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The Abuse Of ‘Feel-Good’ Cop Videos

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Guevara

Member
I know this is just one more anecdote, but I've have nothing but good experiences with the cops. Mostly, reporting crimes and goings on in the neighborhood. But still, you only talk to cops generally when there is something wrong and that's a shame.

While this particular interaction is way too stunt-y, in general better community-police relations is the way forward. The idea is a good one, the implementation is just clumsy and tone deaf.

Every community will be different: the San Francisco police put together an e-newsletter, which was actually pretty thoughtful and interesting, and a decent way to reach that audience. Other communities maybe it's basketball games or bbqs.
 

Quonny

Member
The article headline is incredibly baity.

Just like we should be aware of when cops do the wrong thing, there's nothing wrong with showing a cop doing the right thing or going above-and-beyond the duty.

While I agree that the icecream video is ridiculous, let's not lump all feel good cop videos together.
 

Apharmd

Member
The article headline is incredibly baity.

Just like we should be aware of when cops do the wrong thing, there's nothing wrong with showing a cop doing the right thing or going above-and-beyond the duty.

While I agree that the icecream video is ridiculous, let's not lump all feel good cop videos together.

To be fair, it's explaining how these good-cop videos aren't doing much to fix the problems that's already there. It really is a problem of authority abuse.
 

The Kree

Banned
The article headline is incredibly baity.

Just like we should be aware of when cops do the wrong thing, there's nothing wrong with showing a cop doing the right thing or going above-and-beyond the duty.

While I agree that the icecream video is ridiculous, let's not lump all feel good cop videos together.

#NotAllFeelGoodCopVideos

Amazing.
 
I hate these kinds of videos. They're catnip for people uncomfortable with swapping out their previously positive opinion on cops with a more holistic and accurate view of the law enforcement institution, one that acknowledges that whatever good they are doing overall is being completely marred by their many and obvious dysfunctions. It's the fallacious "bad apple" thesis of police corruption embodied in a cutesy little piece of clickbait.
 

Mael

Member
The article headline is incredibly baity.

Just like we should be aware of when cops do the wrong thing, there's nothing wrong with showing a cop doing the right thing or going above-and-beyond the duty.

While I agree that the icecream video is ridiculous, let's not lump all feel good cop videos together.

There's good cops all over the world and they're doing their work diligently without having to be assholes scaring people they should be protecting.
This kind of video is the exact opposite of good cop behavior.
 

Arkeband

Banned
The article headline is incredibly baity.

Just like we should be aware of when cops do the wrong thing, there's nothing wrong with showing a cop doing the right thing or going above-and-beyond the duty.

While I agree that the icecream video is ridiculous, let's not lump all feel good cop videos together.

"Feel good cop videos" are lazy propaganda. They're premeditated AstroTurf rolled out only after they're caught misbehaving. So instead of Officer Speed Trap filling his quota at the end of the month, they tell him to stop by a neighborhood (but not too poor of a neighborhood) to toss a ball back and forth with some kids until they get the footage they need to run on the nightly news. And then they disappear until the next tragic event that they themselves cause.

It's frankly a transparent and insultingly stupid practice that needs to end.
 

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
yes that video made me cringe, hard, for exactly the reasons outlined in OP's quoted sections. glad to see i'm not alone.
 
No, it abso-fucking-lutely is not:



https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...y-to-the-war-on-crime-review-elizabeth-hinton

Creating a positive relationship with the community is antithetical to the job of policing, particularly in African-american communities. You can't have "positive relations" with a an occupying paramilitary force. This is that 'winning hearts and minds' nonsense all over again. Police use violence to maintain social control over black and Latino communities. Community outreach has been, and always will be, used as a non-violent means to pursue a violent goal.

Police need to stay the hell away from our children.

Bingo!

To really make things right, we need alternatives to the policing being done in this country and others.
 

Quonny

Member
"Feel good cop videos" are lazy propaganda. They're premeditated AstroTurf rolled out only after they're caught misbehaving. So instead of Officer Speed Trap filling his quota at the end of the month, they tell him to stop by a neighborhood (but not too poor of a neighborhood) to toss a ball back and forth with some kids until they get the footage they need to run on the nightly news. And then they disappear until the next tragic event that they themselves cause.

It's frankly a transparent and insultingly stupid practice that needs to end.

I mean, these videos have been around for years and years. I think it's a little unfair to lump them all together like that. I'm sure it happens, but meh. I remember watching these "feel good cop videos" 10 years ago. I view them more as a feel good story than a "wow look at these cops they're good people" story. Just good people doing good things, cops or not. The feel good videos don't sway my opinion of cops as a whole or anything. Just feel good stories.

That's all. But like I said, the icecream video is completely ridiculous and does the opposite of its intention.

But that hashtag response was p'good.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I think I used "victimized" wrong. I'm saying that a minority would more likely be a victim of police abuse.
A minority male, sure. I'm not sure a minority female is more likely to be the victim of police abuse relative to a white male. In terms of fearing for your life unarmed white males are approx 4 times as likely to be killed by a cop as an unarmed black woman going by thecounted stats.
 
Those cops that paid for a couple's meal because they didn't want to sit next to them was cheap propaganda.

The nation is going through a huge issue of police brutality, a topic that many people are having within their own communities, so if I am about to go out and this is a hot topic on my mind and I see a group of police I would ask not to be sat near them. It's simple. Whether or not I hold them to blame for all the "bad apples" there is no reason for me to discuss police brutality within earshot of them. Let me move, enjoy my meal, and pay for my own meal.
 

Pepboy

Member
No, it abso-fucking-lutely is not:

You can't have "positive relations" with a an occupying paramilitary force. This is that 'winning hearts and minds' nonsense all over again. Police use violence to maintain social control over black and Latino communities. Community outreach has been, and always will be, used as a non-violent means to pursue a violent goal.

Police need to stay the hell away from our children.

I'm honestly curious what / how you envision society to be like without this so called "occupying paramilitary force", or what you envision filling this role otherwise.
 
I saw that ice cream video yesterday and it finally hit me that I was seeing to many of these feel good cop stories. If it was me getting pulled over my heart would have been racing a million miles a minute it always does in that situation. Sure it ends in ice cream but that doesn't make the overall situation any better.
Cops need to work on improving community relations and moving to a more community oriented model without the cameras on.
 

stuminus3

Member
When I first saw that video I felt incredibly sad. The poor woman was terrified ("no... I mean, no, sir") and she clearly wasn't crying tears of joy when presented with an ice cream. I'm sure the video was made with good intentions but all it did for me was highlight the horrible truth.

I'm a middle aged white guy and that's how I saw it, I can't even imagine if I were black.
 
I'm honestly curious what / how you envision society to be like without this so called "occupying paramilitary force", or what you envision filling this role otherwise.

There are other forms of justice systems besides retributive. And there's plenty of research done about those alternative forms.
 
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