The DOJ Report on Baltimore Police Department

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

I was just trying to justify reforming an ongoing police force vs. shutting it down and starting over.

I'm good with either.

[pknopp]

Cops Strip-Search Innocent Woman, Sodomize Her In Public — Over Broken Taillight

Read more at Cops Strip-Search Innocent Woman, Sodomize Her In Public -- Over Broken Taillight

This is rape.

[ChiGeekGuest]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day. She said that the DOJ report made it clear that the Baltimore City Police Department needs to be shut down and started over. Her point of view is that all crime in Baltimore is perpetrated by the police who are the only criminals. As a person who has had numerous run-ins with the city police - mostly as a person trying to report crime - I can tell you that, even as a white person, dealing with the police here is a challenge. You walk away from every confrontation (confrontations that they inevitably ginned up from nothing) with the feeling that you were lucky that you weren't arrested. The confrontation is usually because the police try to accuse you of fraud if you want them to take a report or otherwise report crime. And hey, reporting a crime isn't worth getting arrested over. They also raided my house without a warrant and found nothing.

None the less, as bad as the cops are, the criminals are more dangerous than the cops (even to black people) and we can't survive without the police even for a short period! I can't imagine that the majority of Baltimoreians feel safe enough that they think they can live here without a police force. There is certainly lots of room for improvement. I hope we get some.

I hope you Baltimoreians get the improvements needed, & as quickly as is feasible.

[Quick Enough]

Originally Posted by pknopp

Not me.....the question was simply asked who had been to Baltimore outside of the inner harbor. Was the question not understood?

Actually that was NOT the question.
"Quote:
Originally Posted by miu
How many of the people posting in this thread have actually spent quality time in Baltimore? And visiting the Inner Harbor, attending a convention or going to a Baltimore Orioles game doesn't count."

I am GLAD to hear you are NOT from Balt.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by jaguars010

cops generally target the poorest who have no means to defend themselves.

thats why a guy like freddie gray can end up dead in the back of a police van?

who cares?

your average conservative white male laughs when he reads stuff like this and could care less if gray was killed by cops or nots.

in baltimore it happens to be blacks who are the easiest targets.

a cop is a cop, and is blue before they are black. so i dismiss this dumb notion that black cops wouldnt go after blacks because they are black themselves.

but honestly, the conservative white male dismisses the report because 1. they dont care about blacks being treated unfairly by police and 2. because conservative white males do not like black people.

ITA with the post above.

I especially agree with the bold and red.

I also think people are....I can only say stupid if they believe that black police officers do not hold negative biases and racist views of other black people. There are many black Americans who suffer from an inferiority complex. I personally believe a majority do and that they are well represented within LE especially.

The "boys in blue" stick together regardless of their skin color for the most part in those PDs that have a horrible police culture such as what is seen in Baltimore and Ferguson and others PDs across the country. They overlook police abuse of the public. I also do agree that many cities who suffer with an extraordinary amount of crime like Baltimore and NOLA and Detroit and Flint have those issues in part because of the mistrust that citizens have of the police.

A previous poster mentioned he/she was white and that when they went to report things to police, they felt threatened with arrest. I have been in similar situations when I lived in Atlanta years ago. The police there frightened me more than criminals. You are legally allowed to protect yourself against criminals with force, but if you do so to police they can kill you and lie and people will believe it and even if they aren't believed, they will get away with it for the most part.

I do feel POOR people and especially people in poor neighborhoods are primary targets. This is because those people are felt to not have any political clout. People frequently mention on this forum how more whites are killed by police than blacks. That is true but I would bet and I'm not a betting person that the vast majority of those white people killed were poor white people. People don't care about poor whites just like they don't care about poor blacks or other minorities.