Next you can disclose how Teacher Union contracts advance their greed at the expense of students.....

@1 Hear, hear! Like you, I'm all for ensuring teachers get more than just a slap on the wrist and a few days off with pay for shooting unarmed students. I don't think you'll find much opposition to that, but good for you for exposing such an important issue to the light of day. Any contract the city has with the Teachers' Union that allows such behavior to go unpunished should be torn up just as quickly as the one they have with the Police Union.

If the Justice Department's consent decrees with over 20 PDs nationwide were more than a feel good gesture, police killings would have been tracked tracked long before now, and labor contracts that shield cops from public accountability for gratuitous acts of violence would be prohibited. Congress empowered the Justice Department to conduct police department investigations in 1994, but 22 years and hundreds of millions of dollars later later cops are still running rampant thanks to cop-protecting mayors like Ed Murray and laws that effectively shield cops from prosecution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investi…

Can't wait for the forthcoming posts by Ansel supporting ALEC legislation to make Washington a right to work state.

I know the vast majority of cops are good people. The vast majority disapprove of the actions of a few bad cops. I know it because I've been told so -- by people who have had a beer and watched a game with these very cops. More than once. So obviously, they would know.

Yet a majority of cops vote for contracts that protect the bad cops from punishment and keep them on the force.

@4, most unions don't defend members who shoot citizens.

@6

And most employers don't expect their employees to do anything other than run and hide when a lunatic brandishing a gun (or knife or bomb or baseball bat...) shows up at a work site.

Shooting citizens is right there in the job description, though we all prefer to forget that uncomfortable truth. Shooting non-citizens, incidentally, is the job of a solidier, not a police officer.

I'm all in favor of more police accountability, and soon goddamnit, but the observation that police officers aren't normal workers really doesn't move things forward.

@2
Well, actually we don't have a problem with teachers thinning the herd of the occasional troublemaker…

While we're on the topic, could anyone please tell us who has been killed by police without justification recently in this country?
We know it is a white-hot issue that gets tons of coverage but so far no one has been able to share with us the name of people "murdered" by police.
From the news coverage and protests etc etc we would assume there was a long list but so far nada.

Any help?

@8: Laquan McDonald.
To summarize: police officers in Chicago respond to reports of a guy walking around with a small knife. When they get there, McDonald slashes the tire of a police car. Since nobody's in immediate danger, the responding officers keep a safe distance and call for Taser backup, while following McDonald to keep an eye on him. McDonald is just slowly walking AWAY from police when one officer draws his gun and puts 16 bullets (the entire magazine) into him, killing him. Responding officers gave statements that they did not feel the use of deadly force was necessary, and (tellingly) none of the other officers around the shooter fired their weapons. Dashcam footage confirms that McDonald was moving AWAY from police (and not towards anyone) when he was shot, that the officer continued firing even after McDonald was lying on the ground, and that he did not point the knife (which was recovered at the scene in the closed position) at the officer who shot him. That footage was essentially buried for over a year, and after the tape was released, the officer was quickly charged with murder in the first degree, and is currently pending trial.

I'm not one to jump to conclusions when a police officer is accused of wrongdoing or excessive force, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming in this case.

@9

OK!
There's one.

Although we certainly would counsel folks that brandishing a weapon and refusing to obey lawful commands from the police is a risky game.

Any more?

@10: One, your argument was that there weren't any legitimate cases ("so far nada"). I showed you a counterexample. If you want to know more, well, you have a web browser (even if you don't know how to use it very well).
Two, you seem unfamiliar with the concept of "brandishing".

@13
Thank you.
Caine was just indicted so far, and hasn't gone to trial, but his case is certainly troubling.

@12
Oh Junior, you do love to argue, don't you.
We said no one had named any so far.
Thank you for playing.
You showed one case.
One is one too many but hardly justifies the sound and fury the issue has generated.
pansack found another.
Two is two too many, but still doesn't qualify as a national crisis.
but we are still tallying.

Anyone else?
We are serious.
Thank You in advance.

@15: "We said no one had named any so far."
Not actually what you said. Your words: "We know it is a white-hot issue that gets tons of coverage but so far no one has been able to share with us the name of people 'murdered' by police." (bolding mine)
The pretty clear implication, if people are UNABLE to show you examples, is that there aren't any. And amazingly enough, people being wrongfully killed by police officers still happens even if you're unaware of it. There's a lot of stuff like that; hell, we could devote whole libraries to happenings of which you're ignorant.
But now that you've been shown that there are such cases, your answer is that there aren't enough for it to be a national crisis. So, if you know so much, let's hear your take on the Sorites Paradox: how many recent cases of black men being wrongfully killed by peace officers does it take to justify it being a nationwide concern? What's the magic number?

@16
The pretty clear implication is that despite huge amounts of sensational coverage for several years most people can not name even a couple of cases of black men killed by actual police misconduct.
Why would that be?

Part 1
"Black Lives Matter" sensationalizes incidents where blacks are killed by white police officers, creating the (false) narrative that there is a systemic and pervasive killing of innocent blacks by racist white officers.
If one brands oneself as "Black Lives Matter" the public would fairly conclude that you are concerned about all black lives.

@17: I dunno, why would that be, Alleged?
Also, answer the question: how many recent cases of black men being wrongfully killed by peace officers does it take to justify it being a nationwide concern?

jytjd

jhtf

@19
Because there are only a couple in a year.

Evidently only a couple of blacks a year are murdered in cold blood by police.
Compared to 2500 a year murdered by black criminals.
Who kill blacks at 4-5X the rate other Americans are murdered.
Which should be a nationwide concern?
(hint: 2500 is 1000X a couple...)

Police killing people of color is far more than one or two. 2015 data offers details of 102 unarmed African American deaths, 1 in 3 killed by police were unarmed.
http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed…