Hello lovely world,

As it stands, I have a take on how the court system in Arizona functions alongside how Maricopa county has horrifically trained police. As a Maricopa county resident, understand that my views come as both someone who’s witnessed and been a victim of their malpractice.

Points I’ll cover:

• A call for ethics
• Sexist/ableist policies
• Influence of media
• General issues

To Open

What I will be covering here is the blatant sexism and ableism given by Arizona Maricopa county police officers when investigating sensationalized allegations. Additionally, there will be mention of how the officers intentionally falsify reports and act in ways that clearly violate civil rights.

A Call for Ethics

From my understanding and preliminary searching, Maricopa county does not have an ethics code for their police. There are multiple accounts that police are precluded from legal ramifications because their job is “too stressful” otherwise.

I feel it overwhelmingly needed to bluntly say that is the same as asking people to abuse power.

As well, jobs in teaching and clinical fields have ethical codes and legal standards. I don’t know anyone who’s dumb enough to say that policing is any more stressful than being a crisis counselor, but then again, crisis counselors are expected to maintain ethics in all events, whereas police are expected to have no training for their calls but thus need to have freer restrictions rather than more.

Let me be blunt:

If you are doing a job that you are not qualified to do, and asserting that you should be allowed to continue it without further training, that is definitionally malpractice.

When police, whose training includes how to use brutal force and psychological warfare, respond to mental health calls by using those trainings, they are demonstrating the above malpractice. A logical person knows that mental health calls for compassion and empathy, not brutality.

To compare, consider if your sports coach deemed themselves an appropriate kindergarten teacher candidate because they’ve taught kids sports. While they may be good at interacting with kids, this would assume that teaching is just about being there rather than a unique skill set.

An ethical code that clearly states police officers limitations would likely make them better at their job and communities safer. As it stands now, many Americans (rightly so) are afraid of police to the point where the very existence of police creates fear and anxiety in communities, especially ones primarily minorities.

Sexist/Ableist Policies

This is actually about the police treatment of citizens and suspects and not police culture (which is honestly a whole separate issue).

When I was brutally abused and beaten by my ex fiancé for having trauma and generally existing, the police showed up. He went to the door (as I was beaten nearly unconscious) and closed the door, then going outside to explain. I overheard his loud voice though the walls, him saying “Well I was just scared of her; her illness scares me.” This was somehow such great justification that when he added in there “I have mental health issues too,” he promptly entered back in, pissed as could be at me for that happening to him.

When I tell police that I have C-PTSD with dissociative features, I’m glazed over, ignored, and told that women can’t get PTSD before being berated for forcing them to harass me.

To insinuate that mental health issues are gender specific or even that police can diagnose mental health issues causes false arrests and people actually committing crimes to not be bothered.

I’ll say it again, my ex who willingly strangled me was told that his mental health issues meant he could get away with it. But if I, a 25 year old female presenting human say that my dissociative episode made me so scared I thought I was in danger and so I smacked someone to get some space, then apparently I’m lying and need to be treated poorly.

Mind you, police are designed to protect people who don’t have real issues. They are there to protect the infamous “Karen”s of the world, who think the police are there to provide her from people cursing in an apartment complex.

If police stopped overstepping, this would be fixed.

Influence of Media

The Depp v Heard trial encapsulates these issues as well as illuminates how media hasn’t changed anything in policing.

In the trial, which is on Netflix (no shame if you use Goku though), there’s a lot of back and forth about who was being abused. There was a lot of dumb shit spewed that their personal life outside of each other did or didn’t confirm abuse.

To set the record straight:

Abuse is often concentrated in the abusive relationship, meaning I would not expect that anyone who is abusive couldn’t find supporters or people to back up their character as a defense. Abuse only works if you’re liked. No cap.

Yet, the trial confirmed that social standards are that we can’t use a man’s mental health against him. This is almost hilarious in tandem with the second confirmed standard that women are both not able to have mental health diagnoses but also that any woman with mental illness is abusive.

If men aren’t held to their illnesses, don’t fucking make women more accountable during theirs.

Policing has not been helped by media efforts to reform it simply because it’s not easy to take down someone through a system designed to protect them at all costs. They say they don’t mind being recorded, but also have nothing stating that their recordings are viable or accurate. They say they want to make communities safer. Truth is, they profusely believe that minorities are less than and police are designed to enforce discrimination.

General Issues

Overall, any job that provides no accountability for its workers is not one attracting generally good humans to it.

Think about it. If you said to a young kid that they could do anything they wanted with no consequences unless they repeat the mistake too many times to ignore, one of the earliest considerations would be to get revenge on those people who really hurt them.

But yet if a police officer gets sensationalized stories from the same person, then they’re obligated to listen and follow through. The people they serve get no grace because police aren’t ever in need of any. It’s doubtful they know what compassion, grace, or ethical behavior are.

Closing

If you think police are good, I’m incredibly glad that you haven’t been a victim of police brutality and incompetence at your expense.

XOXO,

Dorothy B