tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5141070.post7977972299861909882..comments2023-12-09T00:49:20.257-05:00Comments on WWVB : What Would Vannevar Blog?: Good People in a Lousy Organisation; An Alternative Reading on the Pittsburgh Police & FOPVannevarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08513110035186346571noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5141070.post-91056286328582221502014-07-22T17:40:49.554-04:002014-07-22T17:40:49.554-04:00Good soldiers working for bad generals ?Good soldiers working for bad generals ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5141070.post-81031603548737086252014-07-15T17:25:28.286-04:002014-07-15T17:25:28.286-04:00"Is the media and public and blogosphere blam..."Is the media and public and blogosphere blaming the troops when we should be blaming the brass?"<br /><br />It's always been my impression that most critics of the police dept. were already of that opinion. The ACLU's Vic Walczak confirmed / reiterated in the paper the other day that it's always the same few names that keep coming up in complaints. And when I talk to people on Grant St. they usually criticize certain deputies and commanders that maybe oughtn't have been the ones promoted to those positions, not the rank and file.<br /><br />Unfortunately, although you doubtless have a point about the reasons those workers turn to their union, I'm pretty sure that union has successfully gotten some things into contracts that really oughtn't be in there. I'm not sure what you mean by "declawing" them, but some damage has been done in terms of civilian oversight and it needs to be dealt with.Bram Reichbaumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05620172942925293407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5141070.post-69531573253743545762014-07-15T00:46:25.302-04:002014-07-15T00:46:25.302-04:00There's certainly a tension between the taxpay...There's certainly a tension between the taxpayers' desire to have services without paying for them and their desire to have effective police serving and protecting them. When you have an adversarial system between management and the union (with management ultimately working with only the resources taxpayers and the politicians will provide them), sometimes the union will protect its members beyond what most of us would deem appropriate. We've seen this with teachers unions being overprotective of the (very tiny minority of) truly horrible teachers -- when you squeeze every nickel of extra compensation out of the system, eventually all you have left is job security.<br /><br />The solution, as you've outlined, is to pay the cops (and the teachers) what they're worth in the first place, but taxpayers, like the politicians, don't look that far ahead.tonycpsuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02313249764836653051noreply@blogger.com