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Drusas OP ,

Seattle PD has been under a consent decree for the last decade for over-use of force and racist practices. The decree is about to end (and the PD is petitioning to end it early), and the problem has not improved. It's gotten worse.

There's all this talk here (I'm a Seattleite) of how the police is trying to regain trust or is frustrated at the lack of trust, but they don't take accountability for their actions.

10% of all homicides in Seattle are committed by the police. They don't show up when you report a shooting.

I wonder why we don't trust them.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/09/08/op-ed-walking-away-from-the-empty-promise-of-seattles-consent-decree/

https://komonews.com/news/local/north-seattle-suspicious-death-investigation-person-found-near-encampment-police-homicide-detectives-crime-murder-40th-street-4th-ave-motive-cause-of-death-shooting-stabbing-dead-victim-suspect#

RandAlThor ,

The blatant disregard for human life should be enough cause for them to be fired from a public post.

Drusas OP ,

We need national licensing for police. And an overhaul of training (which should be much, much longer and much less violence-oriented). We need to take military equipment out of their hands. We need to largely disarm them (firearms, not other, "less lethal"methods, necessarily), except for certain specialized officers, such as they do in England. Training requirements should be the same throughout the entire country. Repeated training should be required. Training on the actual law should be required (before they get their license to become a cop). Some sort of organization that provides serious oversight, which is not comprised of politicians or anybody related to the justice system in any way, should be required.

It's so easy for them to commit a crime in one jurisdiction and then just move a town over on the off chance that they lose their job over the crime they committed. And they never go to prison for the things they should (well, rarely), so we also need to get rid of qualified immunity. Which is a made-up concept invented by SCOTUS to begin with.

MonsterHighStan ,
@MonsterHighStan@kbin.social avatar

I agree completely with everything you've said. The way it is now, the police are pretty much just a legally protected gang. It doesn't feel like they're here to protect civilians at all. I just have one question - does it make sense to take guns away from cops when the US has a gun problem? In England there are significantly fewer guns, which is just one of several reasons why it works for the police there. I feel we would need significant overhaul to be able to get to the same point, and only after we did so could they start to build trust with the public again.

Drusas OP ,

Cops pull out guns on traffic stops. Talk about an escalation. I would be surprised if cops weren't much more likely to escalate to firearms than the suspect is.

Unaware7013 ,

They absolutely are. Hell, one of my most vivid memories is getting into my buddy's grandmother's jeep tracker at a hobby store parking lot, and a cop walked up and unholstered his gun to talk to a couple teenagers.

Our crime? Using a handicap stall while driving a car with a handicap placard in the license plate.

QHC ,
@QHC@kbin.social avatar

They can keep their guns if they pass mandatory training.

Most cops don't ever fire a weapon on duty over the course of their entire career, so most of them don't actually need to be armed all the time.

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