In February 2019, a citizen called Seattle police after seeing a 74-year-old neighbor’s door ajar and “clutter” inside. The police conducted what they usually call a “welfare check,” as follows: 10 officers invaded his home with drawn guns, roughed him up, and handcuffed him. The man had committed no crime. He was taking a nap in his own home. In September 2021, more than 2½ years later, the city agreed to pay him $250,000. Read story here.
The following comment was posted on HorsesAss.org by “Elijah SFA McDotcom,” a frequent critic on that blog of police and their tactics, in response to another poster’s comment about qualified immunity, which often shields police and other government officials from lawsuits for misconduct:
The “law and order mindset” is as much a “liberal” shibboleth as it is a “conservative”. You’ve seen it on display here quite often.
Historically white Americans in general, and particularly older white Americans have regarded “more police” as producing “more law and order”. Generations of white Americans have had this idea bred into them by their communities, the media, elected officials, and the culture.
But two big transformations are afoot that may change all that. The first is that in general white voters, and older white voters are now declining in their political influences. But this is not geographically uniform. The second is the ubiquity of small, pocket sized high definition video recording equipment and BWC equipment which now display to voters every day that “more police” generally produces “more violence and civil disorder”.
Roger’s post at 18 is an excellent case in point. SPD, operating under an ongoing consent decree to which they continue to object and litigate, now respond to a report of “an open door and cluttered living room” with ten police, including one armed with a tactical response weapon. The effect of the consent decree has been a massive decade long expansion of SPD promoted ranks. The number of patrol and detective Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, and even Assistant Chiefs has exploded, in response to demands for better training and supervision. And police response managers have then responded by escalating nearly every form of response at the point of origin.
The reason nobody is doing anything about the homeless, unmedicated schizophrenic pooping in your hot tub is because, according to your “police professionals”, it now requires a tactical response squad of ten supported by aerial reconnaissance with armored car backup. Seattle is not alone in this regard. Police in general, even with the protection of QI, are responding to public pushback against the murder of unarmed citizens by police on camera by insisting that the only way for them to “safely” avoid such murders is by escalating every encounter, no matter how benign.
Given the history and the persistence of the “law and order” mindset it is going to take years for all people to first recognize that an alternative to policing is required.
And you should resist your own ignorant impulse to reduce this issue exclusively to police misconduct. QI applies to all state actors. It even applies to thuggish Arizona public school officials who order the strip searching of an innocent 13-year-old girl falsely suspected of smuggling Tylenol based on an anonymous tip.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-07-12/us-school-rebuked-for-ibuprofen-strip-search/438300
If the day ever comes that you find yourself face down on the pavement of a ferry dock, with a 125 pound Rottweiler latched onto your partially detached scrotum, watching your best teeth float away in a heavy rain, do think of this moment right here. But also think of it when one of your beloved horses dies on the highway after being “accidentally” released through a gate left open by a county engineering inspector.
This is the moment that you learned that you can’t sue over any of that.
Cross-posted from HorsesAss.org, 9/18/21, comment #47 (here).