As it stands I agree. They only make up 13% of police officers. So I think the pressure to go along with their male counterparts is probably considerable. I think if their numbers increased considerably it would go a long way towards reducing that pressure. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
On average, this is almost certainly true. But we do have to account for the self-selection and reverse causality issues. Essentially, are the women that select to be cops more likely to be further up on their curve and/or will they be required to be more violent (by their colleagues or by the people they confront) due to the perception that they are less violent?
My female cop story... I was in my mid-20s. Some friends were at a guy's house that I knew. They were drinking and having a good time and I got invited over. The homeowner had a couple people over that I didn't know. Anywho, I go over, have some beers, and am I having a good time. Well, after some beers and gauging the crowd, I walk out to the vehicle and roll up a doobie. Here I am, walking back up the driveway with a J hanging out of my mouth, about to fire it up. I bring the lighter to fire it up, and at that exact time, I overhear that the female standing under the carport is a cop. Turns out to be a narcotics division cop. So I snatch the J out of my mouth and stick it in my cigarette pack. Time passes and she comes up to me me and asks me if I have any weed. I don't even know what I said. I just know it caught me off guard and I was a little worried. Doesn't matter what I said because the next words out of her mouth was "You're going to smoke with my friend or we're going to have a problem. Got it?" So, the cop, her friend, and I go inside the house. At this point, she had told me she works for the narc division. The cop sits on my lap, i stick the J on my lips and ask her to light it up for me.. (I know, right?). She did. We smoke and partway through she starts making out with me. Later that night, I was getting a cig and roach dropped out of my pack. The cop used what I believe to be a dept issued Flashlight to help me look for it. A short time later, I was walking by and she stopped my in my tracks, reached both hands around me and stuck em both down the back of pants and drawers and grabbed two handfuls of my bare ass. It was.. weird. Lol. Nothing ever came of it, but that night is burned until my memory. Not too many people could say they had a female drug officer sit in their lap and fire up a J for them..
Yeah we’re gonna need to see that. I can’t believe you’ve never told that story on here before. That’s amazing.
When I lived in Gainesville I owned the house at 15 NW 29th street. One game day I had a pre game party. It wasn’t long before I was out of parking space. One of my buddies pulled up out front and asked me where he could park. I walked to the car and gave him directions. I literally stepped a couple feet off the curb, leaned into his passenger window and started giving him directions. I had a beer in my hand. A female cop driving by stops her car, rolls down the window and lets me know how lucky I am she’s not going to give me a ticket for possession. That I need to step back onto my property. She was a real a$$hole the way she spoke to me. I did exactly as she said. Even told her thanks for giving me a break when I wanted to tell her to KMA.
Increasing the ratio of female LEO would make me approach your initial statement with more agreement. It’s got to be approaching 30+%, I think, to have the effect you and I would hope for, though. And more senior positions for women officers. All of the policymaking, department encouraged techniques, etc. come from the top. The question really is much deeper than you and I are pointing out, though. When you start breaking down the likely/most common characteristics of women who choose a profession in LE, are there more indicators of potentially corrupt or violent behavior? Are those character indicators on par with what a typical male LEO would display? I don’t know. I’ve seen the best, and worst, from both male and female LE. These ppl risk their lives every shift, literally. They are trained, and all rely on the others, to have their backs. It’s a necessary function of the job. Once a human being, man or woman, enters that occupational dynamic, it’s easy to just get caught up in the groupthink trap.
Hence the reason I explained why it was a bad analogy. You can't compare people who have no power or authority and are acting out to a person who is in the ultimate position of authority and has total power.
They aren't. They are comparing the person getting negative consequences for not doing their best and the person getting the same negative consequences for doing their best. If they get the same negative consequences either way, may as well take the path of least effort. Maybe you and I read the analogy differently. What did you read it to mean?
I lived in an apartment complex on 34th st over 35 years ago. We had a party and decided to go skinny dipping in the community pool. Two bike cops rode by. The first one was female. In our inebriated state we didn’t notice they were cops. We invited the pretty female cop to join us. When they informed us that they were cops all but one of us sobered up real fast. That person swam to the the side of the pool where the female cop was and said, “Let me see that badge?” I thought they were going to lock us up and throw away the key. They just laughed and rode on.
It's not what I read it to mean that makes it absurd. In the analogy, the police departments are the children being tasked with cleaning their rooms. The "rioters" are the parents tasking them with cleaning their rooms. That's ludicrous. The "rioters" aren't an organized (or consistent) group, they aren't in a position of authority over police, and are acting out over what they see as persistent failures of the people who are in positions of authority (the police, for example). The "rioters" can't be the parents when they have no power or authority. And the analogy ignores that the "rioters" aren't a centralized (or even consistent) group with cohesive leadership. They're just random people who are angry and acting out because of the abuses from the people who have actual authority and power (the police). Finally, it's f'ing nuts to claim that the police are "doing their best" when their officers just murdered a citizen. If brutal violence is the best they can do, then that police department needs to be disbanded. How do you ignore that any rioting is connected to the state-sponsored violence? People aren't just going out there and rioting for no reason. They do it when police officers engage in violence against citizens. So how on earth can you (the PD) (1) expect not to face negative consequences when your officers murdered a man and (2) say that is doing "your best"? Holding the officers accountable isn't "doing your best." It's doing the bare f'ing minimum as LAW ENFORCEMENT. If their response to doing the bare minimum after their massive screw up is to be angry over not being lauded for it, they have no business holding power or authority in this country.
Oh my goodness! I was that let me see your badge guy!!!! As you may recall, Don just got out naked & walked right by them. They were not in uniform if I recall correctly. 35 damn years!?!
I am just saying I think you are being a bit overboard on the implication. Your stories actually reminded me of one of my own that bothers me to this day. And it involves St Johns not Flagler as the Matanzas Inlet is in the southern part of St Johns County. April 23, 2020 because the idiots leading this country shut it down our kids were forced to a joke of virtual learning. Sorry side rant… But with that we left for a family field trip to St Augustine on the boat since we were not allowed to work either except for “emergencies” being “inessential”. Don’t get me going here either. Sorry another side rant… On the way the intracoastal (Matanzas River) was rough so we decided to cut short and hit Fort Matanzas and beach the boat on Rattlesnake Island. We were enjoying our day avoiding Covid with absolutely no one around us when some dingbat with the St Johns sheriffs office at noon decided we had to leave and gets on his megaphone to tell us so. Apparently being outside at the beach was only allowed until noon at this time in the pandemic. Mind you we were at a spot basically accessible by boat only. I so wanted to put my chair in the water and wave. But we had our kids with us so they got a lesson on listening to authority even when it is dumb and likely a violation of the first amendment. So I agree with you that crap cops pull crap stops. But I just don’t see it as the norm. Cop… Facing North Rattlesnake Island… Facing South Rattlesnake Island…
