A Shake Shack in New York City. Noam Galai/Getty Images
The New York City Detectives' Endowment Association alleged three NYPD officers were "intentionally poisoned" at a Shake Shack in Manhattan, and the president of the organization said police were "under attack."
Soon after, an investigation found there was "no criminality," and the incident was deemed an accident.
The constant presumption of guilt by police officers is just one example of how the policing system in America is broken.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
On Tuesday, the Twitter account for the New York City Detectives' Endowment Association — a union representing current and former NYPD detectives — shared an extremely urgent message: Three NYPD officers were "intentionally poisoned" at a Shake Shack in Manhattan.
The New York City Detectives' Endowment Association alleged three NYPD officers were "intentionally poisoned" at a Shake Shack in Manhattan, and the president of the organization said police were "under attack."
Soon after, an investigation found there was "no criminality," and the incident was deemed an accident.
The constant presumption of guilt by police officers is just one example of how the policing system in America is broken.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
On Tuesday, the Twitter account for the New York City Detectives' Endowment Association — a union representing current and former NYPD detectives — shared an extremely urgent message: Three NYPD officers were "intentionally poisoned" at a Shake Shack in Manhattan.
Twitter/@NYCPDDEA
This "attack" at the hands of sinister essential workers made waves online, even prompting a response from former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
To no one's surprise, it was soon determined that there was no criminality involved in the incident. Instead, these workers were guilty of first-degree cleanliness, a felony in the state of foregone conclusions. As it turns out, employees had recently cleaned a milkshake machine, and some residue from the cleaning products accidentally made its way into the milkshake ingredients.
This isn't the first time police have accused workers of messing with their food. Police officers in America have a bizarre relationship with accusations of food tampering, and in a lot of cases, they're either wrong or lying.
Vice's Katie Way wrote that these accusations "don't have to be literally true, because to the law enforcement officers who tell them and the people who share them, they feel true." And so despite these accusations being false, the messaging is already cemented. In this case, Paul DiGiacomo, the president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, sent a message to officers that police were "under attack." It's cops versus the world.
Guilty until proven innocent
All of this is indicative of one of the ways the police system in America is broken: the constant presumption of guilt by police officers.
The first thing the Detectives' Endowment Association did after finding out their officers were sick was accuse Shake Shack employees of intentionally harming the cops. How many steps did the association skip to come to this conclusion?
Like DiGiacomo expressed, there's this notion that cops are constantly under attack. In actuality, officers are a part of one of the most protected classes in society. Government support, in addition to powerful police unions, acts as a social and legislative shield, protecting cops even when they're in the wrong. But the people who are supposedly perpetrating these attacks on police often belong to marginalized groups and are conversely not very protected.
This twisted logic that police — who, by the way, carry firearms at all times — are the ones systemically under attack and need another layer of protection is absurd. And the insistence to jump to conclusions based on that logic has led to many avoidable incidents where police officers kill Americans who weren't doing anything illegal.
Philando Castile was shot and killed after he notified a police officer that he was licensed to carry a firearm. Tamir Rice was shot and killed after he was found playing with a toy gun. John Crawford III was shot and killed at a Walmart because he was holding a BB gun that he was in the act of purchasing from said Walmart.
This is the often deadly thought process that goes into likening Shake Shack employees to jaded "Game of Thrones" characters who poison their enemies.
One can't help but ponder the purpose of an accusation leveled by police in the first place. What is the value of an accusation from the people who are supposed to be investigating said accusation? The public does not need to know that police think they've been poisoned before they find out if they've actually been poisoned.
It's no small task, but if police officers and departments were trained to properly assess a situation before acting recklessly, lives could be saved.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).
This "attack" at the hands of sinister essential workers made waves online, even prompting a response from former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
To no one's surprise, it was soon determined that there was no criminality involved in the incident. Instead, these workers were guilty of first-degree cleanliness, a felony in the state of foregone conclusions. As it turns out, employees had recently cleaned a milkshake machine, and some residue from the cleaning products accidentally made its way into the milkshake ingredients.
This isn't the first time police have accused workers of messing with their food. Police officers in America have a bizarre relationship with accusations of food tampering, and in a lot of cases, they're either wrong or lying.
Vice's Katie Way wrote that these accusations "don't have to be literally true, because to the law enforcement officers who tell them and the people who share them, they feel true." And so despite these accusations being false, the messaging is already cemented. In this case, Paul DiGiacomo, the president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, sent a message to officers that police were "under attack." It's cops versus the world.
Guilty until proven innocent
All of this is indicative of one of the ways the police system in America is broken: the constant presumption of guilt by police officers.
The first thing the Detectives' Endowment Association did after finding out their officers were sick was accuse Shake Shack employees of intentionally harming the cops. How many steps did the association skip to come to this conclusion?
Like DiGiacomo expressed, there's this notion that cops are constantly under attack. In actuality, officers are a part of one of the most protected classes in society. Government support, in addition to powerful police unions, acts as a social and legislative shield, protecting cops even when they're in the wrong. But the people who are supposedly perpetrating these attacks on police often belong to marginalized groups and are conversely not very protected.
This twisted logic that police — who, by the way, carry firearms at all times — are the ones systemically under attack and need another layer of protection is absurd. And the insistence to jump to conclusions based on that logic has led to many avoidable incidents where police officers kill Americans who weren't doing anything illegal.
Philando Castile was shot and killed after he notified a police officer that he was licensed to carry a firearm. Tamir Rice was shot and killed after he was found playing with a toy gun. John Crawford III was shot and killed at a Walmart because he was holding a BB gun that he was in the act of purchasing from said Walmart.
This is the often deadly thought process that goes into likening Shake Shack employees to jaded "Game of Thrones" characters who poison their enemies.
One can't help but ponder the purpose of an accusation leveled by police in the first place. What is the value of an accusation from the people who are supposed to be investigating said accusation? The public does not need to know that police think they've been poisoned before they find out if they've actually been poisoned.
It's no small task, but if police officers and departments were trained to properly assess a situation before acting recklessly, lives could be saved.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).
No comments:
Post a Comment