Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists

Absolutely nuts

 

Standard.

 

Yep, extremism in law enforcement and the military is a problem. Nothing really new, but judging by various recent news reports it is getting worse.

 

I mean, that sucks and all, but it's like being shocked at wanna-be marxists teaching kids in a liberal arts college.

It's just part of the territory.

The problem isn't that right or left leaning people are drawn to these professions/areas-of-interest, the problem is just how extreme these actors are, which is merely a reflection of the time we live in and the system of government we have (one that rewards and fosters extremism on all sides).

 

And they are worried about having 2 dads in a math book.

DD

 

There's something like 800,000 law enforcement officers in the United States. I'd expect "hundreds" of officers trained by rightwing extremists to be a significant undercount. It may reinforce unsavory elements of police culture, but trainers don't brainwash trainees. I don't think its a boogieman to create a panic about.

 

No I don’t think there’s an institutionalize program in place to formally radicalize police recruits to be MAGA. I would assume it’s much more of an informal social culture in the workplace type of issue that have influences on the job especially dealing with race.

Take for instance during a practice session break one person says to another “hey did you see Tucker Carlson last night??…. Oh yeah yada yada yada… he’s right these “people” coming to America are taking our land and these Libs are teaching CRT etc etc” and then later on that group of nothing but racist jerks get a call to an apartment complex that is 100% African American. You can’t tell me that what they were just ranting about won’t be in the back of their heads and potentially skewing their bias.

The answer has to be more diverse police forces in a way that doesn’t breed a cultural rot. I doubt the training curriculum is racist. Although if wing nuts are going to raid the bookshelves of teachers across America and nail them to a cross over anything that makes racist white people uncomfortable, it makes sense for Democrat run states to review their curriculum as well.

 

Well, also the neo nazi cops have guns and wide license to more or less break the law and bring it to bear on whomever they see fit, whereas the theoretical Marxist, to the extent there are any true 20th C. style scientific socialists anymore have....bumper stickers and a subscription to Nathan J. Robinson's podcast? These things don't sound very similar either in origin or effect.

 

No argument here that your description of the differences is correct.

In my experience/lifetime, the threats from each end of the political spectrum in the USA have manifested themselves quite differently.

On the right the threats are more immediate and proximal. Direct violence. Intimidation. Terrorism. Targeted groups. Etc.

On the left the threats are more abstract, chaotic, and non-physical. Violence is usually not presented upfront, but rather implied or a natural consequence (that is often ignored). When the left does resort to violence, it's usually random property damage, not coordinated attacks on a specific group. It's more the erosion of traditions, warping of values, etc (I can already hear the objections, but not all leftist ideas about changing western culture have been great). Things that threaten the fabric of society. Stuff further up the hierarchy of needs. Forgive the vagueness, but I think the esoteric nature of the left's goals/aims is precisely why when the left goes awry it can be quite sinister... because the faults in it are non-obvious... unlike some skinhead calling for us to kill everyone who isn't white.

 

This is why your crime statistics
MEAN NOTHING!!!

Rocket River
Tainted

 

Sorry, @JuanValdez, but just google: right wing extremist law enforcement military

There are, over the past 5 years or so that I looked at, articles/videos from everyone b/t 60 Minutes and Fox News. And studies from "think-tanks" all across the spectrum.

 

I'm not at all surprised.

 

Omg!!!

Spoiler

 

...remember all those "...it's only a few bad apples..." points some people want to harp on, whenever (more) of these types of things are discovered about local law enforcement?

...how many of these apples do you suppose it takes to ruin the whole batch of them?

 

I have to think that the number of far-right police officers is offset by an equally influential number of left-leaning civic-minded progressives working as police officers

 

Rocket River

 

I'm not surprised either and suspect this is an undercount. LE attracts too many want to be authoritarians and / or people who see their duty as waging a war on what they see as immorality and cultural deviancy. Here in Minneapolis this has been laid bare in recent investigations into MPD but for many was obvious when people Bob Kroll where running the police union.

 

Lol no. Well in a sense maybe. But they are usually the chiefs in major cities that are appointed by mayor's. They usually have large disconnect with the culture.

There are definitely some well meaning empathetic officers but they usually don't last long and either leave or get pushed to some sort of desk duty.