"It’s Past Time to Examine How Police Unions Protect Bad Cops"

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Maybe unions could be disbanded across all careers. I’d be for that.
 
I think unions in their present form Are modern mafias.
 
Unions are not a necessity, like food. They are one (not the only) means to an end, like medicine. When earlier popes endorsed “unions” they were referring to Catholic unions, in unity with the hierarchy. The Church has, cautiously, even allowed for the possible values of secular unions if there is no other way of assurance of some measure of economic justice.

What happened is that one means to an end became identified as an end in itself. Peace and justice advocates claim the Church is “pro union”. Unions help pro athletes earn salaries 100 times as great as their fans. Some unions campaign for legal abortion and same sex marriage, using mandatory dues.
 
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commenter said:
Unions are not a necessity, like food. They are one (not the only) means to an end, like medicine. When earlier popes endorsed “unions” they were referring to Catholic unions, in unity with the hierarchy. The Church has, cautiously, even allowed for the possible values of secular unions if there is no other way of assurance of some measure of economic justice.
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I will trust the Church on this.
 
Wow, this thread got sidetracked in a hurry!

Back on topic, I was totally with the OP, until the mention of Michael Moore. I’m hoping that reference was in jest, but there was no 😃 marking it as such.

D
 
I thought unions were sacred vessels from which flows social justice.
No?
 
As Catholics who’ve lived during the last 20 years, I think we can be sensitive to how power structures and fraternal institutions of human beings can have a “protect ones own” mentality. That doesn’t mean we need to abolish them. Serious reform, reflection, and new measures of accountability are required.
 
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Not all unions are that bad, but certainly police unions and teachers unions do way too much in protecting their bad members. So yes, reform is needed. It appears to me that the city council of Minneapolis has figured out a way to bust up a corrupt police union… just disband the police force and start over.
 
I would say that I think it is problematic when public employees unionize against the taxpayer. I think this aspect of how law enforcement works should be looked at with a critical eye for reform. I think this is also true for other public employees such as firemen, teachers, etc.
 
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What happens is the public employee unions become a powerful force in electing politicians. So it really isn’t a typical employer/employee relationship it’s heavily one sided.
 
That is certainly one ethical aspect of the existence of public sector unions.
 
To be fair, a lot of professions protect and cover their own.

For instance, the White Wall of Silence is how physicians side with their own in public, , even if they privately disagree.
 
There was a time when unions served a legitimate purpose – to protect employees from blatant abuses on the part of employers. Workers didn’t always have the rights they enjoy today.

But unions today have gone far beyond that legitimate purpose, and now they protect workers who have become abusers, themselves. That was never supposed to happen.

Unions have way too much power, today – they’ve become unreasonable, unfair and, frankly, downright selfish. They no longer have just the workers’ legitimate rights at their hearts, they now tolerate the violation of the legitimate rights of everyone else.

Reform is definitely needed, and sorely. If the Supreme Court looks into “qualified immunity”, I just hope Chief Justice Roberts rules the right way, for a change. He has made some dubious rulings in the past, that have undermined the trustworthiness of this highest court of the land to protect the rights of American citizens.

I just hope that the universal and ongoing bad publicity generated by George Floyd’s senseless death at the hands of a bad cop from a corrupt police department will finally be enough to turn the tide.

We shall see …
 
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