Cincy Uprising

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 11:01 AM 4/12/01 -0700, jordan wrote:
>>That would just reflect poorly on you, your department, and ultimately
>>your Mayor: it would show clearly how little training you've had.  The
>>proper use of excessive force is something _can_ be learned and trained
>>for; there are agencies who do provide this kind of training to their
>>officers and you'll never see them "shooting first and asking questions
>>later" ... it's expensive and it takes time, but hey, I bet the Mayor
>>of Cincinatti now feels like he should have spent the money.
>>
>>The fact that many officers (and prison guards too) haven't received
>>the proper training to do their jobs is scary; it's not at all
>>rational.
>
>
>Then what do you think a proper proceduce would be in a situation when you
>know that:
>
>1.  there is significant probablity that a person you are
>approaching/apprehending may be armed
>2.  that person's behavior suggest that he/she may want to use a weapon.
>
>These are real-life situations,  Not long ago, 2 cops in MD wre shot to
>death while responding to a noise complaint.  I'm pretty sure that every PD
>in this country has something similar in their institutional memory.
>
>A larger point I'm trying to make is to move away from the trivial bitching
>about 'police brutality' and start examining the organizational/structural
>conditions of police work in this country.  A point often missed is that
>what looks like 'racial profiling' or 'police brutality' is in fact
>'collateral damage' - the price this society pays for the right to bear
>arms.  It would make sense to have some discussion whethere the benefit of
>that right is worth the price, and whether people who are benefiting are
>the same who are paying the price.
>
>wojtek

1.  Gun ownership can't explain racial profiling and police 
brutality, unless perhaps you are arguing that blacks are more likely 
to own guns than whites & that therefore cops fear blacks more than 
whites, but there is no evidence for this argument.

2.  While on the job, cops are more likely to die due to automobile & 
other accidents than to be shot to death:

*****   NLEOMF AND COPS REPORT ON THE NUMBER OF OFFICERS KILLED IN 
THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2000

There were 151 federal, state and local law enforcement officers 
killed in the line of duty during the past year, according to 
preliminary figures released on December 28th by the National Law 
Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and the Concerns of 
Police Survivors (COPS).  That is 13 percent higher than the 134 
officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in 1999.

Of the 151 officers who were killed during the past year, 51 were 
shot to death; 47 died in automobile accidents; 20 were struck by 
automobiles while outside of their own vehicles; eight died in 
motorcycle accidents; seven were killed in aircraft accidents; six 
succumbed to job-related illnesses; three drowned; three died in 
falls; two were stabbed; one died in a bicycle accident; one officer 
was killed in an accident involving a horse; one was beaten to death; 
and one officer died in a bomb-related incident.  Texas was the 
deadliest state in the nation over the past year for police officers 
with 15 fatalities; followed by California with 11; and Georgia and 
Tennessee with 10 each.  Six of the officers killed during the past 
year were women....

<http://www.napo.org/napo6.htm>   *****

*****   Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted 
in significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of 
workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous. Each year 
more than 60,000 workers die from job injuries and illnesses and 
another 6 million are injured.

In Oregon, 82 workers were killed on the job in 1999, according to 
preliminary data released by the Department of Consumer and Business 
Services. Nine more have died at work as of March 15, 2000.

The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28 - 
Workers Memorial Day....

<http://www.nwlaborpress.org/4-21-00Remember.html>   *****

3.  The best way to decrease racial profiling, police brutality, _& 
the number of cops killed while on the job_ is to decrease 
unemployment, to raise the median wage, & to police less.

Yoshie