My job was broken in to. They sent a detective. He looked around and told us there was basically zero chance he’d catch the guy.
I found a cigarette butt outside. He said “It could be anybody”. I said “nobody here smokes”. He said “even if it’s his, there’s little chance it’s a DNA match.”
To his credit, the detective took the cigarette butt and tested it. There was a DNA match to a guy living in our small town who’d been in jail three times for robbery meaning the cops knew exactly who he was and what he did for a living but weren’t doing anything to stop him.
When they went to his house they found everything of ours that he couldn’t sell.
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Detective doing his job, protecting capital.
Really mind blowing how few crimes are actually solved. I’ve had real world experience of being a robbery victim and there was absolutely no attempt at solving it.
Someone told me if you have a problem and call the police, now you have two problems.
I was robbed when I worked as a cashier. I literally did all the work and found the dudes name because he came in earlier and paid with a card and signed his name. Gave them his name and they didn’t care. Nothing was ever done, I still see the dude walking around frequently.
We had a guy come in for training. His first day. During lunch he left, slashed a tire on every car and smashed two windows.
We had him on tape and we had all his info because he was just hired.
Cops wouldn’t do shit about it. Didn’t even look for the guy.
Many years ago, before identity theft was a thing, my mom (who live with me), had our mail stolen. That day was the day that Oregon was sending out our “kicker checks”, those are refund checks from the Oregon Dept of Revenue, and also the day that my mom’s bank sent out her bank statement.
We found out because I got a letter from the Oregon Dept of Revenue that my kicker check was cashed at a different amount than it was issued. I did get a replacement, but I pointed out to the Oregon Dept of Revenue that the kicker check did have my social security number on it. They agreed and stated that will be the last year that will be a thing.
My mom fared worse, since she had a bank statement that was stolen. The thief went to an office supply store where they sold paper check templates and used the bank account number that the bank helpfully included in full on the bank statement, and printed out fake checks and wrote several at WalMart. To this day my mom is banned from writing checks there.
I never did get the police to care. Identity theft was not a thing at time. They flatly stated that they were not going to even write a report because I was getting a replacement check, so there was no crime.
That never did make sense. If my car gets stolen and the insurance company gets me another one, the thief, if caught, will get charged with something.
Cops will often not do jack shit if it means they have to actually get off their fat mattress and work.
Couple of years ago, I received a package from the FBI which contained a number of bank statements and DMV letters that apparently had been recovered in Florida, clear across the country from where I live. These were letters dated less than a month before.
Apparently the FBI were investigating some identity theft, and found thousands of people’s mail and other identification at this place in Florida. And then they sent back the material to the various victims. Luckily, I never found any fake accounts or anything in my name but that was pretty crazy.
So apparently the FBI are still doing some work…
Next time something like this happens, report it to USPSIS, they’re much more serious about investigating mail crimes (which this falls under since they stole your mail), and they don’t fuck around.
Yeah the dude who robbed me didn’t wear a mask and you could clearly see his face on the tape. They didn’t care.
I’m sorry that happened to you.
They’ve basically became untrained social workers who are terrible at their jobs. They spend lots of time dealing with mental illness and substance abuse issues and they think those can be solved with violence.
Not even that. Read the article. They spend 11% of their time responding to calls. The rest of the time they’re harassing people which are 50% of the time minorities.
they’re harassing people which are 50% of the time minorities.
That you got wrong, it’s way more than 50% minorities.
They’re a gang.
Full stop.
No, worse, they’re an organized crime syndicate.
They spend lots of time
dealingkilling people with mental illness and substance abuse issues and they think those can be solved with violence.Usually only if they aren’t white. If they’re mentally ill an white, they still might get roughed up and tasered, but they usually reserve the gun for darker skin tones.
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You forgot the gunshot. They love shooting defenseless people, especially if they’re anything but white.
Why not just automate traffic violations and remove 83% of police?
Some cities have been sued for doing that. You can’t face your accuser in court if your accuser is a computer.
That doesn’t sound right. The accuser is the state regardless, no?
what if your family member or friend was using your car? what if your car was stolen? also, some of those cameras will ticket for legal right on red.
they just catch plates and send a ticket in the mail to the registered owner. it’s not great. source - i live in a city with these, though state law now means the city can no longer enforce tickets. also, the idea of camera/computer generated rosters of law-breakers is unsettling.
If your car was reported stolen, then you document that and get the ticket canceled. I don’t see how the presence of a police officer changes anything about that.
I don’t have a problem with the owner getting a ticket if someone else was driving. I also, again, don’t see how that’s relevant. It’s not like the police officer is going to remember who was in the car.
The camera ticketing for something legal is a technical issue that should be fixed.
Sort of, the idea is that you can face the citing officer in court. Granted, all the officer has to do is lie and the judge is likely to side with them over a rando citizen, but that’s the intent of the law.
I don’t understand why that’s important. The officer is just a biological camera. They’re there to document what you did wrong.
Red light cameras, sure. It can be done fairly - not that it is everywhere.
Speed cameras just trap people new to an area. The people who live in an area learn to avoid them and thus they don’t stop habitual speeders who are a danger. Plus they can’t be everywhere.
The bias needs to be taken out of it. Police can’t seem to stop themselves from racial profiling. Its like a compulsion.
I used to drive truck over the road, and I can attest to the fact that those red light cameras can also be made very deliberately unfair. The city of Hannibal, Missouri had these cameras at the intersection of Highway 61 and Red Devil, at the bottom of a steep hill. About 1/5 of a mile up the hill south of the intersection was a pole with a sensor on it set to about 12’6". I observed that any time any vehicle over that height passed that sensor, the light would trip to red. And it was set at a distance that a loaded semi would be all but guaranteed to run that light. Those of us who traveled that corridor with any frequency knew the sensor was there, and would try to want other drivers over the CB, but a lot of drivers had stopped routinely using the CB by then, so the light proved quite lucrative. At least, until it started causing wrecks from the trucks jackknifing in the intersection in the winter. That setup ran for three or four years before the city was dragged into court over it and forced to remove the red light cameras, though it was done in such a way as to question the enforceability of the tickets and without ever directly acknowledging that the cameras were set up to entrap commercial vehicles.
Gridlock cameras can be added to red light cameras, also reducing congestion policing costs.
Speed cameras trap people new to an area.
Or they could just, not speed? And speed cameras can be everywhere. They cost up to $50k to deploy and collect to 2k+ fines per year (based in my location, this obviously varies wildly), so they run net positive. Rotating locations can also get after the habits of locals, though that’s the 50k cost, I’d guess statics are cheaper.
If immediate reduction is most important than habit changing over time (i.e. a school zone or highway transition) speed linked red lights can achieve the effect. Such to say, if you drive over the limit, the light turns red. This forces you to stop and pisses off everyone behind you, providing social pressure. These are only in the pilot stage, so I don’t know the real deployment costs.
Speed traps are called speed traps because the limit suddenly drops like 20-30 mph in a very short distance. Saying “just don’t speed” completely ignores how speed traps work and why they exist .
Just realised this is a US politics forum, my insights my not be useful.
Speed cameras in my region require at least one warming sign and a sign on the camera itself, yet they still catch people (myself included…)
The short distance limit dropping sounds like a failure in road design if cars aren’t naturally lowering speeds due to the changing streetscape.
Regardless, the point of enforcement (and the rules they informed) should be based on keeping roads safe, not “trapping” people. I’m sorry you have to go through that.
But I want to drive 65 in a 30 zone! It’s a conspiracy by the deep state agenda 21 liberal fascist police to prevent me from doing that!
/S
Here in L.I it definitely is not done fairly. 9/10 times the cameras are only in low income neighborhoods… It’s disgusting.
Over the past decade, “consistently less than half of all violent crime and less than twenty-five percent of all property crime were cleared…
The response to a car break in is always, just call your insurance company. Imagine if they took it seriously and used forensic tools. Most car breakins are done by a small number of the same people.
Tax collectors for the rich
Behind the Bastards did a six part special on the origins of the police called Behind the Police. It is very good, highly recommend.
I remember once my car got stolen. I reported it, and the police came to my house and accused me of stealing it. I was like “why the fuck would I do that.” Which they responded by threatening to make me take a polygraph test. When I was like “okay, fine, let’s do it” they decided to leave. I didn’t get my car back until it was in the impound, and I had to pay 200 dollars to get it back (?!?)
This whole experience is what made me truly realize that the police don’t do fuck all for working class people. They’re just there to take your money. Fuck those useless cops, and fuck the system that makes me pay when my car gets stolen.
As anarchist Allen Thornton observes, “Police aren’t in the protection business; they’re in the revenge business.” Forget about Batman driving around interrupting crimes in progress. Police patrol does not prevent crime or catch criminals. When police patrol was discontinued secretly and selectively in Kansas City neighborhoods, the crime rate stayed the same. Other research likewise finds that detective work, crime labs, etc. have no effect on the crime rate. But when neighbors get together to watch over each other and warn off would-be criminals, criminals try another neighborhood which is protected only by the police. The criminals know that they are in little danger there.
Here’s an article about the Kansas City experiment on Wikipedia.
I’ll never forget this woman I worked with a long time ago. She was in a clerical type of position, but she had an absolute shit-stain of a miserable scumbag for a husband that was actively dealing drugs in the community. She broke down and vented to me one day about the whole thing and I told her she really needs to report it to the police, and that she needs to really do it for her kids to get rid of the exposure they had to the drugs in the home.
She eventually willed up the courage to report it, and I helped her get info from the local sheriff’s dept and PD. They had a deputy and detective who headed up this team.
Long story short, she gave them everything. Dates, times, locations, and all the people to bust. She agreed to be a witness, and it was enough to take down a significant distribution ring. Nothing ever came of it. 5 years later her husband was arrested for a traffic infraction, and then he finally ended up in prison because he had ten pounds of cocaine, and 50 some pounds of meth in his vehicle. They never busted up the ring.
I remember the feeling, that the whole thing was just a dog and pony show. I was in my 20’s but I learned way back then that law enforcement is a silly joke. Cops don’t do shit for the working class.
Kind of hard fighting crime when they’re the ones starting said crime…
Police spend most of their day inserting themselves into the everyday lives of citizens who aren’t doing anything wrong.
I have a criminal record. Minor drug charges. I still get pulled over constantly, for zero reason, just so the cop can take a look and see if they approve of my hair clothes etc, and whether or not they wanna ruin my life…because they can, without provocation. Ever get slapped with a resisting arrest because the other charges weren’t gonna stick in court? Happens all the time.
Fuck cops.🖕
When i was a kid, I was weird and from a small town. I had no criminal record, gifted program at school, but I had a weird haircut and liked to walk to dunkin’ donuts late at night because after midnight their donuts were on sale. This was enough to convince the local cops that I was one of the bad kids and, obviously, on drugs. Any time they saw me, they would stop me and harass me. It was the 90s, so the police could do anything to anyone as long as they said “Where are the drugs?” while they did it. You’ll notice that nowadays the fashion seems to be to yell “stop resisting” or “gun” before they abuse private citizens without probable cause, but at the time is was “where are the drugs?” So, after a while of being stopped and harassed every time I left the house, I eventually got fed up and talked back to them. “Where are the drugs?” “The guy you’re ignoring while you fuck with me has them”. For that, I got my face busted off the hood of the cruiser a couple times before they let me go. They never found anything on me, because there never was anything on me, but being small town idiot cops they were sure that every time they didn’t find drugs it was because I was really good at hiding them.
Sorry that happened to you. The drugs are a systematic and bullshit pretense now to meddle in anyone’s lives they don’t like. It’s fucked.
I moved from a city, into a small town. The cops don’t like me round here. I get cuffed every stop.
They even cuffed my partner once, while yelling “stop resisting” like you weigh 150 more lbs than her bro. She ain’t doing shit.
Color me surpised.
The courts have ruled many times that the police have no duty to protect.
“To bully and oppress”
This article brought to you by “yet another thing we all already figured out years before the study.”
