Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

go to bed, all of you, this is dumb, and I should know

so we're abolishing district attorneys and attorneys general too?

there's plenty to criticize about harris's record but imo it's weakened if you start from the position that anyone holding her office is automatically a cop and thus bad by definition

Kamala called herself the "top cop":
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4813155/user-clip-kamala-top-cop

That said, I think "Kamala is a cop" is a lazy meme that doesn't meaningfully engage with her record or policies.

I’m not arguing for or against dismissing Harris on that basis, just reacting to the absurd dogpiling on Milo for calling her a cop, as if he crossed some kind of line, which is hilarious. As cops go, so far as I understand , she wasn’t the worst.

anyway THEY’RE ALL COPS maaaan

Judges also mostly suck FWIW and it shouldn’t be a calling card for higher office.

No one in the business of locking people up for weed should ever be respected.

Congress should be made up entirely of former teachers (no administrators) and defense attorneys

The US Attorney General also runs DOJ, which is the part that makes them a "Top Cop"

This is such a strange argument. Please don't assume I have zero idea what the Justice Department does.

In the USA there are city police departments, county sheriffs offices, state police, ATF agents, transit agency police, truant officers, Border Patrol, National Park Rangers, FBI, Secret Service, and probably several other arms of government with police powers. I'd guess even the Bureau of Indian Affairs has its own little police force. Of these, the city police, county sheriff departments, and state police comprise by far the jurisdictions with the most numerous police officers. That's where almost all the cops are.

Of all these named agencies, only the FBI and ATF fall under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. All the rest fall under other authorities, like city, county, and state governments, the Treasury Dept., the Interior Dept., Dept. of Homeland Security, and others.

Under the federal system the US Attorney General doesn't supervise, control, or give any orders to something like 99% of the police in the nation. How the hell does this make the AG the "Top Cop"? The AG is way more involved with directing thousands of lawyers than managing cops.

is Top Cop like "#1 Dad", or are these regional rankings

lawyers and prosecutors are heavily intertwined with police. source: law and order the television show

i think part of the thread is in a veering-on-pedantic argument about whether a prosecutor is technically a "cop", while the other part is arguing about whether it's helpful or not to label harris a "cop"

Kamala Harris is a total cop

was recently reading the New Jim Crow, and there was a helpful section where Alexander talks about the prosecutors having the most power and authority in the criminal justice system (in terms of making decisions about who to punish and how), while police having the most discretion (in terms of where they choose to patrol, whether they detain people or not). they're all part of the same incarceration system, they're just at different levels

'Heavily entwined', 'working hand in hand', and all similar characterizations are fairly accurate. I agree with those descriptions. otoh, farmers 'work hand in hand' and are 'heavily entwined' with food processors and distributors. This does not make a food processor or distributor a farmer. These are incredibly fine distinctions, I realize. Most people also think all ovals are circles.

This line of argument probably could have ended with the clip of Kampala calling herself a (top) cop.

Pretty sure not a single soul who has called her a cop thinks she was kicking down doors with the CHiPS SRT.

Kick in the door
Wavin the 44
All I hear is
Mala don't hit me no more

she's a cop (AmE) but she's not a copper (BrE) is my take

I've read this book to my toddler. She's a not-a-cop.

OK I searched Google for: "Attorney General" "United States" "Top Cop"
It returned: About 53,800 results.

627,000 results if you don't add unnecessary phrases designed to reduce the number tbf, with "Kamala Harris: California's “Top Cop”" the top one on my attempt.

In the USA there are city police departments, county sheriffs offices, state police, ATF agents, transit agency police, truant officers, Border Patrol, National Park Rangers, FBI, Secret Service, and probably several other arms of government with police powers. I'd guess even the Bureau of Indian Affairs has its own little police force. Of these, the city police, county sheriff departments, and state police comprise by far the jurisdictions with the most numerous police officers. That's where almost all the cops are.

Of all these named agencies, only the FBI and ATF fall under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. All the rest fall under other authorities, like city, county, and state governments, the Treasury Dept., the Interior Dept., Dept. of Homeland Security, and others.

I've learned something.

Yeah, it's not like I think Cop-mala was an actual cop. But having known a bunch of people who were locked up during her time as DA, and knowing her record, I'm a little surprised at the pushback. Of course it's a fine distinction, but who the fuck cares? She sucks! Most DAs suck!

DAs maybe aren’t cops, but (unless they are fairly radical) they are usually the ones who decline to bring charges against cops who murder people or otherwise abuse their position while on the job. I have no idea if Kamala routinely let murderers with badges skate, but surely that’s easy enough to find out?

it’s probably pretty easy to see how she ‘applied the law’ in cases the city of SF and state brought against poor people vs how they dealt with rich ppl & corporations

Her record is better than most, especially as AG, but it's still execrable.

For example, as AG she really fucked with this piece of shit sheriff who had a posse comitatus going around intimidating ethnic minorities with assault rifles. https://www.mtshastanews.com/article/20160608/NEWS/160609729

But there are too many other cases where she looked the other way when people with power and prestige were doing heinous shit, and also oversaw police in the state capitol that planned and plotted with white supremacist groups. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/california-police-white-supremacists-counter-protest

A friend of mine was one of the people stabbed by the fascist scum, so I'm pretty unequivocal that she sucks, for the most part.

What about Duckworth? Are there good reasons for her not being a top tier consideration? Genuinely curious; I don’t hat much about her.

don’t know that much*

I’m suspicious of Troops (apologies to ilxors who’ve served), but I honestly don’t know if they are any more of less inclined than the average democrat to give the DoD gabagoobillions of $$$ to bomb weddings and hospitals in the ME. Again, unless they are fairly radical.

I didn’t love the way Warren comported herself during the campaign and her age gives me pause, but if there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY the MA governor sticks some goofy “moderate” Republican dipshit in her seat she’d be my first choice, simply because she has a clear record of holding (or at least attempting to) the financial sector to account.

thx for the links table. and sorry about your friend.

I'm wondering what Charlie Baker would actually do if Warren got the nod. He seems to gets a lot of praise in the national media for being a Sensible Moderate Republican in a blue state. Along with Larry Hogan, he's seen as a Republican governor that Democrats can approve of. So, wouldn't appointing a Republican to fill Warren's seat tarnish that reputation and make it less likely for him to be reelected? (NB: I don't actually know anything about the on-the-ground dynamics in Massachusetts, so I could be totally off-base here.)

If I were Baker, I'd just appoint whoever loses the Markey-Kennedy primary.

... which is why Kennedy should just go away for now, and wait for the opportunity! His challenge of Markey is incomprehensible, and his name and wallet give him a fair chance of winning.

What about Duckworth? Are there good reasons for her not being a top tier consideration? Genuinely curious; I don’t hat much about her.

Lack of name recognition and the names being publicly thrown out are because of Biden's African-American woman promise.

why does baker not simply pick jeremy crombyn?

Milo, as one who has only a marginal interest in electoral politics (bc it's all mostly a scam IMHO), I will say that Duckworth has more name recognition than any of the Black women Biden is considering with the exception of Harris and maybe Abrams, mostly because of her military service and subsequent disability.

Like few peoole outside of the DC metro area know who Susan Rice is, and outside of Atlanta, not many know who Lance-Bottoms is.

I'm wondering what Charlie Baker would actually do if Warren got the nod. He seems to gets a lot of praise in the national media for being a Sensible Moderate Republican in a blue state. Along with Larry Hogan, he's seen as a Republican governor that Democrats can approve of. So, wouldn't appointing a Republican to fill Warren's seat tarnish that reputation and make it less likely for him to be reelected? (NB: I don't actually know anything about the on-the-ground dynamics in Massachusetts, so I could be totally off-base here.)

Do you remember when Mitt Romney appointed Scott Brown to be senator? Charlie Baker would find a new Scott Brown to appoint.

We'd end up having to deal with Senator Bruce Tarr, who would campaign like a reasonable human being and then morph into a raging cock as soon as he set foot in the Senate.

tbh, i thought susan rice was the attorney obama met on the tarmac and thought she would be a bad pick for that reason until like last week

i spend several % of my mental energy trying not to learn the details of conspiracies, but it went too far there in hindsight.

(substitute Tarr with any halfway prominent MA state Republican except Polito, who is not going to step down from being Lt Governor; you will get the exact same thing)

wasn't Romney already out of office in 2010-2011?

Sorry I'm getting rage-confused.

Brown won a special election. He replaced some placeholder who didn't run for the seat.

But the point remains that if you want to see a Republican senator in MA, you are really hoping Biden picks Warren.