What Cop T-Shirts Tell Us About Police Culture Posted: 06/21/2013 3:00 pm EDT | Updated: 06/22/2013 10:55 pm EDT
Earlier this week, an anonymous public defender sent Gothamist this photo of an NYPD warrant squad officer wearing a t-shirt with a pretty disturbing quote from Ernest Hemingway:
The Village Voice reports that the quote was also printed on t-shirts worn by NYPD's infamous Street Crimes Unit, which was disbanded after shooting unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo 41 times in 1999 as Diallo reached for his wallet.
In 2008, the Denver police union was caught selling these shirts in advance of the Democratic National Convention, and the accompanying protests the city was expecting:
In the late 2000s, Daytona Beach, Florida, Police Chief Mike Chitwood sold t-shirts depicting his department as a "scumbag eradication team." Proceeds from the shirts went to fund a mentor program for teens who want to become cops.
More recently, the San Jose, California PD's tactical unit (McNamara retired in the 1990s) has received criticism for printing up shirts with this logo:
This comment thread at the online police forum PoliceLink has more examples of t-shirts the law enforcement commenters found amusing. Among the comments:
-- "In God we trust, all others get searched,"
-- "A picture of an electric chair with the caption: JUSTICE: Regular or Crispy"
-- "B.D.R.T Baby Daddy Removal Team on the back and the initials on front with handcuffs. You should see peoples faces when I wear it....HAHAHAHA"
-- "Human trash collector. ( above a pair of handcuffs )"
-- "Take No Guff, Cut No Slack, Hook'em, Book'em and Don't Look Back!"
-- "'Boys on the Hood' Pic had two gangbangers jacked up on the hood of a patrol car with two officers."
-- "SWAT T-shirt: 'Happiness is getting the green light!'"
-- "I have one that sates "SWAT SNIPER" on the front and on back it has a picure of a "terrorist" with a shell ripping through his skull and the "pink mist" spraying from the back of his head. Below the picture it reads, "Guerillas in the mist".
-- "Save the police time, beat yourself up"
-- "An ounce of prevention is fine and dandy........ But we prefer 168 grains of cure."
-- "Be good or you might get a visit from the bullet fairy."
-- "Sniper - When you only have 1 shot at an opportunity......We'll make it count"
-- "Law Enforcement......Helping perps slip down stairs since 1766"
-- "Math for Cops.........2 to the chest + 1 to the head = problem solved"
-- "I had a couple of 'em a loooong time ago....1 showed a cop leaning on his rather long nightstick, saying "Police Brutality....the fun part of policework."......obviously not very PC....another was a picture of a LEO with smoke coming from the muzzle of his pistol, with a badguy falling backwards (lookin' like swiss cheese) with the caption.....The best action is OVERREACTION....also not very PC...."
-- "Cops make good roommates...they're used to taking out the trash."
-- "There was also one I saw where there was a big burly looking Sarge behind his desk and the cation read 'It doesn't say kindness and sympathy on the badge.'"
-- "happiness is a confirmed kill"
-- "Park Ranger T-shirt: One of funniest I ever saw: Picture of Smokey the Bear with Riot Gear and he's just poked a protester in the chest with a riot baton. The Caption Reads: "Smokey Don't Play That". Funny!"
-- "My Daddy can Taser your Daddy"
-- "School Patrol - You fail em, we jail em"
-- "Got one that says, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted and used against you."
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
If they were made for jokes I wouldn't mind but we know this isn't the case for many on the force. Reason being they wouldn't have made them if there wasn't some truth to them.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
In defense of cops, if we went to work every day in places like Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill, and dealt with what they do, we would probably develop the same us against them mentality. Look at me, I used to be a good Christian woman, the antics of McCheese and cronies makes me so disgusted it's becoming toxic to my character. The Village Voice and Huffington Post want to have it both ways, they support intrusive big government and a police state to a point. They also support having designated "kinds" of people who are deserving of special or different treatment. The welfare state as it exists now is corrosive to society and it also masks what is happening with this country in terms of globalism and corporatism. They want cops to go in and do an impossible job, keep the people at the bottom quiet. Look at Egypt, look at Brazil, there is widespread dissatisfaction and rioting erupting around the world.
Illegal Police Department Activity Threaten to Bankrupt Counties Nationwide
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:09 0 (Before It's News)
The Truth Behind The News
Susanne Posel Occupy Corporatism February 7, 2013
Local police departments (LPDs) across the nation are incorporated as specialized non-profits. Most LPDs are known to the Secretary of State in their respective state as an association which gives the impression to the average citizen that this is a union. However this is not the case.
The LPDs are contracted by the City Council to preform police services and securitize the city they are hired in. This is the exchange of a local government hiring a private security firm to stabilize the local population and generate revenue for the city through tickets, arrests and recording infractions. However, this does not include upholding local laws, as the County Sheriff’s Office is elected to take charge of.
The problem with this system is that the LPDs, being corporations, are subject to corporate law. And corporations fall into dissolution (i.e. the termination of the corporation) for various reasons quite often. When it is the LPD that dissolves; this becomes a question of legal authority over the citizens by the hired private security firm known as the LPD.
Corporations that dissolve are not allowed by law to conduct business. These same rules apply to the LPD that is actually a corporation hired by the local government or city council to preform police services.
For example, in the State of Oregon, over 12 LPDs are in dissolution. On the Secretary of State website, when a LPD is dissolved it is classified as “INA” or inactive. This includes LPDs in the following cities:
• Beaverton • Canby • Charleston • Eugene • Gresham • King County • Lake Oswego • Lebanon • Portland • Sherwood • Weston
According to corporate law, if a corporation dissolves, it must withdraw as a business entity. This means that once the LPD is dissolved, they cannot continue to perform police services for the city in which they were hired.
And in fact, should this be brought to the public, it might be common place (as it is in the State of Oregon) that LPDs are in dissolution and not legally allowed to conduct police services because they lack legal authority as a dissolved corporation.
It also stands that the local governments that are privy to this information would be involved in not only egregious corruption but are knowingly misleading the citizens of their towns and cities. Once the LPD is dissolved, from the date of dissolution, any arrest, ticket, or police service preformed is now an illegal act. It is tantamount to a citizen impersonating a police officer which as serious legal ramifications.
Should citizens become aware of this fact in their city – that their LPD is a corporation that has dissolved and is continuing to operate as if they have legal right to do so – there would be justified legal recourse for every citizen who had been arrested, jailed, forced to pay a ticket of any kind and forced to appear in municipal court under those circumstances (including court costs, attorney’s fees and fees attributed by the court).
In 2012, Louis F. Quijas, Assistant Secretary of the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (OSLLE), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the purpose of the OSLLE as a front “office that provided coordination and partnership with state, local, and tribal law enforcement.”
The OSLLE was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It was created to “lead the coordination of DHS-wide policies relating to state, local, and tribal law enforcement’s role in preventing acts of terrorism and to serve as the primary liaison between non-Federal law enforcement agencies across the country and the Department.”
Intelligence is disseminated through OSLLE to LPDs or “non-Federal law enforcement partners” to keep information flowing through initiatives such as the “If You See Something, Say Something™”, the Blue Campaign, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), and the Department’s efforts in Countering Violent Extremism.
OSLLE consistently works with LPDs on education, actionable information, operations and intelligence for the purpose of their part in the operations of the DHS with regard to keeping “our homeland safe”.
OSLLE also works as a liaison between LPDs to maintain DHS leadership and considerations of “issues, concerns, and requirements of state, local, and tribal law enforcement during budget, grant, and policy development processes.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) upholds relationships with LPDs for the purposes of and participation with National Preparedness Grant Program that began this year.
To ensure that local police departments continue to meet the requirements of training from DHS, officers regularly attend the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia.
LPDs are focused through OSLLE and DHS to “remain vigilant and to protect our communities from all threats, whether terrorism or other criminal activities” as DHS expands its control over local law enforcement and the communities they oversee.
As stated in the DHS directive from the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (SLLE), the assistant Secretary for SLLE has “the primary official responsible for leading the coordination of Department-wide policies related to the role of state, tribal, and local law enforcement in preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man- made disasters within the US.”
This directive also sets guidelines of advocacy for DHS by the LPDs. Authorization of DHS to take over LPDs is given in Title 6 of the United States Code, Section 607, “Terrorism prevention”.
In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that LPD “make up more than two-thirds of the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the US” which translates to an estimated 12,501 law enforcement agencies. Of those LPDs, there are more than 461,000 sworn officers.
Last year President Obama signed an executive order (EO) that created the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee which tied DHS to local partnerships, federal and private institutions “to address homeland security challenges.”
Members of the Steering Committee include:
• Department of State • Department of US Treasury • Department of Defense • Department of Justice • Department of Transportation • Department of Veterans Affairs • The Federal Bureau of Investigations
In 2011, Congress encouraged private sector “police companies” to replace law enforcement on the State and local level by coercing a new police protection insurance that would tack on a fee to citizens for the use of “police protection”.
This move was justified by having citizens pay for the police to be called to scenes as a “communal service” that is contractual just as any other service or good is paid for. As a customer, the citizen would tell 911 dispatch their insurance information for payment purposes to be billed after the police were deployed to the scene, or services were rendered.
Turning LPDs into private security firms that provide services to the public was the scheme behind privatizing law enforcement.
Under state government contract, private security firms preform law enforcement services. With legislative bodies on both the state and Congressional level supporting this change, private corporations enter into contractual agreements with city councils to provide armed security patrol. Just as a rent-a-cop is hired to secure private property, local police departments are masked rent-a-cops that were hired by local government to secure their city.
This fact has been hidden from public scrutiny and has added to the blending of social perception of what the police are and what they do so that police services are able to function without question. At the same time, citizens are expected to pay fees for these “services” that were once inherent to life in a structured town or city.
In early 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report entitled “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission” which outlined in part on how to redirect efforts of the federal government from international terrorism toward home-grown terrorists and build a DHS-controlled police force agency that would control all cities and towns through the use of local police departments.
DHS maintains that “the threat grows more localized” which necessitates the militarization of local police in major cities in the US and the training of staff from local agencies to make sure that oversight is restricted to the federal government.
Private corporations have been parading as public servants policing cities and towns across America without the knowledge of the average citizen for quite some time. Although they wear the same badges as LPDs of the past, these private security firms are not there to uphold peace or enforce any laws and city ordinances. Just like any other corporation, they seek out opportunities to collect revenue for the benefit of the city that hired them.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
In defense of cops, if we went to work every day in places like Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill, and dealt with what they do, we would probably develop the same us against them mentality.
I do not think that's a defense of cops. I have to live on Hamilton Hill, they can do their 8 hour shift and go home to their place "outside the pines"
That is true, rp, I'm just saying if I dealt with the worst of human behavior constantly, I'm not sure if I would be able to maintain balance myself. Evencops who work quieter, more affluent areas are the ones who get called to deal with the stuff that goes on behind closed doors. There are depraved, dishonest, disturbed individuals everywhere. Way fewer in some areas, but it is still the cops who get called first and see the worst. I think having drive-by suburbanite cops working an inner city people dump exacerbates the problems.
It doesn't justify having them wear shirts with slogans that antagonize the situation rather than try to improve it. This is simple but obviously lost on the few...and those few need to find anothe career.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
It starts at the top, jb, and if the chief is allowing it he/she is ineffective, or the mayor or whomever the chief reports to is weak and irresponsible.
It starts at the top, jb, and if the chief is allowing it he/she is ineffective, or the mayor or whomever the chief reports to is weak and irresponsible.
The political leaders are ineffective because of the politicization of police forces. The politicized police leverage just enough power to cause elected officials to turn a blind eye and will actually help explain it away with the "a few bad apples" argument. And the cop suckers like the ones on this board are satisfied with the explanation and run around and regurgitate the excuse.
Elected legislators and executives write and execute laws, the elected DA prosecutes violators of the laws, the cops are the blades edge of the knife and arrest the violators for prosecution. They have the power to make them ALL look bad by how they choose to enforce laws and make the case winning cases for prosecutors. This isn't a few bad apples, this is arrogance by those that know they can make or break political careers.
Not to mention, many of those that get involved in police work and corrections are by nature sociopaths and enjoy beating their fellow citizen.
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