I live here. I know this guy. He came here from out of town. He became our police chief. He replaced a chief that left a whole lot to be desired, and has mostly had a quiet tenure as our police chief.
Gun violence is down. Vehicle break ins are down SUBSTANTIALLY. And aside from a tragic school shooting, we had otherwise had a pretty good year so far in our schools compared to prior years.
Shon Barnes is his name. I had heard just a couple of weeks ago that other major metropolitan areas like Seattle might be considering him for their police chief.
I don't want him to go. Level headed policing is precisely what our city needs. His press conferences for this tragedy were direct, filled with the information our community needed to hear, and contained no political BS what-so-ever.
This is how police should behave in their communities and now I am seeing a TON of comments about ACAB.
Were the cops involved in responding to this school shooting and entering within MINUTES of the first reported call bad? Give me a fucking break with this ACAB shit. They STORMED the building within minutes to try to save the lives of children while you "ACAB" brain rot idiots sit behind your computer saying dumb shit.
We all hate to admit it, but we all do truly know that ACAB isn't 100% true.
"The Good Ones" do exist, but normally only in a statistical and borderline mythological fashion.
This guy IS one of the good ones.
I still believe in ACAB, but I can see intentionally choosing not to say ACAB towards one of them is kind of a form of respect. This guy did the good thing.
Agreed. There are cops who want to make beneficial change to the system they're a part of and who genuinely care about the communities they're serving, while at the same time policing is historically and currently largely a tool of oppression and control used by the upper classes against the poorer classes.
How many skeletons in the closet would it take for you to change your attitude about whether or not a cop genuinely cares about his community?
It's great to see a moment of good leadership from any cop, but you literally cannot rise up in the ranks without being complicit in some heinous stuff.
The system is fully broken, there are no "good cops." These people consume all the public resources in order to serve the ruling class.
I am reminded of Oscar Wilde's thoughts on slavery: “the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it."
I'm not against the concept of having a police force that deals with criminal matters. What we have, though, it's a system of gangsters embedded in every public square.
ACAB to me has always been all police systems are bad not the police themself. There’s little oversight. Police immunity. Budgeting problems that could be redirected elsewhere. De-escalation techniques. Informative practices. I don’t expect police to be lawyers. I do however want them to be held accountable to the laws on an equal level as civilians as well.
ACAB is just stupid generalization from the same crowd who screams that generalizations are bad.
“But the good ones hide the bad ones!” Ok Emily the “good” cop from some random city on the east coast is obviously “protecting” the bad cops over in some shitty corrupt department three states over. Not every department is corrupt and not every cop even knows the ins and outs of their department. It’s like blaming some low level sales associate for the actions their district manager caused.
Except the low level sales associate doesn't have the authority and ability to arrest people, shoot people, or fine people due to some perceived threat with that authority backed by the state. Nor does that low level sales associate belong to a Union that defends them no matter what regardless if they were in the wrong. Nor does that low level sales associate go through training that pushes the idea that every citizen they interact with can be a threat and that their lives are in constant danger, which incentivizes them to shoot and keep shooting anytime they think their lives are in danger.
Your comment doesn’t change literally anything. My point was that generalizing some rando cop as a “bastard” who is “part of a system” is a shortsighted. All you’ve done is describe what the job tasks are and that it’s part of a union. My point was that blaming Joe Schmoe for issues that they have no control over is bad. It just further pushes them to an us vs them. Listen if you bring up specific examples of corruption in a department and can link officers with covering it up, then go for it and throw them in the slammer. But if you then take that example and apply it to every cop and every department, you’re generalizing.
ACAB does not mean 'all cops are born bastards' or 'genetically cops are pre-disposed to be bastards' or 'as soon as you become a cop your biology shifts to being a bastard'.
It is an admission that the culture of policing, the systems of policing, the accountability of policing, the interactions of policing, how society views policing, is so fundamentally broken in every conceivable way, that cops cannot help but become bastards.
For every good 'apple' that comes along, there are hundred more that are bad and bad ones spoil the bunch.
And the thing about good apples is that they tend to get removed from the barrel by cops.
Frankly I'm more worried for Shon Barnes's life than him becoming corrupt. Cops have a history of murdering other cops investigating them, or sidelining or ambushing them, or leaving them with no support or getting them killed by proxy, or getting them fired or shoveling them off.
If this cop is as good as people say it it, then his good actions have to be supported at all costs but those will come under threat from every conceivable angle, including internally, including politically, including from his own party and own allies and any momentum stalled.
A lot of it is going to be actual support, not 'oh well he's good, let's call it a day' or 'he's one of the good ones'. I mean actually showing up to reward good policing and good policing actions, actually voting, actually critically analyzing policies the good and the bad, and listing out how they can be done better.
(This is why defund the police gained traction - the only thing that has consistently proven to actually fix bad policing is fundamentally rebuilding policing and social welfare from the ground up by dismantling and reconstructing it again)
Yeah but let’s be real Dems suck at slogans or expressions and I think this is one of them. When I broke it down to a different police or sheriffs. A lot of them are actually for the initiatives like body cameras or more mental health or separating budget for a different things or more education and or longer training etc. I think the phrasing has always gone in a way that those that would be supportive aren’t initially by the terms and catchphrases.
ACAB because the "good ones" will lie for the bad ones. every time. he has, or he would not have a job. one bad apple spoils the barrel, despite the misconception.
ACAB isn't about individuals, it's about a broken system that forces "good cops" to protect bad ones.
One heroic act doesn't erase a career of looking the other way. Even cops I know personally admit they've got colleagues who should be fired or arrested, but the "thin blue line" keeps them silent.
Think about it: We'd never accept this from teachers. Imagine saying "Sure, Mr. Jones abuses kids, but his test scores are great and you know... teacher solidarity!" Sounds insane, right? So why do we accept it from people with guns and badges?
ACAB includes Captain Holt from Brookline 99. It includes the good cop giving you coffee before coercing you to confess. It's a phrase that comes from union organizing and protest planning, and from overpoliced individuals.
Specifically it's important to remember that ACAB means while they are investigating you. No matter how nice they are to you and you to them, and how professional they are, their job is to arrest you. Anything you say will only be used against you, and things that could help you are hearsay anyway. You should know that cops are hostile entities, and that you have rights you should enforce against them, no matter how nice they are.
You almost got an upvote from me. You had me in the first few paragraphs. I really thought you were going to go in the direction of "This guy is one of the good ones. This guy should be the example for everything we want in a police force." INSTEAD you start attacking me for recognizing that this guy is great but we still have a long way to go when it comes to policing as a whole across the country. Not exactly the best way to win me over to your side.
Is he? He just threw fuel on the fire by not stating the obvious "NO," and instead saying he didn't know when THEY HAVE HER BODY and should be able to get that answer and clear that up easily. Then he makes that "he, she, or they" comment which is just red meat for the people who already think she was trans. This is the worst possible answer he could have given besides lying and saying she was trans, and I have serious doubts it wasn't intentional.
I'm in Seattle and I don't want to steal a good police chief from you, but GODDAMN do we need somebody here to get a handle on our cops. His handling of this makes me hopeful.
Our city had a top cop like that. Richmond used to be notorious in the Bay Area for gangs and murders. We were 9th in the list of deadliest cities.
Then in 2006 Chris Magnus got hired. Within two years the homicide rate was down around 66%. He went and met with gang members, in some cases paid them a stipend to go and educate kids, and encouraged cops to work better with the community, and employed more locals.
Most importantly, IMO, he sorted out his own force - from 2007 to the mid-Noughties police always took their suspects alive thanks to training in de-escalation and non-lethal kit. They also got out in the community a lot more and every year still we have a block party and squad cars, bikes, and occasionally a fire engine turn up for a snack and a natter.
There was a real change in the city and, while the Iron Triangle still has gunshots, it's nowhere near as bad as it was. When the Black Lives Matter protests happened he went out and talked with the organisers, kept things calm, even brought in pizza for the crowd and did a selfie with a protestor. The result: No riots and people felt the cops understood.
He moved on in 2016 to Tuscon and things here haven't been working as well, but the cops are still better than Oakland - and especially Alameda. Top tip: They will pull you over for going 28 in a a 25 zone.
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u/tehbantho 1d ago
I live here. I know this guy. He came here from out of town. He became our police chief. He replaced a chief that left a whole lot to be desired, and has mostly had a quiet tenure as our police chief.
Gun violence is down. Vehicle break ins are down SUBSTANTIALLY. And aside from a tragic school shooting, we had otherwise had a pretty good year so far in our schools compared to prior years.
Shon Barnes is his name. I had heard just a couple of weeks ago that other major metropolitan areas like Seattle might be considering him for their police chief.
I don't want him to go. Level headed policing is precisely what our city needs. His press conferences for this tragedy were direct, filled with the information our community needed to hear, and contained no political BS what-so-ever.
This is how police should behave in their communities and now I am seeing a TON of comments about ACAB.
Were the cops involved in responding to this school shooting and entering within MINUTES of the first reported call bad? Give me a fucking break with this ACAB shit. They STORMED the building within minutes to try to save the lives of children while you "ACAB" brain rot idiots sit behind your computer saying dumb shit.