The Cops are Profiling Child Abuse Victims

[Revnak]

…or why I learned to stop worrying and love the police state.

Pasco Sheriff’s Office letter targets residents for ‘increased accountability’

Critics of the agency’s intelligence programs called the letter ‘patronizing’ and ‘offensive,’ and raised continued concerns about civil rights

www.tampabay.com

I wanna focus on a very specific part of the article.

The Times also found that the agency has a separate program that uses schoolchildren’s grades, attendance records and abuse histories to label them potential future criminals.

See, there’s a truth buried in this absurd action of monitoring kids because they were abused, statistically speaking most abuse victims become some kind of criminal. That the solution to this can only be to effectively house arrest the victims is no surprise, when you are an entity built on the power to arrest for violating various property crimes there is literally no other solution you can come up with. When people like me demand we defund and divest, the counter argument of training cops better runs into this precise brick wall. So long as the defining power and responsibility of cops is to arrest and punish, this is their only response. You can teach a cop the systemic problems around them, you can show them the consequences of our violent system, and they will arrest the victims “for their own good.”

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

"We are pleased to inform you that we have decided to harass you until you go to prison, die, or flee our jurisdiction. It is for your own good, the algorithm can do no wrong"

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Ah, hell, just arrest 'em now for the crimes you know they're gonna commit in the future. Call it, I dunno... "pre-crime" or somethin'.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

When your surveillance state dystopia isn't dystopian enough

 

[Revnak]

When your surveillance state dystopia isn't dystopian enough

Yeah, saw that one. Was hoping it was just some technicality rather than systemic but also it’s Chicago it was not an accident they’re definitely falsifying evidence.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So...if kids report abuse it is known the police will be after them? I'm sure this information is of great use to certain people.

 

[Agema]

snip

This reminds me of something in the UK years ago in the last Labour Party era (pre-2010). Someone in the government effectively said they knew where nearly all the criminals would be coming from, because they had all the data on social class, upbringing, demographics, etc. to effectively predict it. This being Labour, the plan was targetted interventions and social measures to reduce the likelihood of kids developing into criminality. I'm not entirely praising this: some of was in my view some of the worst forms of Labour paternalism and control freakery, even if their intentions were good. One way or another however, the Tories won in 2010 and cut everything, meaning a lot of successful programs with social problems had to be closed. In numerous cities, youth crime has consequently risen considerably. Funnily enough, the "party of law and order" also cut police numbers at the same time.

In a similar vein, the chief constable of Merseyside Police (Liverpool and area, to those of you who don't know the UK) also retired a few months ago. He was renowned as a "hard man" of British policing, and yet upon leaving said if he were given £5 billion he would spend £4 billion of it reducing poverty. He opined that tough policing could not and would not much improve crime: instead tackling deprivation, inequality, poor education, low job opportunities and security, etc. was the key.

 

[Revnak]

This reminds me of something in the UK years ago in the last Labour Party era (pre-2010). Someone in the government effectively said they knew where nearly all the criminals would be coming from, because they had all the data on social class, upbringing, demographics, etc. to effectively predict it. This being Labour, the plan was targetted interventions and social measures to reduce the likelihood of kids developing into criminality. I'm not entirely praising this: some of was in my view some of the worst forms of Labour paternalism and control freakery, even if their intentions were good. One way or another however, the Tories won in 2010 and cut everything, meaning a lot of successful programs with social problems had to be closed. In numerous cities, youth crime has consequently risen considerably. Funnily enough, the "party of law and order" also cut police numbers at the same time.

In a similar vein, the chief constable of Merseyside Police (Liverpool and area, to those of you who don't know the UK) also retired a few months ago. He was renowned as a "hard man" of British policing, and yet upon leaving said if he were given £5 billion he would spend £4 billion of it reducing poverty. He opined that tough policing could not and would not much improve crime: instead tackling deprivation, inequality, poor education, low job opportunities and security, etc. was the key.

Sounds about right. Was the Labour Party thing at least done by non-cops (no power to detain/arrest)? Assuming they also had some level of confidentiality involved outside of mandatory reporting style shit, I think that’s actually close to something. Still gonna have most people scared to work with the program, but it at least wouldn’t be completely worthless.

 

[Agema]

Sounds about right. Was the Labour Party thing at least done by non-cops (no power to detain/arrest)? Assuming they also had some level of confidentiality involved outside of mandatory reporting style shit, I think that’s actually close to something. Still gonna have most people scared to work with the program, but it at least wouldn’t be completely worthless.

Labour's plan as I recall was not really much about policing at all, but social intervention. Some of it, in my view, potentially quite invasive.

The British police (and in some cases intelligence services), of course, have enough autonomy to dream up and create their own schemes and ideas. UK police forces have surveilled certain crime victims or relatives of victims - my guess is for no other reason than wanting to know what people who criticise the police are up to and maybe even wanting leverage against them. The intelligence services certainly keep tabs on all manner of activists. They used to also spend a lot of time building dossiers on left-wing politicians, although that's more Cold War times and they aren't really supposed to any more. "Supposed to" being the key term.

 

[Gordon_4]

This reminds me of something in the UK years ago in the last Labour Party era (pre-2010). Someone in the government effectively said they knew where nearly all the criminals would be coming from, because they had all the data on social class, upbringing, demographics, etc. to effectively predict it. This being Labour, the plan was targetted interventions and social measures to reduce the likelihood of kids developing into criminality. I'm not entirely praising this: some of was in my view some of the worst forms of Labour paternalism and control freakery, even if their intentions were good. One way or another however, the Tories won in 2010 and cut everything, meaning a lot of successful programs with social problems had to be closed. In numerous cities, youth crime has consequently risen considerably. Funnily enough, the "party of law and order" also cut police numbers at the same time.

In a similar vein, the chief constable of Merseyside Police (Liverpool and area, to those of you who don't know the UK) also retired a few months ago. He was renowned as a "hard man" of British policing, and yet upon leaving said if he were given £5 billion he would spend £4 billion of it reducing poverty. He opined that tough policing could not and would not much improve crime: instead tackling deprivation, inequality, poor education, low job opportunities and security, etc. was the key.

I suppose his logic - as I see it - is that once you've reduced crimes caused by the sort of deprivation that will drive any sane person to desperation to all but their fringe numbers, all you're left with are the sorts of criminal element against whom the sort of old school hard man shit you see in reruns of The Sweeney would actually be of use. Because at that point its all East End firms, armed blaggers and the odd terrorist (flip a coin for domestic of foreign) making a mess of the manor.

 

[Terminal Blue]

To make this infinitely grosser, there are cases (certainly in the UK) of cops using their access to records of abused children to locate vulnerable young people for the purposes of sexual exploitation. You can likely safely assume that is happening in any instance where police have access to that kind of information without clear oversight and responsibility.

Frankly, if anyone should be profiled it's the kind of person who expresses any interest in policing or law enforcement. You should always ask yourself why someone would want that kind of authority, and what they are getting from it.

 

[Agema]

I suppose his logic - as I see it - is that once you've reduced crimes caused by the sort of deprivation that will drive any sane person to desperation to all but their fringe numbers, all you're left with are the sorts of criminal element against whom the sort of old school hard man shit you see in reruns of The Sweeney would actually be of use. Because at that point its all East End firms, armed blaggers and the odd terrorist (flip a coin for domestic of foreign) making a mess of the manor.

Pretty much. I think there's a certain level of crime which is very hard to stop - often associated with certain forms of organised crime, personality and mental health disorders, low impulse control, etc. But for a number of people crime is arguably a valid career choice given just how low their chances are of doing anything else worthwhile.

 

[Buyetyen]

And the archetype of the virtuous fascist continues to be a goddamned lie.

 

[CM156]

Goddamn: this is depressing and dystopian.

 

[Revnak]

Goddamn: this is depressing and dystopian.

It gets better
Wait, I mean the opposite

 

[Drathnoxis]

Criminal profiling is just supernatural mumbo jumbo that doesn't really actually help solve cases.

 

[Gordon_4]

Criminal profiling is just supernatural mumbo jumbo that doesn't really actually help solve cases.

Based on what I've heard profiling is charitably educated guesswork based on the law of averages within the confines of the case they're on. So a step up from pure quackery like phrenology but more in line with throwing darts at the idea board.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Based on what I've heard profiling is charitably educated guesswork based on the law of averages within the confines of the case they're on. So a step up from pure quackery like phrenology but more in line with throwing darts at the idea board.

All I know of the subject comes from Deadly Premonition, and it didn't help York find the killer at all until like 5 other people had been murdered under his watch.

 

[Silvanus]

I wanted the government to recognise that crime correlates with lower income and poorer career opportunities, but... uhrm, well, not like that.

 

[CM156]

I wanted the government to recognise that crime correlates with lower income and poorer career opportunities, but... uhrm, well, not like that.

*Finger on monkey's paw slowly retracts*