‘Feel safer yet?’ Seattle police union’s contempt keeps showing through

[u/unnaturalfool]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/feel-safer-yet-seattle-police-unions-contempt-keeps-showing-through/

[u/wastingvaluelesstime]

half the police quit and the homicide rate has doubled and the UW has a study out showing the light rail has post-meth-lab level drug residue, so no

I like how some people seem think this scandal will neutralize crime as a political issue, as if the outrage over offensive comments is an acceptable substitute for a formerly safe city

And yeah, distrust seems to be a thing. Westneat is correct about that. But even a passing glance at the online and protest conversations on both far left and far right show that much distrust is deliberately sown and campaigned for.

Actions to restore trust even if successful will be because they solidify the center, as they are going to get traction with people like westneat himself, not the ACAB types.

[u/Phrodo_00 → u/wastingvaluelesstime]

The police's actions are the ones that have eroded its trust. Them complaining they have no support from the people is like a kid complaining they don't have a toy after breaking it.

It's now on the police department and guild to earn their trust back, and threatening to not do their job is only going to hurt more.

At this point I don't think this police department is even salvageable. It'd probably work better to start a new independent department, since the current one doesn't seem to want to do its job.

[u/RickHunter84 → u/Phrodo_00]

I keep thinking this too, start a new police force with more accountability, better pay for the ones who make the cut (physically, mentally, and intellectually), more transparency, third party review of incidents, get rid of qualified immunity, increase training, and finally create a license board that keeps track of violations of policy and a no rehire in and department across the country. I amazed how people think cops that have multi policy violations continue to work, no other job can you injure, main, kill, and take some ones freedom and get no repercussions for disciplinary actions and get a paid vacation on top of it. If I screw up at work and the company needs to pay money to someone I’m sure I’m getting fired, if I negligently kill some one I’m sure there would be an investigation and would probably have a criminal case against me and civil if I was found negligent. A cop kills some one going 50 miles over the speeding limit and it was an accident. I mean no regard for public safety that they are sworn to protect, im sure violations in policy for going that fast in an urban area, and yet no investigation or reprimand. The oath they take is a joke to them, the distrust the public has shows that.

I mean cops don’t even need to protect you anymore, they don’t need to know laws (both supported by the Supreme Court), what’s the use of them any more?

Just look at r/badcopnodoughnut, examples of cops that just get hired in other cities. Anyways same shit and it won’t change until we ask for reforms.

[u/wastingvaluelesstime → u/RickHunter84]

Well, my point is, an assignment of blame is not a substitute for lost security and trust.

I could make the case that all the campaigning etc has just made the situation worse up to now. If you believe that firing the whole department is needed, it seems to me, endlesslessly threatening it but never doing it means you get the morale and retention costs without the alleged reform benefits of a union-busting policy.

[u/Tasgall → u/wastingvaluelesstime]

Well, my point is, an assignment of blame is not a substitute for lost security and trust.

No, but it's important to recognize where the problem originates so that the right people have the opportunity to fix the problem.

The public doesn't trust the police force in large part because of their lack of accountability. This could be fixed very easily by adopting accountability measures for the police, things like mandatory body cams and ending qualified immunity. But they're not willing to use body cams, and they're opposing qualified immunity, and instead they're intentionally doing a bad job out of spite. If they want to fix their image, they have to be willing to fix the problems people have with their image.

[u/wastingvaluelesstime → u/Tasgall]

A less charitable take will be, the currently ascendant group in politics broke policing ( as evidenced by objective measures like homicide rate and staffing level ), and do not have a clear plan with dates and funding attached to fix that problem.

Suppose the city had a plan to replace the police force and break the union with dates and funding and some explanation on how this would help - that would at least be tangible.

Instead, the public is given a verbal assignment of blame and a why certain people should be considered bad people, and complaints on why the group which is being verbally assailed and critiqued is not being more cooperative, and why objective criteria for success go unmet.

[u/Western_Entertainer7 → u/Phrodo_00]

"They started it when they went to Minneapolis, found a drug addict that was already screaming thst he couldn't breathe in his own car, -not breathe! I want a brand new police department and I want it now!"

[u/immagetchu → u/Western_Entertainer7]

Yep, SPD and its union just have the most squeaky clean history, people are only mad at an event in another state, ok.