{"id":32259,"date":"2021-04-21T08:16:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T12:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=32259"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:22:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:22:42","slug":"derek-chauvin-conviction-makes-us-less-safe-in-the-long-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/21\/derek-chauvin-conviction-makes-us-less-safe-in-the-long-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Chauvin conviction makes us less safe in the long run?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As predicted in How\u2019s the Derek Chauvin trial going?<\/a>, the jury agreed with the government and the rest of Derek Chauvin’s life will be at taxpayer expense, as planned, but in a prison rather than a squad car or at a desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short-term positive: we don\u2019t all have to pay higher insurance premiums to cover $billions in losses from mostly peaceful protests that would have followed an acquittal ($1-2 billion in damage from last summer’s, according to Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if the long-term consequences of conviction will be negative for Americans who interact with the police. Once this one bad apple is locked away, nobody will be motivated to consider whether police should be unionized and therefore effectively immune from the consequences of any misconduct short of appearing to kill someone in custody on a video recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the comments to the first Chauvin-related post, I cited an NPR story<\/a>: “After police officers gained access to collective bargaining rights, there was a substantial increase in the killings of civilians \u2014 overwhelmingly, nonwhite civilians.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having more non-white police officers won’t help, based on the George Floyd killing<\/a>, since two of the four officers involved were non-white. My comment regarding those other officers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[what Chauvin was doing] was plainly something that other police officers in Minneapolis though was okay because three of them were there on the scene and didn\u2019t try to stop Chauvin. Now, however, his brother\/sister\/binary-resister officers are coming out to say that what Chauvin did was way off the reservation (and we don\u2019t need Elizabeth Warren to tell us how bad that is).<\/p>

If they can paint Chauvin as a single bad apple then they can keep the system in place indefinitely ($300,000+\/year total compensation, practical immunity from almost any wrongdoing via unionization, etc.). They can say \u201cWe convicted Chauvin so now #ProblemSolved and #MissionAccomplished.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Senorpablo’s response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fact that ALL FOUR of these guys didn\u2019t have the sense to not kill a guy in broad daylight only emphasizes the level of systemic corruption in law enforcement. Not one of these guys had the sense and stones to prevent Chauvin from killing another man and also ruining his own life? I expect the same authority and power complex that police display towards the public probably exist in their own hierarchy. Police are put on the hero pedestal\u2013we must give them tremendous latitude and we can\u2019t possibly fire them because what they do is so dangerous(it isn\u2019t at all). It\u2019s a great marketing job done by the unions or whomever. It seems like the majority of police training focus on their safety and well being, at the expense of those who they are paid to serve. It\u2019s a completely voluntary job so this seems backwards to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If 1-4 guys are convicted and imprisoned, it isn’t “systemic corruption” as Senorpablo put it, but 1-4 guys who are outliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research psychologists say that what we consider to be fundamental personality characteristics are actually artifacts of the environment we’re in. People behave consistently because we tend to see people in the same environment over and over. If the psychologists are right, Chauvin’s behavior was strongly influenced by the environment he was in (unionized police officer in which it is almost impossible to be fired).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Elizabeth Warren was mentioned above, I can’t resist pointing out that she seems to be here in Jupiter, Florida with us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n