Whenever I hear the "bad apple" argument, I am reminded of Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit—"blood on the leaves and blood at the root." Though this song is a metaphor for lynching, which the police have historically been complicit in, it reminds me that bad apples only grow from bad roots. If bad apples are being produced, we must question the seed and the roots they come from. Sadly, the argument never focuses on the root and is reduced to the victim should of stopped and listened.
Recently I was in a small town near the Poconos in PA. Long story short I am a white female senior citizen. I parked in a lot that was supervised because the town was hosting a huge event. I parked and spent 3 hours in the town and when I returned to my car I noticed the meters where people were paying. I asked the attendant if I needed to pay to exit the lot. He said “did you pay when you came in” and I answered no. He shrugged and said don’t worry about it. It was a $20 fee!
I guess the point of all of this is simply…how would they have treated a young black person, male Or female, had they neglected to pay. My privilege astounds me at the same time that my heart breaks at the inhumanity inflicted on someone who lacks $2.90. Fuck the police….
With reference to bad apples, remember that the actual phrase is: ‘One bad apple spoils the barrel.’ In other words, there are enough bad apples now that we can declare the entire barrel ruined. We need another system.
The wish to join the police should automatically bar you from doing so. If you join the police to “make a difference” you’ve already been conditioned by a society which values property over people. This makes you *entirely* the wrong sort of person to be dealing with people.
The barrel is infected. It infects all the apples and makes some rot even faster.
When I was 23, living in Northwest D.C., a kid ran into my car as I was passing a double parked newspaper delivery truck. The kid was not hurt. The truck driver didn’t check for cars before letting the kid cross the street and the kid didn’t look. No cell phones in those days so after exchanging information with the driver, I went home and called the insurance company and my dad. Someone else called the cops. I think. Maybe I did. When they came they fixated on my expired inspection label from Virginia where I had registered it from my parents’ house rather than in D.C., where it would have been more expensive. Ulitumately they took me to the police station where I cried for hours. Really, I had not done anything wrong. I was going 5 mph, I checked. The boy was unhurt. I had never had an accident before. But I learned that day that cops are bullies. I went to our family doctor for tranquilizers after the event and he told me that being abused by police frequently happened to women. I was white, too, not that I cared at the time. The problem was that I was female and young.
Things haven’t changed much either over the years. My son and my nephew, who lived with me for a while, couldn’t turn a corner in Berkshire County, MA without getting a ticket for something totally insignificant. They were both the age I had been in D. C. Cops are bullies. I don’t like them and steer clear of them when possible. They may protect us from some kind of villain, but it’s hard to live with that when so easily a minor infraction can cause you your life, especially if you are young, Black, or Brown. Plus the country is no better than the city in this regard.
My son and nephew are white and they still got hassled. One time the cops busted my nephew for some minor infraction at 12:30a.m. and impounded his car. I had to drive up to Dalton (MA) to pick him up and bring him home! That’s about 40 miles from my house one way. All they really had to do was give him a ticket but they overreacted, as usual for tin pot assholes.
I agree with a lot of your comment. Pretty much everything you said, until you disparaged Defund the Police. You denigrated the movement, even after you called for basically the same thing: "Having (unarmed) response teams trained in de-escalating and treating people in mental health crisis. Nor do traffic police need to be armed." That's very much the same type of thing that people calling to "defund" the police, are calling for. At the very least, you're on the same page.
There has to be a point at which people have a responsibility to UNDERSTAND the goals of a movement before they disparage it. Some people try to blame the slogan for not fully explaining the movement's goals, but since when has ANY slogan done THAT?
I dare anyone to come up with a complete summary, in just a few words, that could catch-on, the way "Defund the Police" caught on. All a slogan can do, is SPREAD the word; it can't give a complete dissertation. It can't even overcome the wilful-impenetrability, of an apathetic society, that couldn't quite be bothered to LOOK at a thing that NEARLY caught its attention.
It is also the case that supporters of Abolishing the Police deserve more respect than you have on offer. If you're not a target, then maybe you shouldn't judge the goals of the people who ARE targeted.
Whenever I hear the "bad apple" argument, I am reminded of Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit—"blood on the leaves and blood at the root." Though this song is a metaphor for lynching, which the police have historically been complicit in, it reminds me that bad apples only grow from bad roots. If bad apples are being produced, we must question the seed and the roots they come from. Sadly, the argument never focuses on the root and is reduced to the victim should of stopped and listened.
Recently I was in a small town near the Poconos in PA. Long story short I am a white female senior citizen. I parked in a lot that was supervised because the town was hosting a huge event. I parked and spent 3 hours in the town and when I returned to my car I noticed the meters where people were paying. I asked the attendant if I needed to pay to exit the lot. He said “did you pay when you came in” and I answered no. He shrugged and said don’t worry about it. It was a $20 fee!
I guess the point of all of this is simply…how would they have treated a young black person, male Or female, had they neglected to pay. My privilege astounds me at the same time that my heart breaks at the inhumanity inflicted on someone who lacks $2.90. Fuck the police….
ACAB yesterday, today, tomorrow, every day
With reference to bad apples, remember that the actual phrase is: ‘One bad apple spoils the barrel.’ In other words, there are enough bad apples now that we can declare the entire barrel ruined. We need another system.
Those cops weren't protecting anything besides the status quo, they were just trigger happy.
The wish to join the police should automatically bar you from doing so. If you join the police to “make a difference” you’ve already been conditioned by a society which values property over people. This makes you *entirely* the wrong sort of person to be dealing with people.
The barrel is infected. It infects all the apples and makes some rot even faster.
There’s a protest planned at Brooklyn Museum at 5:30 on Friday (9/20). I imagine there are others as well but that’s what I’m seeing so far.
When I was 23, living in Northwest D.C., a kid ran into my car as I was passing a double parked newspaper delivery truck. The kid was not hurt. The truck driver didn’t check for cars before letting the kid cross the street and the kid didn’t look. No cell phones in those days so after exchanging information with the driver, I went home and called the insurance company and my dad. Someone else called the cops. I think. Maybe I did. When they came they fixated on my expired inspection label from Virginia where I had registered it from my parents’ house rather than in D.C., where it would have been more expensive. Ulitumately they took me to the police station where I cried for hours. Really, I had not done anything wrong. I was going 5 mph, I checked. The boy was unhurt. I had never had an accident before. But I learned that day that cops are bullies. I went to our family doctor for tranquilizers after the event and he told me that being abused by police frequently happened to women. I was white, too, not that I cared at the time. The problem was that I was female and young.
Things haven’t changed much either over the years. My son and my nephew, who lived with me for a while, couldn’t turn a corner in Berkshire County, MA without getting a ticket for something totally insignificant. They were both the age I had been in D. C. Cops are bullies. I don’t like them and steer clear of them when possible. They may protect us from some kind of villain, but it’s hard to live with that when so easily a minor infraction can cause you your life, especially if you are young, Black, or Brown. Plus the country is no better than the city in this regard.
My son and nephew are white and they still got hassled. One time the cops busted my nephew for some minor infraction at 12:30a.m. and impounded his car. I had to drive up to Dalton (MA) to pick him up and bring him home! That’s about 40 miles from my house one way. All they really had to do was give him a ticket but they overreacted, as usual for tin pot assholes.
You are completely right on that score. Yes, neither of them grew up to be a criminal. Both are married with families. In fact, both have daughters.
Who trains these folks?
Thought as much, Tom.
'When people try to stay in their homes and resist evictions, or protest for the right to housing, cops side with landlords.'
This is the case in Malaysia, as well. The cops always side with the businessmen and corporations in general.
1312 👌🏽
I agree with a lot of your comment. Pretty much everything you said, until you disparaged Defund the Police. You denigrated the movement, even after you called for basically the same thing: "Having (unarmed) response teams trained in de-escalating and treating people in mental health crisis. Nor do traffic police need to be armed." That's very much the same type of thing that people calling to "defund" the police, are calling for. At the very least, you're on the same page.
There has to be a point at which people have a responsibility to UNDERSTAND the goals of a movement before they disparage it. Some people try to blame the slogan for not fully explaining the movement's goals, but since when has ANY slogan done THAT?
I dare anyone to come up with a complete summary, in just a few words, that could catch-on, the way "Defund the Police" caught on. All a slogan can do, is SPREAD the word; it can't give a complete dissertation. It can't even overcome the wilful-impenetrability, of an apathetic society, that couldn't quite be bothered to LOOK at a thing that NEARLY caught its attention.
It is also the case that supporters of Abolishing the Police deserve more respect than you have on offer. If you're not a target, then maybe you shouldn't judge the goals of the people who ARE targeted.