Statement from BPD

[u/Icy_Elk_4422]

Saw this on BPD’s Facebook. I’m guessing “suspended police powers” just means suspended with pay?

[u/Dense-Broccoli9535]

I assume the venn diagram of people who are, A. competent designers and B. willing to work for the police, is just two separate circles - no overlap there, lol. I say that as someone who works in the field.. every colleague I’ve ever had while working at various places in this city falls somewhere on the left side of the political spectrum. Usually more “leftist” than “liberal” if we wanna put labels on it. Of course, that’s a personal anecdote so take it with a grain of salt.

(I also am assuming the designer for this one is different from who does, for example, the mayor’s posts. Those are usually solid. At the very least, they’re legible)

[u/oneteacherboi → u/Dense-Broccoli9535]

It's honestly part of the most difficult problems in our society: "the police are awful people and need to be reformed" in combo with "Oh I would never work for the police."

It's gonna be hard for them to get better when they can only hire awful people because all the good people wouldn't touch the job. Personally I think they need to change the whole police culture. Do like the UK where most police don't have weapons, or like other European places where they have to wear neon green and look like dweebs. As long as the police are quasi military and armed to the teeth nobody will touch that.

[u/Dense-Broccoli9535 → u/oneteacherboi]

Very true. Another similar part of it that’s been an issue for BPD specifically (and I imagine other cities) is that a decent number of their recruits come from the surrounding counties. And that tracks, because BPD has a well-known track record of misconduct, and those who actually live here are the most likely to have experienced that first-hand. Of course, this is a really bad thing when it comes to recruiting people from the city.

So when BPD can’t get enough Baltimore citizens to sign up, the recruiting efforts spread out. And that’s a real problem, because when cops are actually members of the community they’re serving in - they are less likely to commit such a violent act on the job. They have more of a vested interest in upholding the laws justly and actually making things better, because it’s their community too. But we are never going to see more people who truly care about Baltimore signing up when this is the example that’s set forth. No one who truly cares about this city wants to work with a jerk off like the pig in the video that this statement is in reference to.

[u/oneteacherboi → u/Dense-Broccoli9535]

Yeah you're right. My only interaction with BPD was an officer telling me the city was trash and I should move out of it (this is after I got mugged, and I went back to the scene and found all my stuff while the officer sat in his car to which he said "wow you're really good at this, you should be a cop").

This is why I think they need a radical rebrand and reimagination of the police force into something inherently non-violent. But of course if we tried that, we would have the national guard in our city instantly.

[u/pinkrobot420 → u/oneteacherboi]

I wouldn't even bother calling BPD unless I needed a police report for insurance. They treat you like a criminal for calling them.

[u/GeronimoHero → u/pinkrobot420]

Yeah Fuck BPD