zlacker

It took quite awhile before they decided to arrest the reporter (Omar Jimenez). I suspect the decision came from higher up given the time delay (due to communication). I was watching this particular reporter late last night / early this morning and his coverage was, IMO, excellent to give some context and feel for the ongoing situation.

It was pretty surreal to watch, for me, and notice absolutely no actions from law enforcement, fire departments, or the national guard on site obviously strategically chosen by some upper leadership (governor?), likely to minimize the situation from escalating. The reporter pointed this out multiple times. It was probably the right call IMHO.

I suspect when law enforcement finally did move in afterwards, it was also strategic to minimize that escalating the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the arrest was strategic just to minimize on-the ground coverage.

I tip my hat to Omar Jimenez and crew for the coverage they provided.

>>Frost1+(OP)
And let the Streisand Effect begin.

>>Frost1+(OP)
Cannot be the right call. The tax payers lose in the coverage and they lose in the lawsuit.

Having police officers paid so little that you put up with 18 violations, or willfully ignore them out of comraderie is fundamentally a system that is not sustainable or worth having pride over.

>>relati+Fg
I don't know about MN but police officers are not paid a low salary in a number of jurisdictions.

Seattle starts at $65k+ and the avg is $100k.

>>relati+Fg
Police officers make bank. In many places their salaries are public record. Plus, they get overtime and contract work as well. So their salary might be $80,000 per year, but they get overtime at like $60/hr, and they get work doing private security for movie theaters, events, etc. Probably at a similar rate.

Then you factor in top tier healthcare and a very generous pension program, and their total compensation balloons.

That's not even getting into collusion by the department to defraud tax payers. Quite a few departments have gotten in trouble from auditors for paying overtime to officers who didn't work the OT, which went on for years before being discovered. Then you have retirement benefits which are based on the last few years salaries, so people close to retirement get a bump in salary and OT in order to pad their retirements. That's no illegal, but I think it's unethical.

>>relati+Fg
>Cannot be the right call.

To be clear, when I referred to making the "right call" I was referring to the choice of inaction from police and national guard units last night/this morning during ongoing protests. I think ultimately, this will lead to less damage.

>>mywitt+SJ
> and they get work doing private security for movie theaters, events, etc. Probably at a similar rate [...] That's not even getting into collusion by the department to defraud tax payers.

I once helped to organize a permitted bike race. As part of the permitting process, we needed approval from several city departments, including the police department.

In the prior five years of attending races, I never encountered a situation that would call for on-site security. Despite that, our permit required us to hire 4 security people. Oh, and the security people were required to be officers from the local jurisdiction.

It really felt like paying protection money to the mob.

>>labcom+8S
It didn't just feel like that, it is exactly like that. The mob, cartels, and government are pretty much all the same. Some group that claims a monopoly on force.

>>labcom+8S
I also had to go through this process when throwing an event. The little money we had for a < 300 private event venue was then put at risk and we had to raise money last minute. It was almost funny how many obstacles we had to go through in general for that event, but the requirement of security made everything a little bit worse