this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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A new lawsuit filed in federal court last month alleges that the Baton Rouge Police Department ran a “torture warehouse” where members of its Street Crimes Unit strip searched, beat, and otherwise humiliated people and then released them, often without their being charged with a crime. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the allegations of misconduct at the now-shuttered warehouse known as “the BRAVE Cave.”

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago (16 children)

I would like some feedback on a dumb idea I have. I'm sure it has major flaws, including it being a pipe dream that could never get put into action.

All police departments are required to be unionized (at whatever resolution the motion is passed, local, state, whatever.).

Police unions are now responsible for all pensions and benefits, and funded via police salaries. However, municipalities are no longer required to fund any kind of police misconducts or settlements. The funds for these lawsuits come directly from police pensions, and if need be, directly from police paychecks. As well, eliminate qualified immunity and double the penalties for police misconduct of any kind.

The only way I can think to make reforms to the system apart from its elimination ( which is a pipe dream) is to make make them feel it in their wallets directly, and to make all department members accountable for the conduct of any department members. This would necessitate a cultural transformation, because the old timers who define that culture don't want their retirements to be chipped away by jr's doing dumb shitty things.

Thoughts? I'm sure the idea has flaws, but the force of economic violence can be very coercive.

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (14 children)

The main problem with this is that the hits these days are in the millions of dollars and that adds up fast. So the inevitable result even with just good faith mistakes would be that people would stop being cops. People who could be good cops wouldn't join to replace them because of the risk, and the entire thing would likely just disintegrate.

On the one hand fine! On the other hand, what takes its place?

This is not intended to be a pro-cop argument, just an explanation of the problem. We need a social institution that can fill that gap in a better way.

[–] slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I prefer the insurance angle, where LEOs have to carry insurance similar to how doctors carry malpractice insurance. Any settlements are paid for by insurance instead of the department; officers who cause problems will have their rates go up, until they eventually become uninsurable.

[–] steveman_ha@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Pretty appropriate way to handle it with current "systems and institutions", too, nice.

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