to be."

Unchecked, it is a trend leads to "radical solutions."

Clinging to Kipling in the Singularity may not work out well.

Well, hell, I'll just bobble upstream past all that. It'll just be me and the fisher monkeys... or the moorlocks. One or the other :-P

Yes, it can lead to radical solutions. Most likely outcome though is the square deal or the new deal as the status quo looks to make peace with, and defuse, the radical by redressing some of the inequity in exchange for retaining power. Or not. Who knows?

[BehindBlueI's]

The best thing I did for my long term physical, mental and emotional health was retire. And did it early enough, and healthy enough that I'm able to continue in a second career as a private servant instead of a public one. Anyone that thinks that sounds selfish well....go do a 20, 25, 30 year public safety career and then come back and criticize me. I did my time. You have to BBI. Time to start pulling inward and looking out for you and your's.

That's one reason I'm getting more serious about the LT test. I love being a street cop, but it's probably time to start being less hands on. I don't want to be crippled up like my dad in his mid 60's and I've been hard enough on my body already. I plan to do 10 more years and out, but that's fluid.

[BehindBlueI's]

I hear you. All of the clamor for dissolving police departments reminds me of Chesterton's Fence. No one is asking "Why did city governments start forming police departments? What was it like for Joe & Jane Goodperson before there were sworn officers in town & cities?"

Sadly, I don't think even 5 people out of 100 that I know personally know anything about Sir John Peel. I think we may have reached a nexus between lack of critical thinking and poor education.

On the plus side, maybe we can institute a Federal version of the Italian Carabinieri. (I kid)

I saw a meme that went:

Police dissolved.

Rich people hire private guards.

Socialists notice rich people have private guards.

Private guards socialized.

Socialists invent police.

[Baldanders]

One thing is that cultures, ways of doing things, and political systems tend to pack a lot of inertia. The Roman Senate met for centuries after the fall of Rome, and the last man with the title of Caesar was removed from power a little over a century ago (Kaiser and Czar are from the same roots). It takes a lot of force to stop that inertia- many years of total war, tons of hard sacrifice, and hundreds of thousands of deaths were needed for the people to lose confidence in the Russian, Ottoman, Austrian, and German Empires enough to look for an alternative.
Which they then jettisoned for something more akin to what they had before.

In my opinion we have been in this cycle since the at least the early 70s, if not earlier.

Russia under Putin MAY be better than rule under the Czar, at least? A bit?

Our political system seems to be facing the same problem the USSR did: what's the motvation to keep this thing going? Increasing control to a very small group backed by the most sophisticated propaganda campaigns ever is not a model that can continue forever. Now whether that end comes within the year, or decades after my death is beyond my ability to grok. I just know some trends can't extend forever.

Speaking of unsustainable trends, I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of ever-increasing college tuition cycle. COVID 19 ain't all bad.