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Rotten apples or rotten barrel? - Why police forces are magnets for the wrong kind of men
(naomimurphy.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Men's Liberation
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Full disclosure: I am neither ACAB nor a bootlicker. I hold LEOs to the same ethical/behavioral standards as everyone else, neither higher nor lower.
Sexual violence is a subset of the larger problem: policing attracts aggressive, suspicious, sociopathic candidates. Same problem as political office attracting liars and grifters. Same as CEO positions attracting aggressive sociopaths. Plato warned us long ago that those that seek power are the last ones that should wield it.
IMO he police adverse selection is made worse when PDs go out of their way to hire recent combat vets, actively weed out those of above-average intelligence, and adopt increasingly-militarized tactics and culture.
Things will change when PDs start recruiting a different kinds of cop. PDs will do that when citizens demand a different kind of cop. Unfortunately, the citizens will tolerate (and even celebrate) bad cops as long as they are only abusing Those People..
LEOs can use lethal force on top of holding anyone in custody at any time for any reason. They should be held to a higher standard than almost everyone else, and not holding them to a high standard contributes to their rates of malicious behavior.
There is no separate law of deadly force for LEOs and citizenry, which is why the "f33red for muh life!!!!!" defense is so common among LEOs.
I respectfully disagree. IMO a higher standard just incentivizes them to hide misconduct rather than owning up to it. Again back to the Classics: "Plato taught that, however laudable justice may be, one cannot expect prodigies of virtue from ordinary people." <-- two Plato quotes in one day is not my usual method of discourse!
What alternative would you suggest? If they cannot hold them to a higher standard in fear of them lying about it, then how would you approach this sort of restructuring of the police with high quality cops?
If we just say it'll be a slow process, and we have to change how we hire, how will that actually be put into practice? Would the current police not fight to maintain their privilege? Instead of lying and covering up Mal practice, they would do the same in their hiring practices.
The only option to it in my view IS to hold them to a higher standard, and the attempts by the public to hold them to a higher standard IS the citizenry demanding a better PD.
The alternatives implied by my post:
I didn't mention it, but I also think that regular screening for steroids and similar might help rein in the most aggressive LEOs.
A normal standard would be an improvement; once they get there maybe we reevaluate holding them to a higher standard -- I'm open to that discussion.
We start to hire differently, and the force changes over time.
I disagree. If the basketball team can't jump 3ft vertically then moving the standard to 6ft isn't going to make them jump any higher or improve their playing. It's reform theater. wishful thinking.
While I have described a gradualist approach in response to your question, IMO the radical/sudden approach would be to do away with QI. Cops might be less willing to murder the citizenry if it actually blew back on them a little. The overwhelming bulk of all judgements against cops in the US are paid by the municipality. Not a great incentive for the officer to behave better.
Same for prosecutors, who have and even more egregious form of immunity. Don't get me started....