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Does it change anyone's opinion on the competency of the police to know that the officer who shot the woman had been employed by six different police departments in a span of 4 years?
https://apnews.com/article/sonya-massey-illinois-police-shooting-911-d311a177ceac567cac58f68be810df79
What is her background? Was she employed?
Don't know. I think she acted dangerously, and I also think the officer could have responded in a different way that avoided any deaths. I vote Everyone's An Asshole Here.
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Looks like a bunch of these were part time. The article doesn't say if he got kicked out or what his disciplinary record was like. But if this is a problem cop, you'd think he'd get the cold shoulder before ending up with murder charges.
The downstream impact of BLM has been that it's hard to find cops. Despite pay and benefits nobody wants a job where you might get murdered or charged with murder.
Responsible non-criminal Blue collar workers have better opportunities than ever, young college grads have been inculcated with a hatred of police.
Recruiting is at crisis levels.
How much of this is literally just pot and debt?
Cops usually have to be squeaky clean and those things have been getting more prominent. It would seem like even as the pool of applicants narrows, departments are likely having to reject a higher percentage of them.
I suppose pot isn't covered by the qualifier non-criminal anymore is it?
Probably has a large impact! As would tattoo policies. Synergistic with Blue collar demand: CDL drivers and other jobs also need to be clean, and as that field narrows the pay improves.
Police departments also routinely have financial responsibility policies intended to prevent bribery- my suspicion is that they tend to eliminate candidates who like recreational gambling more than they actually work. But I know you can’t be a cop if you have outstanding title loans, a second mortgage, or too much credit card debt. AIUI sports gambling mostly works by getting people in debt, and with its rising popularity I suspect that police departments are kicking candidates out over debt restrictions.
That and obesity- the police may not be great at maintaining fitness standards, but they do have minimal rules to get in.
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It would if there was a full context added to that, and if news media was trustworthy enough that we’d know they’re not lying by omission. As it is, it changes nothing for me.
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