• @specseaweed
    link
    English
    36
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    I’m a union guy and I’ve been a union guy my entire life, since my first job in the early 90s. The problem here is the police union. The police union bargains to prevent the dumb bullshit they do from being taken away from them. When you see cops directing traffic after events, that’s because the cops are soaking up overtime and refuse to let another job title handle traffic. When you see cops responding to non emergency events, it’s because the cops are refusing to let another job title handle little shit.

    We need more cops, but we would need FAR fewer and could focus their resources FAR better if we could redefine what a police officer does in the year of our lord 2024. It is a job title that is in obvious need of reimagining. What police provide and what the citizens want is not aligned and it’s crazy that the cops are just like, nah, we ain’t changing how bout dat

    They just refuse to change but they make sure to complain the entire time.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      28
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Just to emphasize your point, the guy in this article is the 2nd in command of the seattle police union.

      The guy he’s talking to on the phone about how worthless this woman’s life is that a fellow officer just hit and killed? The head of the police union.

      Seattle pd has been under a federal consent degree due to racial policing and unwarranted violence for over a decade for context. They also made the news recently for illegally hanging a trump 2020 flag in the same break room where they had trophies from george Floyd protests displayed. Of course no one was reprimanded.

      Real good people.

      • @TexasDrunk
        link
        English
        1311 months ago

        I bet it would be easier to find qualified candidates who care about the community if they started getting rid of these kinds of jackasses.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      311 months ago

      Not to say there isn’t merit in your argument but there was a video posted on old lemmy where they had a not-a-cop direct traffic because of this reasoning and he got his soul kicked out of him by two huge dudes who apparently didn’t like taking orders

      There’s a reason there isn’t a country on earth where this job isn’t done by someone with some authority

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        411 months ago

        Out here in South Africa, more often than not homeless people will be directing traffic when the lights are out. Fun fact!

    • @mojofrododojo
      link
      English
      111 months ago

      SPOG man… like, damn, if a union could be called evil - they’re up there. And afaik SPD never adopted a pay system that allows them to effectively manage overtime, so we’ve got patrol officers out there bringing in $250k with overtime reported after the work, on paper forms that no one could keep track of.

      NGL seems like a racket, esp after they were mandated to modernize back in 2013.