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BPD superior officers, detectives want more cops, more shotguns, less civilian oversight and fewer restrictions on 'non-lethal' weapons, so they sue the city

The unions representing Boston Police superior officers and detectives have a lot of bones to pick with the city council and mayor and want a judge to order them to back off telling them how to do their jobs but also hire at least 500 more officers right away.

In a wide-ranging suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court today, the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation and the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society say recent restrictions on the use of "less lethal" weapons, such as pepper spray and beanbag guns, and the ability of the new Office of Police Accountability and Transparency to investigate officers even if the police commissioner or Internal Affairs doesn't feel that is warranted violate their rights under collective-bargaining laws and the state statute that gives the commissioner his authority - which date to the days when Brahmins showed their disgust for Boston's Irish politicians by making the Boston police commissioner a post appointed by the governor.

The suit also alleges the city is violating its own ordinance, passed in the late 1970s, when Boston crime levels were reaching record highs, that requires BPD to have at least 2,500 officers, that all patrol cars be staffed by two officers while on the road and that each cruiser be stocked with shotguns.

The department currently has under 2,000 officers, some patrol cars have just one occupant and most cruisers don't have a shotgun.

The unions want a judge to order the city council and mayor and their police-accountability office to back off BPD - except to immediately fund a 25% increase in the number of officers.

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Comments

Over the years from left wing activists, some of which you have refused to acknowledge. Like having urine and batteries thrown at them during protest.

BPD should be able to protect themselves and overall civility in Boston.

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If urine or batteries are thrown at them should they be able to respond by shooting the protesters with shotguns?

Sounds like the union should be pushing for more and better body cameras to document that sort of behavior.

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Yes, those darn left activists that were beating the sh*t out of the police they claimed to back on January 6th was quite the eye opener.

Just in case you don't get it - that's sarcasm.

We pay their salaries - if they (or you) don't like it, go find another job that pays 6 figures and gives a HS graduate a badge and a gun after 27 weeks of training. Oh, plus unlimited overtime to look at their phone or chat w/ the workers rather than do their actual detail job.

They (or you) signed up for the job and took a test - no one is holding them (or you) there.

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(eyeroll)

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Classy

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Cop wannabe.

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Haven't seen him in months ...

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You probably like licking the urine off their boots, Trumper.

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Funny how the "nobody wants to work" crowd and "suck it up that's what work is like" crowd has such a damn problem with the people who pay the bills wanting to have a say in how that money is spent.

Do you talk to your boss like that? "I don't have to do what the people paying me want me to do because Liburhahlls blah blah blah".

And as for "protests", there was a nice demonstration that turned into something nasty BECAUSE BPD KETTLED AND GASSED PEOPLE. Not to mention an officer who was caught on camera starting fights (who has yet to be punished).

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The BPD Union always has the city's best interest in heart, NOT. Could we want a limit on gassing people because the BDP has abused it? A shotgun in every car because we all know those 9 mils aren't good enough for traffic details.
I am not anti Cop but I am very much Anti Corrupt Union. The Union has never considered what is best for the city just the status quo for cops. (like hiding a retired cop that abused kids)
Citizen oversight might be a pain for BPD, but as they work for us, we should be able to keep them in check. JMHO

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to internal and external theft than the number of times they'll actually be used, much less needed.

The union are nothing but a pack of insecure clowns.

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Serious question. What situations call for shotguns when the standard sidearm isn't sufficient or suitable?

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Lifelong hunter/shooter here. While I'd prefer a 12 gauge over a 9mm if I was in brown bear country, it's not 100% clear to me what advantage a shotgun has in a cruiser's trunk.

Your typical police shotgun like a Mossberg 500 will have 5 rounds that are slow to reload while a typical police sidearm will carry 16-18 rounds that can be reloaded very easily in a few seconds.

A 12ga slug will hit harder than 9mm, but this isn't 1975 when most police carried a wheelgun in .38 special, which is five rounds (assuming resting on an empty chamber like you should) that don't punch as hard as modern 9mm and are also slow to reload and easy to $#@! up when your hands are shaking.

In practice, I suppose a shotgun with iron sights firing slugs is maybe going to be a bit more accurate in the hands of the average cop out to 20-50 yards. A .223 rifle is far better than either the 12ga or 9mm in this regard, but there's a reason why we have "shotgun counties" and "rifle counties" for deer season. We don't really need five cops emptying ARs into the air in a dense city. I'm fine with leaving that for officers willing to take extra training because the average cop often isn't a very good shot.

Actually, there is one possible explanation I didn't think of, which is that a 12ga can fire things like beanbag rounds. If that's why they want them, then I see some utility there, and am all for things that encourage less-than-lethal force.

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Given that they are asking for less lethal shotguns which fire a beanbag round. Typically they are a final resort for armed/barricaded individuals attempting suicide by cop or threatening others. But I guess they should just shoot them with their sidearm and call it a day.

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I'm in favor of police abolition, just so no one gets the wrong idea here.

But my understanding is that police use rifles/shotguns for certain situations (raids, ambushing people) as they are more accurate at long range than a pistol, the ammunition is less likely to go through walls and/or ricochet, and they're larger and more visible so it's obvious to a suspect or bystander that they're dealing with an armed person.

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Unions seek protections for workers, better working conditions, and better pay. They do not seek to allow their members to exercise greater degrees of violence with lesser degrees of accountability.

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Unions are unions -- collective bargaining organizations. They can act in ways that are good or bad or a combination of those. Unions are generally organized to improve worker conditions, but you can't just say "it's not a union" as soon as it does something you don't like.

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If you are familiar with history, you can see that it is in fact the police who FIGHT union members who strike. Police are tools of the ownership class who explicitly do not stand in solidarity with their allegedly "fellow" workers.

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although I'm not sure it means that a "police union" can't exist.

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We *need* more officers to run away from a school shooting.

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Will there be more traffic enforcement?

Also why are they so scared of civilian oversight? Something something if you've got nothing to hide, right?

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Perhaps they should start with their own vehicles. Like the cops personal car parked outside the JP police station that has both license plates under pitch black plastic.

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So the detectives who are in plainclothes and the superior officers who work in offices are suing for the right of the uniformed officers to carry shot guns and chemical agents. The uniformed officers union are not a party to this lawsuit which is interesting.

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The main focus is really two things that do affect superior officers: Restrictions on how they can order the use of pepper spray or "less lethal" guns and what sort of oversight OPAT can have on them. But then they up and threw all the other stuff, mostly dating back decades, into the mix, not just as history about how the city mistreats them, but as actual causes of action that they want a judge to do something about.

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They've definitely not shown any desire to reform or resolve any of the department's scandals. The lawsuit is an example of the problems being department-wide when even the leadership is demanding that they be given more manpower and weapons while remaining accountable to nobody.

They need more civilian oversight and more restrictions unless you want more cops like "Pepper Jack" and more victims like Victoria Snelgrove.

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Maybe we need to deal with the societal issues and not throw more cops at it.

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Maybe there is only 2000 cops because no one wants these whining brats as coworkers.

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You misspelled bigots.

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I remember a time, much longer ago than I care to count, that I was a teenager with a minimum wage job tearing tickets and slinging popcorn at a local theater. There was a lazy tuesday afternoon, midsummer, in between rushes, and I was cleaning the second popcorn machine prior to bringing it online for the evening shows. Being 16 and not as careful as I am now, the popper was hot, and I received a not-insignificant dose of very hot water all over one arm. Perhaps naturally, a fuckword was yelled, admittedly fairly loudly, but also to an empty lobby, with only myself, the ticket-seller, and the manager within earshot.

My manager BEELINED over to me and dressed me up and down for inappropriate language. I, trying to undo the buttons to my shirt at the wrist so I could roll my soaked sleeve up and away from my burn, defended myself, that nobody except the manager and our fellow minimum wage employee had heard and that I was justified in this case. It didn't matter. I was to consider the optics of the proud 3-theater chain, and uphold the company's honor in all matters while wearing the uniform. SOMEONE could have heard, and it would have made the company look bad. That someone could have called the local grocery store freebie gossip rag and written a stern letter to the editor. That someone could have told everyone they knew. If this was not at the dawn of society, they could have posted on facebook. Optics mattered in this dead end, summer job, apparently, whether or not I needed medical attention.

Meanwhile, cops, many of who make more than 6 figures once you account for their absurd sweetheart OT deals, who are government employees and "lifers" with pensions, who are figures to be worshipped, according to certain political positions - cops wander around metaphorically fuckwording all over the place, because they cannot possibly imagine a world where what anyone else thinks of them matters. I mean yeah, they bitch and moan and complain if the general public doesn't fall all over themselves kissing their "life on the line" blue asses, but ultimately, fuck it. The public has concerns about police brutality? The city has lost money in lawsuits from police malfeasance? Fuck them. Police do what they want when they want to who they want, and they cannot muster up the minor, performative shits given by a movie theater manager who is making 9.50$ an hour while working part time during his Literature Bachelors.

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Boston's new commissioner feels about the possibility of police becoming more violent.

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They're intentionally putting him in a tough spot here: "Who's side are you on, us or that nasty mayor?"

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The timing definitely looks like they plan to put him on the back foot from day one and hope to continue BPD business as usual.

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