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Terry O'Neill's avatar

Thank you for covering stories like these! It’s so important to have the facts about what police do (and fail to do).

As a white kid growing up, I was taught to trust cops -- and the detective shows I watch reinforce that message.

But I’ve become more cynical. Policing in this country actually has its roots in slave patrolling (in the South) and controlling immigrant, pro-union workers (in the North). Their core purpose was to protect the “property” of wealthy families.

To this day, the bulk of police department expenditures goes to detaining drug users in marginalized communities. They are the foot soldiers in the war on drugs which was designed to help candidates win election, and also makes prison/surveillance corporations very rich.

So, I’m not clear that we should expect police to help protect us from criminal behavior like sexual assault, domestic violence, or even stranger violence. (We can be pleasantly surprised when they do, which happens sometimes.)

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Ross's avatar

Unfortunately, this won't go anywhere, because the Supreme Court has decided that police have no responsibility to protect any specific individual. Check out this decision in Town of Castle Rock v Gonzales:

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2004/04-278

Disgusting.

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