You Will Be Surprised Who the Outside Agitators Really Are in Baltimore

[ghostsinthemachine]

On Monday, the country watched as a band of outside agitators descended on the streets of Baltimore, attacked locals with blunt force, intimidated innocent bystanders, and even threw rocks at native residents. Every day, these gun-toting rogues come from as far as New Jersey and Pennsylvania to intimidate the good people of Baltimore, forcing communities to cower under the threat of violence. The agitators are known for their menacing dark blue garb, hostile behavior and gangland-style codes of secrecy and silence. Though many of these ruffians have attempted to conceal their identities from their victims, they can be easily spotted by the badges that signify membership in the widely feared Baltimore Police Department.


http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/you-will-be-surprised-who-outside-agitators-really-are-baltimore

[bravenak]

1. Cops start riots. It's just a part of the job.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. I would like to know how many of these LEOs

are prior Iraq war vets, and if they see the community that they police as the enemy.

Seems that way. I had one run in w/ a LEO over two burnt out tail lights. I didn't know they were out, nobody told me, and the LEO that was too close behind me nearly hit me.

He was already pissed about something and wanted to make my life hell for a few minutes.

[bravenak]

5. I think it's a thing now, hiring soldiers as cops.

Probably why so many see civilians as the enemy. I got a gun pulled on me for a taillight, myself. Scariest shit ever. But, I was wearing a hoodie so I'm sure he felt like his life was in danger. I screamed until he put it away.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. And you're in Alaska?

Are LEOs just fucked up everywhere?

Power without much oversight.

[bravenak]

7. Yep.

I watched them shoot a guy on Hyder in his truck, then 'find' a hidden gun that justified the kill. Black guy. I think only me and the neighborhood addicts even noticed. They did it at my local grocery store too. Woke a guy (native dude)up who was sleeping in the car and startled him. They got scared so they shot him and then 'found' a gun later on. We have lots of guns here. They find them all the time. They shot a guy (samoan dude)holding a bat in his own yard once. And a white dude, but he was holding a gun, in his own yard. It's everywhere. I bet if they ever shot me they'd 'find' a gun.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. It makes me wonder how many Walter Scotts

there have been, or will be, at the hands of our wonderful LEOs?

Sad.

[bravenak]

9. Oh, hell, there have been thousands.

You should have seen the beating they gave out when i was growing up in LA. Beat the shit out of truant kids, and that was just the truant officers. The real cops liked to beat gang members up and rob them and drop them off in enemy territory. Usually they would get a pass through because cops did that all the time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Actually we have looked at the data

and hiring soldiers is not a thing now. The highest percentage is 30 percent. And out of that 30 percent, not all come from combat arms either.

The problem in my view is that a 21 year old, with a high school degree, can join any police department assuming that they can pass all the background checks.

Here is what is a feature, not a bug of the system.

If you have had any contact with law enforcement in your youth (how many african american men are in the Gang database for example and they do not know about it), they will not be hired. They will not make it beyond the first screen, in fact. So getting minority officers is getting harder and harder.

That is a feature.

Now here is one that is rarely spoken off, the actual former troops have a problem with the cool kids who never served and want to use the cool toys, well because. This is something I have heard from a few officers off the damn record. There is also a tension, because the former troops read the dang constitution and the first amendment, and tend to be far more mature than the 21 year old with a HS diploma. They also tend to be a lot less gung ho, and there is a lot of tension inside departments becuase of that.

What we have a problem with is police culture though.

Now that does not mean every veteran will be a better police officer, but they are far from the majority in any given police department. Perhaps the exception are very small towns where people serve as a matter of course.

[bravenak]

11. Very interesting.

I'm for the idea that police should have a college degree or relevant work experience of four years at least. And the psychological and other testing needs to be looked at.
If you look at how policing began in the USA, the problem would be glaringly obvious. In the south they had slave patrols which we just used to keep blacks in their place for the most part. they still act like it's their job to harrass black folks. Oh, and the poor and others who society despises.
We need a new system.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. We need to change a lot of stuff

and deep reforms are in order. But the slave patrols are not the only origin of police n the US. The police in the North has a different origin, as well as the west. In the north the origin was actually modelled after the London Police and a professional force.

What started in the 1990s and jelled after 911 is a police force, nationally, that sees itself as combat troops. This did not happen because of military veterans. This started earlier.

I recommend reading Rise of the Warrior Cop. It will be an eye opening book.

http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americas/dp/1610394577

And I partly blame the DOJ and the war on drugs for it.

[bravenak]

13. Yep. You're right.

I only mentioned the south because that's where my folks come out of and they had stories about the police being the KKK simultaneously.
I agree, there are a myriad of things to blame. I blame the drug war for the expanding prison population of black men. It gave cause to harass, no probable cause needed.
Thanks for the link. I hope I get to it, so many books backed up that I'm supposed to be reading. Sigh. I love reading but there are too many good books these days.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Look on the bright side, your list does not include

budgets, and books on infrastructure. I keep trying to finish that material since that is my other passion. And for the most part none covers infrastructure, It is not sexy, I s'pose. Budgets are a sure cure for insomnia though.

[bravenak]

19. Blech. Budgets and infrastructure...

My eyes would glaze over and I'd go back to playing Candy Crush.
I'm trying to get back into school mode so I can go back to college this fall.
I was thinking about journalism but if I have to read budgets, idk. So boring. I used to work in accounting and it bored me to death.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Most reporters who report on them

don't read them. We have found that out. But neither do the people who should

[ghostsinthemachine]

2. job security

overtime pay,hazardous duty pay, more officers, more funding...all avicious circle. The fact that the cops do not live in the area, and are policing a community, and the people of that community when they have no other connection is wrong.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Point blank

The police started this riot.

[Eleanors38]

14. "Outside agitators." Used to hear that from George Wallace & Ross Barnett.

[heaven05]

15. Man...sigh

what a joke this 'democracy' with it's 'free press' has become.

[daredtowork]

18. The months of "Berkeley Protests" started with over zealous police tear gassing. nt

[Capt. Obvious]

21. Geraldo Rivera is an outside agitator.