Originally posted by RGacky+--> (RGacky)I don't know, you ask your average poliece man, he is'nt about protecting property, he's about keeping down crime, doing his job, and taking home a check so he can provide for his family, sometimes you gotta look at it from a persons point of view. [/b]
Even looking at it from a question of law & order, police unions are still an anti-democratic institution.
Originally posted by razboz+--> (razboz)I think the answer to the specific question of the police union in Milwaukee (i assume) is that the should be fought on the same grounds and with the same tools as the police force as a whole: through Copwatch programs, direct actions against police officers/precincts (check your local legislation his MAY be illegal), civil disobedience and so on.
[/b]
Excellent! I'll have to look into starting a copwatch here. It'll be hard work though, since community policing doesn't have a high rate of success here.
Haven't you ever heard a pig utter the line "We don't make the laws, just enforce them"?
The cops around here blindly follow orders, whether it's beating protesters or rounding muslims for arrest.
Truly such cruelly misunderstood people
Honestly. Reasoning with most of them is useless, even going down the hypothetical route, such as if they were asked to enforce edicts in Hitler's Germany.
Pawn
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Are ya'll in responce soley to police? What about security guards and the like?
Police are definitly in service of the state but secuity guards are usually hired privatly and act more as observers, perhaps informing the police if 'necessary.' In a way they can be compared to store clerks or car garage workers who merely warch over see property.
Actually, there's a pretty big difference with security guards. After all most security guards don't have power over people. Their power comes from police backing them up.
Not to mention that cops over here have basically NO checks on their power. They behave in an unprofessional, unethical, uncivilized and thoroughly wasteful manner.
Add to that the fact that a Milwaukee Police Officer has not been found guilty in an officer-involved shooting in 20 years. And there've been a lot of them.
YSR
We don't allow them in the IWW, not recognizing them as productive, only as tools of the state.
I'm a member, and I think of all the anti-capitalist orgs, the IWW's position on this is the best.
A "police union" is just a like an "employer's association." Just 'cause they call it a union doesn't make it inherently progressive.
You are not anti-worker, but technically are anti-union in some specific contexts.
You're probably right.