Sequence 7 parts 2009–2020
Policing Without Impunity
What keeps the power to police from becoming permission to act with impunity? I return to police testimony, the right to film, and the claim that accountability will make officers stop doing their jobs.
“More Light!” Lying, Police Work, and the Exclusionary Rule
In the 1961 case Mapp v. Ohio , the Supreme Court declined to protect the the possession of pornographic material, but instead decided to exclude all evidence gained through unconstitutional searches. Last month, the Supreme Court revisited that decision in Herring v. United States , where they reconsidered the rule of evidence that excludes evidence gained…
Policing Theory
In a recent report on British policing , Denis O’Connor criticized the growing use of paramilitary policing in the UK: “British police risk losing the battle for the public’s consent if they win public order through tactics that appear to be unfair, aggressive and inconsistent,” he said. “This harms not just the reputation of the…
New Evidence of Police False Statements
The New York Times has a story on the new CCRB report that includes data on the rise of proveable police deception: In New York, the number of false statements noted by the agency, while small, has grown in an age of easy and widespread video and audio recording by civilians. In 2014, the agency found…
What kind of right is the right to film police?
It is pretty clear to me that there ought to be some kind of right to photograph and film police, especially arrests. And yet, at least one US District Judge Finds no First Amendment Right to Film or Photograph Police : We find there is no First Amendment right under our governing law to observe…
We Must Demand Professional Policing For All
Consider the collective horror, shame, and disgust we philosophers have at the abusive behavior of our fellow philosophers: think of what it means to be compared to Colin McGinn or Thomas Pogge. Why isn’t there that kind of horror, shame, and disgust among police officers at the drumbeat of police shootings?
Is Deliberate Underpolicing a Problem?
Propublica thinks so: What Can Mayors Do When the Police Stop Doing Their Jobs? Rises and falls in crime rates are notoriously hard to explain definitively. Scholars still don’t agree on the causes of a decades long nationwide decline in crime. Still, some academics who have studied the phenomenon in recent years see evidence that rising rates of…
Impunity and Policing
“My child is dead, and someone must pay.” There are no words that make so much sense to me as these. People say “I can’t imagine what it would be like”—but I can. I do. It’s bound up with my love for my daughters, my joy at their growth, and my hopes for their future….