How Dumb Can You Be?

You morons working for the Slum Times realize these are negotiations, right? That means sitting down (which Groot has refused to do), discussing (which Groot has refused to do), and give-and-take (which Groot has unilaterally demanded surrender by the police):

• Rewrite the contracts.
  
  Police union contracts in many American cities, including Chicago, have become a threat to community safety by shielding abusive police officers. They just gotta go.
  
  As police unions have spread across the nation over the last half-century, they have secured provisions in collective bargaining agreements that protect their members from answering to the public, or even to elected officials. Many contracts make it virtually impossible for police departments to punish rogue officers.

Can anyone explain to us exactly what sections of the Contract prohibit us from answering a properly constituted investigation? Because we've been going through the Contract (again) and we can't find a single instance of what the media and politicians are claiming exists. In fact, we can get fired for NOT cooperating.

The Sun Times attempts to justify their specious reasoning:

• People making complaints must file a sworn affidavit, and their names are turned over to the officer they are accusing. The U.S. Department of Justice said this creates a “tremendous disincentive to come forward with legitimate claims.” A provision permitting investigators to override the affidavit requirement is rarely used. 

Um, that's a State Law. And the US DOJ at the time of that statement was part of the lame duck Sparklefarts administration tasked with gutting every big city department prior to Trumps inauguration. It was a political move. Entire sections of the "Consent Decree" were lifted from previous "Consent Decree's for other cities - Sparklefarts' lawyers were too damn lazy to do a real investigation.

• Police are allowed to wait 24 hours before making statements after police-involved shootings, and they can amend those statements after seeing and listening to video or audio evidence. 

The FBI gets seventy-two 72-hours....as do many other big city police departments. An officer - who has just been involved in the most stressful incident any human being can go through - is expected to have perfect recall? You know what has pretty good recall? A camera, which we already wear.

Does the public want an accurate and fully truthful investigation? Or do they want a disjointed account as the human brain processes what happened in a matter of tenths of seconds? Numerous Ivy League and Blue Ribbon studies have proven this type of perfect recall is impossible.

• Rewards for police officer whistleblowers are banned.

Rewards? Like bounties? This is a truly dumb idea, but if the City Council wants it, all they have to do is vote on it.

• Police misconduct records are destroyed after five years.

This is an outright lie. Anyone check that "invisible institute" website lately? There are records there going back to the 1960s for Officers who have been dead for twenty and thirty years. The only thing that gets removed (and we have our doubts about that) are Not Sustained and Exonerated cases - you know, like offenders have records expunged when they are cleared by whatever means possible. Everything else lasts forever.

• Interrogators are limited in what they can ask officers during investigations of alleged misconduct.

Sure they are - they're limited to the investigation AT HAND. You know, the one that an Affidavit is signed for. That, and that pesky thing called The Constitution that provides for legal representation and the Right to confront an accuser and innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Darn it all anyway.

There is a unsurprising amount of ignorance on the Slum Times editorial board - after all, they employed Mope-rah for years. But the public at large has to be educated as to exactly what the Contract provides. It is nothing more than a Citizen is entitled to, minus the provision that we can be ORDERED to answer questions.

So Fuck the Slum Times and feel free to share this short explanation of how exactly they are advocating railroading Police Officers. Remember, the FOP aren't the ones "negotiating" in the media in violation of the handshake agreement.