Police Behavior and What To Do About It

[LFC]

Somebody here posted a video by Beau of the Fifth Column where he spoke in great detail about the training police need to have but are not getting. Instead they are being trained as "warrior cops." The outcome of this incident is a direct result of this attitude and a lack of proper training. Killing somebody in a car that had nothing to do with the incident shows that at least one officer was firing indiscriminately and had no idea where their rounds were going. While I certainly have no problem pinning blame on those shooting at each other the fact remains that one or more police officers were completely out of control.

Two teenagers have been charged with murder in connection with 8-year-old Fanta Bility’s death after they started a shootout near a Pennsylvania football game on Aug. 27, according to prosecutors.

But Fanta did not die at the hands of Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, or Hasein Strand, 18.

The innocent girl was almost certainly struck by a bullet fired by one of three Sharon Hill police officers after they opened fire on a vehicle they mistakenly believed to be part of the gunfight between Ford and Strand.

Fanta was struck once in the back and died at the scene. Four other people, including her 13-year-old sister, Mamasa, were injured by police fire.

Ford and Strand face first degree murder, aggravated assault, and gun charges, according to prosecutors. While Ford is in custody and being held without bail, Strand was still at large as of Wednesday and was being sought by U.S. Marshals, according to prosecutors.

First Assistant District Attorney Tanner Rouse said the reason for charging the teen boys was “very simple.” In a statement, he explained, “They were attempting to kill one another that night, and as a direct result a little girl is dead.”

According to an arrest affadavit, Ford and Strand were on opposite sides of a conflict between two groups of teenagers as they left the football game. What they were fighting about is unclear, but witnesses said Ford lifted his shirt as the argument escalated, revealing a handgun.

Strand went to a nearby car and allegedly pulled out a 9mm pistol. The two began firing at one another, striking and injuring an unidentified victim, police said.

The three officers then drew their weapons after Strand allegedly shot in their direction, police said. A car turning onto the street—occupied by two 19-year-old women, both alumni of the school—was caught in the subsequent crossfire.

As bullets struck the vehicle, the women in the car were cut badly by shattering glass, according to authorities. Other shots went beyond the car, striking Fanta and her sister, who were leaving the stadium, as well as two others.

There's simply no excuse for this. I'd love to know the distance between the officers and the shooters. If much more than 25 yds, the longest distance they qualify for on the range, then they were just blasting away and never even notice an entire f***ing automobile.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 12, 2021 17:26:28 GMT LFC said:

There's simply no excuse for this. I'd love to know the distance between the officers and the shooters. If much more than 25 yds, the longest distance they qualify for on the range, then they were just blasting away and never even notice an entire f***ing automobile.

Looks like cop tunnel vision.  They're shooting it out with the bad guys and notice nothing around them.  

[LFC]

How a senior citizen with enough money almost bought himself full police authority. Good grief.

Howard Buffett, the 66-year-old son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has a long history of donating millions to law enforcement agencies while serving as a part-time, unofficial member of some of them.

But recently, his attempts to become a certified officer in Illinois—without completing the required training or sitting for a written examination—cost the executive director of the state’s board that regulates officers his job, according to a new report from The Office of Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Governor.

The report, first shared by the Associated Press, details how Buffett and the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, which he was working for as an undersheriff, attempted to get him a waiver to be certified as a part-time officer by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in 2018. That would allow him to use his previous law enforcement training elsewhere in Illinois and become a certified part-time officer there, with many of the same powers as a full-time officer.

The request came after Buffett had donated $15 million to the board in 2017 to build a training facility, as well as another more than $500,000 to get the facility up and running, according to the report. It also came after the executive director of the board, Brent Fischer, had previously made “requests” to Buffett for money—including asking for a $10,000 donation to support their canine program.

On Jan. 11, 2019, three hours after acknowledging the $10,000 donation from Buffett’s foundation, Fischer granted Buffett’s waiver, despite the fact that the billionaire was over 100 hours short of needed training, had never sat for a certification exam, and had never entered or completed a formal police academy. In February, Fischer gave Buffett a physical certification that he had specially printed up for him, the report states.

Fischer, whose past law enforcement experience includes leading the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for 17 years, said he believed it was understood that the certification was a symbolic gesture or honorary degree for “all [Buffett] has done for law enforcement,” according to the report.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 19, 2021 20:57:39 GMT LFC said:

How a senior citizen with enough money almost bought himself full police authority. Good grief.

He wants to play cop. He's a wealthy Rittenhouse who hasn't yet shot anyone.

[LFC]

The Philadelphia PD is so bad that they had to be barred from performing stops over minor traffic violations. They can’t be trusted around the people they’re sworn to serve unless the situation is so serious that there’s no better option.

thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/579262-philadelphia-mayor-signs-bill-banning-police-from-stopping-cars-during

[LFC]

Police departments have declared war on accountability through the use of a mass cover-up. And America continues its slide into violent fascism with the help of those sworn to protect people and democracy.

The failure of police and federal law enforcement agencies to send data on their officers’ use of force has put an FBI program in danger of shutting down, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. “Due to insufficient participation from law enforcement agencies,” the GAO wrote, “the FBI faces risks that it may not meet the participation thresholds and therefore may never publish use of force data.” The project is required to meet a minimum rate of participation, established by the Office of Management and Budget, of 60 percent by the end of 2022. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the FBI’s National Use-of-Force Data Collection program, launched in 2019, was receiving data representing 57 percent of all officers.

“I’d be surprised if they didn’t make 60 percent,” Bill Brooks, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police board of directors. The FBI told the Post on Wednesday that “each day is a new snapshot in time,” and that it believed the threshold “will be met.” Its current data represents a jump from October, when just 54 percent of officers were represented. In 2019, only 44 percent of local, state, federal, and tribal officers were covered by the data.

More than 40% of departments won't provide their data. How disgusting is that?

[LFC]

Here's an interesting take on what to do to help reduce crime and, just as importantly, what not to do. Here are things that don't work. "Broken Windows" was also mentioned as a failure.

A 1997 National Institute of Justice brief came to similar conclusions. The research arm of the US Department of Justice — hardly a bastion of liberal law enforcement policy — reviewed over 500 scientific evaluations of crime prevention methods around the country. Among the methods it listed under “what didn’t work” were: "neighborhood watch programs organized with police,” gun buybacks, adding jail time to misdemeanors that would normally result in just probation, "increased arrests or raids on drug market locations” and arresting juveniles for “minor offenses.”

The brief was particularly critical of arresting young people for small crimes. Studies showed arresting minors increased the likelihood they would be "more delinquent in the future than if police exercise discretion to merely warn them.”

Police being courteous toward suspects correlated with improved outcomes across age groups, the National Institute of Justice analysis found. "Policing with greater respect to offenders reduced repeat offending in one analysis ... and increased respect for the law and police in another,” it cited.

So what has worked?

So what do academics and law enforcement researchers believe actually impacts crime rates? The majority of studies agree that when cities add more police officers, crime tends to go down. The National Bureau of Economic Research study notes that NYC increased its police force 35% in the 1990s, which Levitt cites as a more important factor in lowering crime than heavy-handed policies around petty misdemeanors. The National Institute of Justice found in its studies that adding more patrols to “hot spots” also helped.

Many argue that increased incarceration was an additional factor, but even the DOJ report cautioned that it had limits. "Incarceration of offenders who will continue to commit crime prevents crimes they would commit on the street,” the National Institute of Justice wrote, “but the number of crimes prevented by locking up each additional offender declines with diminishing returns as less active or serious offenders are incarcerated.”

[snip]

The robust economy of the 1990s may have also played a role. The minimum wage went up and unemployment went down. Considering we’re currently living through another time of great upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it stands to reason that economic uncertainty could have repercussions for the current robbery and theft rates, too. (For what it’s worth, Levitt is skeptical that economic indicators are linked; he cites the 1960s as an example of a decade with a booming economy and high crime and social unrest.)

Professors of criminology Mateus Renno Santos and Alexander Testa argued in 2019 that global trends, not local police departments, have the biggest impact on crime. Studies have shown that crime is declining around the world, which suggests "criminal justice policies of individual countries may have less impact on the decline in homicide than world events or trends." The explanation? An aging population, Santos and Testa say.

The part about the role of abortion is pretty interesting too.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 13, 2021 21:34:47 GMT LFC said:

Here's an interesting take on what to do to help reduce crime and, just as importantly, what not to do. Here are things that don't work. "Broken Windows" was also mentioned as a failure.

A 1997 National Institute of Justice brief came to similar conclusions. The research arm of the US Department of Justice — hardly a bastion of liberal law enforcement policy — reviewed over 500 scientific evaluations of crime prevention methods around the country. Among the methods it listed under “what didn’t work” were: "neighborhood watch programs organized with police,” gun buybacks, adding jail time to misdemeanors that would normally result in just probation, "increased arrests or raids on drug market locations” and arresting juveniles for “minor offenses.”

The brief was particularly critical of arresting young people for small crimes. Studies showed arresting minors increased the likelihood they would be "more delinquent in the future than if police exercise discretion to merely warn them.”

Police being courteous toward suspects correlated with improved outcomes across age groups, the National Institute of Justice analysis found. "Policing with greater respect to offenders reduced repeat offending in one analysis ... and increased respect for the law and police in another,” it cited.

So what has worked?

So what do academics and law enforcement researchers believe actually impacts crime rates? The majority of studies agree that when cities add more police officers, crime tends to go down. The National Bureau of Economic Research study notes that NYC increased its police force 35% in the 1990s, which Levitt cites as a more important factor in lowering crime than heavy-handed policies around petty misdemeanors. The National Institute of Justice found in its studies that adding more patrols to “hot spots” also helped.

Many argue that increased incarceration was an additional factor, but even the DOJ report cautioned that it had limits. "Incarceration of offenders who will continue to commit crime prevents crimes they would commit on the street,” the National Institute of Justice wrote, “but the number of crimes prevented by locking up each additional offender declines with diminishing returns as less active or serious offenders are incarcerated.”

[snip]

The robust economy of the 1990s may have also played a role. The minimum wage went up and unemployment went down. Considering we’re currently living through another time of great upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it stands to reason that economic uncertainty could have repercussions for the current robbery and theft rates, too. (For what it’s worth, Levitt is skeptical that economic indicators are linked; he cites the 1960s as an example of a decade with a booming economy and high crime and social unrest.)

Professors of criminology Mateus Renno Santos and Alexander Testa argued in 2019 that global trends, not local police departments, have the biggest impact on crime. Studies have shown that crime is declining around the world, which suggests "criminal justice policies of individual countries may have less impact on the decline in homicide than world events or trends." The explanation? An aging population, Santos and Testa say.

The part about the role of abortion is pretty interesting too.

What jumps out at me is that having more officers is linked to lower crime. Makes sense to me...watch how people slow down on highways when state troopers are visible.  People feel anonymous in the absence of visible law enforcement and emboldened to commit crime.  

[LFC]

Dec 13, 2021 22:12:30 GMT goldenvalley said:

What jumps out at me is that having more officers is linked to lower crime. Makes sense to me...watch how people slow down on highways when state troopers are visible.  People feel anonymous in the absence of visible law enforcement and emboldened to commit crime.  

Absolutely. That is, of course, if you can keep the officers from randomly hassling and beating the shit out of people they decide are targets.

[Bact PhD]

Dec 13, 2021 21:34:47 GMT LFC said:

Here's an interesting take on what to do to help reduce crime and, just as importantly, what not to do. Here are things that don't work. "Broken Windows" was also mentioned as a failure.

A 1997 National Institute of Justice brief came to similar conclusions. The research arm of the US Department of Justice — hardly a bastion of liberal law enforcement policy — reviewed over 500 scientific evaluations of crime prevention methods around the country. Among the methods it listed under “what didn’t work” were: "neighborhood watch programs organized with police,” gun buybacks, adding jail time to misdemeanors that would normally result in just probation, "increased arrests or raids on drug market locations” and arresting juveniles for “minor offenses.”

The brief was particularly critical of arresting young people for small crimes. Studies showed arresting minors increased the likelihood they would be "more delinquent in the future than if police exercise discretion to merely warn them.”

Police being courteous toward suspects correlated with improved outcomes across age groups, the National Institute of Justice analysis found. "Policing with greater respect to offenders reduced repeat offending in one analysis ... and increased respect for the law and police in another,” it cited.

So what has worked?

So what do academics and law enforcement researchers believe actually impacts crime rates? The majority of studies agree that when cities add more police officers, crime tends to go down. The National Bureau of Economic Research study notes that NYC increased its police force 35% in the 1990s, which Levitt cites as a more important factor in lowering crime than heavy-handed policies around petty misdemeanors. The National Institute of Justice found in its studies that adding more patrols to “hot spots” also helped.

Many argue that increased incarceration was an additional factor, but even the DOJ report cautioned that it had limits. "Incarceration of offenders who will continue to commit crime prevents crimes they would commit on the street,” the National Institute of Justice wrote, “but the number of crimes prevented by locking up each additional offender declines with diminishing returns as less active or serious offenders are incarcerated.”

[snip]

The robust economy of the 1990s may have also played a role. The minimum wage went up and unemployment went down. Considering we’re currently living through another time of great upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it stands to reason that economic uncertainty could have repercussions for the current robbery and theft rates, too. (For what it’s worth, Levitt is skeptical that economic indicators are linked; he cites the 1960s as an example of a decade with a booming economy and high crime and social unrest.)

Professors of criminology Mateus Renno Santos and Alexander Testa argued in 2019 that global trends, not local police departments, have the biggest impact on crime. Studies have shown that crime is declining around the world, which suggests "criminal justice policies of individual countries may have less impact on the decline in homicide than world events or trends." The explanation? An aging population, Santos and Testa say.

The part about the role of abortion is pretty interesting too.

Didn’t “Freakonomics”, back when, make a similar observation concerning the advent of legal abortion and decreases in crime rates? My own corollary to that, has the availability of birth control also contributed to decreases in crime rates as well? If that’s the case, we may expect another drop in the coming decade, as we see the impact of birth control covered by the ACA.

[Traveler]

The recent wave of smash and grabs, flash mobs attacking commuters and shoppers, last night's shootout at UPenn, the Temple kid shot dead, and mobs attacking an Asian girl all have one thread in common. All perps are black thugs. They are shitting the bed for the rest of the black community. But Dems refuse to address this. BLM is a fucking joke of radical marxists. Yet Dems bend over backward to humor them. This will not end well.

I have had it. This is one reason why Biden's approval is tanking. Definitely need a bunch more cops.

[jackd]

BLM is a series of organizations with no formal structure and no common leadership. Generalizations about it are usually, as here, wrong. Violent perps are hardly confined to black peple. Most, if not all, of the school shootings, for example, have been by white young people.More police can help, it is true, but only if they behave professionally and with respect for the people they are protecting. In Chicago, black neighborhoods object to diversion of police away from their areas and ask for more. Police/black relations in Philadelphia have their own specific history and, I suspect, need their own specific policies for improvement. The Giuliani approach of stop and frisk won't work because the courts throw out its product and it just infuriates the population. I agree that Biden's being blamed for the violence; totally unfairly, just as he's being blamed for the price of gas.

[AnBr]

Dec 14, 2021 18:41:46 GMT Traveler said:

Definitely need a bunch more cops.

A bunch more Big Game Safari Hunters (tm)

[LFC]

Dec 14, 2021 18:41:46 GMT Traveler said:

The recent wave of smash and grabs, flash mobs attacking commuters and shoppers, last night's shootout at UPenn, the Temple kid shot dead, and mobs attacking an Asian girl all have one thread in common. All perps are black thugs. They are shitting the bed for the rest of the black community. But Dems refuse to address this. BLM is a fucking joke of radical marxists. Yet Dems bend over backward to humor them. This will not end well.

I have had it. This is one reason why Biden's approval is tanking. Definitely need a bunch more cops.

The problem is that the crimes you cite won't be impacted much unless you go to the level of a police state where officers are in sight virtually everywhere and at all times. The nature of these crimes could be summed up as "instant chaos", some of it planned and some of it (perhaps like the UPenn shooting) spur of the moment, but always instantaneous. Unless you have police observing all things all the time these are virtually impossible to stop.

More police presence on the street that is not hostile to law abiding residents is a totally different story. That can tamp down the open crime and thugs ruling the streets for hours / days / weeks at a time. This is especially true as officers actually meet and get to know the people they're serving. The problem is that without a change in police training, attitude, and discipline you won't get these types of officers, you'll get more uniformed thugs.

It was also that somewhere along this thread (or on the old TRS) that the vast majority of police work isn't responding to a crime as it happens, it's investigating a crime after it has happened. You could boost the force by 100% and it would have little impact on instant chaos crimes. It could (if attitudes were kept in check) calm crime by individuals in neighborhoods and might (if other resources were purchased and there was an increase in good investigators) solve more crimes.

[LFC]

We should also keep in mind the wise saying that "the plural of 'anecdote' isn't 'data'" when discussing crime and police. We see these headlines flashing by and people melt down. I saw there was an article a little while back on violent crime in San Francisco which went on and on and then, almost in passing, provided one sentence on how the violent crime rate in the city had actually dropped quite a bit. It doesn't mean that these crimes aren't real, just that they aren't necessarily an indicator of an increase.

When you take a look at the actual numbers i.e. "data" you can see that the last decade has had significantly lower  rates of violent crime and the previous quarter century.

[goldenvalley]

Visible police can help.   As I read more about the CA smash and grab gangs I see they were not like the looters following along behind protestors in summer 2020.  

But California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the group crimes are rooted in a kind of organized crime. Those dashing into the stores are mostly foot soldiers for others calling the shots from a safe distance.

The state’s top prosecutor said they are giving directions to the people hitting businesses by wielding social media, text and message groups to guide them on the most valuable goods to snatch.

The stolen goods are eventually sold for a considerable profit, he said.

“You know, the crime we are seeing is organized crime, and it is going to take an organized strategy to put a stop to it,” Bonta said of smash-and-grab crimes and a broader array of retail thefts that have ramped up in California stores. “These are these folks that have put thought into it, have a strategy, have a plan, focused on certain places at certain times and communicate and work in concert.” 

snip

“It’s an organized criminal activity to make a profit, and they have secondary marketplaces who take the stolen goods and resell them,” Bonta said. “And they can resell them in the state, in other states and even internationally.”

He said it is important to go after the high-level people calling the shots, not just the ones physically stealing from the stores.

“When folks know that there are consequences ... there will be accountability,” Bonta said. “And that’s how we prevent it.”

The prosecutor added that it’s also important to try to prevent the thefts from happening in the first place. He said one thing he wants to see happen is the shutting down of online and social media marketplaces that can be used to sell stolen merchandise.

This isn't a breakdown-in-society crime wave.  

[Traveler]

All very good points above. Indeed, increasing cops on the street cut shootings in half this summer in Overbrook (home of Kobe Bryant). And Philly just added a bunch downtown to protect the whites. It's a whole concatenation of policies needed. Cops trained in de-escalation, better social support etc. Not to mention options to find work instead of crime. We all know and recognize that. But until the thugs are dealt with by their own community, it will never get better. Schools are atrocious for a reason. Main one being gangs of thugs cruising the hallways and beating up teachers. So they shit the bed on their only way out.  Sorry, no matter which way you slice it, the entire subculture needs to change. It IS a breakdown of that particular society, which is why I rant against it.  

And then you have Dems like Krasner claiming no increase in crime. Except shootings and robberies...

[AnBr]

[pnwguy]

Dec 16, 2021 16:55:40 GMT Traveler said:

All very good points above. Indeed, increasing cops on the street cut shootings in half this summer in Overbrook (home of Kobe Bryant). And Philly just added a bunch downtown to protect the whites. It's a whole concatenation of policies needed. Cops trained in de-escalation, better social support etc. Not to mention options to find work instead of crime. We all know and recognize that. But until the thugs are dealt with by their own community, it will never get better. Schools are atrocious for a reason. Main one being gangs of thugs cruising the hallways and beating up teachers. So they shit the bed on their only way out.  Sorry, no matter which way you slice it, the entire subculture needs to change. It IS a breakdown of that particular society, which is why I rant against it.  

And then you have Dems like Krasner claiming no increase in crime. Except shootings and robberies...

I've got to wonder what MLK would think of the "thug culture", gansta-rap, and lionization of violence in popular song in the African-American community.  I can imagine he'd look at this as a failure on the march forward. 

[Traveler]

Dec 27, 2021 23:29:56 GMT pnwguy said:

Dec 16, 2021 16:55:40 GMT Traveler said:

All very good points above. Indeed, increasing cops on the street cut shootings in half this summer in Overbrook (home of Kobe Bryant). And Philly just added a bunch downtown to protect the whites. It's a whole concatenation of policies needed. Cops trained in de-escalation, better social support etc. Not to mention options to find work instead of crime. We all know and recognize that. But until the thugs are dealt with by their own community, it will never get better. Schools are atrocious for a reason. Main one being gangs of thugs cruising the hallways and beating up teachers. So they shit the bed on their only way out.  Sorry, no matter which way you slice it, the entire subculture needs to change. It IS a breakdown of that particular society, which is why I rant against it.  

And then you have Dems like Krasner claiming no increase in crime. Except shootings and robberies...

I've got to wonder what MLK would think of the "thug culture", gansta-rap, and lionization of violence in popular song in the African-American community.  I can imagine he'd look at this as a failure on the march forward. 

Totally agree.  This culture is killing the Democratic party.  But they do absolutely NOTHING to call it out.  

[pnwguy]

Dec 30, 2021 15:49:25 GMT Traveler said:

Dec 27, 2021 23:29:56 GMT pnwguy said:

I've got to wonder what MLK would think of the "thug culture", gansta-rap, and lionization of violence in popular song in the African-American community.  I can imagine he'd look at this as a failure on the march forward. 

Totally agree.  This culture is killing the Democratic party.  But they do absolutely NOTHING to call it out.  

I suspect that if you are white, you'll only be seen as a racist by pointing this out.  It has to come from the AA community inside the Democratic party.  Of course, look at how Bill Cosby was denounced and ridiculed about his comments on black youth, back before we knew he was a sh*t-bag sexual predator.  Now that so much of the under 30 generation only values celebrity, and that gangsta life is celebrated as community pride, it's got a strong foothold, as badly as gun-culture does in the GOP.

[goldenvalley]

This isn't about police behaving badly, but is about wanna be police making citizen's arrest by shooting someone:

A Georgia judge on Friday sentenced both Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, and his father to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but issued a lesser sentence of life with the possibility of parole to the other white man convicted of murdering Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man whom they had chased through their neighborhood.

[LFC]

Jan 7, 2022 21:23:54 GMT goldenvalley said:

This isn't about police behaving badly, but is about wanna be police making citizen's arrest by shooting someone:

A Georgia judge on Friday sentenced both Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, and his father to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but issued a lesser sentence of life with the possibility of parole to the other white man convicted of murdering Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man whom they had chased through their neighborhood.

GOOD! It's past time for wannabe tough guys to be forced to reckon with the consequences of drawing a gun. George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse gave them permission, this will give at least some pause.

[LFC]

What in the actual hell? Are these 15-yr olds hired by the LAPD? They certainly aren't mature enough to carry a firearm.

A California appeals court has upheld the firings of two Los Angeles Police Department officers who failed to respond to a robbery in progress and instead went searching for a Snorlax in the Pokémon Go augmented reality game.

Officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were being recorded by a digital in-car video system (DICVS) when they decided to catch a Pokémon after not responding to a robbery on Saturday, April 15, 2017, according to the California Court of Appeal ruling issued Friday. A board of rights found the officers "guilty on multiple counts of misconduct" based in part on the "recording that captured petitioners willfully abdicating their duty to assist a commanding officer's response to a robbery in progress and playing a Pokémon mobile phone game while on duty," the ruling said.

The former officers appealed, claiming the city "proceeded in a manner contrary to the law by using the DICVS recording in their disciplinary proceeding and by denying them the protections of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act," Friday's ruling said. A trial court denied the petition challenging the firings, and a three-judge panel at the appeals court unanimously upheld that decision on Friday.

It takes some brass balls to go to court after getting fired for this. The streets of LA are safer with these two asshats gone.

[Bact PhD]

Jan 11, 2022 15:14:43 GMT LFC said:

What in the actual hell? Are these 15-yr olds hired by the LAPD? They certainly aren't mature enough to carry a firearm.

A California appeals court has upheld the firings of two Los Angeles Police Department officers who failed to respond to a robbery in progress and instead went searching for a Snorlax in the Pokémon Go augmented reality game.

Officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were being recorded by a digital in-car video system (DICVS) when they decided to catch a Pokémon after not responding to a robbery on Saturday, April 15, 2017, according to the California Court of Appeal ruling issued Friday. A board of rights found the officers "guilty on multiple counts of misconduct" based in part on the "recording that captured petitioners willfully abdicating their duty to assist a commanding officer's response to a robbery in progress and playing a Pokémon mobile phone game while on duty," the ruling said.

The former officers appealed, claiming the city "proceeded in a manner contrary to the law by using the DICVS recording in their disciplinary proceeding and by denying them the protections of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act," Friday's ruling said. A trial court denied the petition challenging the firings, and a three-judge panel at the appeals court unanimously upheld that decision on Friday.

It takes some brass balls to go to court after getting fired for this. The streets of LA are safer with these two asshats gone.

What in the actual hell, indeed?!??
My not-quite-17-year-old son would have choice words for this type of behavior “on the job”.