California Lawmakers Push Back Against Police Secrecy
Even the police union-friendly California Senate says enough is enough.
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In recent days, Rodney King—the victim of an infamous police beating 20 years ago that led to Los Angeles riots—was found dead at home. The riots led to some police reforms but also hardened attitudes by the public. The 9/11 attacks and continued pushing of the envelope by police unions pushed the pendulum further in the law-and-order direction. Maybe now it will swing back a bit in the other direction.
When even the union-dominated California Senate says enough is enough, there may indeed be reason for optimism.
Steven Greenhut is vice president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
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A step in the right direction. For the children.
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...the bill was based on the unproven idea that criminals look up the home addresses of public safety officials and then attack them—even supporters couldn’t come up with examples of this having happened.
If you are going to hold the California state legislature to a standard of objective reality the whole thing is going to run off the rails.
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CA left reality some time ago. This is where the government worker unions are the top dog, and they terminated the terminator. The sooner they sink into the see the better. Look at what is going on in the Sacramento Valley -- it has been turned into a dust bowl, and the sheep are just bleating. No balls, no hope.
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The bill was based on the entirely proven idea that if public officials names are not made public on land records it is almost impossible to stop corruption.
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With fire, all things are possible.
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California has proven itself remarkably resilient to fire. Perhaps we should try nukes?
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Why not both?
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Thermonuclear fire.
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California's government makes the governments of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania look clean.
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But not Illinois.
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Nothing can make that look clean.
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Two story outhouse?
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Florida?
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Taliban-controlled Afghanistan?
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Joy Behar's crotch on a really hot day?
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Joy Behar's crotch on a really hot day?
Godammit, I was eating.
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Delaware?
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I never understand the weight that the media gives to bills that are killed in committee. Yes, a lot of stupid shit gets passed into law. But it pales in comparison to the volume of stupid shit that dies in the legislative meat grinder.
At the very least, legislation should not be taken seriously until at the very least it makes it out of committee.
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Legislation gains momentum in committees though. Generally, nobody wants to bring a bill to the floor as a co-sponsor that's doomed to fail unless it's a political ploy. Failure looks bad on the sponsors.
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Police unions are bully farms and protection rackets. MUCH more needs to be done to reform law enforcement in this country and this starts by removing legislative bargaining chips called cop-sympathizers. Policing does not require sympathy- the system requires exposition to brutal accountability measures from the top to the bottom coupled with a rating scheme that quickly and forcefully weeds out the psychopaths and sociopaths (which would likely deplete the entire system of cops, but so it goes). Liberty for once will have ITS boot on cop neck which is exactly where it should have been all along.
Not a single cop in this country should be granted the authority to perform even HALF of what they are allowed to engage in. The future looks bleak for the belligerent cop if my type starts to invade the political landscape.
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The future looks bleak for the belligerent cop if my type starts to invade the political landscape.
Unfortunately, people who would dismantle power generally do not seek it.
People seek power to grow it and exploit it.
IMHO the act of seeking political office should disqualify someone from having it.
I'd like to see a return to the days when people were nominated for office, and others campaigned upon their behalf, because campaigning for yourself was considered to be shameful.But it will never happen. Oh well.
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Nominations are a bad idea as they propagate the politics part of legislating. I vote lottery.
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Good point.
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No way. Have you seen those losers that win lotteries? I wouldn't want them as local dog-catcher.
I vote for a blackened death metal version of name that tune. Winner legislates, losers are drawn and quartered in the public square.
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The losers that win lotteries are losers because they must purchase lottery tickets at retarded odds on returns. In an election-lottery, you'd have significantly better chances of finding "mr. average."
Also, I'd trust the idiots that play lotteries far more than 99% of current politicians.
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Somewhat O/T (it is crime-related, however): Teens Order Chinese Food, Kill Delivery Man, Eat Dinner
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Better story if they had eaten the delivery man.
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"... and then, an hour later, they were hungry again!"
*rimshot*
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Bloomberg would have them spend more time in jail for eating the food than killing the guy.
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"If Barack Obama had four sons..."
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Could we have two be gay cannibals?
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Definition of true trust: gay cannibal.
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O/T: Move over zombies: Man left bloodied and screaming in pain after attack by 'bunch of leprechauns'
(See, these are the sorts of things that ought to make the P.M. Links, dammit...!)
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Democratic and Republican politicians depend on the support of the uniformed unions, and fear being labeled as soft-on-crime, which means http://www.maillotfr.com/maill.....c-3_6.html that these special-interest groups get whatever they demand. There’s a reason those six-figure pensions are so common. But the problem goes well beyond pension spiking and other financial matters.
