Post your SOLUTIONS (or ideas for them) here. FUCK the rhetoric and finger pointing...

[cherokeeprogressive]

Post your ideas for fixing the problem of police brutality in this thread. Then, let's get on with the process of implementing them, or at least TRYING to implement them by reaching out to everyone we know... whether our acquaintances are important or not. Even word of mouth makes a difference if you have the ability to convince enough people you're right.

Here are mine...

MANDATE civilian oversight of all law enforcement agencies. Allow every community to appoint an agreed-to number of "overseers" who are guaranteed access to any and all evidence when LEOs are accused of unnecessary violence. Codify lack of departmental forthcoming of evidence as suspicious, and develop a system wherein departments not forthcoming with any and all evidence are subject to DOJ review.

VIDEO every LEO from the moment they exit their car. NOT BY "BODY CAMS"; those are shit. All I have to do as a LEO is face the wrong way during an encounter and MY word becomes boss... that's bullshit. Place six cameras on gimbals on EVERY car (one on each end of the light bar and one at each corner of the car) that are tracked by RFID tags in each LEO's badge, belt buckle, utility belt, or weapon. Doing so would make 3D re-creations of incident scenes as easy as clicking a mouse. I can buy SIX 1080p cameras for less than $500. I can buy gimbals for as little as $60. I can buy terrabytes of storage for those cameras for less than $100 per terrabyte in bulk. I'm guessing that outfitting each car with cameras, gimbals, software, circuitry, and storage would cost less than $2500 per car.

FORCE all LEOs accused of unnecessary force to attend use of force workshops while on unpaid suspension.

FIRE all LEOs found to have used violence over what was necessary.

Make it ILLEGAL for a jurisdiction to hire a LEO who has been fired by another jurisdiction.

I showed you mine. Tear it apart point by point if you think it's wrong; God knows I've been wrong before at least twice (ex-Wives). Stop posting meaningless rhetoric, pointing fingers, and placing blame where it doesn't exist. Show me yours. Then, let's figure out how to make things happen. Hell, let's get Skinner and the rest of TPTB at Democratic Undergound to run interference.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Coalesce, victims of all types need to form a coalition.

Young black men and women, single women who are harassed, young teens unfairly detained, any and all people who have faced abuse.

Form a damn coalition, have a clearing house of cases and archive of evidence, stories and video, witness statements.

Hell, business owners in the neighborhood AND the people who express their frustration destructively are on the same side here!

The more the better, and the more chance of finding the kind of organizational help including pro-bono lawyers and electeds, to start enacting change.

Thank you for this post.

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. Awesome! Thanks for replying. I hope everyone who takes time to read the post gives their idea.

We have to take back our safety, and ensure the safety of those less fortunate than us.

I would like to add that my camera idea might even help to solve the problem of DWB since the LEO who approaches your car would be on camera with audio.

We have to start somewhere, and if we don't START, the problem will never END.

Thanks NYC!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

59. great idea!

So, how would we start that?

Seriously, I'm not snarking. I think it's worth Next Step ideas.

[NYC_SKP]

60. Hi BlancheSplanchnik!

I would start with a pilot program or two, at the community level.

Take a city like, say Richmond CA., it could be any city but that's near me.

At practically no cost a couple of people with a couple helpers talk it up and find a date for a day or redress, maybe out two months from the start of planning.

They find as many contacts as possible at churches, schools, community centers, etc., and local elected officials and non-profit helpers of like mine, and legal aid societies and shelters.

And develop a questionnaire, a simple tool, to collect some basic data and use that to develop a message and campaign of unification of grievances and demands.

On the selected day with as much promotion as possible (it's easy to get local news to come to events if you time it right) you launch.

Keep the message simple and inclusive, build a little army that will carry this effort on into the future (very important).

And, done well, local industries will help with it. Honestly, some of the companies in Richmond including Phillips66 and Chevron, have community support funds.

Working with them give this thing legitimacy and many of their employees are going to be among the people positively impacted by the effort.

What do you think?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

62. I like it!!

I'm thinking you could look for support from college students too. Lotta media majors, web developers and others who might be inspired.

[msongs]

2. quit hiring former military nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. For what it's worth, I'm "former military". NO Vet is worthy of providing security for his/her

fellow citizens? At this moment, there are MILLIONS of Vets. A very large percentage of them have never been exposed to the stress of combat.

[Scootaloo]

24. My understanding, it's conflicting training

A combat vet's training is that everyone around him not in his uniform is a potential threat. Active threats need to be put down with immediate lethal force. Which in a battlefield, makes sense, sure.

American streets are not battlefields, no matter how our Republican friends would like to yarp on about "War on drugs" or whatever. A law enforcement officer's job isn't to see the people around him as threats, it's to see them as his charges, people to protect. The best response to threats for law enforcement is de-escalation of the situation.

Somewhere in our cultural trajectory, we managed to confuse constables and combatants. And it's nothing against combat vets as people. And I have no doubt, many combat vets could serve as cops quite ably. However, the problem is that the line between soldiers and police is already hugely muddled, at the great expense of the safety of Americans.

Maybe we ought to take a hiatus on the "afghanistan-to-Baltimore" career track? let our veterans find some gainful employment that DOESN'T involve being armed and indoctrinated with seige mentality bullshit? Maybe pry our cops out of their armored vehicles and combat fatigues? You know, re-establish the line between the two?

Then we can look into vets serving as police. It's nothing personal, and no, it's not fair, but we have a real problem, and this is honestly part of the fuel of that problem.

[dreamnightwind]

28. I agree with this post

I think police should be trained in non-violence, and the tools to non-violently resolve conflicts, with any violence being used as the absolute last resort and only when it will clearly prevent violence on others. That is very different, I think, from military training. I'm sure there are vets who would and do make great cops, but those are two career paths we would do well to keep as far from each other as possible.

[TM99]

38. This brings up the need for another solution.

Plenty of Vets make excellent LEO's. The problem with many is that between the battlefield and the beat, few have received the necessary counseling to have dealt with the PTSD that combat inevitably brings.

Maybe if Democrats and Republicans both provided more actual support for Vets when we return home in the form of counseling, medical services, job training, etc. then what we are seeing might be greatly reduced.

[Scootaloo]

39. It's a long chain of problems that need addressing

But the short-term? people fresh from the battlefield, should not be brought into the policing world, so long as the police imagine themselves to be soldiers. Because so long as that holds, former soldiers will not be traiend as police, they will simply be added to a new military unit, with US civilians as "the enemy."

The problem lies, as ever, with the way policing is done - It's no fault of the men and women coming back and looking for those jobs, it's just that those jobs are really badly compromised right no, and this needs to be fixed.

[Enthusiast]

42. Scootaloo say smart things.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[KittyWampus]

69. No. Scootaloo is totally wrong on this.

https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

[Enthusiast]

70. Scootaloo know much better than KittyWampus.

[KittyWampus]

68. You're wrong. Veterans have been speaking out that while police have military equipment-

they totally lack the training.

The military has very effective ways of using scaled crowd control.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/police-militarization-ferguson_n_5678407.html

[Scootaloo]

88. Well, you make a good point, but that point has nothing to do with anything I said.

Still, thanks for providing it, KittyWampus.

[cherokeeprogressive]

89. Just to be clear; a Yeoman can never be an LEO? How about a Disbursing Clerk or a Snipe?

[linuxman]

22. why?

Is there something you know about me? Crazy vet maybe? Unhinged killer waiting to explode? Bred to hate brown people? I've heard it all.

Kind of a fucked up comment.

[ShawnRIN]

41. Agreed

I don't think you should make broad assumptions like these about vets without being one or being close to one.

[F4lconF16]

5. Reform just doesn't cut it...

I want to say more on this, but it's late, I'm on my phone, and not interested in writing at the moment. But the point is, this is a systemic issue that will not be solved through simple reforms, no matter what we would like to believe. I will either respond again tomorrow, or write and OP and link to it. Posting here for a reminder.

On edit: the things you propose are a damn good start. Thanks for posting the thread--I don't mean to dump on it, and apologies if I did. A bit tired right now.

[treestar]

6. Training from European countries

See the recent thread on the Swedish cops on vacation in NY who broke up a fight.

More sensitivity training. The black man is not inherently more likely to be doing wrong than the white man.

Affirmative action - more black cops. Black cops in black neighborhoods.

More female cops.

More training in nonviolent responses. And in keeping your gun safe rather than having to fear other people taking it from you - the first excuse.

The gun crap about how if you pull it out you have to shoot to kill - use tasers.

Training in letting people go and dealing with it later if there is no obvious evidence they are armed. Undo the macho "I have to win" male principle of male to male interaction.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. Excellent ideas. Thank you for contributing.

Like the poster up thread, I have to retire... 5 a.m. comes early.

Thanks again. I'm on board with everything you said.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Mandatory cameras on all cops.

Video automatically uploaded to a cloud server.

If a cop tries to turn off the camera, they should face lengthy jail sentences.

[cherokeeprogressive]

12. Put a camera on my lapel and I'm likely to turn away from the action in order to protect other cops.

Body cameras are not only not foolproof, but shaky and hell; I might even start doing jumping jacks when the shit starts just to obfuscate the whole incident in case it's investigated.

I've never thought body cams were any kind of answer at all.

I do however, appreciate your response... we're better when we work together than when we work against each other and I'm not just talking about you and me.

[lexington filly]

29. We could take any one idea and pick apart it's flaws because there isn't one single idea

that's THE answer. I've no doubt that body cameras will be helpful in some situations as a cop will never know what another cop's camera is picking up. Or someone's smart phone. Also recording the public's and police's voices alone will be helpful in keeping some situations from escalating.

Has anyone noticed the fast spreading practice of 5 or 6 cops crowding around the cop who's making the arrest to create a wall around situation to prevent its being seen and recorded by a smart phone? I first noticed the practice at Occupy Wall Street and now it's common.

[Enthusiast]

43. Body cameras can be a partial solution.

[gwheezie]

9. for tomorrow

Just a thought. Since schools are going to be closed tomorrow I would give everyone the day off from work so the adults will be available to keep an eye on the kids. I'd be scared if I was a parent of a teenager and I had to go to work tomorrow. Let the grown ups stay home. Even the adults who don't have kids could be there for the community. For their neighbors and nephews.

[enigmatic]

10. Police need to be peacekeepers, not occupiers

Bring back the fairness doctrine.

Stop the drug war now. Close private prisons. Stop Police Departments using tickets as revenue for the departments.

Inwardly, everyone needs to see empathy as a virtue, not a weakness.

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. The Fairness Doctrine would apply to ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS and local private broadcasters.

It wouldn't affect networks like Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, or ANY OTHER network who broadcast over cable, internet, or satellite.

Other than that I agree with every idea you posted.

Thanks.

[Enthusiast]

44. Bring back the fairness doctrine anyway. Make it apply to cable.

[XemaSab]

11. Hire more women as cops

Decentralize the police force and put officers in neighborhood-based offices. Get a regular rotation going so you don't get cliques forming.

Bodycams that the officers cannot turn off. If you're an officer and you take your camera off, you get fired, no excuses.

A civilian review board that looks at "ordinary" officer/civilian interactions, like those where the officer is just writing a routine citation. Every thug cop had a dozen or a hundred moments of thuggery before he shot someone or beat someone.

End the stupid, ineffective war on drugs.

[Chisox08]

14. 1. all cops must wear a body camera at all times while on duty...

no excuses for not doing so. If for any reason the camera isn't on the cop can and will be fired.
2. All cases involving police brutality will be handled by federal prosecutors and the FBI.
3. A citizens review board made up by people of the community, with everybody serving for a period of one year. Whenever there is a complaint of police misconduct they review the tapes and determine any disciplinary actions that should be taken.
4. All cops have to undergo retraining and the training standards raised and intensive background checks performed 5. No cop fired from another department can ever be hired again in any other police department.

[NYC_SKP]

15. Police officers and brass MUST LIVE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!!

This one is huge.

In Ferguson then lived one and two towns over.

[gwheezie]

16. stop arresting children

Many of the young adults I see that wind up poor and homeless with no job stems from being arrested as young teens. It follows them. You can't get away from it. Their education is disrupted. When they get out of jail or a facility they are far behind if they ever get back to school.

[bravenak]

17. End the drug war.

Much of the police harassment stems from the drug war. Treat addicts in a medical/rehab setting and do worforce development for dealers. Give jobs t drug dealers, they WANT to work, obviously. They work constantly. There needs to be good paying jobs given to poor communities. Cash payments for the poor and end Welfare reform and increase payments.

[lovemydog]

35. +1

[Fumesucker]

58. The drug war can't be ended without outright legalization

No other strategy is going to work for that particular problem.

[bravenak]

80. That's pretty much what I want.

Legalization and treatment/job programs in place of no knock warrants and the drug war. Can't win the drug war.

[Half-Century Man]

18. Here are a few.

Demilitarization of the police at all levels.

A single armored vehicle per county, under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff. Fuel to be paid for out of Sheriff salary to discourage usage.

Loss of any and all fully automatic capable weapons at local, county, and state levels. Authorization for federal police forces to carry full automatic weapons need AG approval each instance.

No camouflage/ urban assault uniforms. Police tactical situational uniforms should be looser fitting normal police uniforms.

Comprehensive data base of police shootings. All officer shootings to be investigated by State Board of Review; as non-local as possible.

All officers who shoot someone to be taken off of street duty for one year to cool down period and to avoid PTSD.
Third shooting, mandatory psych evaluation for continued service.
Mandatory steroid screenings for police officers.

Police officers must live in the communities where they have jurisdiction.

Only officers with 5+ years of experience (or rank of Sargent) to freely carry side arms. Non-qualified officers to have remote authorization gun locks in patrol cars.

[Bonobo]

19. POLICE "TSAR".

Start by CLEANING OUT the police force. Fire 50% of them at least and institute Federal hiring guidelines, mandatory psychological examinations, codes of conduct, rewrite the "rules of force", etc.

A top-down complete restructuring and reorganization and redefinition of what it means to be a "peace officer".

remove the STINK of the military and root out the violent thugs.

[Major Hogwash]

20. The "overseer" position you suggest is called an ombudsman in Boise.

He reviews all complaints made against the police department.
He determines which ones are legitimate and which ones aren't.
And then he makes recommendations as to how the police can improve the way they behave to reduce complaints of the same nature in the future.
Complaints about the police department dropped 50% within the first 3 years.

[qwlauren35]

21. One thing missing.

Jail time for excessive force. Even if it's only 30 days for a first offense, it would change things fast.

[ohheckyeah]

27. Jail time

in general population. Watch how quickly things will change.

[linuxman]

23. A prosecution of department heads found to be facilitating rights violations.

[haikugal]

25. Drug testing at the time of incident, no exceptions.

Look for drugs and steroid use.

[Enthusiast]

45. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[jtuck004]

26. Invest in the people of the community so they can learn to accumulate real assets

and wealth, and learn to cooperate with each other like they used to.

They they can create whatever they want.

[lexington filly]

30. A national data base for law enforcement to check so that officer's who have been fired

for brutality or serious reasons cannot be hired anywhere else. Seems like they just move and get jobs at other departments now.

[Warren DeMontague]

31. Put me down for more cameras, too.

That can't be turned off.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. Hire more women....

This will lower the testosterone level.

[cstanleytech]

34. Like Lisa Mearkle??

Edit: And no I am not disagreeing with you just pointing that even hiring female police officers wont solve everything.
What might solve more problems though (and this is just my opinion) is having far more extensive training for police officers because that makes everyone safer imo not to mention it can help to weed out more of the potential problems before they are put on the streets.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

64. One of the biggest problems is the cops believing they're in a war zone.

[cstanleytech]

71. That happens though when you start expressing a preference though for people with military

experience though and on top of that a preference for those with a low IQ so that they follow ordered blindly then your going to have problems.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

72. Actually, it happens when you hire a bunch of wanabes...

These are guys from the high school football and wrestling team that signed up to run people down and beat people up and get paid for it. Most are too cowardly to sign up for an actual war. They feel they can play army here.

Over time, these guys moved up the ranks and now get to decide who gets hired.

[cstanleytech]

73. Agreed, that to is part of the problem. nt

[cstanleytech]

33. You are going to face alot of opposition over the camera on the cars idea from some paranoid

people who are always ranting over "big brother".

[Enthusiast]

46. Overcome the opposition.

My suggestion! Ta daaa....

[Lars39]

36. Full investigation into what kinds of training

Homeland Security is giving police depts would be a start, too.

[Enthusiast]

47. Good suggestion.

[justiceischeap]

37. Many of my ideas have already been posted but I'll reiterate

• Outside investigations of excessive force cases. No police department should be allowed to investigate themselves, nor should the local DA--the relationships are too symbiotic for the DA to be useful in this type of situation. If excessive force is found, the local DA is not the one to bring charges, some other jurisdiction, maybe Federal.
• Give the DOJ the authority (if they don't already have it) to clean house after investigations if they find officers with excessive, excessive complaints on their record even if those officers weren't in the initial investigation. I guess my proposal is that if the DOJ is brought in to investigate, they should do a full department investigation automatically. We've seen from Ferguson that when excessive force is finally found out, it's likely to be systematic.
• Police officers must live in the jurisdiction they police. I heard on Maddow (or Chris Hayes) last night that a good portion of the Baltimore PD lives in PA. How can you care about the community you're policing if you don't live in it?
• Civilian oversight board for excessive force complaints (that rotates, that way you don't get hangers-on that view it as a position of power). This is made up of local lawyers (picked randomly), local business owners and community members. This gets everyone in the community involved.
• Community days that bring the police (on and off-duty) and community together... block party, something of that kind. Police need to be more invested in the community and the community needs to see police as human beings. You're less likely to harm people you know.
• Let the community members know they are allowed (and the police are required) to give them one ride-along a year. I think if the community rode along with police, they'd see what police have to deal with on a daily basis but the police would also have to think about their actions while having a civilian riding along. Do this often enough and the policing may change as well as attitudes toward the police. This would also help bridge the community gap.
• Encourage diverse police forces... women, people of color, etc.
• Training... there is tons of training for how to use all that military equipment and how to violently end a situation but no further training on how to end things non-violently. If the police force is continually trained to be violent, they will be violent.
• Specialized units to deal with the mentally ill. We not only have a problem with the police and people of color but the police and the mentally ill. We need specialized units that are trained to deal with the mentally ill in non-violent ways.
• Means to film confrontations that are mostly fool-proof (someone will always find a way to circumvent this) and if the situation isn't recorded with video, the officer is suspended without pay for the first infraction, fired for the second.

[Scuba]

40. Cameras mounted on all service firearms.

[Enthusiast]

48. Good suggestion. I've never heard that one before.

Just put cameras all over the fucking officer, his weapons and cruiser. [URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[romanic]

49. Great thread.

I'll post mines briefly:

* Screen for mental/psychological issues when recruiting officers. I know this may come across as discrimination against the mentally ill but I do believe some, if not all crooked cops, have anger management issues and lack of social skills to handle violate situations.

* Train for non-lethal methods. Taze suspects first if they do not comply instead of gunning them down. Only use lethal force if the suspect has a weapon and is going to attack.

* Train officers in verbal negotiation instead of going for force from the get go.

* Body cams and gimbles on the vehicle like you said in the OP.

* Only use militarized tools in states of emergency or terrorist attacks.

* Hire more diverse officers, especially in high-minority areas.

* Residency requirements. You must live in the town/city you police in, suggest that officers get to know their neighbors as well. This will also deter crime in those neighborhoods.

* Create partnerships between local police stations and the community to build trust between both entities. Trust equals civillians working with police to catch criminals and deter crime in the area.

* Fire officers who show aggressiveness during smaller scale runs like traffic stops, etc. This will weed out those that will become violent in highly violate situations.

* END THE WAR ON DRUGS. Make pot legal and tax the hell out of it!

I feel like if we can ease the corruption in law enforcement and stop with the drug wars, we can tackle other aspects that plaque black/minority communities such as gangs, black on black crime, the "no-snitch" rule, etc. Only then will black communities truly prosper and maybe we can rebuild the family units in the community along with trust between the community and law enforcement.

[LiberalElite]

50. I think

some kind of national task force should be formed with mandatory participation of police from all over the country. Piecemeal doesn't cut it. We have a Ferguson here and a Baltimore there, it's like the cops are operating in their own little echo chambers. They don't see what they're doing (to put it nicely). They don't get why it's wrong. Every day is a racist Groundhog Day in the U.S.A.

[procon]

51. FIRST change the punitive and iscriminary laws.

Being poor is not a crime.
Having mental health problems is not a crime.
Addiction is a medical problem, not a crime.
Being black is not a crime.
Trying to breathe is not a crime.
Funding for city hall shouldn't rely on fines and ticketing impoverished communities.
Drug laws are outdated and discriminatory.
Non violent crimes should not warrant jail time.
End the mandatory sentencing laws.

We must instutute modern reforms in every aspect of the public sector thare are based on current scientific and acedemic studies to improve the outcomes. Its not cost effective nor are any problems solved by the continued use of outdated policies that are largely based on punishment and retribution.

[lovemydog]

52. Minimum income for all.

Double the minimum wage.

End the drug war.

[Trekologer]

53. Technology can provide some help but local residents need to take the charge

There are technological solution to some problems. For instance, the "rough ride" that is suspected to have caused the fatal injuries to Gray could be prevented, or at least those responsible held accountable, by outfitting all police vehicles with devices which plug into the vehicles OBD-II diagnostic port and record how the vehicle is being driven--the same ones insurance companies give out to drivers looking for lower rates.

The local residents need to demand change. Peaceful protests and activism is a start but those need to be followed up with participation on election day. Elected officials need to be held accountable just as much as the police need to be. If citizens continue to be indifferent to their local elections, this is one of the results. For many local elections, the outcome could change from as little as a 100 vote swing so it isn't an insurmountable hurdle.

[DonCoquixote]

54. none of this will get solved

unless a POLICE CHIEF is fired. Why do I say that?

Because in any army, privates are a dime a dozen. They can be pressured to follow stupid orders, and if not, they can be replaced by those who will. Those who DO try to do the right thing also realize that as is, the hammer will fall on them, and not on the actual person with the power.

So, the Police Chiefs of various departments, like ferguson, like Baltimore, whose citie4s have had long festering, heavily documented violence, need to be called to account. Simply put, until a crowned head's career gets the guillotine, nobody, from the buck private trying to do a decent job, to the people afraid they will be the next dead body, will belive people are serious. It is not liulke our media cannto summon the documents if they chose to stop taking pics of Kim Kardashian.

[cherokeeprogressive]

55. I am going to compile these suggestions and make them available to everyone.

I'm going to send these to my rep and suggest they be used as a basis for a national standard for police forces.

Thanks to everyone for your input!
Chris

[lovemydog]

56. Immediate federal ban of 'rough riding'

and any other police procedures that treat human beings as chattel.

[backscatter712]

57. Quit hiring Klan cops.

There's lots of cops out there who are members of the KKK and other hate groups.

Sniff them all out, and summarily fire every single one of them. And blacklist them so they never work in law-enforcement ever again.

[AngryAmish]

61. REPARATIONS

[lumberjack_jeff]

63. Community policing - but that's a treatment of the symptoms.

The cops should have inherent affinity for the community they are patrolling. They should see those communities as whom they are there to protect, not adversaries.

People need resources (the lowest level of maslow's heirarchy) and to feel a sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose. It's hard to imagine living in Baltimore and feeling any of those things except through extralegal activity.

It's no coincidence that it's young men doing the rioting. American welfare policy is designed intentionally to not help them. Of an inner city couple who produce a child, she gets public assistance and he gets nothing - except a bill for the aid provided to mom. In many cases it makes little financial sense for him to take a job, even if one were available, due to that untenable mountain of government enforced debt.

They not only need jobs, but the possibility that those jobs will be profitable - otherwise a better option is dealing drugs.

[Orsino]

65. 1) Tax the fucking rich.

2) Fund the social safety net. Strengthen the economy by enabling all to partipate.

3) Fund law enforcement, to include raises for cops, but mainly to fund civilian oversight to protect human rights.

4) Get the fucking money out of politics to keep the police from becoming tools of the wealthy. This will probably take a Constitutional Amendment.

[snooper2]

66. Vote, show up for city council meetings, run for local office, get involved

[KittyWampus]

67. cameras on lapels and zero tolerance for steroid use. Review of lethal/excessive force cases

by an attorney who is outside the DA's office… and give THEM quotas to fill.

[EX500rider]

74. Step one might be to understand the numbers:

There are about 1,000,000 law enforcement officers in the US.

They arrest around 34,000 people every day, or around 1,000,000 a month or 12,408,899 a year. (2011 figures)

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested

If they use correct procedure and everything goes smoothly in 99.9% of the cases, that's still 124,088 cases a year where something goes wrong, or around 339 cases a day.

We can strive for 100% perfection in all arrests but I doubt we will ever get there. Not to say we shouldn't try but you are setting your self up for major disappointment if you expect it to happen.

[ananda]

75. The solution, while possibly complex in practice, is actually simple.

First and foremost, get big money and corporations out of politics.

Campaign finance reform is essential.

Then change the elections process so that there is no fraud
connected with machine or electronic tampering, and no voter
suppression of any kind.

With free and fair elections, more liberals will be elected, and with
them will come regulations and laws which will bring jobs and sanity
back to America, including fair taxation and social safety nets.

Only then will education and job opportunities open up for minorities
and the poor.

Yes, I say it: the POOR. It's the collective demonization of poverty
that is driving our police state, with racism as a component.

Take that out of the equation, and then things will change.

[brooklynite]

78. ...except that most of the problems are in urban centers...

...and most of the Mayors and Councils are Democratic already.

[ananda]

87. That is a bit of a straw man.

I never meant to say or imply that that Democrats are
all liberals.

Nor did I mean to say or imply that campaign finance
along with regulation and social justice was a strictly
Republican problem, although I would go so far as to
say that the Republicans, with the big money and
corporate interests that own them, have moved the
power system so far to the right that even many
Democrats have moved right as well, just maybe
not quite as far right.

Also, making this a strictly urban problem turns the
problem on its head in a faulty way. In fact, it would
be another conversation to discuss the reasons why
minorities live mostly in urban areas, and what happens
to them in rural or small town areas. But it would be
part of the same conversation in the light of the classism
and racism that drives segregation and the targeting of
Black males for killing or incarceration.

Thus my solution stands on its face because it is a human
one, inclusive and healing on so many levels. Get money
and corporate interests out of politics, level the economic
playing field for minorities, and buttress the social safety
net for everyone.

[ann---]

76. Every time there is a

case of police brutality IN ANY FORM TO ANY RACE OR GENDER (on video or not)- do NOT
put the cops involved on PAID leave. Suspend them without pay until the
investigation is over. You can bet your bippee that will make these bad
cops think twice before they rough up anyone else.

And - it will give the perception that the powers that be really DO care
about justice for those who are harmed by police.

[cherokeeprogressive]

77. Given a paragraph of its own in the OP. n/t

[marlakay]

79. Every new recruit should have to live with a poor or lower middle class black family

for a solid month in civilian clothes and shadow their life, see what it is like to live in their shoes.

And all police in longer should have a update training doing the same thing and unable to use any police knowledge to get out of situations, have to stand back and just observe.

No going home to better meals, etc. Stay with them 24/7 the whole month. If every policeman or woman did this for a solid month across the united states laws and rules and peoples minds would change.

[fredamae]

81. Mental health exams

mandated before hire and random checks.
A process of examination following all violent encounters.
Police Unions Power and influence must be examined and changed. For instance-No More Paid Adminstrative Leave while under investigation
Random drug testing after a baseline is established upon hire and following any incident involving violence, immediate testing, even on site.
Better training and that too must be ongoing.
Any criminal record must be a disqualifier.
Reduction of power to exercise unreasonable authority
Accountability with accompanying severe consequences.
Start seeing police as public servants as opposed to the "almighty judge, jury and executioners" they've been allowed to become.
Get rid of the Grand Jury process.
End the War on Drugs.
Citizens Police Review Board
A few of my thoughts and opinions.

[tenderfoot]

82. IQ tests for police recruits

eom

[whatthehey]

83. Well you didn't say politically feasible only so I'll try

I actually wanted to be a cop once long ago in the early 90s, but couldn't take the initial pay cut. Nobody can always get woulda-coulda right but I think I'd be embarrassed right now had I decided to go ahead. Anyway...

1) Exclude any previous mercenaries and strongly screen any previous military to ensure no "public = enemy" internalization has taken place. Recruit instead from universities, community organizations, even sports programs. And for Koresh's sake get rid of the bias against high-IQ scores.

2) Make any brutality claims subject to external review by an organization not beholden to the civil justice system in which cops participate (ironically, military JAG etc may be useful here). I am not so naive as to think cops don't need to use force at times, but the phrase "reasonable force" may be worth some serious consideration.

3) Shift civil liability from taxpayers to individual officer insurance, paid for by the city/state etc only to the average level of liability for that community. In other words higher liability cops pay more insurance personally. Actuaries are bright folks. If they think cop A is more of a liability than all other same-department cops, cop A should be paying the extra for a reason.

4) Reinstate community residency requirements for local patrols. Patrol West Baltimore, live in it, understand it. Come to think of it in denser communities, bring back foot patrols to interact with the locals more too.

5) Pass a federal law that any uniformed police activity can be filmed with impunity in all circumstances, and institute small but meaningful rewards for evidence of brutality, corruption or malfeasance leading to dismissal. Cheaper than $2500/car (there are an ungodly number of police cars). Again cops deal with a lot of scumbags. Expecting them to never raise their voice or weapons is fairyland nonsense. I just expect them not to keep, or even start, doing it when no longer needed.

6) There used to be protocols for escalation of force. If they still exist, they need some bigger teeth. Yes I realize cops work in high pressure split second scenarios and never know when concealed weapons are present, but they also have batons and tasers for a reason. Rodney King was undoubtedly a brutal overreaction, but even just a couple decades later, we know that would have been gunfire today.

7) May be convoluted, but I think germane. Switch nonviolent drug inmates with violent inmates. In other words incarcerate MORE quickly and for longer anyone using violence. Cops overreact to threats. Threats come from violent people. Threats to cops more than likely come from people with violent histories. The first punch someone throws is rarely at an armed cop. If fewer violent people were known to be walking free, cops would have less reason to be fearful and overrreact (and everyone else would be safer; I'd much rather share the proverbial dark alley with a meth head than an aggravated assault careerist).

8) Any officer hiding, failing to report, or participating in any malfeasance by other officers is equally guilty and equally punished. This will take a while to change the blue solidarity mindset but it, at least ostensibly, works in places like West Point, and the resulting solidarity of integrity that would eventually replace it will be much more powerful. Being a cop should mean something to be proud of, and cops should be the ones who care about this the most.



I don't like accusations = punishment. That would take criminals and people bent on mayhem (they do both exist) about 5 seconds to abuse into absurdity.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

84. Ban & test for steroids.

[lame54]

85. start with the academy's...

Only allow B students or higher

train to work with community and not just how to fight them

stop spending community money on old military hardware

periodic check for steroids

[TheSarcastinator]

86. burn the police unions to the ground and rebuild them

in a fashion that is more responsive to the community. Add mandatory steroid testing and always-on body cams, and you have a start.