You might remember that bizarre story of the Democratic fundraiser out in the San Diego suburbs where an out of control Sheriff’s Deputy ended up pepper spraying and throwing to the ground a group of harmless middle aged Dems and taking a couple of them into custody. This Gates story, while it adds the potent addition of race, in many ways gets at a similar issue. Police officers don’t get fancy wages. But they put themselves in harm’s way for us everyday. And they deserve our respect and our appreciation. But they also work for us. And you do have these cases where people get arrested or knocked around for basically nothing, or at worst mouthing off a bit or not being deferential enough.
Along those lines, TPM Reader NL has this to say … Read More
Meet Paul Stanley. He’s a Republican state senator in Tennessee who teaches Sunday school, loudly opposes allowing gay couples to adopt and is a firm opponent of sex outside of marriage — except his own. Poor Stanley, 47, ended up having to go to the police and admit having sex with his 22-year-old intern after her boyfriend clumsily tried to blackmail him with pictures and video of Stanley and the intern in flagrante delicto. Unlike Sen. John Ensign’s claims of blackmail, the police have taken this one seriously and charged the schlub of a boyfriend.
From TPM Reader JS …
You done well running reader NL’s essay on police abuse of their power. But you and NL framed it poorly: “They put themselves in harm’s way for us everyday.”
Police work is not that dangerous compared to, say, driving a cab. Firefighters have a far more physically dangerous job. However, cops have a heroic job: much harder in so many ways than firefighting. Firefighters are almost never in a morally ambiguous zone and almost always are in the business of making people feel good. Cops handle humans at their worst.
This distinction matters. When cops stress the (low) physical danger of their job, they’re setting themselves up to be military. That’s no good for the country. Large cities probably need a SWAT team, but that is not the model for most police work. Collateral damage is simply not acceptable for police. It also leads to police cowardice. A lot of civilian damage is justified by the military concept: “force protection.” Highly-armed and highly-trained cops use a lot more violence against citizens than a court would deem acceptable if one citizen used it against another.
Cops do not stress the (high) psychological danger of their job, because that makes them social workers with guns, able to handle difficult people with aplomb and an absolute minimum of violence, either threatened or applied. And that’s what they should be.
So don’t play into fascist stereotypes of manly danger. Police work is hard, dirty, and noble. But it is not particularly dangerous. And it shouldn’t be viewed that way.
I thought the ‘fascist stereotypes’ line was a bit much. Other than that though I thought this was one of most insightful emails I’ve gotten in a long time.
TPM Reader CR with an important addition about the rise of tasers as a substitute for “self-defense training and lessons in conflict resolution” … Read More
Before Dr. David McKalip was emailing around photoshopped pictures of President Obama as a loin clothed, pierced nose witch doctor he was writing guest editorials on the horrors of ObamaCare in papers like the St. Petersburg Times.
Following up on the post below, just how dangerous is police work?
Turns out it’s pretty dangerous. But by no means the most dangerous line of work. In 2007, policing was the tenth most dangerous job in the country. In 2005, the profession was not in the top ten.
The most dangerous jobs are fisherman, loggers, pilots, iron and steel workers, farmers, truckers, construction workers, etc.
Here’s a 2007 blog post by Radley Balko that picks apart the numbers.
Sarah Palin leaves office on Sunday with her national approval ratings down to 40%. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Howard Fineman talking last night on Countdown regarding health care reform:
I talked to people on the Hill all day today. I talked to Republicans as well as Democrats. Republicans claims they have a plan. They don’t. They claim they’re going to have a plan. They won’t. Their whole strategy … is to stand on the sidelines with their arms folded while the Democrats try to work this thing out. That’s their whole strategy.
That’s not news to anyone who’s been following the negotiations closely. But I’m not sure it’s broken through yet. Rinse and repeat.