Avoiding protests (move, title, office)

[Blue Shift]

All,

In Baltimore, after the Freddie Gray death...

a curious thing happened to its police force: officers suddenly seemed to stop noticing crime.

Police officers reported seeing fewer drug dealers on street corners. They encountered fewer people who had open arrest warrants. Police questioned fewer people on the street. They stopped fewer cars.

In the space of just a few days in spring 2015 – as Baltimore faced a wave of rioting after Freddie Gray, a black man, died from injuries he suffered in the back of a police van – officers in nearly every part of the city appeared to turn a blind eye to everyday violations. They still answered calls for help. But the number of potential violations they reported seeing themselves dropped by nearly half. It has largely stayed that way ever since.

“What officers are doing is they’re just driving looking forward. They’ve got horse blinders on,” says Kevin Forrester, a retired Baltimore detective.

The surge of shootings and killings that followed has left Baltimore easily the deadliest large city in the United States. Its murder rate reached an all-time high last year; 342 people were killed. The number of shootings in some neighborhoods has more than tripled. One man was shot to death steps from a police station. Another was killed driving in a funeral procession.

“In all candor, officers are not as aggressive as they once were, pre-2015. It’s just that fact.”

What's happening in Baltimore offers a view of the possible costs of a remarkable national reckoning over how police officers have treated minorities.

Food for thought.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by Blue Shift

All,

In Baltimore, after the Freddie Gray death...



Food for thought.

There’s always a potential...but one can look at it another way...people are being harassed less, fewer false arrests are taking people away from their children and families and the uptick in violence, while tragic, is more acceptable to the community than the over oppression prior and may level out or decline when the communities recover fully. The answer isn’t always more police and more arrests.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Blue Shift

All,

In Baltimore, after the Freddie Gray death...

Food for thought.

Interesting chart. Seems crime skyrocketed and then is back to its normal amount for Baltimore. Sure is a lot of crime down that way.

Regardless, there is no simple answer to any of it. Human nature is to self-preserve and if you are in areas with high crime, you are going to act differently than in an area with low crime. Just human nature and you can't really fix that part of the puzzle for police. What you can do is try and fix the crime problem with youth programs and showing young people a better life. This has been going on all my life and I am not young. Overall, things are better than in the 80's though. At least it seems like they are.

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

There’s always a potential...but one can look at it another way...people are being harassed less, fewer false arrests are taking people away from their children and families and the uptick in violence, while tragic, is more acceptable to the community than the over oppression prior and may level out or decline when the communities recover fully. The answer isn’t always more police and more arrests.

Sad that drive bys and murder in general are acceptable. They wouldn't be in my neighborhood.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Sad that drive bys and murder in general are acceptable. They wouldn't be in my neighborhood.

Would police ruffing up youths trying to get home through shortcutting through lawns be ok. I mean, they look suspicious. Or pulling over neighbors and throwing them in jail because they’re acting suspicious by sitting out front of a friends house idling? What level of police abuse would you accept to prevent the odd bout of violence?

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Would police ruffing up youths trying to get home through shortcutting through lawns be ok. I mean, they look suspicious. Or pulling over neighbors and throwing them in jail because they’re acting suspicious by sitting out front of a friends house idling? What level of police abuse would you accept to prevent the odd bout of violence?

Shortcutting through lawns? That's just not looking suspicious, that's called trespassing.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Sad that drive bys and murder in general are acceptable. They wouldn't be in my neighborhood.

Exactly this.

Just chalk it up to misunderstood youth that didn’t know any better.

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Exactly this.

Just chalk it up to misunderstood youth that didn’t know any better.

You're privileged if you think that drive-bys are somehow an unacceptable part of a neighborhood. </sarcasm>

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

Shortcutting through lawns? That's just not looking suspicious, that's called trespassing.

How horrid...round’em up and throw them in slammer...

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

How horrid...round’em up and throw them in slammer...

Jesus... I'm not advocating a beat-down of these kids.
But if its a recurring problem - would you want kids trespassing on your property?
If you ask them once to please not do so, and it continues - what would you do??

This is the damn problem with our society today - such polarized, binary choices.

Should police brutality be tolerated? No.
Should trespassing be tolerated? No.