If there are no bad cops, then there are no good ones either.

Filed in National by on December 22, 2014

They want to pretend that all the protests against police brutality and police murder were directed at all police, calling for the death of police officers in response to the murder of two black men in Missouri and New York. They want to pretend that Mayor De Blasio and President Obama, in legitimatizing the concerns of the protesters by speaking to their concerns, also called for the death of police.

The have to pretend all that because they never want to be questioned or criticized, even when one of them does wrong. And any and all questions or criticism of bad cop behavior is taken as a direct attack on all cops, the good ones and the bad. Perhaps because in their mind there is no good or bad behavior. There is only police behavior, and that cannot be good or bad. Perhaps whatever they do is to be considered right and just for the simple reason that it was a police officer doing it.

That is fascism.

And it is the only thing I can think of to explain the outrageous overreaction of a few on the right to the horrible and evil murder of two police officers in Brooklyn this weekend. NYPD Union President Pat Lynch and Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani went out of their way to directly blame President Obama and Mayor de Blasio for the murder of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. There was absolutely no mention of any blame being directed towards the evil police officer who murdered Eric Gardner. So that means protesting bad cop behavior is bad, and responsible for murder; while actually murdering an unarmed man selling untaxed cigarettes is good. That is the only conclusion I can come to.

The Slate’s Jamelle Bouie:

Despite what these police organizations and their allies allege, there isn’t an anti-police movement in this country, or at least, none of any significance.

The people demonstrating for Eric Garner and Michael Brown aren’t against police, they are for better policing. They want departments to treat their communities with respect, and they want accountability for officers who kill their neighbors without justification. When criminals kill law-abiding citizens, they’re punished. When criminals kill cops, they’re punished. But when cops kill citizens, the system breaks down and no one is held accountable. That is what people are protesting.

The idea that citizens can’t criticize police—that free speech excludes scrutiny of state violence—is disturbing. Since, if free speech doesn’t include the right to challenge the official use of force, then it isn’t really free speech.

Until every good police officer in this country stands up and denounces Pat Lynch and Rudy Giuliani as not speaking for them, I will assume that they do speak for them, and thus I will assume that they share this police can do no wrong ever mindset. And thus I will assume that there are no good police officers left in this country.

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  1. pandora says:

    #NotAllCops is very much like #NotAllMen

    It’s a power structure. Whenever those without power question certain behavior they are told to treat those with power as individuals – and must always add a disclaimer.

    Meanwhile, no such disclaimer is applied to people of color, women, Muslims, gays, Jews, etc.. These groups are treated as a monolith where one member’s words are applied to everyone in that group.

    Demanding to be treated as an individual is a form of privilege.

  2. Dorian Gray says:

    I think about that famous clip from the Frost/Nixon interviews all the time. Obviously after the torture report came out because it’s the exact same rationale…

    The post here summarizes the issue pretty well I think. If the police kill somebody there’s always an excuse. I don’t hear any cops in the NYPD saying that the police who murdered Eric Garner should be arrested, tried and convicted. Because when police do it then somehow it isn’t illegal.

    Here’s a question. Do any of you think Giuliani even considers the negative consequences of something like stop and frisk. Not give any significant weight to the negative mind you, simply publically even admit that there are negative consequences. Perhaps he has, but I’ve never heard it. Does anyone find that odd?

    I find the cops equally at fault. Not just the “bad cops” but all cops because to date none of them have stepped up and said the obvious. Pantaleo murdered Garner. We saw it with our own eyes. Are we suppose to just say, well, secret grand jury said that’s cool so let’s just forget it?

    I also find Saturday’s assassin at fault clearly. He was a deranged lunatic. There’s no excuse for cold-blooded assassination. These patrolmen had families…

    Anyone who takes sides in this I think is a wrong-headed partisan. There are no innocent sides. This is a gang war. I don’t take sides in mafioso battles and I don’t take sides here. I just understand that nasty gangster tactics are usually met with nasty gangster tactics in reply.

    But let’s not forgot that the police have all the political power and the mechanisms of the criminal justice machine behind them. The cops could be humble. They could take a hard look at their tactics and attitude… but this is apparently beyond them.

  3. Delaware Dem says:

    Exactly Dorian. If this now becomes a partisan, Republican/Democrat issue, then I am sure a Second Civil War is inevitable.

  4. Jason330 says:

    “Do any of you think Giuliani even considers the negative consequences of something like stop and frisk?”

    We are in an age of official lawlessness. For Banks, governments and agents of the government, there is no law – not even the law of human decency. It is all related. Fraudulent grand juries, the shambolic invasion of Iraq, torture, risk free derivatives trading. The apex predators in our society have been given free reign.

  5. Dorian Gray says:

    Pandora makes a great point. “Good cops” want not to be profiled as brutal, fascist stormtroopers, but actual police tactics make no such distiniction for the individual on the street. It’s an obvious double standard that I suppose we’re just to ignore somehow…

    When the Police Union calls for Pantaleo to be arrested and tried for homicide we can talk about who’s on the right side of what. Right now, for me, they’re all on the bad side side.

  6. pandora says:

    Agreed, Dorian. This is exactly like a gang war, and if it isn’t diffused there will be more innocent casualties. It’s frightening how this is escalating. I would think that people trained to deal with the public should make the first move.

  7. donviti says:

    This probably wouldn’t be happening if there wasn’t a union. Hopefully my conservative friends (peers) will join me in calling for this bunch of union thugs to be disbanded. They’ve outlived their utility.

  8. pandora says:

    As far as Guiliani, have we forgotten

    Thousands of off-duty police officers thronged around City Hall yesterday, swarming through police barricades to rally on the steps of the hall and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour in the most unruly and angry police demonstration in recent memory.

    The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.

    While the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins’s proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout — estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters — and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.

    “He never supports us on anything,” said Officer Tara Fanning of the Midtown South Precinct, echoing the view of many in the crowd. “A cop shoots someone with a gun who’s a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family.” Dinkins Denounces Protest

    Mayor Dinkins, who was not at City Hall during the demonstration, denounced the protest as “bordering on hooliganism” and said he held the P.B.A. president, Phil Caruso, responsible for what happened. He accused Mr. Caruso of inciting his members’ passions and suggested the union leader was motivated in part by contract negotiations.

    The Mayor also assailed Rudolph W. Giuliani, the probable Republican mayoral candidate, who spoke out against the Mayor at the union rally. Mr. Dinkins said Mr. Giuliani had egged on the protest irresponsibly for political reasons. “He’s clearly, clearly an opportunist,” Mr. Dinkins said. “He’s seizing upon a fragile circumstance in our city for his own political gain.”

    This crap isn’t new. We have always had different rules for different people.

  9. donviti says:

    Jason, but we aren’t in an age of lawlessness. These are laws they are enforcing. Stop and Frisk? Law.
    Arizona SB29? Law
    The supreme court said you can be wrongfully stopped by a police officer for a made up infraction.

    The laws are being created and upheld. It’s not lawlessness. It’s oppression, legalized

  10. Geezer says:

    Funny how conservatives demand accountability from teachers and attack the teachers’ unions every day, but make no similar claims or demands from police and their unions, despite clearly preferential treatment.

  11. donviti says:

    You know if only the good muslims would tell the bad muslims to stop strapping bombs to their childrens chest.

    If only the good blacks would tell the thugs to stop looting, stay married and not have kids out of wedlock

    if only the good cops would dime out the bad cops we wouldn’t have this problem

  12. Dorian Gray says:

    Also remember the cops are at “war”, right? That’s what they told us. They’ve repeated it over and over and over and over. War on drugs, war on crime, war on terror… are they surprised that these law enforcement labeled so-called “wars” have turned into a, you know, war.

  13. donviti says:

    you forgot war on Christmas

  14. Dorian Gray says:

    True. But only like four characters on Fox News appear to be fighting that one. The weird old white guy and a few of the blonde women ones. Personally, I’m holding Rudolph and Donner in my basement in stress positions as enemy combatants.

  15. Rusty Dils says:

    There is a big difference between speaking out in support of protestors, and “race baiting”. The “race baiting” that has been running rampant during the “Obama years” is an attempt to help the democratic party retain power. The downside is, that it does tend to put targets on peoples backs. When I was a seven year old kid, I was sitting in my back yard with a few friends and my 4 year old little brother. We were giving one of our friends a hard time, we were just teasing him, and we said we were going to pick up the water sprinkler and hit him over the head with it. We knew we were just teasing him, but my 4 year old little brother did not understand that we were just teasing him, so he picked up the cast iron lawn sprinkler and whacked our friend over the head with it splitting his head open. My Dad happen to come home from work at exactly that instant, and whipped the tar out of my little brother. The point is, we did not think we were causing any harm teasing our friend about hitting him over the head with a sprinkler, but someone who does not fully understand that we were just saying that to get a rise, could and did take it the wrong way, (my little brother). Fortunately in that case, my friend ended up being Ok. The same thing happens with race baiting, most liberals know the real reason they do it is to just to trick the republicans into responding, and hence hoping that the end result makes the republicans look racist. (Even though the liberals really know that republicans are not any more racist than they are). However, during this process, there are plenty of people around the country who think the liberals actually know what they are talking about, and hence decide to take action in their own way, which puts more and more peoples lives at risk, but, as I have said before, liberals are very selfish, and just don’t care about the consequences of their actions.

  16. Delaware Dem says:

    What. The Fuck. is Race Baiting?

    I think it is calling out racism and making the racist feel bad, when the racist does not want to feel bad and wants to still be racist, and then cries “Race baiting!!!!”

    The literal definition of Race Baiting is to bait you into doing something racist. Well, guess what. No one was baited or tricked into doing anything racist. They were racist to begin with, and they did or said or wrote something racist, and got called out on it.

  17. Donviti says:

    Rusty pickles was beaten as a kid by a very angry and abusive father is what I got out of that comment. 4 years old and his brother was beaten to shit because of his stupid brother. Hell of an admission that’s for sure.

    I do not know if his father was a cop. If so, it would explain his anger at liberals

  18. liberalgeek says:

    At the risk of feeding Rusty, does such a thing apply to people like this?

  19. Dorian Gray says:

    Rusty is an expert about who liberals are and what they think.

    Joking aside… whenever an idiot says liberals are this or that or liberals think such and such… I know she or he doesn’t know anything.

    Race baiting! Hahahaha… Dils is stuck in the Reagan era.

  20. pandora says:

    And in the other thread Dave said pretty much the same thing Rusty did about liberals.

    As far as LG’s picture… that white guy doesn’t represent white people. He’s an individual and must be treated as such.

  21. liberalgeek says:

    I’m waiting for “white leaders” to denounce him.

  22. Delaware Dem says:

    I have denounced him repeatedly. But I don’t consider myself a “white leader.”

  23. Dorian Gray says:

    The Dave and Rusty show would be great on Fox News. Two buffoonish cartoon characters prattling on about “liberals.” All their personal anecdotes and folky wisdom. The more I consider it the funnier it gets. Race baiting! I still can’t believe how funny that is. So great… Anymore lessons? Tell us again the one about the Welfare Queens, grandpa. That’s my favorite. Or the time you told a hippie to get a job… come on, Russ… give me what I need. I’m addicted to your stupidity….

  24. Jason330 says:

    Fox is an abomination:

    A Fox affiliate in Baltimore aired a segment on Sunday showing footage from a “Justice For All” demonstration in Washington, D.C. in which it edited a chant to sound like protestors were shouting “kill a cop.”

    “At this rally in Washington, D.C. protestors chanted, ‘we won’t stop, we can’t stop, so kill a cop,'” the WBFF broadcast said.

    But the full footage, flagged by Gawker on Monday via C-SPAN, revealed that the chant was “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, ’til killer cops are in cell blocks.”

  25. Tom Kline says:

    The decline of the africian community is by far the largest contrbuting factor to all the disrespect towards the police. It’s all in how you raise your children.

  26. Nancy Willing says:

    “Fox is an abomination”

    I’d read that story but now wonder if it that horrific media lie served to further derange and motivate the cop killer. Jesus fuck.

  27. Geezer says:

    White people talking about how blacks should behave = Priests giving out advice on sex

  28. Steve Newton says:

    The decline of the africian community is by far the largest contrbuting factor to all the disrespect towards the police. It’s all in how you raise your children.

    Can I get some of what you are smoking? The suspicion of police is not limited to the African-American or any other minority community. The militarization of police, the illegal surveillance of law-abiding citizens, the repeated abuses of authority, the drug war, and the in-your-face attitude that EVER questioning ANY police officer’s motivations or actions is somehow anti-law enforcement, anti-society, and tantamount to calling for people to gun down cops is what has lowered the respect of millions of Americans for the institution of law enforcement. You’d love to make it an ethnic thing, but it isn’t.

    While they’re out scarfing up military surplus Hummers and drones, maybe each police department in America would profit by purchasing a mirror, and then looking into it occasionally.

  29. Geezer says:

    I second Steve’s comment above. I was talking about this with a Tea Party conservative friend of mine, an accomplished professional who I expected to be pro-police. He told me that he understands distrust of police, and that any time he’s pulled over he worries that he might run into what he called bullies with a badge.

    Frankly, I find that attitude more philosophically consistent with anti-government conservatism, and a possible point of mutual benefit with libertarians.

  30. tops116 says:

    I’m so old, I remember when liberals blamed Sarah Palin for Gabrielle Giffords getting shot. I also remember when liberals blamed the Tea Party for the Boston Bombing. Oh, but by all means, don’t let me interrupt your pearl clutching.

  31. puck says:

    I’m so old, i remember when authorities blamed the Boston Massacre on the victims:

    [defense attorney John Adams] … argued that if the soldiers were endangered by the mob, which he called “a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes, and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs [i.e. sailors]”, they had the legal right to fight back, and so were innocent…

    At least there was a trial.

  32. pandora says:

    Wait… protesters calling for an end to violence is a call for violence? I’ll never understand conservative logic.