tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post3279064850278945648..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone: The Police in America Are Becoming Illegitimateed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-65329296918443349952014-12-08T23:55:00.472-05:002014-12-08T23:55:00.472-05:00Kudos to Officer Joe. I imagine the answer to my 2...Kudos to Officer Joe. I imagine the answer to my 2nd question would be he would be fine. I don't want to establish a stereotype that all cops are racist. I imagine there are plenty of teachers who are insensitive to race issues. And you are absolutely correct about neighborhood policing. I compare that to neighborhood teaching which also is disappearing - the idea of a stable staff in schools that cover generations - schools should be a stabilizing force in a neighborhood and if there were neighborhood cops too there is some level of teamwork - and let's add some social workers and health care people - with the school as the central base.<br />ed notes onlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-5663985788425276112014-12-08T23:41:18.163-05:002014-12-08T23:41:18.163-05:00Yes, I am.
As for your other question- I really ...Yes, I am. <br /><br />As for your other question- I really couldn't say.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-72734490301170411682014-12-08T23:15:18.392-05:002014-12-08T23:15:18.392-05:00Can I ask you if you are black? Because if you are...Can I ask you if you are black? Because if you are and Officer Joe was there for you he is a very good guy. My question: If officer Joe was assigned to Bed-Stuy would he have had the same attitude?ed notes onlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-549638357253066112014-12-08T23:02:23.840-05:002014-12-08T23:02:23.840-05:00When I was a kid, living on Stillwell Avenue in Br...When I was a kid, living on Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn, I remember thinking of our local cop on the beat as a "good guy".<br /><br />We called him Officer Joe, and he was a fixture in our neighborhood. Everyone knew him, and he knew everyone- adults, storekeepers, families, the kids. <br /><br />In my particular case, I was found crying one day by Officer Joe, who wanted to know what was the matter. When visiting my aunt ( who lived two blocks away), I somehow got lost ( I was very young) on the way home. Officer Joe took me by the hand, comforted me, and took me home to my parents. Throughout my childhood and young adulthood, even when we moved to Long Island, I always remember that there were officers on the streets that knew the neighborhoods and the people that lived there.<br /><br />Seems times have changed. I live in Brooklyn, once again, as an adult, and NEVER see ANY cops walking the streets of my neighborhood. On the rare occasion that we do see police, they are usually speeding in a car to get to whatever it is they've been summoned to. <br /><br />Maybe this is what we need again, police officers assigned to regular walking beats, where they get to know the people and the neighborhood. This would put a human face on both the police officers, and the people in the neighborhoods they are patrolling.<br /><br />And, just might just improve relations between the police force of this vast city and the citizens that live in it.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-6493606171765242152014-12-08T12:05:54.925-05:002014-12-08T12:05:54.925-05:00Where I work, the practice of selling "loosie...Where I work, the practice of selling "loosies" is very common, particularly by the local bodega where we all get lunch. Many times, when I smoked, during my lunch break, I would be approached by people offering me a dollar for a cigarette. I would just give them one or two for free, and that was the end of it. They thanked me, actually still tried to give me the money, but I always declined. This is in what is considered to be a rough area of the South Bronx.<br /><br />Many of these so called "quality of life" crimes, such as selling loose cigarettes, were made illegal by the previous Mayoral administrations and City Council, not because these administrations cared so much about our health, but because they wanted the tax revenue, and to "clean up" the streets of people, such as Eric Garner. People like Garner, it could be argued, were bringing down the neighborhood, and taking away business from the stores that are selling the highly taxed cigarettes.<br /><br />Now, we have a so called "progressive" Mayor in office, and once again, we have a Police Commissioner that served under Mayor Guiliani. My question is this: If the present Mayor is so concerned about what happened to Mr. Garner, why doesn't he initiate a repeal of these "vice laws" that make selling loosies on the street a crime that apparently, so many police officers had to enforce, over and over again? <br /><br />The members of the police force are put in the untenable position of enforcing the laws, whether good or bad, each and every day. In the case of Eric Garner, why were so many police present to arrest someone for such a petty crime as selling loosies? Why couldn't the police in this case have been told by whoever was in charge of them to just tell Garner to move on, or write up some kind of violation ticket for repeated offenses? And, much focus has been put on Daniel Pantaleo, the officer that "choked" Garner to death. At any point, the other officers could have stopped him, as well as the Sargeant that was with him and the other officers. So, in my mind , ALL of those officers were equally culpable, and if the Grand Jury had decided to indict, ALL should have been indicted.<br /><br />In my opinion, rather than putting on a show of "retraining" the NYPD, what has to happen now is that the Mayor should be rethinking the policies of what constitutes a serious enough "crime" in these so called "hot spots" that so many police officers were assigned to arrest a man,just for selling loose cigarettes on the streets. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-66122434327187125622014-12-07T14:35:25.524-05:002014-12-07T14:35:25.524-05:00At the risk of writing the obvious, The Rolling St...At the risk of writing the obvious, The Rolling Stone has become illegitimate. <br />This is not to say Matt Taibbi is quite so dishonest as the Rolling Stone writer who recently penned the UVA rape hoax. Or would Matt object to painting with such a broad brush?<br />It seems the media is mighty quick to accept and trumpet reports that appear to reinforce their own views on race, class and gender. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-29993158123664971502014-12-07T08:56:50.735-05:002014-12-07T08:56:50.735-05:00I like Taibbi, but he's still missing a piece ...I like Taibbi, but he's still missing a piece of the toxic puzzle. You know the trope of the gruff, tough but fair teacher / drill sergeant / cop who doesn't tolerate sloppiness, but recognises and rewards excellence even in the misfit that no one else respects? That's what's missing. The police effort in hot spots is all one sided - enforce authority. They ARE the boss of you and you WILL kneel before that authority: literally. Except for shots fired, I pretty much don't call the police, because 1) they take forever to come to a place 'like that' and 2) they may or may not take a report but I have never seen action taken because of a police report. In summary: the police don't help us, ever.<br /><br />There's no 'tough but fair' here. There's plenty of tough, but no 'fair.' Is it any wonder that when someone gets knifed in a club with a hundred people present not one single person has a statement for the police? The police don't represent fairness or justice here. Mr Garner spent enough time on the street that police hassled him more than once. This means the police interacted with him more than once. Did even police officer ever, even once, converse with Mr Garner? Ask about his family, his cat, show him photos of his own funny dog; did any officer ever treat him like he'd treat a fellow officer? A fellow human being?<br /><br />What's it like, to think of the police as the good guys, come to help?Buckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17834360422359513050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-3315447075738712592014-12-06T23:06:40.792-05:002014-12-06T23:06:40.792-05:00Where I work, heroin and cocaine are readily avail...Where I work, heroin and cocaine are readily available. There are plenty of gangs for young people to join for extracurricular activity. Where is the outrage? Criminal pursuits that are profitable are overlooked in order to focus on petty offenses.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com