It's Time to Bust Police Unions

I don&#x27;t know where else to post about it, this thread seems the most relevant.<p>Regarding yesterday&#x27;s Buffalo police department incident where one officer pushed an elderly person who was then bleeding on the floor.<p>The police department put out a statement [1]: &gt; &quot;Our position is these officers were simply following orders from Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia to clear the square,&quot; Evans said. &quot;It doesn&#x27;t specify clear the square of men, 50 and under or 15 to 40. They were simply doing their job. I don&#x27;t know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backwards.&quot;<p>IMO - This idea of &quot;I was just following&quot; orders <i>needs</i> to be eradicated. That is a cop out (pardon the pun) and totally puts the responsibility towards <i>no one</i> because the superiors are not even at the scene. Every cop, every officer, every law enforcement persons must not <i>blindly</i> follow orders like they&#x27;re in the military. They must have some self restraint and put public safety first.<p>I am sorry as this has nothing to do with Police unions, but I felt like speaking up about this excuse of following orders from the superiors is absolutely terrifying.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;buffalonews.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;57-members-of-buffalo-police-riot-response-team-resign&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;buffalonews.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;57-members-of-buffalo-pol...</a>

Definitely. Police unions are a major obstacle to removing bad apples from the police, and to changing police culture. And yet...<p>Management (either police chiefs or politicians) can push police into things that are not safe for the police officers. There needs to be <i>somebody</i> to push back that&#x27;s bigger than the individual officers.

I don&#x27;t think we should &quot;bust unions&quot;, we need to pass laws that hold them accountable and have consequences. Make disciplinary records permanent and on a national registry. Many employees get &quot;points&quot; from getting to work late and fired after too many points. Excessive force should be on this list for police.<p>Make lying in police reports a crime that results in firing, make not reporting on other cops a crime.

Absolutely right.<p>I believe in unions. But unions don&#x27;t exist to protect and reinstate members who have abused their power or committed crimes on the job. And that&#x27;s what police unions have a pattern of doing.

I don’t think this will actually happen. What I see happening is that any bill that tries to get rid of police unions will get a Republican rider that also gets rid of teacher’s unions. Teacher’s unions are a big part of the Democratic coalition, so the Democrats will balk at passing it.

Police deserve a union IMO. But we the public deserve to ignore the union when they push for bad decisions, or otherwise are counterproductive.<p>Cutting the voice out of the Police would be a step too far. All workers deserve a chance for assembly and collective action.

This is an interesting question because it cuts across the usual left&#x2F;right divide in a rare way. Union busting is a right-wing thing.<p>A similar issue is the prison guards&#x27; union (a major political influence in California at least), which some people have been arguing for years has been a major factor in the brutalization of prisons.

Unions, in general all suffer from the same problem with removing bad employees and in this case, cops that can do harm.<p>It can be seen with police, automotive employees, and teachers.

Why are unions being blamed here?<p>Is there a special law that provides immunity for union members ?

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buzzfeednews.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;melissasegura&#x2F;police-unions-history-minneapolis-reform-george-floyd" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buzzfeednews.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;melissasegura&#x2F;police-un...</a><p>&quot;Police unions have become increasingly rightwing as a backlash to the Obama administration and Black Lives Matter — and that’s bad news for the cities they police.&quot;

&quot;Police are public servants granted enormous power over the citizenry. They are tasked with protecting the public and serving their interests. Police unions, in contrast, are tasked with protecting police and serving their interests—even in direct contravention of serving the public. That distinction makes them a barrier to reforms aimed at improving public safety and increasing oversight of how law enforcement behaves. &quot;<p>But the same could be said for many unions, such as public service employees, doctors, nurses, airline pilots, etc.