A police official in Arizona has been placed on administrative leave after showing up armed to a student-led protest and provoking an altercation that led to the arrest of a teenage girl. The officer told fellow police who arrived on the scene that he attended the students’ immigration rights protest with the intent of acting as an agent provocateur, according to a news report.

Dusten Mullen, a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, has been suspended with pay pending an internal review of his conduct at a protest at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, on January 30, according to Phoenix Police Chief Matthew Giordano.

“As law enforcement professionals, we are held to higher standards of conduct — both in and out of uniform,” Giordano said. “When we fall short, we must be accountable, and we will not tolerate actions which undermine the trust the community has placed in the Department.”

Fox 10 Phoenix, the outlet to first identify Mullen, reported that Mullen told Chandler Police Department officers on the scene that he was there in the hopes of getting a rise out of the kids that would then allow the local cops to cuff them.

    • dethedrus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      Because that was always the point.

      Blind loyalty to the institution and aptitude for unhinged violence are the only qualifiers.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      https://ny.prelawland.com/post/719662253773832192/too-smart-for-the-job-jordan-v-the-city-of-new

      Jordan had applied for a job as a police officer in the city of New London, Connecticut. However, he was denied an interview because he scored too high on a written examination.

      The city had introduced this policy because they felt that those that scored high on this examination were more likely to leave a police officer position sooner. To reduce costs associated with job turnover, training, and hiring, the city created this upper cut-off score. Jordan had scored a 33, which meant he was overqualified for the position.[2] As a result, Jordan argued that this policy was a form of discrimination based on his intellect.

      The court found that even though there was no strong statistical correlation between high test scores and job dissatisfaction, it was sufficient that the city believed that there was such a correlation based on the material provided by the test maker.

      The court found that the policy had a rational basis that served the legitimate government purpose of reducing job turnover and associated hiring and training costs.

      So quite literally:

      Cops don’t hire smart people because they think smart people probably wouldn’t like the job.

      AND

      Cops are allowed to have internal policies that are found by the court to not actually be rational or backed by any actual empirical data, they simply have to claim that they thought they were rational, and this essentially makes them legally ‘rational’.

      This is essentially a legal carve out for corruption and abuse of power, that is routinely exploited by police departments, to hire outside contractors and consultants to come up with dubious and nonsensical policies and training and such for them… there functionally is no mechanism for scrutinizing this, unless they’re just literally doing financial fraud or money laundering.

      Like half the country still uses polygraphs, even though there is an entire body of scientific knowledge that shows them to be approximately as legitimate and effectacious as chiropracty.

      See also all the spying devices and malware they use, that they certainly do not technically understand, and routinely employ and very often either don’t even bother to legally justify, and very often make dubious legal arguments as to their validity.

      Cops extremely literally exist in an extremely entitled and defferential legal status than every one else, our legal system is built upon deepthroating the boot.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      As always, ACAB.

      No…

      This is literally an example that some actually give a fuck:

      Fox 10 Phoenix, the outlet to first identify Mullen, reported that Mullen told Chandler Police Department officers on the scene that he was there in the hopes of getting a rise out of the kids that would then allow the local cops to cuff them.

      “My plan is legitimately to just let them all assault me and you guys arrest them all and I’ll keep it on film,” Mullen said, according to a police report obtained by the local TV news site. “I also have other people filming from a distance.”

      The department didn’t release it, but the cop who included that in their report 100% put their career if not life on the line to put that in their report and likely was pressured not to mention any of it.

      The cops didn’t release it, but that one cop putting it in a report is why it was there when journalists request the records.

      It’s wild so many people don’t understand that immediately…

      Like, can anyone explain how they thought this got in a police report if all cops supported this shit?

      • flandish@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They suspended him with pay. You are wrong in your assessment. ACAB. All the time. The quote from the pd is just marketing.

        • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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          1 day ago

          Not only did they suspend him with pay, but he succeeded in doing what he set out to do, which was get a rise out of someone to give his fellow bastards an excuse to arrest them. The article states that his encounter led to an altercation resulting in a teenage girl being arrested.

      • Linktank@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        How many good cops does it take to change a light bulb? 💡

        spoiler

        I’ll let you know when a good cop changes anything.

      • Red_October@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        You’re right, a cop writing a report that includes some evidence of bad faith behaviors from other cops proves it! Remember what they say, One bad apple is bad but the rest are probably totally fine!

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          How do you think things would work out of good people gave up on any system and never tried to fix it from within?

          Like, it seems painfully obvious…

          But “give up and don’t try” rarely gets the result we want. The fastest way to fix policing is for good people to become cops.

          • Red_October@piefed.world
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            1 day ago

            Acting like one cop not burying evidence of blatant corruption means we should give cops a chance is hilarious.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Did you not notice how the cops didn’t follow this guy’s plan?

              Like, they didn’t go along with it then document. They didn’t do it, and then still documented that’s what he was trying to…

              What more did you want the responding cops to do in this scenario?

              • BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                They arrested a teenager, they did follow this guy’s plan. No one, including the guy that reported it, prevented the teenager from getting arrested.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  They arrested a teenager,

                  “My plan is legitimately to just let them all assault me and you guys arrest them all and I’ll keep it on film,” Mullen said, according to a police report obtained by the local TV news site. “I also have other people filming from a distance.”

                  Is the problem arthimitic or critical thinking?

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Pending an investigation where another cop has already documented his behavior and zero cops took part in his plan…

                  Like, he should absolutely be held without bail.

                  But are you seriously arguing being charged with a crime should result in immediate termination?

                  Are you aware that if found guilty that pay is almost always recouped?

                  Like…

                  That’s how it should work.

                  I get being mad at cops in general, but this is legit a one in a million case where shit is happening exactly as it should. If you just want to blindless cir lejerk about how cops are pieces of shit as demographic, there’s plenty of places where the article isn’t about one single piece of shit and literally every other cop seemingly doing what they should.

                  Don’t just blindly rage about shit, if you do you’re fall for a charismatic twitch streamer who just wants eyeballs and views.

                  If you’re mad (and we should all be) at least be productive

                • thejoker954@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  That’s not on the cops who actually called it out though. That’s on their higher ups and the police union.

                  • Red_October@piefed.world
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                    1 day ago

                    So your point is that the core leadership being corrupt is… a redeeming quality? Unimportant? Someone writing a report is worthy of salvation but the leadership giving the perpetrator a paid vacation is no big deal? Fuck that.

      • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe
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        1 day ago

        Doing his job reporting a crime that points at profound corruption is the bare minimum and doesn’t disprove ACAB.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          If they were all bastards, why did none of them go along with the plan?

          Like. 99% are bastards sure, but this is a rare case of some cops doing the right thing.

          People not being able to understand that is very very concerning.

          • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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            ACAB is pithy and simple. It’s the kind of messaging that appeals to base instinct. The kind of messaging the right does well and the left always laments we don’t do. Except the left is the party of thoughtful nuance and not mindless outage. That simplistic messaging doesn’t work because life isn’t simple no matter how comforting it is to imagine so.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Like, can anyone explain how they thought this got in a police report if all cops supported this shit?

        Very possible that they just filed it all on reflex because nobody really thought hard about what they were putting in the record. Cops are both evil and stupid. Sometimes they just do stupid shit, thinking they’ll never get caught.

        That said, maybe someone actually did the right thing here. And maybe that’s why it is a news article getting passed around the back alleys of social media, rather than a conspiracy theory whispered at DSA meet ups.

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        1 day ago

        Ofc it’s not all cops, the same as not all men are rapists or paedophiles. But it’s enough cops and enough men that it is a massive issue.

            • Headofthebored @lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              There were no good slave catchers. There are no good cops. I understand you have faith in people, but do not apply it to an institution, an institution that exists to oppress you. Anyone who becomes a police officer, regardless of their moral intentions, serves the interests of the ruling class.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              Literally the only way I can find out what you think it means, is by asking you…

              It means:

              All Cops Are Bastards

              I just want to know what you think it means since you immediately followed that with:

              Ofc it’s not all cops

    • thejoker954@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Because they do. They don’t want ”smart” people because they will get “bored” with the job.

      When in truth they don’t want “smart” people because they will actually do the job police are supposed to do instead of keeping minorities and poors down.

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        givesomefucks is a pure troll. He always takes outlandish takes on all kinds of threads and gets downvoted severely all over the site. It seems to be how he gets his rocks off. He is clearly not really here to talk about the issues themselves. If we had a cumulative downvote number on lemmy I’m sure it’d show this.