Report: 13 Philadelphia officers expected to be fired for social media posts
- Thread starter Dalek
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There should be a public database of police officers including every department they've worked at, all complaints filed against them, and all disciplinary actions taken against them. They're public employees and there needs to be real oversight.
Shit, they'll just get a job with a different police department
I still expect 0 of 72.
Let's see how many of these jokers are still cops 6 months from now.
Dude. It's the cops, in Philly. You've read about the MOVE bombings?
Progress is progress. This wouldn't have been possible even two years ago.
Pretty sure there is.
Or at the very least, when a cop is hired in another district after having been fired from their old district, the new district knows about it. No one is surprised or shocked when they find out.
Strange, racism and fuckery usually gets you a promotion in the police department.
About fucking time there is some oversight. Fuck the police.
About fucking time there is some oversight. Fuck the police.
It's a start.
The american law enforcement system is so busted so it's about damn time there's some accountability. Addressing this type of unacceptable behavior obviously needs to be a lot more widespread all over the country. It's unfortunate that it takes an outside agency to publically expose them, but at least some police forces are addressing the issue and carrying out investigations. It's also unfortunate that many police forces are just going to ignore the findings. It shouldn't be optional. There should be legal and political means to force law enforcement to fix their shit.
The american law enforcement system is so busted so it's about damn time there's some accountability. Addressing this type of unacceptable behavior obviously needs to be a lot more widespread all over the country. It's unfortunate that it takes an outside agency to publically expose them, but at least some police forces are addressing the issue and carrying out investigations. It's also unfortunate that many police forces are just going to ignore the findings. It shouldn't be optional. There should be legal and political means to force law enforcement to fix their shit.
Obviously more needs to be done, but its a start. As mentioned before, this was the department that freaking leveled an entire block with BOMBS.
It should also be publically accessible without the need for a FOIA request since we as taxpayers pay their salaries and all. Will never ever happen though bc the police union is entirely too powerful.
We do have a couple of officers on ERA. Would be curious to hear their opinion on having a public database of their work history as an officer.
Surprised they even started the process, Philly PD Union is STRONG
There was literally an incident when a cop gave an old lady a fucking uppercut for spraying silly string on him and he got fired but it got wiped away on appeal
There was literally an incident when a cop gave an old lady a fucking uppercut for spraying silly string on him and he got fired but it got wiped away on appeal
Two questions:
A) were these older officers, close to retirement, who could be sacrificial firings so we'd all feel like there was progress or
B) were these cops responsible for posts that much worse and thus deserving of firing while the others do not?
A) were these older officers, close to retirement, who could be sacrificial firings so we'd all feel like there was progress or
B) were these cops responsible for posts that much worse and thus deserving of firing while the others do not?
I bet the union will help these officers land a different job or posting at a different department. Lot of police unions are strong in that prior reports/issues will be overlooked when moving to a new department, etc. Can definitely see them be perfect candidates for ICE
Former colleague of mine left a totally different industry to go be a cop on the East Coast and then started posting EXTREMELY troubling stuff on Facebook about race. I have no idea if he was racist beforehand but I have watched people adopt corrosive racism through peer pressure or the desire for peer acceptance. Some people have incredibly weak and malleable principles. They're not even really principles, they're social currency for some. To be bought or spent on whatever is convenient. And of course some people have deep seated hatreds and fears and contempt that are simply waiting for permission from their chosen or adopted peer groups.
They were probably previously held beliefs that he was now comfortable and emboldened enough to share due to being employed in a space that's seemingly accepting and protecting of said behavior.
A high school teacher of mine who knew a guy that became a cop in LA basically said that becoming a police officer makes you a racist. It's the entire culture, so even if you aren't a racist going in, you will be soon enough. Because if you don't conform then you're kicked out or ostracized.
Capt. Sekou Kinebrew, a police spokesperson, said only that the department's investigation into the scandal — which encompasses more than 3,000 posts allegedly made by more than 300 officers — is ongoing.
John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, declined to comment.
The database, published online June 1, was compiled by a group called the Plain View Project. It highlights Facebook posts or comments from officers in Philadelphia and seven other police departments: York, Pa.; Phoenix; Dallas; St. Louis; Twin Falls, Idaho; Denison, Texas; and Lake County, Fla.
The researchers behind the database — led by lawyer Emily Baker-White, who formerly worked at the Federal Community Defender Office in Philadelphia — said they flagged posts allegedly made by officers that the researchers considered racist, supportive of violence, or otherwise offensive.
Their list included more than 500 current and retired Philadelphia officers, about 330 of whom were still on the force when the database went live.
Ross has repeatedly said that he was troubled by the posts and that they could undermine public trust in the department. Other city officials also condemned the posts, and District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office was reviewing the database to determine which officers should be placed on a list of police with credibility issues.
The police officers' union said last month that it did not believe anyone should be fired as a result of Facebook posts, signaling that it may fight any terminations via its arbitration process.
Across the country, in fact, the FOP — which has a national office — has stumped for Officer's Bill of Rights laws. Police in many parts of the country have protections that would be alarming if extended to the public. Here in Philly, cops enjoy a provision in which records of written reprimands are scrubbed from their files if they aren't found guilty of anything else for two years — their sins are washed away.
Most famously, however, Philly police reap the benefits of a highly favorable system of arbitration for their contracts and discipline in which the FOP gets to help select the arbitrators. McNesby's FOP has publicly bragged that its success rate when challenging punishments is 90 percent. City officials have pushed back on this figure, but police brass have long complained that too many cops they fire come right back through arbitration.
As former police chief Charles Ramsey admitted, "It's very hard to maintain discipline in a police department, especially when at every turn you have cases that wind up getting overturned."
So the city police department tries to build trust and legitimacy, while an angry and effective union boss says no.