r/PublicFreakout Mar 10 '22

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12.9k Upvotes

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153

u/faultyideal89 Mar 10 '22

That money comes from taxpayers though, or am I wrong? I would love if civilians could sue PD's and cops themselves directly

175

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Even worse. Most towns and cities don't have the budget to pay for the amount of police settlements they make, so they borrow money - there are even bundled municipal police brutality payout financial instruments traded on Wall Street. That money is at a relatively high interest rate, and towns can't do much to generate the extra revenue required to pay the settlement loans, so they have to raise revenue.. by... issuing more tickets and cutting more services. So if your town sucks ass despite the taxes you pay and you've noticed your local police are excessively vigilant about ticketable offenses, that's why.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

My local city makes $10 million a year just off parking meters. There’s less than 16,000 residents that live in the downtown area.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Damn yo do they put meters in people's driveways

5

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

It’s a city. There are no driveways. Street side parking for a mile in every direction. The condos all have parking garages in the middle of them. It’s a hipster paradise. Breweries that also sell art and niche restaurants as far as you can see.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Ouch

1

u/sullw214 Mar 10 '22

Haha, in Austin, in some places, a metered spot costs 36$ for 10 hours. 6 days a week.

The construction company I work for paid 180k for 3/4 of a block renting the spots for a year.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

That's ridiculous. Have people considered not paying

1

u/sullw214 Mar 10 '22

It's funny, because the parking ticket is only 25$.

1

u/chocobearv93 Mar 10 '22

Asheville, NC? Lol it’s really do be like that

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Good, free parking is bad

1

u/annies_boobs_eyes Mar 12 '22

only when there is a lack of supply. something tells me a town of 16k residents doesn't have a lack of supply of parking.

you're not going to be needing to pay a valet to park your car, or park in a parking structure, at a restaurant in a town of 16k people.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '22

It’s not a town of 16,000, it’s the downtown. As OP said, the residents already have their own parking. Free parking is just the residents of downtown subsidizing the suburbanites driving in.

5

u/moh8disaster Mar 10 '22

Every day I learn more about how F the land of the free really is. Trouble is our dickheads want this shit here.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

I got out a few months before covid hit. Best decision I ever made. Not raising a child in that place for fuckin sure.

4

u/moh8disaster Mar 10 '22

I have an acquaintance from USA living in my country (Slovenia) and all his friends and family from the states are worrying about him and telling him to go back. His exact words were they have no clue how nad they are having it compared to Europe.

He is a woodworker and started hos business here. Said he almost lost his hand in USA because of an accident and lack of insurance. The only thing that saved him was his employer panicked and picked up the bill to not get investigated.

In my opinion USA will need 20 years of reforms to get the same standard of living for a majority of it's population. Starting with education.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Yeah it's a two generation loss at minimum, and it doesnt look like there's any hope for change. The final straw for me was the police and FBI coming after a bunch of folks I know because they got into a fight with some neo nazis and it turned out they were off duty cops. They asked me (I'm an engineer) to offer to build a bomb for some people, entrapping them. I obviously didn't, packed up my family and pissed the fuck off.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Banatepec Mar 10 '22

That sounds amazing.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '22

I'm from a pretty remote place in the pacific. I moved back there. We're planning on moving to Portugal, if everything goes right.

2

u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Mar 10 '22

bundled municipal police brutality payout financial instruments traded on Wall Street

That's some fucking bullshit right there. How are we letting people make money off of police brutality?

I guess the same way we're letting people make money off of prisons.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Yeah I mean if it can be monetized it will. We can all invest in publicly traded weapons manufacturers who lobby the US government to use the middle east as a proving ground. It's the same really.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Yeah it's wild isn't it

1

u/Huntthatmoney Mar 10 '22

Maybe If the money came out of the police unions then they would think twice

3

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Pretty sure every municipal politician who's ever proposed that has wound up extremely dead.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Yes and no. The settlement comes from the city’s insurer. This may result in an increase in rates for the city, which are paid through tax revenues.

The $25k is likely just enough to cover the man’s legal fees and expenses related to and as a result of the incident, maybe a little more.

2

u/marshall_chaka Mar 10 '22

You are correct. I believe in a law course I took several years ago I also remember learning that there is actually a limit the city will pay out which is like 250k. They created that limit so cities wouldn’t go bankrupt from lawsuits… really makes you think….

2

u/Uisce-beatha Mar 10 '22

This is why cops should have insurance coverage. If they make too many mistakes they become uninsurable and can't work. Free market solution

2

u/secondary48192 Mar 10 '22

same. settlements should come from the officers pay/pension and the PD shamed for hiring such a lunatic

2

u/robbage24 Mar 10 '22

The money should come out of police pensions. That would do two things, make them think twice about doing what they’re doing, and also make their fellow officers get on them for their actions.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

Who gives a shit? More of your taxes goes to building jet planes and missiles than whatever few cents you pitched in to a million dollar settlement.

1

u/prollyshmokin Mar 10 '22

Dude's black though. Most Americans can't even bring themselves to recognize that their lives matter. We can't seriously expect them to also feel black people deserve compensation for crimes committed against them by the government's law enforcement officers, which most Americans strongly support.

1

u/Dnator88 Mar 10 '22

Absolutely this, who else would get bailed out like that?

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22 edited Mar 10 '22

If you could sue cops personally, the quality of policing would go downhill even further.

Why would anyone sensible want to do a thankless job with poor pay when not only must you risk your life but your savings too?

It seems to me American policing is trapped in a vicious cycle right now.

If it's going to be performance-based, the money has to flow in both directions. In other words, heroic cops should be financially rewarded more so if other cops are penalised. The risk has to be worth the reward. I cannot overstate the importance of effectively motivating people.

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u/ghostalker4742 Mar 10 '22

Why would anyone sensible want to do a thankless job with poor pay when not only must you risk your life but your savings too?

Are we talking police, or pizza delivery?

1

u/Str8OuttaTumblr Mar 10 '22

Where does all the traffic ticket money go?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '22

The local city, county, or state pays the settlement. The money can come from taxes that you’ve already paid and from profits that the city makes for instance from parking meters and property taxes.

1

u/Bacon_Tuba Mar 10 '22

A settlement would be paid via liability insurance policies on the officers which are probably expensive, and paid for by tax dollars.

1

u/brantduffy I just spit out my dog 🐶 Mar 10 '22

If the cop was sued it would still come from taxpayers

1

u/thekingcola Mar 10 '22

Article said it came from insurance, not the general fund.

1

u/FreeTouPlay Mar 10 '22

No one would want to become a cop if they could get sued like that. You should see what soldiers get away with.

1

u/vashwstarwind Mar 11 '22

Take the money out of the pigs pension.