Trouble Finding Police Recruits? Cry Me An Effin' River

 The Philly Inquirer has an article today on the city’s problem with filling openings in its police department. Mike Neilon, spokesman for the FOP Lodge 5 (the union) said, “All of that coming together is creating some issues with finding the best and brightest to sign up to be Philadelphia police officers,” he said.

The problem MAY be that “the best and the brightest” don’t want to work in law enforcement, given the racism and hatred endemic in the field. “The best and the brightest,” more or less by definition, want to IMPROVE our country, not tear it apart.

In addition, current attempts to hold officers accountable for their illegal acts, and the efforts to remove the “qualified immunity” that shields them, coupled with the recent convictions of several officers who decided to take the law into their own hands, is scaring off the bullies and racists who would otherwise apply.

“Every action has a reaction. When you vilify every police officer for every bad police officer’s decision, (people) don’t want to take this job anymore,” said Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the state’s largest police union. 

And until the good cops start speaking out against the bad cops, society is going to continue to distrust ALL cops.

“It’s been a very trying and difficult time to put on the badge every day,” he added. Whether his difficulty is due to the criminal actions of his fellow officers, or the fear they may be held accountable is moot.

People do not trust the police anymore, and with good reason. The abuse of persons of color at the hands of the police has not diminished. It has, in fact, increased, especially after president trump implicitly approved of the violence and hatred in the field (remember when he urged cops not to be “too gentle” with arrestees?).

The refusal of the police hierarchy to hold officers accountable is also partially to blame. The refusal of department brass to control corrupt, violent, criminal officers, simply encourages misbehavior. Good cops standing with bad, to protect corrupt officers because of the “thin blue line” mentality further alienates the public.

The illegal activities of the cops are nothing new; almost 50 years ago, a young NYPD detective testified before the Knapp Commission, investigating police corruption in New York City, saying:

“The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist, in which an honest police officer can act ... without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated ... at higher levels in the department.” 

That detective had been shot in the face during a drug bust, possibly on the orders of his fellow officers, who were afraid of his belief that cops should follow the law, just like everybody else. The cop’s name, by the way, was Frank Serpico.

 

Drunks. Pfui.

I've had it with drunks.

I will not deal with them any more.

And I don't want to hear "alcoholism is a disease." No, it is NOT a disease, it is a choice. Nobody forces a person to drink. Nobody holds a gun to somebody's head and forces him to drink. A person gets up in the morning and pours himself a glass of orange juice. Adding vodka to the glass is a conscious choice.

Getting hammered every day is a conscious decision to avoid reality, to avoid life, and to avoid the consequences of one's actions.

I used to drink myself into a blind stupor on a regular basis, until I saw what it was doing to me, and what it was doing to those I loved. At that point, I made a conscious decision NOT to drink. And I have no superpowers. In fact, I probably have less willpower than most people. Yet I didn't need a twelve-step program, or sobriety coins, or any of that bullshit. I needed to start each day saying "I don't need to get smashed."

My father and both brothers were mean, nasty, vicious drunks, the kind who get drunk then look for excuses to start trouble.

My mother was less of an alcoholic, but an alcoholic nevertheless, in that she had a psychological addiction to alcohol. She never got falling-down drunk, but if she missed her one glass of wine at dinner, she was an absolute witch.

If you're a drunk, you can get out of my life now. I don't need your drama, your whining, your pleas for understanding. I don't need you trying to excuse your behavior by saying "I'm sick, I have an illness."

You don't have an illness. You are a weak, pathetic loser.

Facebook's Community Standards

 Apparently, under Facebook's "Community Standards," it is perfectly acceptable for far-right, antigovernment extremists to call for the lynching of the Vice President and the Speaker of the House during an attempted coup.

But calling for the arrest and conviction of the Senate Minority Leader "promotes violence."

I have a pretty good idea who reported it, and that person will be blocked.

Motor City Mayhem

 The Detroit Fire Department has had two DUI crashes involving on-duty personnel in one one week. In the first incident, an intoxicated firefighter drove his rescue truck into a parked car. In the second, a command officer was found in his FD Suburban, hanging off an overpass.

The driver of the rescue truck, by the way, had been to a retirement "dinner party" where alcohol was being served. And we know what fire department retirement parties are like.

The city has announced plans to address the issue (and, surprisingly, it wasn't "well, then, let's get started").

They're going to bolster their Employee Assistance Program, which they scaled back in response to Covid-19, believing, apparently, that a deadly pandemic, isolation, travel restrictions, and reduced staffing due to illness, wouldn't put any additional strain on firefighters.

Oops.

Here's another suggestion: the first time sometime is caught OUI on duty, immediate enrollment in an in-patient drug or alcohol rehab program, OR six-month unpaid suspension, no outside work authorization, no benefits.

Second offense, fire the person. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I see no reason why my tax dollars should pay for $600,000 vehicles so these IDIOTS can act like idiots. Every firefighter I know has responded to drunk-driving crashes. Why do they feel THEY are exempt, from their law and/or from the consequences of their actions?

Texas and Mi'sippi: Racing to the Shallow End of the Gene Pool

 Texas and Mi'sippi both lifted all Covid-related restrictions yesterday. The two governors, both slack-jawed drooling idiot trumpers, took their actions "to show America that we don't need smart people tellin' us what to do. Us goobers kin make up our own minds." The dynamic had a second factor, though, in Texas: distracting the gullible morons from realizing that the state's refusal to join the national power grid, or upgrade their generation and distribution infrastructure, are the main reason last week's storm devastated the Lone Tooth Star Republic.

In about three weeks, of course, we'll see huge spikes in Covid rates in both states. And it would be karma beyond karma if one or both governors died of Covid contracted after they lift restrictions.

Texas' refusal to accept the fact that it is but ONE state among fifty doesn't sit well with the local mindset. They continue to think that because they effectively choose school books for the entire country -- which is a scandal all it's own, considering the choices they're forced on the rest of us -- they should rule all other aspects of society as well.

I believe that, back in December, they passed a non-binding referendum allowing the state to secede from the Union.

Fine. Go. We can do without the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Now that Molly Ivins is dead, I don't see that Texas really brings anything to the table anyway. Like EVERY OTHER red state, Texas receives more money from the Federal government than they send in, meaning that blue states are effectively subsidizing their disdain for us.

At least Mi'sippi is smart enough -- barely -- to recognize that without huge infusions of Northern cash, their ante-bellum paradise would wither and die in about,,, oh, six months.

And if they DO secede, I don't see any need to send them any foreign aid, since they oppose it for others. And they can develop their own currency. And every piece of movable infrastructure down there should be moved north immediately. Build a giant wall along the border, which is what they've been begging for for the past five years anyway.

Ya wanna go? Fine. Go.

Isolation and Quarantine

 While doing some research on the issues involved with voluntary and involuntary isolation and quarantine, I ran across the case of Robert Daniels, a Russian who had been admitted into the US despite having a rare and highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis (TB). As a condition of entry, he agreed not to go out in public without a mask (sound familiar?), but got caught at a Maricopa County (AZ) convenience store without one. He was promptly tossed in the hoosegow, for NINE MONTHS.

"Like jailed inmates accused of crimes, Daniels is subjected to intrusive strip searches and he is unable to receive any visits from family and friends. He isn’t permitted to exercise or walk outside, and has no access to social or recreational activities like the Internet. He has been outside only once in the past nine months, and was shackled hand and foot. The lights in his cell are required to be kept on at night, and video cameras record his every move. He can’t see through the frosted windows in his room and wasn’t able to shower or call anyone until a few weeks ago." (1)

Bear in mind, Roberts wasn't being accused of being a mass murderer, or anything... he was a guy with a contagious disease.

"In its complaint, the ACLU argues that the county has failed to implement procedures on how to humanely quarantine sick patients for lengthy periods of time, and in an effort to cut costs deliberately failed to explore alternative locations in which to quarantine Daniels. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio(2) publicly stated that in the interest of security he would treat any person housed in the jail ward in the same manner as all other jail inmates."(3)

The ACLU went on to describe the compassionate medical treatment Roberts received:

" Like jailed inmates accused of crimes, Daniels is subjected to intrusive strip searches and he is unable to receive any visits from family and friends. He isn’t permitted to exercise or walk outside, and has no access to social or recreational activities like the Internet. He has been outside only once in the past nine months, and was shackled hand and foot. The lights in his cell are required to be kept on at night, and video cameras record his every move. He can’t see through the frosted windows in his room and wasn’t able to shower or call anyone until a few weeks ago."(4)

We ran into a similar situation here in Maine a few years, during the last Ebola scare here in the states. Kaci Hickox, a nurse who had worked with "Doctors Without Borders" in West Africa, was locked up, initially in New Jersey, on the orders of Governor Chris Christie (another trump supporter), and subsequently in Maine, on orders from Governor Paul LePage (yet another trumper... are you starting to see a pattern here?). Hickox sued in both cases, and won. Christie, by the way, claimed Hickox was positive for Ebola; she was not. (5)

"I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s private prison," Hickox said in a statement released through the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is representing her in the lawsuit.

"My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear," she said.(6)

This, of course, is standard operating procedure for the GOP: use fear if you don't have facts on your side. 

__________

1. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-arizona-sues-county-officials-over-inhumane-confinement-tb-patient, retrieved Mar 2, 2021

2. You remember Joe "Feed Them Green Bologna" Arpaio: he was pardoned by his good buddy trump after pissing off the Federal Courts by ignoring orders that his *COUNTY* deputies not engage in *FEDERAL* immigration enforcement.

3. Ibid

4. Ibid

5. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/kaci-hickox-maine-nurse-quarantined-ebola-scare-sues-new-jersey-n449491, retrieved Mar 2, 2021

6. Ibid

Texas. Because free-dumb

Texas governor Greg "Free-dumb" Abbott is lifting most of the orders he himself instituted to try to control Covid-19 in the Texas Republic, apparently because: Free-dumb. Abbott obviously succumbed to the prevalent Texas theory that thinking about others is being a "pussy" and a "libtard." Noted political writer Jim Wright ascribes this to the Texan mania for macho manly-man manliness, saying:

I'm not changing MY life! I'm not lettin' the gubmint control ME! I'm not gonna to wear a mask! I'm not getting the vaccine! Stay home if you're afraid of everything!

Fear is what defines you. It's your religion -- literally. It's baked right in: fear your god. Right? FEAR him.

You're afraid of everything.

Wright goes right down the list of everything the conservaturds are afraid of... and it's a LOOOOONG freaking list: race, sex, gender identification, immigration, religion, politics, science, the whole nine yards.

I Work With Idiots. And I Mean **IDIOTS**

[Edited to remove confusing formatting] 

The two trumpers working day shift showed up this morning at 6:30, as usual. They were talking politics, and from what I overheard (since they know better than to tell ME their bullshit):

Biden got caught selling the nuclear launch codes to the Chinese, so

• the Army cancelled the compromised codes
• gave Biden fake codes, and
• gave the "real" codes to trump, 
• since "he's technically still our president"

When I mentioned trump's meeting with Putin in Helsinki (when trump entered after being obviously taken to the woodshed by Putin), I was told trump looked sad, because he had to yell at our ally Putin

trump is going to run for the House in 2022, unless "the Army takes out" incumbent Rep Lois Frankel (who is a democrat)

Once he is a Congressman, he will be elected Speaker of the House by a unanimous* vote and

• he will impeach Biden and Harris by unanimous* votes and remove them, becoming President
• he will repeal the 22nd Amendment (presidential term limits) by Executive Order
• and "keep getting re-elected till he dies, and then Ivanka takes over"

Biden's use of Executive Orders "is completely illegal"

Biden "and that woman who claims to be black" are "still running their child sex ring from DC"

• I mentioned Epstein and was told the following:
• trump never met Epstein
• the picture of trump with Epstein was actually Biden, with trump's face photoshopped in
• trump is in the process of gathering the evidence that will "prove" the Clintons, Obamas, Bidens, and Harrises "are all known child killers after they rape the kids."

trump will outlaw all political parties but the GOP

"Then we get to kill all you fucking libs and take back our country"

__________

* I don't know how they think trump's going to get "unanimous" votes, unless the GOP executes all the Dems in the Senate and House. I'm sure the two fuckwads I work with would think that was a dandy solution.