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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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In the recent Memphis police shooting case, some have noted that, aside from the actual assaulting officers, several others were apparently standing by and not intervening. That is a violation of Memphis PD policy and may be a criminal act.

In most (all?) states, people in mandatory-reporting professions, such as teachers, are required to report certain kinds of wrongdoing.

My understanding is that it is widely accepted that teachers et al do report mere suspicions of wrongdoing even against their coworkers. But cops seem to rarely do so. Do you think that's inherent to the us v them nature of policing? It forces people to a side more intensely than teachers and such? Or is that the law requires teachers to report any suspicion but the Memphis PD are only supposed to report the things they witness (I think)? But this recent incident clearly goes well beyond a suspicion...

Just curious what others think.

I kind of wonder how much of the teacher/cop reporting difference is real- that is, do teachers claim they report suspicion of child abuse at very high rates because they think it makes them look good, whereas cops claim they don’t report misconduct very often because they don’t want to admit that there is much misconduct, and in actuality the reporting rates are very similar.

This would fit very well with my impression of how teachers and cops think.

It's also possible that the nature of the job may result in different baseline levels of suspicion.

If you've put your life in someone's hands (successfully), it might just be harder to see them in a negative light. As opposed to another job where you might have normal office politics, or even be competing.

A brotherhood, instead of co-workers, as it were.

They could also all be corrupt enough to not want IA snooping around. There's several options for a difference in reporting rates viewed from the outside.