From Five Before Midnight:
Which is a shame, because many studies done comparing female officers to male officers have favored the women, including those done on the issue of excessive force. In statistics provided for many larger law enforcement agencies, women comprise about 5% of complaints involving excessive force, 5% of citizen complaints and 2% of sustained complaints. Women engage in as many arrests as their male counterparts and do not hesitate to use force when necessary, but their rates of excessive force are far exceeded by male officers.
Financially, women are more cost-effective when it comes to civil litigation paid out by cities and counties in relation to excessive force, sexual assaults and domestic violence. Although nationally, women are outnumbered by about 6.5 to 1, in terms of law suits paid out, men outnumber women, anywhere from 20 to 40 to 1.
So the logical thing to do would be to hire more female officers, particularly as the department moves away from parimilitary style policing and continues to embrace Community Oriented Problem Solving policing. Yet, the numbers of female officers in the RPD will continue to lag behind those of men for a long time.
The entire post (which covers a lot more ground, including a discussion of the harassment female officers have faced) is fascinating. The comments are also very impressive; blogger Mary (aka Radfem) does a great job responding to some very belligerant cops who post anonymously.
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It would be helpful if your excerpt included, or was prefixed by, the preportion of female officers relative to the other percentages. All that info is in the linked post.
Thanks for your nice comments, amp.
After the stress of the past several days, it’s nice to hear them. There’s been such an uproar over my blog. The department’s launched an internal investigation into it, to try to determine who the police officers are. Our agency is under a stipulated agreement with the state AG’s office that is almost over, so that complicates the situation. I’ve talked to someone working on that.
Everyone’s very upset. But basically, they are upset that someone’s noticed that pile of dirt in the corner that they didn’t sweep.
The daily newspaper’s editor asked me through a reporter why I stirred the pot, and why I responded to the comments, and I said if someone said that to me on the street, I would respond back, would want to know where there thinking was coming from. And these are people who carry guns and exercise a lot of discretionary powers.
It made me think that the racism, sexism and homophobia that these unknown officers have expressed throughout, is less important than the troublemaker. (which in my very conservative corner of the world, I have a reputation for being.)
The department is about 9% female and that percentage for a while was shrinking, because the number of female officers hired was not keeping pace with the number of male officers hired. That percentage is about half of the national average which has been frozen btwn 16-18% for a while.
Among the female officers, over 75% of them are White. Women of color make up slightly less than 1% of the entire department.
We have one female lieutenant/21 positions, five female sergeants(with a recent promotion) out of at least 57 positions and four female detectives. The highest ranking female officer in the department’s history was a deputy chief who retired several years ago. Women of color in the department have reached the detective level.
Retention of women is awful in this department, the only group that has worst retention is Asian-American men. That quote by the officer who used to train them was one that someone told me about in 2002-2003, after the officer had just complained about a female officer who was “too slow”.
I have been vocal in urging that more women are hired and the department create a more hospitable environment for them, and promote fairly. As you can see from some of my visitors, doing so means that I am endangering the public. As if the police chief would do anything b/c I told him to!
Promoting women is still quite arduous. The example given(in a matter of speaking) involving the lieutenant who was demoted. I’m not sure of the story around that beyond what the officer said, and I have really tried to find out, even contacting the public defender to find out more information on the mentally ill man. He never contacted me back.
But the lieutenant faced a no-win situation anyway. She was promoted from officer to lieutenant in four years, which is too quick and doesn’t allow the officer to really learn to do each position and gain critical experience before they are moved onto the next. You’re set up to fail, and then what do they say? Do they say, women can not hack it?
But if it is true she did something wrong as alleged, she should have been fired, not demoted. (One of the officers’ criticisms is that I pick on only White male officers) but looking through the viewpoints of those who have written these comments, is just so difficult because their perceptions on things like race and gender are so backward. I guess it’s that line of thinking that led to a round of reverse discrimination suits a few years ago.
Interestingly, I forwarded some of the posts on this blog to women from several different organziations, The National Center of Women and Policing(under the umbrella of Feminist Majority) and the International Assn of Women Police. They were not surprised at the comments but very dismayed. They picked up on one of the officer’s boast about slapping people down on the ground, as a sign that it might be a person with a history of excessive force incidents.
Wow, radfem, i’m so sorry you have to deal with all that disgusting crap on your blog! I was shocked at the shit those “closeted cops” were saying. You are very brave to do what you do.
Just because female police officers are less likely to use excessive force than men doesn’t mean they are necessarily better cops. Some people need to get their ass kicked by the police.
Andrew, I think perhaps you don’t really understand what the phrase “excessive force” means. By definition, if it’s necessary, it’s not excessive.
—Myca
Today’s newspaper:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_blog23.14c15152.html
Harsh messages to blog has chief’s eye on officers
06:59 AM PST on Friday, December 23, 2005
By LISA O’NEILL HILL / The Press-Enterprise
Seven years after the Tyisha Miller shooting exposed racism within the Riverside Police Department, the department has opened an investigation into whether any police employees recently posted racist and sexist messages on an Internet site operated by a reporter with The Black Voice News.
Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach said he has determined that three or four employees, including sworn officers, accessed the Web site. He said his investigators have not yet determined whether postings were written from city computers or who wrote them.
On the blog, people purporting to be officers share information about personnel investigations, deride female officers and dehumanize residents of minority neighborhoods in the racially diverse city.
“The average reader, one with moral conscience, is going to say this is some disgusting stuff,” said Leach, who was alerted to the Web site’s existence by several officers upset by the posted comments. “And whether it has RPD fingerprints on it or not, it’s still disgusting.”
Discovery of the Internet postings comes just months before the Riverside Police Department is scheduled to emerge from a court-ordered reform plan, prompted by the Miller shooting.
The plan mandated certain changes, including the presence of cameras in the roll-call room, more diversity and cultural-sensitivity training and the assigning of more-experienced officers on all shifts. The department also must make periodic progress reports to the state attorney general’s office.
‘Continuous Oversight’
Blogs, short for Web logs, are increasingly popular public Internet sites where users can post journals and opinions.
Activist and Black Voice reporter Mary Shelton established the blog in April and says on the site that it is dedicated to “continuous oversight” of the Riverside Police Department. She expresses concern about police reform and officer-involved shootings and shares her views on, among other things, Riverside’s civilian review board.
Shelton was active in protests held in the wake of Miller’s death and continues to speak at City Council and other meetings on police issues. The Black Voice News is a Riverside-based weekly that was established in 1972.
Shelton, who is white, said she started the site as a “private thing” and had the address blocked so it’s not easily found through an Internet search. She said she was surprised when people who appeared to be officers began posting comments.
Shelton, who uses the name “Five Before Midnight,” said she responds to them because she wants to understand them. “I’m interested in why people act that way.”
Many who respond to her postings do so anonymously; others use names such as “Starsky” and “Serpico.”
“I pray that someday, in a beautifully poetic example of justice, you, or better yet, someone you love is the victim of a brutal violent crime. The suspect will undoubtedly be one of the worthless parole animals that walk the ‘U’ [University Avenue] near where you live,” one writer, who identified himself as “Kevin, R.P.D,” wrote in response to a posting from Shelton. “One of the animals who you glorify in all of your propaganda, who are constantly ‘harrassed’ [sic] by the horrible RPD.
“How about we leave the East Side to who should really patrolling it … Animal Control.”
One post advised Shelton to refrain from calling the police if she ever needs help. Other posts make references to “aunt jamima” and “The Japanese Police Officer’s Association.”
“It’s somewhat intimidating that somebody would pray that something terrible would happen to you,” Shelton said.
Now, she said, when she sees a patrol car pass, “I’m kind of looking at them and thinking, ‘Is it this person? Is it that person?’ ”
One post derides female officers.
“Unfortunately because of people like you crying about the number of female officers on the street, the department has made the situation worse by tenderly helping certain females through training by placing them with FTO’s [field training officers] that are not proactive,” the post reads. “Instead of having these females working the Eastside arresting parolees or chasing down “gangsters” in the Arlanza area they are gingerly driving around taking their safe little report calls.”
Earlier Racial Remarks
Leach said some of the comments on the blog are similar in tone to those overheard after four white officers fatally shot Miller, a 19-year-old black woman, on Dec. 28, 1998. None of the officers who shot Miller was accused of making racial remarks, but other officers made jokes about “Kwanzaa,” compared her family’s cries of grief to “Watts death wails” and made other comments.
Miller, of Rubidoux, was fatally shot after four officers found her unresponsive with a gun on her lap inside a locked and idling car at a Riverside gas station. The officers tried to rouse Miller, then broke a window to grab the weapon. The officers said they fired in self-defense when Miller reached for the gun.
Leach said his department is taking the postings on the blog — rivercitycopwatch.blogspot. com — very seriously.
“It’s the same stuff that not only the attorney general’s office looked at but the U.S. Department of Justice,” he said.
State’s Monitor Is Watching
After the Miller shooting, the state attorney general’s office placed the department under a five-year, court-ordered reform agreement, which is set to expire in March.
Joe Brann, the special consultant who is monitoring the reforms on behalf of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said he is concerned about some of the statements, which reflect poor judgment. But it won’t necessarily throw a monkey wrench into the department’s ability to get out from under the reform agreement, Braun said.
“Frankly, what I am most interested in is how this department responds to it and deals with it,” Brann said.
Brann said the postings do not reflect a lack of progress in the department.
“It’s quite apparent a lot has changed, because previously, you would have had individuals who said, ‘Gee, I may not like it, but it’s not a big deal.’ It is of grave concern to people in the organization.
“I would caution anybody to be careful about making statements that are overreaching … The fact that the department has and is responding is a sign that a lot of changed,” Brann said.
City Leaders Voice Concern
News of the racially charged postings on the blog concerned several city leaders, who were unaware of the internal police investigation.
“Oh, boy,” Councilman Ameal Moore said when a reporter read the “animal control” posting to him.
“If that is coming from someone in the department, it is a sad day in Riverside,” he said. “I would hate to think we have minds of that sort policing our streets.”
Moore, whose council ward includes the city’s predominantly Hispanic and black Eastside neighborhood, said the department has made tremendous strides since the Miller shooting to eradicate bigotry from the ranks.
“It’s only that few on the force that mess up the whole thing for everybody,” said Moore, adding that if the investigation finds Riverside police officers or workers are responsible for some of the derogatory postings, “they should be removed instantly” from city employment.
Councilman Steve Adams, a former Riverside police officer, said the comments are inappropriate.
“A couple of idiots can make everybody look bad,” Adams said. “If this is happening, it needs to stop. It’s juvenile. It’s not funny.”
Mary Figueroa, a Riverside Community College District trustee and an Eastside native, said she was not surprised by the tone of the blog postings.
“I think that that’s an unfortunate example of what is actually out there,” Figueroa said. “And I honestly do believe it has hindered our ability to do some of the progress we need to do within the community. The bottom line is, in any situation, you are going to have bad apples.”
Figueroa said once people are aware of situations such as this, it is up to the community to eradicate it.
Riverside lawyer Katie Greene, a member of an association of black business leaders called The Group, said the Police Department must vigorously investigate any allegations of racial insensitivity, which may reveal that attitudes have not changed in the years since Tyisha Miller died.
“It concerns me if we have that type of attitude in our most livable city,” Greene said. “If, indeed, it is police officers who are connected with that, that doesn’t bode well for our city.”
Officers Alerted Chief
Leach said he first learned about the postings from some of his officers, who were troubled by what they had seen.
“More than a few officers brought it to my attention, which I’m grateful for,” he said.
Investigators have been monitoring the blog, Leach said.
He said he recently received a list of people who had accessed the site since October. In addition to the names of the detectives Leach had authorized to check on it, the list bore the names of “less than a handful” of other Police Department employees.
Leach said he has discussed the contents of the blog with his command staff and with representatives of the Riverside Police Officers’ Association.
Internal-affairs and intelligence investigators have reviewed blog postings from September to mid-December and have sorted out comments that refer to personnel issues and others that are potentially racist or sexist.
Employees who are found to have engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer, violated personnel rules or committed other offenses could face penalties up to and including termination, the chief said.
“Nothing has been substantiated, but the fact is somebody knows a lot about some past and some current investigations, and we’ve determined through the first part of the investigation the people who have accessed it,” Leach said.
One writer on the blog appears to warn others to stop posting comments.
“Hey boys, just keep in mind there could be many other ‘good dudes’ brought into these incidents you are laying out here in public,” the post says. “… This is not the forum to be throwing our own under the bus … no matter who they are.”
Staff writers Michael Fisher, Sarah Burge and Douglas Haberman contributed to this report.
Andrew,
Excessive force is any force that is outside the standard set in departmental policy. For example, if you have to use force to handcuff someone that is resisting, you can use the amount of force a reasonable person would determine is necessary to accomplish that. A more obvious example of excessive force is if you handcuff someone, then hit them.
There is also legal standards for use of force under the penal code.
No one “needs” to get their ass kicked by anyone, ever.
Professional law enforcement officers are required to use physical force when necessary to take custody and control of a perp. Not to punish a perp when they struggle against being taken into custody and control.
One of the many reasons we teach unarmed defensive tactics with partners instead of dummies is because it often hurts to be put up against the wall and spread ’em. When people get hurt they often get mad. Slinging each other around the training floor helps us learn how not to get mad when we are hurt. While women do indeed feel pain just as men do, we do not react to pain the same way men do. Nor do we react to adrenalin the same way men do. These are the things that account for the excessive force statistics.
While some agencies are perhaps moving away from the paramilitary structure I do not think they are doing so willingly.
I surely thought we would be a lot further along getting rid of the patriarchy by now. I suppose it’s because you can’t reason people out of a position they didn’t reason themselves in to.
Can you support this claim?
I went over to the Five Before Midnight site and read all the comments. Yikes and a half.
Some of them remind of the cops I knew in the Deep South during the 1960s. We were all animals to them. The advantage they had over the current generation was that the law was on their side. They could “kick ass” with impunity, beat suspects on the street, coerce confessions and tell racist jokes during the booking procedure, and if a few of them actually showed up in sheets for a lynching, well, that was OK, too.
“And some people need to get their ass kicked….”
And don’t think the female officer can’t do it, either. I watched a 5’3″ cute-as-a-button-type female officer take down a 6’2″ mean drunk so fast it was actually funny. She didn’t really hurt him but he knew she could have.
In our county we often partner up a smaller female officer with the biggest dude we can find but sometimes the good cop / bad cop thing goes the exact opposite that you think it would. The big cop will go over and say, “Brother, I’m mean…but she’s flat scary.” (Cue evil female smile). Works wonders.
Female officers are very effective for that very reason. I know that it plays into stereotype, but women when trained are as capable of inflicting serious physical damage when needed.
I was an EMT for several years, and among our medics were several women that were retired military MPs. Those ladies could be downright frightening when the situation warranted it. I’ve also seen “the good old boy” attitude among many of our officers locally. The sad thing is that for every bad cop in our local office there are two good ones. The misygynistic, racist police officers give the entire department a bad name.
The same thing applies in our Parish Fire Department, where I was told not to apply because I’d have to grow a penis to be hired. I tested for City Fire and passed the physical and written tests. There was no “easier” test for the female applicants. In firefighting and EMS the physical rigors are strenous, so the tests are demanding but not impossible. I took a position with our EMS provider over the fire department, and salary and benefits were the main reason. Our fire fighters barely make what first year teachers in the south make. But, that is a subject for another discussion.
Thanks rose for your post.
I agree that I don’t think that police agencies are trying to move away from the paramilitary structure willingly. Some are doing it under court-mandated reforms(i.e. consent decrees) and even then slowly, or very slowly.(i.e. LAPD).
What I noticed is that there’s this all or nothing among police with minority neighborhoods. Either they bring in the troops or the tanks(metaphorically speaking, sometimes) or they aren’t there at all. That’s paramilitary structure in place. There’s more of an emphasis on community policing or COPs style policing, but I wonder if most agencies even know what that means, or entails. It’s often viewed with hostility though.
The statistics offered do not support the contention. Contrary to the argument made, the real measure of “better cops” is this: lower crime and less harm to the public and police. Neither the subject of injury to the officers, nor the subject of how truly effective the female officers are in lowering crime, are addressed.
Also, the argument begs the questions of are the “as many arrests” being made solely by single female officers, pairs of female officers, or mixed pairs? Do the female officers escalate more quickly to using weapons than male officers? In doing so, have they jumped beyond the “minimum force necessary” standard, while not venturing into excessive force? Yes, there can be a wide zone in there. Are the female officers beneficiaries of the patriarchial training “don’t hit a woman”, resulting in less frequent escalation by the “perps”? If so, will “females be better cops” when the patriarchy is abolished?
To support the argument being made, it would be necessary to set up divisions or entire departments that are composed solely of one gender, in areas and/or cities that have similar geo-social characteristics, and then monitor the experiment over time. Without that, the argument is merely a polemic.
Radfem, I remember reading long ago, somewhere, that one of the reasons female officers are sometimes more effective than males is they are better at stabalizing situations, getting things calm so force is less necessary in the first place. Is there any truth to that?
“Are the female officers beneficiaries of the patriarchial training “don’t hit a woman”, resulting in less frequent escalation by the “perps”? If so, will “females be better cops” when the patriarchy is abolished?”
I’m afraid that once the patriarchy is abolished and men feel free to hit women, this benefit will be lost.
Wait…
Yeah, Elena, I believe my immediate response to that post of BikerDad’s was, “Well, we could find out.” That and, “Boy, I’m worried about that possibility”.
I’m also thinking that, even if crime rates remained the same, fewer injuries to suspects would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?
You know, the idea that a female officer cannot perform the same task as a male officer is kind of a no brainer observation. It’s true… but then, so is the opposite. And at least one police force (the Vancover, Canada, PD) have taken advantage of the difference – and the differing /effect/ men and women have on situations to wicked effect.
Domestic violence calls are some of the most dangerous calls of all. But they’ve come up with a wickedly effective way to defuse these situations – they pick the tiniest female cop they can find, one with really, really good communications and interrogation skills – and back her up with the biggest, most sterotpically alpha male type they can find. His job is to look extremly aware – and dangerous. Her job is to be cute – and politiely implacable. They give these girls the largest handgun they can plausibly lift, and they ask all the questions – good cop and bad. Bad cop just stands there, perhaps grunting for emphisis here and there.
It would be comical if it the psycology were not so devistaingly effective, and there is no question if you have the fortune, or misfortune of witnessing such a team in action, of what a truly effective team they can be.
Oh, and they don’t tend to get shot, and tend to resolve such situations without incident.
Which is not to say that either stereotype I portray is true of either actual person. But they are playing to, and upon, the hindbrains and preconceptions of – well, people who are pretty vulnerable to that sort of manipulation.
Although I’ll attest (since my involvement was an occasion of no shame at all to me) that not being subject to that sort of low minded manipulation didn’t help a bit. I could tell they were each catching things the other probably wouldn’t.
So anyone arguing that women have no place in police work is emperically idiotic from my pov. They save lives every day, often by NOT being men.
Rachel Ann, I’ve read the same information, and I think that it comes down to in many cases the different ways men and women are socialized to behave in society. As women, we tend to(even if not always by choice) engage in negotiation or mediation to resolve conflicts. Men tend to try to direct, or take charge. It sounds stereotypical, but there’s truth to it, b/c of the rigid gender rules set up under a patriarchal society. If this society changes, then there will be characteristics of both seen by both men and women, but both have to be seen as acceptable options and in a sexist society, guess which behaviors are rewarded and which are not? And that would apply to LE agencies as well, because many of them are the patriarchal society magnified a few times.
Different behavior work in different situations and what Bob King said in his post is true. I’ve heard similiar accounts involving LE agencies in different countries, in regard to handling DV calls. They instituted this strategy in large part b/c DV or “family disturbance” calls are among the most dangerous to handle. A smart agency utilizes what strategies work to both handle the situation without resorting to violating policies including the use of force policy and to keep its officers as safe as possible, but that takes good leadership.
In regards to Biker Dad’s questions, several of the studies done compared arrest rates and use of force rates and found male and female officers to be comparable in terms of those numbers. The rest of the information depends on the agencies. They are interesting questions. Most departments keep records on incidents pertaining to use of force, though they might differ in terms of what their threshold is in terms of incidents reported.
Use of force/defensive tactics training is often specialized to each person, based largely on their size and skills. Smaller women may be trained to rely on baton use, but then again, there are smaller men who may do so as well.
It’s more than any patriarchal rule not to hit women though. First of all, a lot of these men don’t follow those rules. Female officers do get attacked like their men counterparts. It might have to do with women’s communicative skills as well.
Yes, it is a good thing. To the community, because many agencies which have problems with officers using excessive force against different groups of people often have that problem start with groups of people, i.e. parolees, homeless that most of the public doesn’t care if it happens to them. Considering how violent parolees can be, there’s a temptation to agree with it, among people. But the problem is, excessive force that is not checked there will spread elsewhere.
It’s good for cities and counties in terms of financial liability. Less excessive force, less law suits for excessive force and most of the law suits filed against police are for excessive force and vehicle pursuits/accidents.
Usually, one of the standards people look for in police officers as a good benchmark is a high number of arrests and low number of complaints, assuming there’s a good complaint system in place(and in many places, there isn’t.)
Red flags in le officers: (Source: National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives(NOBLE)
1) high number of complaints
2)high number of excessive force complaints
3) high number of resisting arrest/battery of an officers charges involving suspects this officer encounters
4) arrests/seizures of evidence/ thrown out by judges
5) negative attitude towards neighborhoods/community policing
I have worked very closely with cops throughout my legal career, both as a prosecutor and as a civil defense attorney working on behalf of towns and police departments.
The single most damaging and dangerous mistake I see cops make is to engage in “pissing matches” with suspects and other people they meet on the street. Trading insults or engaging in little power plays has several effects: (1) it can escalate an already dangerous situation; (2) it can lead to resentment of a specific cop which increases the likelihood that a civil suit will be filed, whether it is justified or not; (3) or it can lead to a general resentment among the general public, which kind of sucks when you want the jurors in a case to believe and sympathize with your cops in a criminal prosecution or a civil rights trial. I agree that, due to socialization, male cops are more likely to engage in petty one-up-manship, although female cops aren’t exactly immune.
Often the culture of a particular department encourages this macho, gunslinging attitude. More disturbingly, however, I think our larger culture in America encourages it too. Shows like “Law and Order,” “Cops,” and “NYPD Blue,” glorify bullying by cops. It seems that both cops and average Americans accept that cops have a right to engage in bullying behavior or that bullying is the ONLY means to accomplish the unquestionably difficult work cops have before them.
I agree with what you wrote, Happy Feminist.
I think it is a mistake to go down the “female cops are better” road. It’s a little hypocritical to point out supposed gender differences when it benefits women, then get upset when they are used against us (as in the case of Larry Summers). We are all individuals. Cops shouldn’t be judged on the basis of how MOST female cops and MOST male cops perform. Isn’t that gender profiling? Doesn’t that erase individuality?
If these figures given in the previous postings are correct, then there are not enough female police officers – this should be changed and for sure no taxpayer will object the idea, to see more police out in the streets. More female police officers does not mean, that male officers should be dismissed.
There are no better female cops and there are no better male cops. I think, some people, regardless to gender or race, are more qualified to do this or that job and some others are not.
I do not think, it has anything to do with feminist or men’s rights issues.
Police needs an overall better management for its personnel department, which is totally outdated and which should be reorganized urgently to catch up with a modern society.
I think you have a personal agenda on this one… Read another view in the following…
“The U.S. Department of Justice regularly performs comprehensive surveys of state and local law enforcement agencies, collected in volumes called “Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics.”
The inestimable economist John Lott has looked at the actual data. (And I’ll give you the citation! John R. Lott Jr., “Does a Helping Hand Put Others at Risk? Affirmative Action, Police Departments and Crime,” Economic Inquiry, April 1, 2000.)
It turns out that, far from “de-escalating force” through their superior listening skills, female law enforcement officers vastly are more likely to shoot civilians than their male counterparts. (Especially when perps won’t reveal where they bought a particularly darling pair of shoes.)
Unable to use intermediate force, like a bop on the nose, female officers quickly go to fatal force. According to Lott’s analysis, each 1 percent increase in the number of white female officers in a police force increases the number of shootings of civilians by 2.7 percent.
Adding males to a police force decreases the number of civilians accidentally shot by police. Adding black males decreases civilian shootings by police even more. By contrast, adding white female officers increases accidental shootings. (And for my Handgun Control Inc. readers: Private citizens are much less likely to accidentally shoot someone than are the police, presumably because they do not have to approach the suspect and make an arrest.) ”
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter031705.asp
You actually just quoted Ann Coulter quoting
Mary RoshJohn Lott?And you did it without sarcasm?
And your keyboard didn’t, like . . . burst into flames from the concentrated evil?
That’s it. Clearly the internet is broken.
There’s a followup to this piece earlier this month because sexism never takes a day off.
Hiding in Plain Sight: The sexual harassment law suit. includes information about a law suit filed by a police cadet turned officer who graduated 21st out of 70 in her class yet was fired her first day of work allegedly for filing a sexual harassment complaint in the academy. In her law suit, she asked why she was being terminated and they said they didn’t like her and didn’t have to tell her.
I talked to some experts who said that this chain of events unfortunately isn’t uncommon. No matter what they tell you, if you are sexually harassed in a police academy and “suck it up” as they tell you, you may still have a career, but if you actually complain under their sexual harassment policy, you’re pretty much done. The academy supervisor who investigated the allegation then wrote the cadet a poor evaluation. The police department likely was serving as a gatekeeper. The last thing it wants is a woman who’s already complained about sexism to come into an environment clearly still steeped in it. She’s a known troublemaker.
Look, Cops are bullying fascist scum across the board. The real reason someone would join the force is that they like manhandling people, wielding authority, and inspiring fear. These people otherwise would be excellent for running the electric chair. Or the gas chamber. I can’t believe that anyone who is “progressive”, would support them. If you are a “leftie” who does, please leave and go join the right wing. I don’t want you in my ideology. A peace activist was arrested for riding a bike on the street. An unarmed immigrant is shot by the cops after they thought he was reaching for a gun. There are so many more stories like this, I can tell you about. This is not a case of a few bad apples. This is more commonplace everyday. Don’t fall for the “protect and serve” crap. More things are becoming illegal every day, so more and more average people can get shafted, and the injustice sysytem can economically profit. Wake up, America. You are living in a corporate police state, where eventually the only truly legal you can do is shop. You could be turned in by a neighbor who doesn’t like you even if you did nothing bad. Oh, wait, sorry, I think we are there already. What is wrong with some of you liberals who support taking guns away from citizens, but you still want the government to have guns so that they can “protect” you. Those who believe that “safety” is more important than freedom! I’m not saying this to be mean, but I’m saddened and scared by the direction this country is taken. We all deserve better than that.
Excellent points, Mike. And those running our government right now are causing so many problems for us to deal with. America is a police state, with shredded civil liberties, and the potential for ID cards. I’m not sure what to do about it.