Politics Minneapolis Police Incident and Protests

As some may know, i work for a large financial institution that is based out of Minneapolis. Just had an email sent out by the CEO to the entire company talking about George Floyd, the black man killed by Minneapolis PD on Monday. Yes, the email is a little fluffy. But the fact that he was willing to even mention it, I'm impressed by.

"I'm trying to find the right words to tell our entire team, and especially people of color, that I helieve their lives matter. That while I have been fortunate to never experience the threats, fear, and helplessness that comes with being oppressed, I understand the anger, shock, and need for hope.

We talk about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a society, but it is hard to say progress is being made when these are the headlines dominating the news. We have to do better, and I believe we can start right here at the bank."

On a side note, I'm blown away by these fucking departments killing people. Especially minorities. I was a trooper for four years, and I am so glad that my agency did not teach or support many of these tactics and tools that other agencies are using. I would watch these youtube videos and say "what the hell were they doing?" I was just very fortunate that our agency taught that we were accountable for every bullet. That the use of force was a continuum, and you could go back down in force as the situation changed.
Once I had a city pd helping me on a hit and run, abandoned car and fled the scene. Found the guy still drunk at his house. As we started to take the guy into custody, the drunk slapped at the pd's hands. He looked at him very seriously and said "please don't do that again." We still had to force his arms together to cuff them, but he did not strike out again. I asked the other officer why he did not want to press charges for his hands being slapped. He explained it was only his hands, he was not hurt, it was one time, and the guy was drunk. If he had been hurt or in actual fear, it would have been different. But he gave the guy a chance to not make it worse, and he didn't. I was impressed with his restraint reasoning. He wasn't just going to hang more paper on the guy because he could. That is policing. That is using but not abusing police powers.

 

I like the fact the police chief (?) fired four of the officers. No blue shield provided by him.

Hopefully the process of resolving this will play out fairly for everyone without the usual posturing.

 

And more video is being located and shown.

 

The issue so often is that because they already have their POST certification, another department will often hire them. POST takes typically 6-7 months of training. My department claimed we cost around 95k to be trained in our internal state academy. A trained officer, even a shitty one, can often find another department that needs manpower and is short on time and budget. Some crappy little city that runs speed enforcement on their two miles of thru highway and brings in 15% of the city's budget

 

The whole situation is bad. then you add the protests and it makes it worse

 

Will the dstrict attorney pursue charges against the officers, namely the one kneeling on his neck?

If so, will he actually try for a conviction? As in charge him with something for which he could be found guilty?

From what I've seen some DAs avoid sending people to jail by over charging them. For example, in this case a charge of premeditated murder might sound good, but getting a conviction for PM would be nearly impossible.

And some DAs huff & puff in front of the cameras, but don't pursue the case as thoroughly as they could AND should.

I recognize that LEOs have stressful jobs that most outsiders will never fully understand.

I also get disgusted by the blue shield that always/almost always is put up. Here in Houston the leader of the patrolmen's union gets in front of the camera and demands a fair investigation, while slamming the idea of independent investigators and a special (outsider) prosecutor.

 

Absolutely.

Threads about similar events have turned into heated discussions/arguments over proper prosecution verses improper persecution of LEOs.

 

TBH that's a can of worms I'll have to think about. Perhaps @omega would be the person to ask?

Would the limited discussion be worth the lingering hard feelings? Some topics can make agreeing to disagree nearly impossible. Been there, done that, still fresh in my memory.

 

Well i started one over here since its not pointless announcments. no idea how to move the comments over i guess thats a mods job.

 

i understand protesting. i fully get it. but can someone help me understand what the point of burning buildings and throwing shopping carts at police cars is...

 

Do you mean the issue in Minneapolis, Minnesota?

If yes, a thread title change would help, as would adding the comments from Pointless Announcements.

 

I'll ask a dumb question...


Why are people blaming trump??

Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk

 

I'm going to need the laptop for this one. Pecking out comments, jumping in & out of the thread to research, and no links to pertinent info, won't cut it (for me).

 

Lets just say it got real rough here last night. it started as a peaceful protest then it ended up with looting, setting cars on fire, and it got way outta control. they fucked up the CNN center, the college football hall of fame, and numerous business and hotels.

i understand protesting but this was a little ridiculous to me.

 

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