CPampus resswatch “All cops are bad in a broken system” Colin Mangan, Pipe Dream, 09/09/21 “When we say ‘all cops are bad,’ we mean that all police officers, without exception, are knowingly complicit in upholding a system which dehumanizes and subjugates people of color, people with disabilities and other historically oppressed groups” It’s the second sentence of the first paragraph of an article in the first “issue” of Pipe Dream and there is NO FUCKING OXFORD COMMA! Seven times in the entire article!!!!!!! No wonder you guys went broke.
“According to a May 2000 U.S. Department of Justice report, 84 percent of police officers said they have witnessed police officers in their department use “more force than is necessary” to make an arrest, and yet 61 percent of the time, fail to report said incident. A May 2019 report by the American Economic Journal “reviewed 50,000 allegations of officer misconduct in Chicago and found that officers with extensive complaint histories were disproportionately more likely to be named subjects in civil rights lawsuits,” and yet departments “fail to adequately investigate” said abuses.” One of the author’s main sources of evidence for all police being bad/the system being broken consists of a report by the U.S. Department of Justice from over 20 years ago and a more relevant report isolated to a single city, Chicago. How, exactly, does this prove your main argument that ALL police are bad or that “the system” is broken? Yes, the statistics are troubling, yet their use in the article is flawed for the overall point you’re trying to make. “It is reflected in police unions’ opposition to any kind of meaningful reform effort and support for the most overtly racist elements in American political life, in the daily brutalization of Black and brown communities, in the widespread violence against people with disabilities and the economically impover-
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BINGHAMTON REVIEW
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Written by our Staff
We know you don’t read the other campus publications, so we did it for you. Original pieces are in quotes, our responses are in bold.
ished and in the near-total absence of accountability, with “98.3 percent of killings by police from 2013-2020 [not resulting] in officers being charged with a crime,” according to Mapping Police Violence.” Two problems with the statistic provided in this argument. Firstly, you seem to imply that police officers are overtly targeting the parts of society that you listed, yet the 98.3% statistic doesn’t provide information regarding this. Secondly, the statistic does not provide the circumstances that led to the killings by police from 2013 to 2020. Was the police officer involved in a shootout with a suspect or did the police officer kill someone who posed no threat? Again, the number provided does not give indication of this, meaning it is difficult to know if such officers are to be charged with a crime or were engaging in self-defense. “While the goals of abolition and a more just, equitable society have yet to be achieved, movements such as Black Lives Matter have successfully brought the structural nature of these issues into the forefront and have laid bare the inherently racist and violent nature of these injustices.” So then how do we get that “more just, equitable society”? For all the enthusiasm of declaring “all cops are bastards”, the article doesn’t show how such a proposed society without law enforcement can exist. While this article has advocated for the abolition of policing, it has failed to propose a valid alternative to the current system. This article is as low quality as the Wix website it’s on.
“Editorial: Delta: the gift that keeps on giving” Pipe Dream Editorial Board, Pipe Dream, 09/13/21 “Following such glaring oversight, students are left with one question: where did all the University infrastructure go?” Given the availability of vaccines, combined with the known benefits of natural immunity on those who have previously had COVID, one would expect that such infrastructure is not needed or unnecessary. “Instead, students are simply asking for the same care and consideration at this stage of the pandemic that we knew the University was capable of at its beginning” Translation: keep every COVID precaution such as mask requirement, social distancing, and more, in place until COVID is completely eradicated, meaning indefinitely.
Vol. XXXIV, Issue II
